Hiding Behind A Mask | ✔

C H A P T E R N I N E

"There are two steps in overcoming your fear of Sandra," Chance says as I plop down on his bed. I have just arrived after he asked me to come over to his place today. He said he has something calmingly fun for us planned, but it seems as if maybe he just said that to make me come here so that he can get me into this 'overcoming your fear' thing.

"One is to stand up to her by being confident and the other is to take off that mask," he says as he sits next to me on his bed. I turn my head to look at him, moving my hand up to touch the mask on my face.

I know that he's trying to help me and all, but I don't think I'll be able to take off this mask. I've gotten so used to wearing it anywhere and everywhere that I go that sometimes I even forget that I'm wearing it. After all, no-one cares to know what I look like, and even if they do, I wouldn't let them anyway. It's just how it's supposed to be.

Chance clears his throat, causing me to snap out of my thoughts. I look at him with glossy eyes, feeling sad all of a sudden. He puts his hand on my hand that's touching the mask and stares me deep in the eyes for a moment. Quickly, I blink and look away, pulling my hand away from under his.

I take out my phone to message him, Did you just fake that you have something planned so that you can tell me all about this?

Chance views the message and his head snaps back up to look at me. "It's nothing like that. I wouldn't do something like that!" he says, not even bothering to text his reply to me.

I relax from the tense mood that I was in and stare at the floor as we sit in silence. As we sit in silence, I can't help but think about what people would actually think about me if I were to take off my mask. Would they like me? Would they continue to think of me as some ugly blonde head? Would they continue to talk about me and tease me?

Almost a thousand thoughts fill my mind as I stare blankly at nothing in particular, but there's only one thought that's in the center of all of them. Will Sandra actually stop bullying me if I were to start acting normal like the rest of them and stick up to her, and her minions?

Suddenly, Chance is holding my hand, pulling me off the bed. I get up and start walking across the room with him next to me.

"You've been to my room so many times to do the English assignment and I've never really shown you around it, so I'll do that now," he says, stopping by one of his many collections of modeled motorcycles.

He picks one of them up. The small motorcycle is all black with four red lines going across in a claw-like way on either side. He smiles at it, then puts it back down to pick up another one.

"I know, you must be thinking why I have all these motorcycles, well, whenever my dad comes home from one of his many trips he brings a modeled motorcycle he's been working on, home," Chance says, now inspecting the blue and silver motorcycle.

I turn my head and look at him. He smiles at me and looks up to a poster on his wall. It's one of his posters that has a girl wearing a pretty short, black dress with high heels on. I internally cringe, wondering how she could've walked in a dress like that.

"He also brings home posters with girls on them," Chance laughs, his perfect white teeth showing. "Don't worry, he actually started bringing me these posters when I started middle school."

I nod my head, almost having the same thought of what he said.

A few hours have flown by as Chance and I do fun things around his room, such as showing off our skills in drawing. I've gotta say, my drawings look pretty horrible, but Chance's looks perfectly fine, though he said he's not good at drawing. I think he's just doubting his self.

"Come on," Chance says as he gets up off the floor. I get up and start walking behind him. He opens the door and turns around quietly to face me. He places his index finger on his mouth to indicate silence, and I nod my head, telling him that I understand.

Slowly, but at a more decently fast pace, we walk down the stairs. As soon as we reach the end of the stairs, Chance stops abruptly, causing me to almost bump into him. We could hear the tv sound in the living room. It must be his brother watching television because he told me that his mother will be working late.

"I don't want my brother finding out about where we're going, I've never really told anyone about it," Chance whispers to me. "So you'll have to be very quiet as a mouse for this one."

I nod my head and once again start walking behind Chance. The couch that Matthew is sitting in comfortably, is facing towards the tv, making it easier for us to walk by. Matthew suddenly giggles, causing us to stop and whip our heads around quickly. We both let out a small breath when we notice that it's just the show he's watching that's making him giggle uncontrollably.

We finally exit the house through the back door to feel the cool night air brush against our skin. Chance walks over to a ladder, that's to the side of the house, and starts climbing it. He reaches to the roof of the house and sits on the edge, looking down at me.

"What are you waiting for? Come on," he whisper-screams, and I walk over to the ladder and start climbing it. In just a few seconds, I'm sitting down next to him on the edge of the house's roof.

I look up to find the twinkling stars in the deep, night sky. Chance looks up, too, with a small grin on his face. The branches of the trees swish from side to side calmly as the soft breeze blows by. 

"This is actually what I've planned for us to do today," Chance says in his soft voice. "Isn't it beautiful to just sit and stare at the thousands and thousands of stars in the sky?"

Yes, it is... I text him, and he pulls out his phone to look at it with a smile. Why don't you tell anyone about coming up here at night? Why is it so special to you?

"I don't tell anyone about coming here at night because I find it as a place where I can just think, and having a place where nobody actually thinks about is pretty awesome. I sometimes hide up here whenever I know I'm in trouble," Chance laughs and I stare at his eyes, at the happiness in them. "I find it special because it's so quiet and looking up at the stars makes me feel amazing."

Why did you bring me here? I ask, curious.

Chance looks at me and makes a thinking expression. "I don't really know... Maybe there's something about you that made me bring you here," he says with a smile and moves an arm around my shoulder.

I lean into him, smelling the lavender scent in his white t-shirt. The light breeze blows my hair and I rest my head on his shoulder, feeling surprisingly lost like it's just me and him with the stars in the sky and there's no-one else in the world at this moment.

"You're special, Annie," I don't bother to look at him as I stare at the sky. "Just like the millions of stars in the sky."

* * *

A/N:

O.M.G. Finally!! I've updated and I feel so happy! It was so hard to get a single word down for this chapter because of school taking up most of my time. But now, I'm on Spring Break for a week, and maybe I could get two chapters out for next week...

Did you like the little moment both Chance and Annie had with the stars? I did! XD

As always, thank you so, so much for reading. You reading my book makes me feel very happy. Your comments and votes give me the confidence to keep writing!

- Tanya <3

Song: Places We Don't Know by Kasbo.