Proving Webster Wrong

Chapter Seven -- Chloe

Challenge #1

20 Questions

(Honesty)

Chapter Seven

Chloe

I expected it to be a day or two before Andrew picked a challenge, at least enough time for me to soak in the idea. Or enough time for the whole thing to just be forgotten and slip away into the past as a crazy afternoon. The whole thing had been so impulsive, something from a movie or a dream, that happens but then you return to the normal life you had before it.

As I sat through the afternoon service I kept telling myself that it wouldn't be long until I could go back to our little cream colored house where I would sit in my cushioned bench in front of my window and relax. I would go through all the normal routines of showering and getting ready for bed. And then I would wake up in the morning without a thought on my mind about the weird events of the day.

Andrew seemed to have other ideas. Or maybe he knew that I hoped he would forget. I didn't even have the chance to gather my things to leave before he made his way over. "I know what the first challenge is."

I focused on packing my things and not looking at him. "Can't it wait until tomorrow?" I asked making sure he couldn't see my face just incase he might be able to see what I was trying to do.

He was silent, so silent that I thought I had been lucky enough for him to leave. I pulled my bag onto my shoulder and turned to leave only to slam right into him.

"Sorry," I said taking a step back.

His hands reached out for a moment then dropped to his sides. "It's an easy one. I was thinking we really don't know enough about each other to set challenges just yet so I came up with a solution."

My fingers started doing the twisting thing. I slipped past him and started toward the side door not wanting to be caught in the crowd at the front or by Terri-Beth.

"Don't tell me you're already backing out." Andrew was still at might side. When we reached the door he step ahead and opened it.

I didn't step through. "I just need some time. It's all sort of sudden. Things like this aren't easy for me." I bit my lip and turn away from the door and walked back to the front of the church. The crowd was thinning and there was a chance I could slip through.

No one followed me, not even Andrew and his challenge. I wanted to be relieved, but there were only sinking and twisting in stomach. A feeling like before a big test that you forgot to study for or when you make a mistake when you were so sure of yourself and everyone knows it. Dread, so much dread.

Andrew wouldn't let things go easily now, not when I had just shown my cards. Admitted something to him. I had now given him the chance, the idea, that if he tried hard enough he would be able to break me.

Seventeen years of building walls around myself and I wasn't ready for someone to just come along and break them. It didn't matter who they were or who they had been.

This time my parents and sisters were already in the car when I made it over. I climbed in and off we went. A glance out the window revealed Andrew standing with his sister. I don't know why but part of me wanted to see him still standing at that door watching the car pull away wondering what had just happened. Or for him to be trying to stop us.

It was like part of me really did want to do those challenges. To forget about everything I had ever thought I had to do, that my mind made me do, and try something new. To take a chance. To chose fight rather than flight.