Chapter Forty Three: We're Dating
The beginning of the ride home is silent. Steph busies herself by looking out the window, thinking about what transpired between her and Chris.
How on Earth does Chris like her? She keeps asking herself.
Brooke, the designated driver does her job but occasionally glances at Steph. She knows that Steph thinks she likes Luke and it must be a dream come true for him to ask her out on a date. But Brooke believes Steph likes Chris but hasn't realised it yet. She believes they're meant to be together.
The car comes a halt when they reach a stop light.
Since Brooke can't stand the silence anymore, she decides to break it.
"So....." She trails off, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel.
Steph turns away from the window to look at her, waiting for her to complete to her sentence.
"So.... What's going to happen now?"
"Uhm... What do you mean?" Steph says.
"What are you gonna do next? What's going to happen next? What will you say to Chris when you guys see each other again which is gonna be tomorrow?"
"Honestly," Steph looks ahead. "I don't know. All I'm very sure of is that it's going to be weird and really awkward. Wait."
"What?"
"What if he was lying? What if this is some kind of joke to him? You know how guys are. It might be a bet of some sort because I'm still finding it hard to believe," Steph says bemusedly.
Brooke continues to drive when the light changes to green.
"What's there not to believe, Steph? What? For crying out loud, the guy just poured his heart out to you and you're finding it hard to believe? I'm finding it hard to believe you right now." Brooke says with skepticism.
Steph sighs. How does she expect Brooke to understand?
"Okay. Okay. I've noticed that you seem insecure and I don't even understand why. Have you looked at yourself in a mirror? Girl, if I were single and swing that way, I would totally date you."
Steph smiles. "I didn't think Luke could ever ask me on a date to be honest."
"But he did. Girl, you're gorgeous. No wonder you have two out of the three hottest guys in our grade wrapped around your little fingers."
Steph's eyebrows furrow. "Three? Who's the third guy?"
"Cole, duh!"
Steph chuckles.
"These guys see something in you that's why they're falling for you."
"Please B, you're exaggerating." Steph rolls her eyes.
Brooke gives Steph an incredulous glance as she drives. "Look Steph, you have to be confident in yourself. You're beautiful, gorgeous, intelligent, you have a great personality. In fact, you're hot. I don't know what's not to like about you."
"Thank you."
"But if this is some sort of joke to Chris, I'll cut off his balls, pluck out his eyes and feed them to him," Brooke says menacingly and Steph grimaces.
"That's..... That's disturbing and as awful as that sounds, I don't doubt you."
"You shouldn't. Nobody messes with my best friend. If Luke messes up also, I won't hesitate to distort his gorgeous face."
"Please, let's leave Luke out of this. And if this is some kind of joke to Chris, it doesn't matter 'cause I don't like him in that way," Steph shrugs.
"The worst thing that can happen is that we stop being friends."
"Are you sure you don't like him?"
"Yes, I'm sure. Let's stop talking about him now, shall we?"
Brooke doesn't say anything again as they turn into Steph's street. When she pulls into Steph's driveway, Steph thanks her for the ride.
Brooke rolls her eyes and remembers something.
"Hey. Do you have a dress for your date?"
"Nope. Can't I just wear jeans and a hoodie?" She grins at Brooke.
"No way! We're going shopping after school tomorrow, okay?" Brooke says with a glint in her eyes at the idea of going shopping.
"Whatever," Steph grumbles as she opens the door and hops out with her backpack.
Brooke watches Steph enter the house before backing out of the driveway with a serious look on her face.
Instead of heading home, she heads in the opposite direction.
Few minutes later, Brooke pulls over by the curb near her destination. She gets out of her car and head for the porch with a determined look on her face. She rings the doorbell and a little girl opens it after a while.
On seeing her, Brooke's lips break into a smile.
"Aww. You must be Emily. You're so cute," Brooke coos, bending a little to flick Emily's nose.
"Em? Who's at the door?" Brooke gears Chris' voice before he appears behind Emily.
He stares at her in surprise.
"Brooke? What are you doing here?" Chris asks. He looks behind her as if expecting someone to be there.
"I came alone," Brooke announces after noticing the way he looked behind her. "We need to talk. Can I come in?"
Chris hesitates. "Uhm.... Sure."
Emily gets back into the house and Chris ushers Brooke in then shuts the door after getting in also.
Brooke sits on the same couch with Emily.
"Emily, I'm Brooke. I'm Stephanie's best friend."
"Stephanie? My babysitter?"
Brooke nods.
"Oh, nice to meet you. Why didn't Stephanie come with you?" Emily pouts.
"I didn't tell her I was coming here and besides, she has homework to do," Brooke answers.
Emily frowns. "Oh."
"Don't worry. You'll get to see her soon, okay?"
"Okay," Emily smiles.
The look on Brooke's face changes as she directs her gaze to Chris' figure.
"We need to talk."
"Uhm... okay." He turns to Emily. "The Pizza is on the island, Em. Go eat. I'll join you soon."
Emily nods and heads for the kitchen.
Once she's out of sight, Chris asks. "What could you possibly want to talk about that made you to drive all the way here?"
"Please, have a seat." Brooke orders in a business like tone.
Chris raises a questioning eyebrow but sits opposite her.
"What's this about?"
"Steph told me what happened!" Brooke deadpans.
"Okay," Chris drawls. "What happened?"
"Don't play dumb with me. I'm not an idiot."
"I'm sure your parents are very proud."
Brooke glowers at him menacingly.
"Did Hazel send you here?" Chris questions.
"No, she didn't. Were you deaf when I told Emily that she doesn't even know that I'm here?" Brooke lets out a breath. "Now, about what you told her in school."
"What about it?" Chris pinches the bridge of his nose.
"Is it true?" She inquires, inspecting his face carefully for any emotion that'll be contrary to his answer.
"Yes, I like her. Why is that so hard to believe?" He exclaims in exasperation.
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's the fact that you play with girls' feelings. You're a player, Chris." Brooke tells him with a deadpan expression.
Chris groans and runs his hand over his face. "I'm honestly sick of hearing that word. And I'm not joking around this time --"
Brooke cuts in. "You better not be. For your sake. Because I'll do worst than chopping off your balls and feeding it to you. Believe me."
Chris nods his head as he looks around the living room. "I don't doubt you and honestly," he makes eye contact with her. "I haven't kissed or hooked up with a girl for over a month now."
"What about a guy?"
"I'm 100% straight."
"Hmmm."
Silence ensures as Brooke espies Chris through scrutinizing eyes, not believing what he just said about having not kissed a girl for over a month.
Chris sighs after a minute. "Did she say anything?"
A few seconds pass and Brooke hasn't answered so Chris begins to think she isn't going to respond to his question.
"She's still trying to process everything, I guess. Just give her time."
Chris nods.
"And just for the record, I think you guys look good together."
Chris smiles but it turns to a frown almost immediately.
"Doesn't matter. She likes Luke, doesn't she?"
Brooke purses her lips and doesn't answer. It's better that way.
"When did you start to like Steph?"
Chris shrugs. "I don't know. Do you remember the party Jason threw a while ago? The one before Halloween?"
"Yeah?"
"We played spin the bottle. You were there too, yeah. When Hazel and I kissed, I felt something. I didn't know who she was but I knew I had to find her by all means."
"Wow. So it's that kiss that resulted to all of this?"
"Yeah, pretty much." Chris smiles faintly.
"I had to force her to come to that party, you know."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah, I kinda blackmailed, actually manipulated her."
"With what?"
"You don't wanna know. Anyways, I have to go," Brooke announces, rising to her feet.
"Thanks for stopping by to threaten me," Chris says as he walks her to the door.
"My pleasure," Brooke grins. "And I wasn't kidding."
"I know." Chris opens the door for her.
"I'll see you tomorrow." Brooke tells him before hollering, "Bye Emily!"
***
"Hey Chris. We're having guests over for dinner tonight." Chris' mum tells him, breaking his train of thoughts.
Chris turns to look at his mum at the doorway from his position on his bed.
"We are?"
"Yes," Kate smiles.
"Anyone I know?"
"You'll see," his mum says as she walks out of his room, closing the door behind her and leaving Chris to wonder who's coming over for dinner.
After helping his mum prepare dinner, they set the table and get ready for their guests. When the doorbell rings, Kate books it to the front door and unlocks it to welcome her guests warmly.
Chris is surprised to see Jason and his dad walk in and he notices the look of confusion on Jason's face also.
"What's going on?" Chris and Jason ask in unison with bewildered looks.
"Well," Chris' mum decide to answer. "Todd and I are friends so I invited him for dinner." She explains.
"Do you know he's my dad?" Jason asks.
"Yeah, after a few weeks of getting to know each other, we put two and two together and realised our sons know each other and are best friends." Jason's dad says.
Chris and Jason give each other weird looks as they both try to figure out what's going on here.
"Now, where's little Emily that I've heard to much about?" Jason's dad asks.
Emily appears timidly from behind Chris on hearing her name.
"Oh, there you are. Come here," Jason's dad grins at her.
She takes tentative steps to him and he picks her up and begins to talk to her. Soon enough, Emily's smiling at him. When he drops her to her feet, she walks over and hugs Jason.
He chuckles. "Hey munchkin. Nice to see you again."
Emily grins up at him. "You too."
"Since we're done with all the pleasantries," Chris' mum begins to walk closer to Jason's dad. "We have an announcement to make."
Chris and Jason share a look.
"Is it I'm thinking it is?" Jason questions.
"Yeah," Chris' mum interlocks her hands with Jason's dad who has a grin on his face. "We're dating."
"HOLY SHIT!!!"
***
"Dude, we're gonna be brothers!" Jason exclaims as soon as they're in Chris' room.
Chris smiles. "Yeah, if it works out."
"It will. It must work out." Jason enthuses.
After their parents detonated the big bomb of good news, they proceeded to have dinner after congratulating them. After dinner, Chris and Jason decided to come up to Chris' room to chat. And now they're here.
Chris wants to be as excited as Jason is but he just isn't.
He's really happy that his mum has moved on from his asshole of a father, he's glad that she doesn't love him anymore. Actually, some part of her probably still loves him but he's elated that she has decided to move on. And Chris knows that Jason's dad is a good man for her.
He isn't as excited as he should be because he's still thinking about Hazel and it's bothering him. He feels like his heart is about to be broken yet again.
Jason notices the faraway look on Chris' face. "Dude, what's up? You don't look as happy about this as you should be."
"I'm really happy, trust me but something else is on my mind." Chris sighs.
"You know you can tell me anything," Jason says, his tone suddenly serious.
Chris stares at him for a while before letting the cat out of the bag.
"I told her today."
Jason's eyes grow wide. "You did?"
Chris nods.
"Well, it's about time!" Jason exclaims. "What did she say?"
"Nothing," Chris deadpans.
"Huh?"
"She said nothing. She just stood there like a fish out of water, man. I walked away."
"You shouldn't have."
A/N: Sorry I couldn't update last week, I've been busy.
You know, I've been wondering why the hell my ship hasn't sailed yet and we're in chapter 43? ('◉⌓◉')
Anyways, don't forget to vote and comment. Please guys, voting is very important. If you guys can go back to the previous chapters and vote, I'd really appreciate it.
Till next time.
I love you guys.