Be My Always - A Casey and Izzie Story

5. here goes nothing...

Izzie:

We drove to the pub blasting Harry Styles' new album and singing at the top of our lungs, it felt good to finally see Casey happy as she sung with her short hair flying in the wind. We pulled into the bar yet she remained perfectly still, staring intensely at the entrance to the building.

"You ready?" I asked her after a few seconds.

"Why did I come here? Why couldn't I just come to you or talk to literally anyone other than the homewrecker that almost ruined my family. If I didn't come here, that asshole would have never attempted to feel me up in the bathrooms and I wouldn't have had to call you because I was too drunk to manage myself." She exploded in one gulp of air as if oxygen was the last thing she cared about in this moment.

"You gotta stop being so hard on yourself," I told her as I took her hand in mine and squeezed tight before loosening my grip and stroking her fingers with my thumb, "you obviously came to Nick for a reason that felt right in that moment of thinking and that is okay. And that man is an asshole, you can't blame yourself for what almost happened, Case. Drinking or not, he had no right." I told her before following her eyes and realizing she was watching me still stroking her hand.

"Oh, whoops sorry." I exclaimed pulling my hand away

"No. Don't." she told me as she grabbed my hand again, "I liked that."

I swear for a moment my heart stopped.

My cheeks definitely resembled a sunburn gone wrong and I turned away to avoid Casey seeing me sitting there smiling so hard like an absolute idiot.

"You think you're ready for this?" I asked once I had caught my breath and calmed myself down.

She took a deep breath herself, "Ready as I'll ever be..."

We each got out of our side doors and met again at the top of the car where I reached for her hand again and gave it a squeeze, she squeezed back and began to walk through the entrance, still hand in hand.

She led the way as we sat down on some sticky bar stools in front of a man with his back to us that I could only assume was Nick as Casey began clearing her throat trying to catch his attention. He spun around and was taken aback to see Casey sitting there again.

"Casey? Back so soon?" he asked clearly shocked

"I need to talk to you about something that happened yesterday, Nick" she replied in full confidence

"Uh-oh, am I in trouble with Elsa for giving you a drink?" He asked jokingly trying to lighten the mood

"Nuh-uh," she shook her head, "this is more serious than anything Elsa could do."

"Oh." Is all he could reply with

"This is Izzie by the way," she told him as she pointed to me

They then exchanged a particular look, "Ohhh, is this the one-"he began,

"-Yep." Casey cut him off before he could finish what he was trying to say.

Was I the one what? I gave Casey a look of fear and concern, she brushed it off however and instead took my hand and squeezed hard, just as I had done for her. Although still extremely confused, I couldn't help but feel happy that Casey and I now had a 'thing'. A 'thing' that was as simple as squeezing each other's hand, yet it felt so powerful knowing at any given time I could let Casey know that I was here for her without others knowing.

I hadn't even realized I had zoned out until my attention was brought back to Casey explaining the events of last night to Nick whose face was plastered with an unreadable expression.

"It was fucked up, Nick. I came here seeking your help and left here feeling violated and disgusting." She spat getting more and more angry at the situation and the unreadable expression on Nick's face was now instead replaced with a look of nothing but frustration and worry.

"I am so sorry Casey; I should have taken you home when I left. Believe me, he will pay for what he did to you and you won't ever have to worry about him bothering you again." He assured her while also calming my own nerves with the certainty in his voice.

"Thank you. Honestly, if it weren't for whoever decided to go into the bathrooms in that moment of time, who knows what he could have done..." She painfully wondered out loud.

The pair talked a bit longer and I occasionally chimed in but left it mostly to them. My phone dinged and I looked down to see a message from my grandma telling me she'd be round with my siblings in half an hour, I showed Casey who nodded.

"We best be off, Nick. Thank you for your help over the past few days, I really appreciate it." She told him as they shook hands

"I'll always be here if you need, as long as we keep it a secret from the rest of your family." He winked before turning around to me "it was nice meeting you, Izzie."

"It was nice meeting you too, Nick." I waved before turning away and beginning to walk away, assuming Casey was following until I heard the end of a hushed conversation between her and Nick.

"Trust me, don't you dare go with the easy option. You can tell by the way you look at each other that- that is something worth fighting for." Nick told her in a shocking whisper that I could only assume was in attempt to stop me from overhearing their conversation.

"Damn right she's worth fighting for." She told him in an equally dreadful whisper whilst there was nothing that I could do but stand the few meters away pretending that I wasn't eavesdropping on their conversation and that my knees hadn't become weak, my stomach wasn't doing backflips and my heart was definitely not pounding ten times the normal rate.

As happy as I wanted to feel in this moment about the possibility of Casey liking me, I couldn't help but wonder if there were someone else? It almost felt as though every time my heart would get excited or would convince me that there was something to be excited about, my brain would but in convince it I was overreacting and purely believing anything due to my own feelings.

Who knows what to believe anymore, honestly.

Casey:

We walked out to the car in a silence that I couldn't quite pick if it were the good type or a 'I have definitely done something wrong' silence. We got in the car and still neither of us had muttered a word.

"Is everything okay?" I asked her finally working up the courage to open my mouth. I don't know why I was scared but something in this moment just felt different.

"Wha-what were you and Nick talking about?" The words fell out of her mouth so fast I don't think she even expected herself to come out with that.

"You heard that?"

"Yeah, some of it..." She admitted

"Fuck."

"Oh..." She looked hurt, betrayed and even smaller than her usual petite size.

"No, no, no Iz, that's not what I meant," I hurried, "that's just not the way that I wanted you to find out."

"Find out what?"

Here goes nothing...

A/N!!

Hey babes, I hope you all are having a beautiful Chrissy break filled w love, family and lots and lots of food.

Just wanted to thank you all for all the support you have shown this story so far. It absolutely makes my day seeing comments, votes and views. SO MUCH LOVE. I also wanted to just put it out there that I really have no idea what I am doing. I have never written more than a chapter before so this is definitely something new for me and I hope I am doing okay. Always welcome to take constructive criticism though, trust it helps me too.

So yeah, just wanted to pop in to say hello. And I will see you in the next chapter SORRY FOR THE CLIFFHANGER!!!!!

Xoxo, Rory.