I looked at her baffled; silent.
"He was about to beat up Jerry!"
“He was not!" I dismiss Chase's odd behavior. "I'm sure he was protecting me like my brothers would."
She shakes her head violently, "Nope, not buying it."
"Well,” I clap my hands together,”you don't have to. He has a hot little number over there." I nod to where Chase is standing next to my brother, the blonde now on his right pawing at him. I look away. I feel a little pang in my heart, and I berate myself. This is so stupid. "He clearly could care less. He's barely acknowledging her," Taylor battles. I know I shouldn't, but I can't help but look. He's put some distance between him and the blonde.
"I need to go for a walk, this is driving me crazy."
"Want me to come with you?" she yells as I start walking away.
I just wave my hand at her, and walk towards the isolated area of the lake--away from the noise--away from everyone and, mostly, away from Chase.
I’ll Break Your Face
"Dude. What the hell were you doing over there?" Vance grills me as I make my way to him. I shrug. "I saw some dude hitting on V. You were too busy with Brittany to notice."
"Jerry? He's gay." Vance laughs.
"Yeah, well, I didn't know that! I never met the dude." He thinks my argument is hilarious.
"I saw him," He pauses and looks at me, "You sure that's all it was? You into my sister?" He asks, the laughter gone. His mouth is in a tight line. It completely takes me off guard. I'm stunned and silent as he stares me down. Finally, I scoff and laugh nervously. "What? No!"
He bursts out laughing. "I'm fucking with you dude, you should've seen your face!" He smacks my shoulder and continues talking to me, "V, told me you're into someone." He nods his head to my right, I don't have time to process what Vance just said when I suddenly felt hands on my arm. I look at the delicate fingers with pink nail polish wrapping around my arm, and into blue eyes, "Hey, Chase."
Great.
"Hey, Shannon."
"You never called," she pouts, and it makes her look stupid. I cross my arms over my chest, which causes her to remove her hand from my arm. "I'm sorry, I've been busy." I know. I sound like a jerk; something Veronica called me out on earlier. I guess I am a jerk.
"You're not busy now," she points out. "But we can change that." I keep myself from sighing out loud. It's crazy how your feelings about someone can change and grow so rapidly, that the thought of doing anything with another girl disgusts me. This can't be normal. I need to somehow get her off my back, and not make it so obvious to Vance. He won't leave this alone.
"I need a drink. You want a drink?" I ask her in my lame attempt to get away.
She smiles. "Sure."
I turn away from her quickly and walk towards the keg, which passes the firepit where V is sitting... or was supposed to be sitting. I couldn't stop myself from looking around for her. Where the hell did she go? I grab a cup and fill it, chug it, and fill it up again. Taylor comes up next to me, doesn't say anything...just fills up her cup. She looks at me, a sneaky smile on her face.
"What?" I ask her.
She shakes her head. "Nothing."
"Why are you smiling at me like that?"
She takes a sip from her cup, then lowers it. "You break her heart, and I'll break your face."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"V," She points at my chest. "I'm not blind. I see how you look at her."
Shit. Fuck. I remain quiet and look beyond her. She takes my silence as an invitation to continue on.
"You like her. It's painfully obvious...to me anyway, I'm just awesome like that. You need to stop fucking around with other girls," She nods her head to the area behind me. "V has the biggest heart of anyone I know. It's fragile and it needs to be treated with gentle hands. So, like I said, you break it, I break your face."
I look at Taylor. "I know this, and that's the last thing I would ever want to do." It’s the truth.
"I know, cause you would have a shit storm on your ass--not from just me but-- from her brothers."
"Plus, I like my face."
She laughs, "Yeah, it's not a bad face.” I glance at the empty log.
"She's down by the lake." She turns and walks away leaving me standing at the keg. I don't even think twice, I leave the keg and head towards the lake.
McSwoony
I walk along the pebbled edge of the lake; away from all the noise and commotion, though it could still be heard. I stop and pick up a flat rock and flip it around in my hand before throwing it sideways. I can barely see it as it skips out. I take a deep breath. A slight fishy scent lingers; it’s nothing too intense, but somewhat relaxing. The yelling, music, and talking all behind me fades away. It is peaceful out here.
I find a large rock--large enough to sit on--and sit down. I hear footsteps behind me, along with the sound of crunching sand and rocks. I glance over my shoulder to see who is walking my way. His broad shoulders block out the fire, darkening his features, and create an orange glow around his body. I know it’s Chase. What the hell is he doing?
"What are you doing?" I ask when he gets closer.
"What are you doing?" he shoots back. I look out at the calm dark water. Neither of us say anything but I can feel his eyes on me.
"You hungry?"
I look at him, incredulously, "What?"
"You hungry? I'm hungry. Wanna go grab some food?"
"What about my brothers? And your girlfriend?"
He kicks his foot around the little pebbles, his hands in his front pockets, "Vance is occupied, and actually, I haven't seen Vaughn at all," He looks at me, his eyebrows furrowed, "I don't have a girlfriend." We were silent again as I pondered his invitation to go get food.
"I don't know."
"C'mon. It's just food, and I'll drop you off right after."
"Okay...Can we not tell Vance?" I ask standing up, dusting the dirt off my butt. Even standing I have to look up at him. He grimaces.
"I don't know if that's a smart idea."
"And telling him we're leaving to grab food is?"
He sighs, "I feel like if he finds out we lied to him, then we're hiding something from him." He makes a good point because we're not hiding anything.
"We're not lying..."
"Lying by omission is pretty much the same thing, especially to Vance."
I sigh, "I know, I just don't need him giving me shit. He won't be home until late if he even comes home. So if I'm home before him, which, I most likely will be, he'll never even know."
"Okay," He relents, "I'll let him know I'm leaving."
I nod. "Okay. I'll let Taylor know." He turns to walk, but I remain where I am. He must realize that I didn't move because he pauses and turns towards me. "You comin?" I look at him for a second, taking him all in. He just stares at me, waiting for my response. I have no idea what I'm getting into, but I remind myself it's just some food with a friend. "Yeah."