Sorry for the horrid wait guys. Ive been so uber busy helping out my parents with their issues that I havent had much time to breathe myself, and as much as I love you all, they you know, still pooped* me out so I had to do what I had to do. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter even though it isnt all that exciting and I promise I'll update the next one in 2 or 3 days max.

*other words may be a lot more suitable.

  40. Shut Up & Let Me Go

Caught between the difficulty of Chase’s question and the tightness of his embrace, Krislynn’s head grew cloudy with directional support. She didn’t know what to say to him and she didn’t know what to do. His hands gripped on the sides of her hips harder as his voice grew irritated. “Tell me,” he demanded. “Did you start having feelings for me?”

Her heart thumped so heavily inside her chest she could have easily mistaken it for thunder – the thing she feared most – and without an escape route in hand, Krislynn started to panic, and in a fuzzy frenzy of confusion and anxiety, slammed the end of her knee up into his crotch. Krislynn heard the excruciating groan before she saw Chase fall in a fetal position on the ground, and she saw that dreadful posture he was in before she realized what she had just done.

Funny enough, she didn’t feel all that sorry for him.

Eyes showing a mixture of hate, pain and anger, Chase glared up at her as a low squirm came out of him. “Bitch,” he hissed.

“E– Ea– Eat shit and die!” She screamed, and then turned around and ran like she had five seconds to escape an exploding bomb.

Inside the safety of her own room, Krislynn felt the racing of her heartbeat coming to a slow pulse. Rather than feeling angry from what had just happened, she felt on edge and slightly overwhelmed. She hadn’t planned on being interrogated by Chase and she didn’t want him to find out how she truly felt about him especially with the way things currently were.

Sighing, she made her way over to the bed just as she felt a light vibration from her chest. The sudden pulsation made her jump and it wasn’t until she looked down at her chest that she remembered she had placed her phone in her bra for safekeeping.

Michelle: Tehe. How’s the date coming along? He’s not getting fresh with you, is he?

Krislynn frowned at the message before she replied.

Krislynn: It didn’t happen. : (

Michelle: What?! Wait! I’m calling you right now!

Michelle’s phone call came within seconds and Krislynn was pleased to have someone sympathise with her over what happened. “What an asshole! I can’t believe he would do that to you,” Michelle screamed over the phone. “He should have just left LaCienega where she was. So she was getting hit on by some random fug – who cares!”

Laughing, Krislynn collapsed on her bed as she pulled a comforter close to her. “Well maybe not,” she murmured. “But you understand why I’m mad right? I mean, it’s not about whether he helped LaCienega or not. It’s the fact that he stayed with her even after she was safe and didn’t even bother texting me back to tell me he was okay.” She frowned as she played the events over in her head again. “And he kept asking me why I was mad!”

“Well, you have every reason to be mad,” Michelle huffed angrily over the phone. Her voice was starting to sound more and more frustrated till the point Krislynn had to laugh. Michelle sounded more upset over the matter than she was. “And I think he was totally playing you off – asking you why you’re mad repeatedly so he can make it seem like you’re overreacting and that it’s not actually a big deal. Guys always do that!”

Krislynn sighed. “I don’t know,” she murmured.

“You could always get back at him,” Michelle suggested. “Oh, you know what? That’s a great idea! Only a few of the girls have shown up so far, I could swing by to pick you up for my sleepover if you like. We could tell Chase we invited boys over and we’re having a pillow fight! He would die!”

Krislynn smiled at the gesture though she wasn’t so sure she wanted to see people in general at the moment. She wasn’t as fired up as she was a moment before, but she wanted to sulk and feel a bit of pity toward herself before she did anything. “No, it’s alright.” She told Michelle. “I’ll probably just go and be a party pooper and I don’t want to do that.”

Michelle was not pleased with her reply, but after a bit of failed persuasion, the girls both wished each other a goodnight and hung up. Krislynn went to bed directly after, hoping she’d feel better after a good night’s rest, but unfortunately she couldn’t seem to fall asleep no matter how hard she tried.

Late into the night, she found herself thirsting for a drink of water, and stealthily tiptoed downstairs toward the kitchen. She found the lights still on in the living room, and peeked in only to find that Chase had fallen asleep on the living room couch with what looked to be a script in one hand. He was extremely hard-working, she thought, but he was pretty much the worst person on earth otherwise.

Sighing, she made her way into the kitchen and grabbed herself a drink before getting a gel pack from the freezer and wrapping it around with a soft, hand towel. It was at times like these that Krislynn did some serious self-loathing. No matter how much she wanted to hate Chase for the hurt his decisions had caused her, she also couldn’t walk away from him seeing that he was beaten up.

It was that dreadful nurturing personality of hers, and so gently – so as to not wake him – she quietly tiptoed back into the living room before placing the towel wrapped gel pack over his eye. Chase immediately shifted in his sleep as he let out a displeased grunt, but she assumed the cooling effect must have felt nice on his swelling flesh, because he calmed down rather quickly before falling back into his previous sleeping state.

Krislynn bit her lip as she debated whether or not to bring him another gel pack for his crotch. She had gotten him pretty good there, though if his manhood did end up swelling, Krislynn wasn’t sure if Chase would think of it as a bad thing. So deciding against the second ice pack, she stole a blanket from one of the guest rooms downstairs before throwing it over him and going back upstairs to her room.

Late Saturday morning, Krislynn was woken with a gentle nudge on the length of her arm. She was sleeping on her side, and let out a loud groan from the lack of sleep last night as she rolled onto her back and searched her surroundings with half-asleep eyes. She found Chase staring back at her all too easily and let out a shriek as she quickly sat up. “What are you doing in here?!”

He shrugged. The swelling on his eye had decreased vastly compared to the night before, and the redness of his skin was now replaced with a growing bruise. “It’s my house,” he declared. Krislynn glared at him and he let out a sigh before waving his hand over to the nightstand. “Can’t you smell that?” He asked. “I made you breakfast this morning you pig.”

Krislynn looked over at the tray sitting on the wooden nightstand and took a whiff of the food. Chase had really gone all out this morning, making her scrambled eggs, waffles with whip cream and strawberries, French toast with maple syrup on the side, sizzling bacon strips, sausages, bagels, fruit salad, and a glass of what looked like freshly squeezed orange juice.

Her mouth watered at the sight and her stomach growled psychotically, begging her to forgive him this instant, and it took every nerve of dignity in her body to hiss at him and slip back into her bed with the smell of food beckoning her at every turn. “Oh come on,” he muttered, giving her another nudge. “I know you. You can’t say no to food.”

She shook his hand away from her arm. “Screw off,” she shouted. “I hate how it’s always like this. You can’t expect me to forgive you every single time you do something stupid if you do something nice the moment after. That’s just messed up!”

He sighed. “But you can’t be that mad at me,” he pointed out, “if you took the effort to get me an ice pack and a blanket last night.” Krislynn didn’t say anything, just kept her back facing him as he continued. “Look, I know I messed up in more than one ways last night, and I’m a complete piece of shit─”

“You make a piece of shit look good,” she snapped.

He heaved another sigh and Krislynn could hear the strain on his pride when he spoke. “I make a piece of shit look good,” he repeated. “And that kick to the crotch, I’m not even going to say anything about it even if I’m unable to father babies after that horrendous blow─”

“I’m probably just doing the world a favour,” she interrupted. “Who wants the devil’s offspring running around?”

“Hey now,” he cautioned. “Careful what you say. Little Chases running around would be freakin’ awesome – even if I hate kids because they’re fucking annoying.”

Krislynn snorted. Unbelievable! She loved kids. “You really are the worst!”

“Whatever,” he grunted. “The point is, despite what you think, I actually really did want to spend the night out in town with you.” He paused for a moment. “It’s just that you have to understand I still have feelings for LaCienega. I mean, I offered to take her home several times, but she refused, and I can’t just reject her and leave her alone as easily as you might think I can.”

She turned to look at him with a look of dejection. “I know that,” she murmured, and even as she said it, the words stung, but it was the truth, and she couldn’t turn away from that. “But you could have told me you weren’t going to make it for our date Chase! You could have told me something – anything – so that I didn’t have to waste my time waiting on you, worrying about you!”

“I know,” he shouted, “but I...” With a look of frustration, he ran his fingers through his messy, brown locks. “It’s just I... didn’t really want to tell you that I couldn’t make it.”

“Well you would have had to tell me eventually!”

“It’s not about that!” He argued. “I just didn’t want to make it so final! I didn’t want to tell you that I couldn’t make it, because I still wanted to make it! But at the same time, I couldn’t...” He frowned. “I couldn’t just leave her behind.”

Krislynn watched his expression morphed into that of turmoil before looking away. “Why do you want to go out with me so badly?” She asked, aware that she had questioned his motives before.

“Well I told you already. I wanted to have a real dating experience.”

“But you could have technically done that with LaCienega last night,” she pointed out. “She seemed willing enough to spend time with you, and you could have easily taken the chance to woo her. It’s not like the fact that she’s engaged to Jace has ever stopped you before. It would have been like two birds with one stone.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “What exactly are you saying?”

“I’m saying why did you want to go on a date with me when you could have technically had one with LaCienega?” She looked at him timidly through her eyelashes. “Remember how you asked me that one question last night? Would it be fair if I asked you the same – just out of curiosity?”

He thought for a moment. “I guess,” he mumbled, “but you didn’t give me an answer last night so I don’t feel like giving you one either.”

She glared at him, but her feelings surprised her with an emotion of bliss – like running through a field of thorn-less red roses. It was odd the way Chase could sometimes make her feel and the sensation was indescribable – unlike anything she had ever felt before. He hadn’t returned her feelings, nor had he even given her a proper answer, but she bathed in the satisfaction of the possibility. 

All she knew was that he hadn’t denied his feelings, and if he straight out didn’t feel anything for her whatsoever, surely he, being the type of person he is, would deny them without a second thought.

“So anyways,” he murmured, bringing the conversation back on topic, “can you somehow find it in your heart to just forgive me this one last time?”

Chase gave her big, adorable, puppy eyes, but it really wasn’t a question of debate in Krislynn’s mind. It was one of those things people often questioned, ‘what’s wrong with her? Why is she still with him? Can’t she see how badly he’s treating her?’ but it was also one of those questions that can only be answered if you were the actual person wearing the shoes.

Krislynn would forgive him not only this time, but the next, and the next, and the next.

She hadn’t even realized she had fallen that far down the rabbit hole, but she had, and she was stuck in Wonderland without a way of getting back.