30. Promises

Chase’s head was completely vacant as he watched Krislynn slam the bathroom door behind her after she pushed him inside. Stumbling a little, he managed his way over to the rim of the bathtub and cautiously took a seat. “Why did you push me in here?” He asked in exasperation, taking a quick look around the painstakingly white room.

Krislynn turned around, but her face still wore the same unresponsive facial expression she had when he first saw her at the doorway of the kitchen. Quietly, she started to make her way toward him, but each step she took almost seemed to last an eternity and Chase noted it was probably the alcohol in his body playing a trick versus the real thing.

Wariness rapidly settled over him as he felt his head ringing and closed his eyes to reduce the amount of outside stimuli. “Well,” he pressed, “why did you bring me here?” Again, Krislynn met his question with silence, but this time he heard the faucet turning and the sound of running water.

He should have been able to guess, but his reaction rate was extensively impaired and he didn’t realize what she was thinking until a burst of ice cold water shot him in the face. Instantly Chase let out a cry of alarm as both his eyelids popped open, but they only stayed open for a second before he squeezed them shut and Chase fell backwards into the tub. “What the hell Reimer?! Why are you bla- bah- blak- bugh- bffff-”

Chase quickly pulled his arms close and covered his face as he spat out the water Krislynn had just sprayed into his mouth. The upper half of his body was drenched entirely and he growled furiously as he flailed his legs which were hung over the edge of the tub. “What the hell is wrong with you?!” He screamed, but could only hear the soft humming of running water as she played with the showerhead in her hands, twitching the little mechanism on the side until she found the jet mode and started abusing him with it.

Already the icy water was difficult to handle, but on the jet mode, it became a cruel whip of hot water instead, generously leaving behind a frostbite everywhere it struck. One hand covering his face, Chase withdrew his legs into the tub and got down on his knees as he searched with his other hand for the faucet. When he felt the metallic coolness of the metal against his palm, Chase grabbed it and turned it off before wiping the water from his face.

“Are you out of your fucking mind?!” His gray eyes pierced her with absolute fury before he pushed back the wet ends of his hair. “What are you – freakin’ crazy?! Why in the world would you do that?!”

Krislynn arched in eyebrow and stared at him with half-amusement. “That’s funny,” she said dryly. “That was exactly how I felt when I saw you guys in the kitchen.”

Her remark took Chase by complete surprise and his face gradually softened as his anger subsided. “How much of it did you see?” He asked, studying her face carefully.

Krislynn shrugged. “I saw enough,” she said. “How are you feeling? Is your head clearer now?”

Chase frowned as she spoke. He didn’t like this side of her. When she had locked him inside the washroom he had expected something – that was for sure. He had contemplated a lecture, an argument, some sort of physical violence and a lot of loud name calling, but the situation turned out a lot different than the one he had imagined. Besides spraying him down with icy water, which could be counted as a violent act, Krislynn really wasn’t acting... well... like Krislynn.

She was too quiet for his liking, too calm, too expressionless and too unresponsive. She wasn’t acting like herself, and he suddenly grew nervous, hesitant on how to respond to her. “Well I guess my head’s a lot clearer now,” he murmured. “But my ass is freezing like a bitch.”

Sighing, Krislynn let go of the showerhead before walking over to the sink where she grabbed two towels from the cabinet below. She tossed them to him when she made her way back and Chase hastily threw one around his body as he tried to dry his hair with the other. She stood silently after, just watching him as he tried to warm up. “You don’t have to act like that,” he grumbled. “I know what I did back in the kitchen was a shit move, but don’t you think spraying me down with ice water is a bit inhumane?”

“Inhumane?” Krislynn stared at him with hostility. “Look Chase, I’m not a big fan of LaCienega. You should know that, but what you did to her back in the kitchen – calling you a human being right now would be a little bit of a stretch.”

Chase looked at her meekly before shifting his gaze away. Being herself or not, Krislynn was still ruthless with her words, and he couldn’t help but imagine arrows shooting through him with every word that came out of her mouth. “You don’t get it,” he said. “You have no idea what it feels like to want something so bad and have it constantly being dangled in front of you – especially when the other person treats it like shit.”

“You’re talking about LaCienega... and Jace?” Krislynn’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion as his name echoed faintly through the bathroom. “Jace treats her like... Wait. I don’t think we’re on the same page here.”

With a sigh, Chase explained LaCienega’s kiwi allergy. “Don’t you think it’s a bit weird? I mean, I know he’s got this massive selective memory and it’s been like that since forever, but you’d think he’d be able to remember something like an allergy! I mean, it’s not like she’s asking him to remember her favourite color or how many times she saw Titanic when it first came out. This is some pretty serious shit.” Chase’s voice grew weaker as he continued. “Plus... he pays a lot of attention to you. I mean, like, more than he should.”

“Well, that doesn’t mean anything.” Krislynn leaned against the side of the wall and tapped her finger thoughtfully on her chin. As a social worker back home, this kind of alternative thinking was her forte – she wasn’t sharp with anything else otherwise. “Maybe he’s just really bad with remembering things like you said. Besides, LaCienega’s allergy doesn’t seem like its life threatening. It’s definitely possible that he would remember if it was a more severe case. And as for me, couldn’t it be possible that he just wants to get along with me because you’re like his brother to him?”

Chase’s eyes widened as she continued. “I mean, Jace hasn’t seen you forever. After moving to L.A he finally gets in touch with you, but are you the kind of person you were before you lost touch with him? And hanging out with celebs like Seth and Michelle – couldn’t it just be possible that he wants to be a closer part of your life again so he’s trying to get along with the people that are currently close to you? He doesn’t know the truth yet, but he actually thinks I’m your girlfriend remember?”

His shoulders slumped as he thought it over. Krislynn did have a point and Jace was the sort of person who would do that sort of thing. More importantly Chase was a lot different than he used to be in high school. He was a complete loner back then. He didn’t like associating with people because he just thought they were all idiots in general. Moving to L.A had changed that. It had to be changed. You couldn’t become one of the most successful directors in North America without a reasonable amount of social connections.

Still, his gut instincts disagreed. Krislynn’s idea seemed likely, but he knew Jace like the back of his hand. He may have changed slightly over time – the way he, himself, had – but there was something a little off about their whole relationship and Chase was determined to prove it.

“Maybe it was just the alcohol,” he lied. “It got ahead of me and I screwed up. Won’t ever do that again. Promise.”

“Yeah, that’s probably for the best. I think you’ve already interfered enough.”

Chase gave her a lopsided grin in attempt to lift the strained tension. “Well in that case you just have to keep a closer eye on me instead of running off with another man,” he teased.

Krislynn didn’t smile back. “It’s late,” she said. “Take a shower to warm up and then go to bed. I’ll grab you a spare change of clothes and hang it on the doorknob outside.” With that, she got out of the washroom and left Chase with a heart so heavy that it could change the Earth’s gravitational pull.

Chase wasn’t ignorant, and he quickly realized Krislynn must be beyond peeved to act this way. Hastily, he took a shower before gathering his stuff and running up the stairs two steps at a time to the bedroom they’ll be sharing for the night.

He wanted to make it up to her with well... whatever makes Krislynn smile when she was so angry that she went over the edge and became a reclusive.

Chase thought hard. When was the last time she behaved this way? Oh right. When he gave her a hickey and she gave him complete silent treatment for almost half an hour. And how did he make it up to her? Oh right. He brought her a million dollar diamond necklace.

Shit, he thought, how was he going to pull something off better than that? Not mentioning the entire million dollars went to charity and that was the only reason she forgave him. What in the world was he going to do this time? Open a charity in her name? Chain himself to a tree in front of a bulldozer?

Fuckkkk, he thought. He was screwed! So very screwed!

His thoughts jumbled up in his head with all the possible ways of redemption, but they all proved futile when he opened the door to their bedroom and found it completely empty inside. She wasn’t there, and his face wrinkled with concern as he checked the time on the clock. It was quarter past one. Where the hell could she be?

Deciding that she would probably eventually turn up and that his body was too depleted of energy to move, Chase turned off the lights and tucked himself in. It was half past one when he jumped out of bed and threw a hoodie and pair of sweatpants on with the image of her body getting buried in a ditch somewhere on the side of the road.

If he was lucky she would be somewhere in the house, but he was having doubts that fate would take it easy on him after everything else that happened tonight. He promptly searched the house and just like he had guessed, Krislynn wasn’t anywhere inside.

Downstairs, he found Pete splayed out on the couch and Seth trying to drag him somewhere. “Come on man. Go sleep in your room. It’s there for a reason.”

“It’s so far away,” Pete groaned.

“It’s down the hallway!”

Pete groaned again. “That’s sooooo far away!!!”

“Are you freakin’ kidding me?” Seth looked up and found Chase walking towards them. “Oh hey. Thanks for letting me know you’re okay after you came back shithead.”

“Yeah, no probs. Have you seen Krislynn?”

“It was sarcasm!” Seth made a face before he continued. “Yeah, I saw her sitting out on the patio a few minutes ago.”

“Thanks,” he said as he nudged Pete in the face with his foot. “Dude, I left you with half a bottle of whiskey. Don’t tell me you drank all of it. Your liver is probably dying right now.”

Pete pushed his foot away and gave a long drawn out, “aww.....” before he broke out in drunken laughter. “You’re so cute when you care Chase.”

“Right.” Chase rolled his eyes and left the two of them in the living room as he continued his search. When he got to the patio, he was surprised to find the place empty and that Krislynn had moved locations once again.

Cursing under his breath, he figured she couldn’t have gone far without a car and if she had only been here a few minutes ago. Attached to their residence was a small piece of private beachfront and he figured it would be likely if she had wandered down there.

It took him a few minutes, but sure enough he found a feminine figure squatting near the shoreline when he arrived and loudly called out Krislynn’s name when he was less than fifty yards away. At once the figure turned in his direction and then it bolted up... and ran.