Please Don't Let Me Go

Chapter 13 | You Only Have Charm

Chase's P.O.V.

"Chase."

"Chase..."

"CHASE!"

"What?!" I flinched at my own voice. I feel bad for Jared, sometimes the voice of reason has to receive the brunt of the blow outs of the jackass. "I'm sorry." I mumbled and scratched the back of my neck.

To say I was slightly moody today was a understatement.

When I picked Annalise up and brought her to school the car was still insanely silent, just like the day before when I had brought her home, and I hated every second of it.

I was supposed to watch it and make sure I don't entertain ideas of more than friends with her, but that left me with not trusting myself with saying anything. I didn't know what to say. Heck, the thought probably hasn't even occurred to her.

If Kristi and- Parker- talked to her there's no doubt she's put two and two together and come up with the unavoidable conclusion... I'm a player. A bad boy who likes you until you get out of his bed.

I hated the way that sounded, although it was slightly true. But now, this year, I don't want to go down that road. Why? Because of Annalise. One girl. One freaking car accident, makes me want to change all of my morals and way of life. I need mental help.

Maybe- maybe if I stopped trying the knight-in-shining-armor act it'd help, but then I'd be back to a player, and nerd was out.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and my blue eyes meet with Jared's.

"Chase- it's going to be okay. Just chill- I mean you've only known her for two days- how hard can it possibly be to shut down a cru-"

"Don't say it!" I cut him off. "Don't say the C  word."

He was being a great friend and all, but I refused to have the word in my vocabulary, let alone think or consider the possibility, and I was NOT going to hear it. Didn't want any ideas planted or encouraged that might subconsciously be there right?

"-okay- a strong attraction."

"That's even worse." I say leaning my back against my locker. Jared with hands in his jean pockets, like me and was leaning on his side against the lockers.

"You know, maybe it'd help if you didn't pick her up every morning. I'm sure Claire would love to have her come with-"

"No!" I say too eagerly and a little too loud. Although no one in the hallway seemed to notice. Jared gave a raised eyebrow,"I mean, no, it's fine. I'm fine. I wrecked her car and I'll car pull for her until it's fixed. I wouldn't feel right if I didn't especially if you ended up doing it- no offense."

Jared shrugged pushing off of the metal door. "Suit yourself. But you gotta do or change something, or everything that you're trying to accomplish will fail and be flushed down the toilet."

"Analogy mode at this time of the morning? And a normal one at that." I questioned. Jared had this thing for analogies, a lot of times they were weird but somehow held deep meaning. Kinda like himself if you think about it. The analogies usually started around mid day, and it's was almost 10am, and this was commonly known. Should I be scared? Yep.

"Well- I don't know... Maybe I'm off myself too." He shrugged again. That's twice in the course of 30 seconds.

The bell rang before I could say anything. He had started acting weird since last week, it was like something was nagging him.

Who knows what, but Jared usually was a good councilor to others and himself, so me trying to help would probably be worse than helpful.

Sides, he'd tell me if something was really wrong, Jared always talked when the time was right to talk and he's ready. My guess is that neither of those things were true at the moment.