New Chapter! Like how fast I'm posting up chapters?
Please Enjoy!
Right now we were eating at a small diner called Dough's Diner. I thought it would be a pizza place and when I said this I got laughed at. Apparently it was just the hot spot in town for burgers and fries.
The boys at this second were all stuffing their faces. Damon and Alex on my right and Fritz in front of me. Unfortunately when boys stuff their face they don't have proper manners. Well at least Alex didn't.
"This is great!" Alex yells, food spraying out.
"Don't talk with your mouth full." Damon tells him.
I'm actually surprised how calm Damon can be around Alex. On the truck ride over, Alex had told me that they have been friends since 7th grade. So I guess Damon had a lot of years of ignoring Alex's yelling.
"Hey look there's Chace!" Alex yells, dropping his burger and running to the boy who just walked in.
I froze. This was one of the hottest people I have ever seen. With his shaggy blonde hair and blue eyes. This time I was used to blue eyes so I didn't get caught staring at them for so long. But his hair! It reminded me of Fritz's hair. How I had wanted to touch it so much.
Thinking of Fritz I turn to look at him. He must be excited to see his best friend but instead he was frowning at me. I slightly frown back and Fritz snaps out of it and smiles at me.
I didn't have time to ask what's wrong because right then Chace gracefully has the guys next to Fritz scoot over. Fritz didn't really look like he wanted to scoot over but did.
Chace finally sits down in front of me and grins, showing off his perfect straight teeth.
"I'm Chace." Chace tells me while also signing.
I smile shyly at him, hopefully I won't make myself look like a fool. "Val." I say timidly while sticking out my hand to shake.
Everyone actually stops to stare at my hand and just when I'm about to pull back Chace wraps his hand around mine.
"It's great to see that some people still handshake." Chace tells me.
When he lets go of my hand I just look at it. My first handshake. And it was with a guy like Chace. I can practically still feel his hand on mine.
"Are you alright? Did I squeeze too hard?" Chace asks worried.
No you didn't squeeze hard enough, was what I wanted to say but of course even I knew that that's not something you should ever say in public.
"I'm just in shock. That was actually my first handshake." I say in awe.
Now I'm not the only one in shock. I can see it written all over Chace's face. When he opens his mouth Fritz leans a little bit in front of him to get my attention cutting off poor Chace.
"You said you don't get out much. Just how often do you get out?" Fritz asks.
Now was the time I tell them the lame truth. The truth that even though I've had some fun with them that I just wanted to be home. Home with my laptop. My high speed internet.
"Never. I don't ever leave the house." I announce.
By now I was used to their silence when I did something that shocked them, but this time the silence was too long. I look up at shocked faces except for Fritz. He has a soft smile, his lips looking so kissable.
Whoa Val, you just met this guy. You can not be having thoughts of your first friend like this.
"You've missed out on a lot!" Alex yells with a French-fry in his hand, it waving limply back and forth.
"I guess I have." I tell him smiling to show that I didn't mind that much.
Just when Fritz is about to sign Damon cuts in. I give a sympathetic look to Fritz. Because he's deaf it's so easy for others to cut him off. He shrugs like it's no big deal.
"We got to get going if we want to be in time for coaches meeting." Damon says. The group of boys start gathering up their trash. Chace and I just stay seated since we had nowhere to be. Fritz looked like he didn't want to get up either.
"Did you talk to coach already Chace?" Fritz asks.
Chace looks a little skittish, not able to meet Fritz's eyes. "Yeah I saw him before I came here."
Knowing what I know of Fritz I know that he senses the change in his friend. We share a look and I just shrug at him, not understanding the sudden change in Chace either.
"Oh can you hang out with Val!" Alex yells from over at the trashcan.
"Don't yell across the place, think of others." Damon mutters and immediately Alex closes his mouth.
Chace chuckles, and faces me, "I would be honored to spend the game with you."
I blush. I have never had any kind of attention like this. Well I've never had any attention from anyone other than my parents so this was all too much to take in. This didn't seem real. Like a big dream.
"You don't have to babysit me. I'll be fine." I tell him.
"No she wont. You heard her she never leaves her house and this is her first game. She's going to freak out with all the big crowds." Fritz tells Chace.
"Wow I get your first handshake and your first football game." Chace tells me with a huge grin, his lips stretching across his handsome face. Now all back to being happy.
"We really should be going." Damon tells Fritz, who was lingering behind with me and Chace.
"I'll be fine. Go have fun." I sign to him.
He smiles and takes two steps before turning back to Chace, "Why aren't you playing tonight?"
"Coach says it would be best if I sit this game out." Chace tells him just shrugging.
I felt like Fritz was going to reply back but then Alex started shouting at Damon to hurry up or they were going to be late.
"I'll see you after the game." Fritz tells me and then leaves.
That left me with just Chace and I thought it was going to be awkward but it wasn't. I felt like this guy could just be friends with everybody.
"I'm going to order some food for myself. You mind if we just chill here till the game?" Chace asks me.
I nod "Yeah."
Right when he left my phone goes off. I look at the number and I see the word 'Mum'. I sigh and answer.
"Hey sweetie! Dad says you can come home for dinner!" My mother yells excitedly.
"Wow how thoughtful." I say dryly. That earned me an earful of words from her. I could also hear my dad say a few things in the back.
I cut her off, "I was actually invited to the football game."
Chace finally comes back with burgers and fries.
"I got you one just in case you get hungry from watching me eat." He signs not wanting to distract me from my phone call.
"I just knew that you would never want to come back home." My mother cries through the phone.
I sigh more loudly. "Ill be back tonight mother."
Just when I'm about to say more this random girl comes up and starts gushing at Chace about tonight's game.
My mother unfortunately heard Chace, "Are you with a man!" My mother squeaks out.
Again I'm about to say something but she cuts me off, "Is he hot?"
"He is. Now I got to go!" I hang up the phone and pocket it. Looking anywhere but at Chace.
Chace just stares at me while dipping his fries in ketchup. The girl from before is gone so I guess she wasn't really a friend.
"What did that girl want?" I ask.
He puts down his food so he can sign what he says, "I'm part of the football team. She wanted to know why I wasn't playing."
"Why do you sign when Fritz isn't even here anymore?" I ask.
He shrugs, "It's a habit to just sign everything."
I nod and from there we just talk about random things. It was awkward at first since I really know nothing but Chace seemed to just want to know my life. How I got to be so secluded. By the time I got through with my parents love story and everything I felt like mentioning, it was time to head to the game. Chace being the sweet guy just listened. I didn't want to ask him about his life so I stayed content with just telling him about mine. It wasn't that interesting anyway.
And Fritz was right. The place was jammed pack. Chace grabbed my hand and led us to the bleachers. All the young girl teens are age all stared at us. I couldn't tell if they were curious about me or if they thought Chace was hot. Probably both.
"Here's a good seat." Chace lets me sit first before sitting right next to me.
"So what do you know about football?" He asks.
I shrug, "I only know about the quarterback."
Chace laughs loudly, "Well I'm honored."
I look at him curiously.
"I'm the quarterback." He tells me.
I stare at him in shock, "And why aren't you playing again?"
I regret asking because Chace completely changes before my eyes. We go for a few seconds just staring out at the empty field listening to the announcer call out not so important info. The silence was strong between us even though it was so loud all around us.
"Fritz wont be playing tonight." Chace says.
When he said this he didn't even look at me. He was just staring out. I didn't know if I should reply back. So far I had only interacted with happy people. And for a split second an angry Fritz. But this was different, this was sadness and maybe a little of guilt.
"You see Fritz is only in football because of me. We do everything together and when I joined football he was left alone." Chace looks at me, "When I saw that my best friend was alone I begged the coach to let him try to play. It took a lot of begging," He chuckles but keeps going, "Every game since then me and Fritz played together. This afternoon when I talked to coach he said that since I wasn't playing neither was Fritz. You see I'm the one that really looks out for him out on the field. Coach thinks with me not there, something bad might happen."
I nod taking it all in, not knowing what to say to make him feel better.
"I lied to him at the diner. Remember when I told him that coach said it would be best if I sit this game out?" He asks me.
"I remember." I tell him.
"I begged coach to not let me play tonight." Chace mutters.
Before I can say anything the football team runs out and I see Fritz without his helmet on looking through the crowd. I can tell he's looking for us but I just sit there taking in all that was just said. I don't know Chace at all so there could be quite a lot of reasons as to why he didn't want to play.
When Fritz sees us I can see he's hurt. Chace notices too and looks away. Just when I'm about to offer kind words a loud piercing yell shocks me. I look around trying to find the source.
"It's that blonde cheerleader up front." Chace says, happy for the distraction.
Sure enough the noise is coming from the cheerleader he was talking about. She looks oddly familiar but I don't make any connections.
"Her name is Ally. She's Alex's sister and Damon's girlfriend." Chace tells me.
I raise an eyebrow. It sounded like a story of one of the many romances I've read. I shake my head at her screams and go back to looking at Fritz who is sitting on the bench.
"One time I went to summer camp, leaving Fritz all alone with his parents. The whole time I was away I didn't sign and I was rusty when I came back. He was so hurt. We actually didn't talk for a week because he felt like I wasn't his friend anymore." Chace just says out of nowhere.
"Well I find it admirable that you learned sign language just to be his friend." I tell him, giving him one of my real genuine smiles.
He nods at me, "It made me realize that Fritz gets lonely of just talking to the same people over and over and not able to really talk to anyone else. That's why I sign all the time. Other than his parents I'm really all he's got. Lately I can tell how lonely he's been because of it"
"Why are you telling me all this?" I ask.
"Because now he's got you." He grins at me.
I smile back and look down at Fritz. He looks up at me and we make eye contact.
"I'm glad that I had the pleasure of bumping into you today." I sign to him, repeating the words he told me earlier.
Thanks for reading. Review!
Sorry if you see 'Chase' instead of 'Chace'
Also next chapter I think we'll finally see a more blooming friendship between Fritz and Val!