Huge thanks to Polar_Wolf13 for her character Alex!
Dedication goes out to AspiringAuthor19 !
Highest rank on the hot list over the last two weeks - #403 in Chick Lit
Goal: 3 Votes and 4 comments.
And I'll post a sneak peek up on the site!
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© 2017 Shay Spencer. All rights reserved.
The Buddies Rule
Chapter 20
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It was a known fact that my father and Chase's had always wanted for us to get together.
Since Chase and I were little, they would go on about how one day we would get married and have kids of our own. They would tell us how they could see this spark between us, one that would never die out. They would tell us that being friends first was the key, though now, I was starting to think it was the lock holding us from our full potential.
Knowing each other for as long as we had, came with it's drawbacks. We could tell when something was off with one another. We could catch onto our hidden feelings with just one glance, and with that, came the awkwardness there after.
I wasn't sure how much longer we could stay in the friend zone without it having major consequences.
"I'll catch up with you at play practice," Chase called as he walked off towards his next class. I smiled, watching as he quickly made his way towards one of his many chemistry classrooms. I could never understand why he would want to go into such a mentally taxing profession. But, he loved it, and I admired him for that.
The weekend had gone by without much notice. The donor's ball had been exactly what all of us had expected. The event was boring, and filled with awkward conversations between ourselves and our parents. My father and Chase's had of course asked about our relationship status, for about the fiftieth time just this year, to which we explained our friendship hadn't changed.
We had left out the few kisses we had shared over the last few weeks.
Though with Lewis by our side, of course the buddies rule came into question. I had almost forgotten that my father had drawn up the papers for us almost two months ago.
The rest of the weekend was much simpler. We'd gone out for pizza after the ball, and the day after we were forced to finish up homework. I hadn't realized just how far behind I had gotten in school, what with the play and all.
I sighed to myself before finally making my way down the path and towards my English three class.
I hadn't seen much of Alan since Friday. After what had happened, I didn't blame him for not making a huge effort to make time with me. He had Astrid to worry about, he didn't need to be worrying about our twisted relationship status.
I strode into the lecture hall, finding my usual seat on the edge of the isle. The teacher was arranging things on his desk, and Astrid, was sitting just adjacent to him reading some book I didn't know. I sat down, pulling out my books and a pencil before feeling a presence at my side.
I glanced up to see Alan with a wide grin on his face. He held out a small box to me, one with a little box on the top.
"Thanks," I laughed, taking the box from him. He nodded and shuffling into his seat beside me. "What is it?"
"You're probably going to have to open the box to find out," Alan quipped. "That's usually how presents work."
I rolled my eyes and pulled the top off the small box. Inside, sat a card and a small bracelet. I set the box down on my lap before picking the card out of the box.
To my sweetest Elisa, I give the apple of my eye.
Make sure to get to practice on time.
Lewis
"Why would Lewis give me a bracelet?" I asked, feeling a frown take form on my face.
"He had the prop guys make it for our characters, and he wanted our approval," Alan explained. "He kind of thought it would be funny to see your reaction to the card."
"That sounds more like Lewis," I laughed.
Placing the top back on the box, I slid it into my bag. Class would start in just a few minutes and I didn't want the teacher to come around to find a weird bracelet from my only platonic guy friend.
"Did you like the ball on Saturday?" Alan asked absentmindedly as he pulled out his notebook.
I shrugged and penciled in the date, "it was fine. Chase and I had fun, and Lewis seemed to be having fun with that new girl."
"Alex?" Alan questioned. "I think she thought they were just there as friends."
"Seriously?" I gasped. "He looked so helpless when he asked her to dance, I thought he was about to pass out."
Alan shook his head, a smile resting on his face. "He told me that he really liked her."
"How did they even meet?" I asked. "Lewis got all weird when I asked and wouldn't tell me."
Alan shrugged, "they have some class together, I can't remember which one. But they got paired up for a project, so they've been spending a lot of down time together.
"Well," I laughed. "At least he's trying."
"Yeah," he sighed.
We grew silent before the teacher began writing something up on the board. We'd only just gotten to the end Romeo and Juliet during our last lecture, so when seeing the words tragic romance written in chalk, it didn't phase me.
"What makes Romeo so certain that death is his only option when finding out Juliet is dead?" He started. "The certainty comes from the love he feels for Juliet. A love so strong can both make or break you, and in Romeo's case, it broke him, so badly in fact, that death was his only option. He couldn't live without Juliet, it would be far too painful."
I scribbled down what little I could into my notebook, ignoring for the moment that I knew all of this by heart. It was obvious, one of those read between the line type things. But it was still nice to know I was understanding what the professor was preaching.
"And why does Juliet proceed to kill herself after finding Romeo dead, just next to her?" The professor droned on. "She finds life futile without him in it. The love the two share is somehow larger than life itself, which makes living without her love, not worth living."
I fell back in my chair, ignoring my notes for the moment as I merely listened in on the lecture. I would remember all of this without notes, I was sure.
"A love this strong is rare," he paused for dramatic effect. "So rare, in fact, that most are never able to feel this way with anyone. The love, and the bond between these two, forged an instant connection; one so strong, that both felt compelled to end their time on earth, rather than live a life without that connection."
He then motioned for Astrid to stand before handing her a large stack of papers.
"You assignment for today, is a rare one in honor of Romeo and Juliet," he explained. "I want a short story, no longer than five pages, illustrating a fiction, or non fiction first encounter between two people. I want to feel the connection, I want to feel these two characters drawn to one another without reason. You have until midnight this Friday to turn in your completed work. For now, you may all leave, find a word space that you feel comfortable writing in, and put pen to paper."
The entire class jumped up with his last sentence. He was ending class early? This was more rare than the love between Romeo and Juliet.
Alan laughed happily next to me as he shoved his things into his bag. "Who would have thought he'd call class early?" He waited for me as I pushed my own books into my backpack.
"Now we can go pick on Lewis," I smiled. I pulled my bag over my shoulder, walking along with Alan towards the doors.
"Where is he now, anyways? I don't think he has a class."
"In the library," I answered. "I sometimes ditch my Tuesday-Thursday class to hang out with him."
Alan smiled, "but you never ditch English three."
"Because I need it to graduate," I teased.
I took in a deep breath as we walked out onto the quad, only when I took in the air, it wasn't what I expected.
"Do you smell smoke?" I gagged. My face twisted in disgust as I glanced from side to side. No one in the literary department smoked right after a lecture, at least no one that I knew of.
Alan nodded and shivered slightly, "yeah. Let's just get to the library."
We briskly walked towards the next building, making sure to shut the door behind us as we stopped in the lobby outside the library. Upon looking around, the students were up and out of their seats, rushing around instead of sitting back and studying.
I shook my head, leading the way as we found Lewis at his regular table. He sat alone, his head buried in some book from one of his film classes. He looked so concentrated on it, and apparently, he was. He didn't even notice when we sat down next to him.
I reached out and snapped my fingers in front of his face, "hey nerd."
Lewis jumped back slightly, his eyes wide as he looked up at me.
"Where the hell did you two come from?" Lewis whined before he slammed his book shut. "I thought you guys had English three for another hour."
Alan merely shrugged, "professor called off class so we could write a rare story."
"What does that mean?" Lewis scoffed with a smile.
"It means," I started as I leaned back in my chair. "We need to write some romantic love story without any romance. We just need to convey some sort of connection between two people, and then we're good."
"But he cancelled class for the rest of the day so we're free!" Alan cheered before punching Lewis' shoulder.
Lewis whined at the contact, "calm down, jock. It's not like they announced a reunion movie for high school musical or anything."
"You obviously haven't been to our English class," Alan nodded.
I smiled and shook my head at the two. I could definitely spend the rest of the day in here. It felt like everything had been so serious lately, and right here in the library, I felt relaxed for the first time in a while. I was happy to just spend the afternoon teasing Lewis and making weird faces at Alan.
The only thing missing was my best friend.
"Where's Chase?" Lewis asked, reading my mind.
"He's got an advanced chemistry in the workplace class or something," I explained. "I don't think he gets out till three."
"Well that sucks," Lewis grumbled. "I guess we'll just have to be the three musketeers until he gets out."
I jumped a bit as my phone began buzzing in my pocket. I reached down and pulled it out, only to see an unknown number written out on the screen.
"Who is it?" Alan asked as he rested his elbows on the table.
"I don't know," I said.
Lewis raised his eyebrows with my words. "Well answer the god-dammed phone already. We're in the freaking library, Bree."
I rolled my eyes and clicked accept before pressing the phone to my ear, "hello?"
Someone cleared their throat on the other end of the line, "yes. Is this Bree Hendly?"
"Speaking."
"We regret to inform you that there's been an accident. You're listed here as Chase David's emergency contact. We're going to need you to come down the hospital immediately."
My heart stopped, I could barely breath, and I could already feel myself shaking. Something happened to Chase, and it was bad a bough that they had to send him to the hospital.
"What kind of emergency?" I squeaked.
"We're not allowed to divulge that information over the phone. We're going to need you to come to the hospital immediately."
"Okay," I shook my head. "I'll be there in a minute." I locked my phone and set it down on the table.
"Who was that?" Lewis asked, the concern evident in his voice. "You're pale, paler than usual."
I could hear the teasing tone in his voice at the end, but I couldn't care less about Lewis' stupid jokes right now. All I knew, was I needed to get to Chase, and I needed to get to him quickly.
"Can one of you drive me to the hospital?" I asked.
"What happened?" Alan countered, already picking up his things along with Lewis.
"I don't know. But Chase was in some kind of accident, and I need to get there as quickly as possible."
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Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed 😜
As most of you can tell, I cancelled the donor's ball chapter - I had writer's block so bad because of it, so I just skipped ahead.
But what is going to happen with Chase??? We'll have to wait to find out...
The next update will be on...
February 19th! UPDATES ARE NOW ON SUNDAY'S!
Remember to vote/ Check out Something Real! Chapter 11 was just posted!
Thanks guys!