(Chapter 9- Revelations)
-Ashlyn's POV-
"What are you doing here?" I asked him in shock. I wiped my tears away and waited for him to answer.
He sighed and walked over to the chair beside the bed and sat down. Chase was shooting him evil glares the whole time. I am seriously confused right now. How could I have not known that Josh and Chase were cousins?
"Are you alright?" He asked concerned ignoring my question.
"Yes thanks to you." I said to him just to get to Chase. "Now are you going to tell me why you are here?"
"Where should I start?" Josh asked.
"Start with the cousin's thing and then work up to why you are here." I stated
"Ok well it's like this..." He started. "As you now know Chase and I are cousins, but we don't get along so well."
"That's an understatement." Chase interrupted.
"I wasn't talking to you." I hissed at him then turned my attention back to Josh.
"Chase and I used to be friends at one time but that all changed when he let some things come between us."
"So what happened?" I asked
"Well for one Chase tired to make everything a competition and felt he always had to beat me at everything. Take football for example." He said.
"That wasn't it and you know it. Why don't you tell her the truth?" Chase roared.
"That is the truth just not all of it." He stated.
"What's the rest of it?" I questioned
"Well, the truth is when we were juniors I started to like you, I realized it after we were assigned to be partners on that one school project. I also knew that you were best friends with Chase and I knew about his feeling for you.
"What do you mean feelings for me?" I questioned.
Chase liked me before? How could that be? He never showed me any interest in me before. Why didn't he do anything about it? Maybe if he had I wouldn't hate him so much right now. And Did I not notice anything?
"You haven't told her?" Josh questioned Chase smirking.
"No, no I haven't." Chase confessed.
"Just tell me already." I said getting frustrated.
Josh quickly understood my annoyance and started picking back up on his story.
"At the time of all of this took place Chase and I were still friends so I didn't want to make a move until I talked to Chase first."
*******
FLASHBACK
Josh's POV
Class had just ended and everyone was pouring out the classroom doors. Ashlyn had stayed behind to talk to the teacher and I knew Chase would be waiting for her outside class so now is my chance to talk to him about Ashlyn. Sure enough when I got outside the classroom door I saw him standing there so I made my way to him.
"Hey man what's up?" Chase said.
"Nothing much man. You think I could ask you about something?" I questioned nervously.
"Sure, what's on your mind?"
"I was thinking about asking Ashlyn out."
"Oh" He said sadly.
"Look I know you like her so I wanted to ask you first. Are you ever planning on doing anything about it? If you are I will back off and let you have her but if not I'm going to go for it."
"You can't man, I know that Ashlyn has her standards and I know I don't meet them but I'm hoping I will someday. I want to change for her but I know it's going to take some time. I need to show her that I've changed." He said thoughtful then turn into anger. "So I need you to stay away from her from now on."
I held my hands up in surrender "Look man that's why I was asking no need to get mad."
"I want you to back off and stay away from us for a while; I don't want you around us right now." Chase said angrily.
"Fine whatever, if I knew you would get so defensive about it I wouldn't have asked. I just thought if you really liked her then you would have done something by now." I replied walking away.
END OF FLASHBACK
Ashlyn's POV
"After that day Chase and I grew apart and that's when everything turned into a competition. He felt the need to try to beat me at everything. After a while I realized he was never going to do anything. So that's why I decided to make my move." He stated.
It all started to make since now. That's why Chase always hated him. He liked me and when he found out that Josh did it put a strain on their relationship. That's also why Chase didn't want me to be with him. I knew it couldn't be over a stupid spot on the football team.
Now the question is what am I going to do with this information? I do feel bad for now knowing Chase felt something for me and he thought he wasn't good enough for me. But how could I forgive him after what he just did? Then I just realized something.
"Am I what came between you?" I questioned feeling guilty.
No one said anything. Instead they just stared at each other. I kinda feel bad now. I didn't mean to break up a friendship.
"Hello? Is anyone going to answer me?"
"No, Chase's jealousy and ego did." Josh stated without even looking away for Chase.
I quickly turned to Chase ready to question him on all this new information.
"Why didn't you tell me that you liked me?" I questioned.
"I don't really feel like talking about this." He shot.
"Well I do so answer the question." I shot back.
"I did but you didn't understand."
"When?"
"That day at lunch when we were talking about relationships and people changing. Remember?" He asked.
I sat there trying to remember when he was talking about. I racked my brain trying to figure it out then suddenly it hit me.
(FLASHBACK)
Ashlyn's POV
"Ashlyn what would you do if you found out that someone liked you but they didn't have the best reputation?" Chased asked me.
"What kind of reputation?"
"Playboy reputation but wanted to change."
"I don't know. I'm not a big believer that people can turn away from that lifestyle so easy so I would probably reject them. I feel like I would only get hurt in the end. Why?" I questioned
"But what if they really wanted to change?"
"Wanting to change and actually changing is two different things. I would have to see it to believe it. See that's another reason I like Josh. He is nothing like that; he would never be someone like that." I said smiling to myself.
I as soon as I said it I noticed a look of hurt cross his face. Then I remembered I just put him down.
"I'm sorry Chase; I didn't mean any offence to you. I that life style might be fulfilling for some people but not to others. Hey some girls like guys like that." I apologized. "Wait, were you talking about yourself? Do you like someone? Who is it?" I questioned.
A month ago it would have crushed me to find out Chase liked a girl and was willing to change for her because I liked him but now I'm over it. He made me realize I could never be in a relationship with someone like that. After constantly having my heart broke over and over again by the same guy you realize that it's time to move on. So I did, I met josh. I had the biggest crush on him. I wonder if he likes me back.
"It's no one. You know I can't be tamed." He laughed, but I could tell it wasn't a real laugh. Something is wrong with him, he seems sad. Oh well I guess he will tell me when he's ready.
FLSHBACK OVER
Ashlyn's POV
He lied he was talking about himself. He was asking all those things to see what I would say. I suddenly felt awful. Why didn't I see it before? I guess I was to love struck with someone else that I didn't even see my best friend was hurting. I was starting to feel like an awful friend.
Wait what am I thinking? Chase and I aren't friends anymore. He messed that up. But maybe he was right. Maybe I did drive him to this. Have I been to self centered to even give him a chance before judging him? Here I didn't want any kind of relationship with him because of his ways and he was willing to change for me all this time. Ugh I'm so confused right now. What does everything have to be so complicated? I should hate him right now but for some reason the only thing I feel is guilt and sadness and regret.
"You were talking about yourself weren't you?" I asked sadly.
He didn't say anything instead he looked away. Just then he told me everything I needed to know. At that point I couldn't stop myself from walking over to him. I walked over to him and pulled him into a hug.
"Chase I'm so sorry. I didn't know." I apologized.
He didn't hug me back instead he backed away. I don't know why but it hurt me a little.
"See this is why I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't want your pity." He stated.
"It's not pity Chase, its shame and guilt. I'm an awful person. I should have told you how I felt." I confessed.
He looked at me confused a minute like he was trying to figure out my last statement.
"What do you have to feel guilty for?" He questioned.
I wanted to sit down and explain everything to him but not right here in front of Josh. I don't know if my feelings were getting mixed up with Chase's again but right now I feel sadness and I feel I owe him an explanation.
"Josh do you care to give us a minute?"
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"Yeah I will be fine." I reassured him.
"Ok. I will be right outside if you need me." He said then walked out the door and shut it behind him.
I nodded and turned back to Chase. I took him by the hand and led him over the bed and sat down next to him. I never thought I would be about to confess my feeling to Chase but here it goes I guess.
"Chase I have a confession to make."
"What?" He said curiously.
"Well you see..." I started. I was feeling really nervous so I knew I needed to get this out before I backed out. "I used to have feelings for you at one point. I lied before. But when I seen you with all those other girls all the time I knew I could never been one of those girls who had to share you. I never wanted a relationship like that. So I pushed those feelings away and forced myself to move on. I had to. Every time you would go off with one of them a little piece of my heart would break. I would never admit that to myself until now. I convinced myself that you were not good for me so I moved on. That's when I met Josh. I really liked him a lot and I was hoping he would ask me out but he never did. Now I know why. Why didn't you tell me about your feelings before?"
"Would it have mattered?" He asked.
"I don't know, I guess we never will." I said.
"Look Ashlyn can we just start over? Please? I realize I have stepped over bounds and I'm sorry. Can you ever forgive me?" He questioned sadly.
"I don't know." I said. His face dropped a little and he looked a little disappointed. "But I would like to try." I finished.
All of a sudden his face lit up and he looked just like a little kid who found out he was getting the toy he always wanted for Christmas.
"Really, you mean that?" He asked smiling.
"Yeah I do, but from now on we do things my way. Ok?"
He face dropped again."You can't go back home Ashlyn."
"I know that. I’m talking about us. This relationship is going to be on my own terms. We will try this but only at a pace that I am comfortable with ok?"
His face lit up again and he grinned the cutest grin. Gosh he looked so cute right now. I couldn't stop myself from smiling at his response. He reached out his arms and hugged me.
"Ok. Thank you so much Ashlyn. I won't mess this up this time. I promise it's you and only you from now on and I promise I won't force you into anything else."
"Thank you." I replied.
For the first time in days I felt like we were finally understanding each other again. We sat there hugging each other for another few minutes before I remembered that Josh was waiting outside the door. Crap what am I going to say to him?
"Chase, Josh is waiting outside the door we better let him back in." I reminded him.
Chase let a growl escape his lips, but stopped when I shot him a look.
"And stop being so jealous. It doesn’t look good on you. Now be nice." I scolded.
"Fine" He mumbled.
I walked over pulled open the door and seen Josh standing there.
"You can come back in now." I told him.
He nodded his head and walked back in. He looked like he still had something on his mind and I had a feeling he was about to tell us. He looked like he was a little nervous and started pacing the floor. What have got him acting this way?
"Josh, what's going on?" I asked him. He stopped and looked between me and Chase a minute before speaking.
"I need to ask a favor of you?" He said nervously.
"Sure but first I have something to tell you." I stated just as nervously.
"What?"
"Chase and I are going to give this relationship a try." I said worried about his reply.
"I think that's a good idea." He stated.
"You do?" I asked shocked.
"Yeah and that's what I'm here to talk to you about actually, I need your help."
"Ok but before you said you had changed to. I'm guessing you are a vampire now right?"
"Yes I was changes by my dad to. Chase's dad and my dad are brothers. It's a family tradition that all the organization be changed by their 18th birthday. I turned 18 yesterday." He explained.
"Oh, then happy belated birthday." I smiled. “What can we do for you?”
“know who my one is now and I need your help getting her.” He answered.
Wow Josh know who his one is? I thought I might feel hurt but I don't I'm actually happy for him. I just hope it goes better for him than it did me. I don't know what changed. I don't know if this bond was making me feel this way or if maybe Josh was never really meant for me. All I know is I just want him to be happy.
"Wow, who is it?" I asked.
"It's Crystal." He said nervously.
"What?" I yelled in surprise. That's something I was defiantly not expecting.
"That's why I need your help."
“When did you fall for Crystal?” I gasped.
“Two years ago.” He admitted shyly. “She was the first girl I ever loved but she never noticed me so I didn’t peruse anything.”
“I first noticed her drama when we had to act out a scene from Romeo and Juliette.” He smiled.
I think that is about the most romantic thing I’ve hear in a long time. My girly side was gushing about how sweet that was.
“So will you help?” He asked hopeful.