Stories For the Damned

Alexanders - Ch 9

When Chase stepped foot in camp again, she was pushed to stand in front of me by Sadie who wore a frown of anger and disgust.

As if our fight had been a personal insult to her.

Clearly she had given Chase quite a talking too as Chase looked as if she'd been crying. Her fishing rod was quickly taken by Sadie who also whispered something into her ear and then quickly left with Charles following.

"Hey," she said, a hand rubbing awkwardly at her neck and the other playing with her shirt. I stood, not returning the greeting. 

She had to make this right. Not me.

"I uh, I know...that..." Chase sighed, her start made it clear that she hadn't had a planned out set of words. 

I waited patiently.

"Remember when we broke up?"

Weird..."Uh...yeah..." I whispered, trying to see where she'd take this.

"In the moment, I guess I thought we'd never meet again and...now, you just came back and... Look, what I'm trying to say is you...I...I...I was confused and I-I took that out on you, today, and-"

She met my eyes and for the first time in a long while, I felt as if she didn't hate me.

"-I'm sorry." 

I let her continue.

"What I said wasn't nice, obviously, I want make it up to you. I'm asking that you give me a chance and maybe...maybe we can both change."

My heart was pounding in my chest. My palms were sweaty, and my words were caught in my lungs. 

I felt like all those years ago when I first realized that I liked her. 

In that moment I realized that we could start all over again. Make things a-new. Take it slow. Maybe.

"Chase-" 

She looked up at me, her eyes showed that she was afraid of what I'd say.

"I forgive you."

"R-really?" She took a step towards me but something in me made me take a step back. 

"Yeah...just..." 

She stopped coming towards me, her joy fading.

"Can I think about it?" 

"Oh...of course....yeah..." 

And with that I set to making up my mind.