the thing about revenge

11 e v e n : footsies and various deals

"But since you're pissed..." She started.

"I'm sorry. I'm not. You're my bestest friend," I corrected.

"More like your only friend," Reese laughed, rolling her eyes as she passed me the cup of yogurt.

We drove to school.

"Emily!" A familiar voice shouted. I sighed.

"Hi,"

"My house today for the project?"

"Can't, I have to babysit my sister," I rubbed my eyes. She was trouble.

"Then we'll do it at yours," Thomas winked.

I promised him okay before I realized the utter contrast between his palace and my humble abode. No, it didn't look messy or dirty or ugly but it was really probably very very far from his definition of a home.

I laughed as Reese told me about how her weekend went. When suddenly, she paused, staring at someone behind me.

"Chase, finally back for your girlfriend?" She teases, glancing back at me. I swallowed, I hadn't told her about us yet. Oops. I turned around.

"Heyy," I started, taking in his outfit. Blue button-down with tight blue jeans. Not bad. I watched as Chase was joined by Asher and Thomas.

"Let's go, bro," Asher's deep voice called out. Chase waved them off first. Whoa, it was only Chase's second day and the guy made popular friends already, wow.

"Oh, nice shirt," Asher said to me before he sauntered away. I swear he was being sarcastic. I was just wearing a plain pink shirt.

"Hey Reese, Emily," Chase greeted us, smiling at us.

"How do you know Asher?" I asked curiously.

"Oh, our fathers met at a conference in Sydney. But I only met when him when my father invited their family for dinner at ours. Pretty cool eh? What a small world." Chase laughed.

"Do you mind if I talk to your other half for a moment?" He asked Reese. I mentally facepalmed. That was equivalent to "go away." He might as well have said that, it would have been less awkward.

"Sure, just please don't start sucking each other's faces in school." Reese joked. I threw her my 'glare of disgust' as she walked away, snickering to herself.

"I see you haven't told her yet," Chase mused.

"Soon. I will." I chucked.

"We didn't manage to properly catch up the other day," I lightly punched his arm, laughing slightly.

"Yeah, how have you been, Emily?" Chase asked, brushing a hair from my face, my breath hitching in my throat.

"I've been okay. Chase, why didn't you call back? Text back? All these years I waited for a single text from you. I didn't know that not being together meant that we couldn't even be friends." I sniffed. Because as much as I wanted to bury it, I couldn't.

"I thought it would have been better that way because trust me, you won't believe the number of times I picked up my phone wanting nothing more than to text you. I didn't because dragging our relationship long-distance was selfish and I didn't want that for both of us." Chase whispered. "But I'm here now. Emily..." I glanced at him.

"No."

"Huh?"

Okay, believe it or not, I freaked out. I thought he was going to propose.

"Oh, nothing." I smiled sheepishly. Chase looked at me weirdly.

"Emily, can we be friends?" Chase asked. He wanted to start over, without the awkwardness of everything else. I nodded. We couldn't be together in this lifetime, but I hoped that maybe in a parallel universe somewhere, Chase and I were happy together.