A Second Chance

“Mallory…” I heard Chase say quietly when my tears had slowly come to a stop. I was still in his arms, and I didn’t want to leave. For the longest time I just wanted to be wrapped in someone’s arms, and just know that the person holding me actually cared about me. “Mal.” He said again. I didn’t let myself out of his arms, but I looked up at him. He was giving me a small warm smile. “I give a shit.” He said softly. To my own surprise, his words made me smile. Slowly he let go of me, which made me want to cry all over again. But I sucked it up and accepted the fact that I was being pulled out of his embrace. There we again silently stood side by side; I looked out at the sea. It must have been around four in the morning now, because I could see the light silhouette of the light of the sun starting to creep up from the horizon.

“It’s nice to know that someone cares.” I said silently, more to myself than Chase. He looked over at me for a moment then looked out at sea. He took a moment of silence, like he was thinking in his head. He was standing with his arms crossed and looking at the oncoming sun.

“You didn’t tell Luke did you.” He didn’t say it like a question, and it wasn’t. He was a plain fact that was obvious from my outburst. I looked over at him and sniffled slightly.
“He wouldn’t understand.” Chase looked over at me skeptically.

“How do you know that?” I wiped my eyes for the last time and looked in his eyes.

“You’ve been dragged through the mud in your life. And I…well I was buried in the mud. We both got out, but we still know what it was like to be in a place like that, being dragged through the dirt. Luke…he’s never been through the mud. So he just wouldn’t understand; if anything he would flip out.” Chase looked around the surrounding area for a minute, his face slowly glowing brighter and brighter as the sun grew.

“He’s mad at you now, right?” I nodded my head. “He’s only going to be madder when he finds out that you told me, and not him.” Crap. Chase was entirely too far beyond right. Luke had been my best friend ever since I got here and I had gotten close to him, and shared things with him about myself. But the biggest thing I kept a secret, I told an almost complete stranger.

“He’s going to be devastated.” I said to myself. “He’s never going to want to talk to me again.” Thinking of that, a tear silently rolled out of my left eye. Noticing my tear, Chase put a hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes, though I was looking away toward the sand.

“Mallory?” He asked. He removed his hand when I picked up my own hand and brought it to my face to wipe the tear away. I shook my head to myself.

“He’s just going to be…so mad at me.”

“Hey, if you explain it to him like you just did to me, with all that mud and stuff, he might not be as angry.” He said trying to comfort me.

“No, he’s going to be hurt and angry and upset.” I looked up at Chase.

“Well you’re only going to make yourself more upset by thinking about it. Come on, it’s getting late. You need to get home and go to sleep.” I looked out at the ocean for the billionth time that night. I stared at it, wishing in the back of my mind that I could just swim the ocean and go to my own little island, where there were people who would care about me. They would love me, and not be like any other people I had ever met. I sighed to myself.

“You can look at it all you want; it’s not going to change a thing.” Chase said, as if he had read my mind.

“You’re right,” I said in a breath so low that I myself almost couldn’t hear it; I looked at the boy. “Take me home.” I said softly, like I had lost my will to speak. Chase nodded slightly then began walking toward the grass that we had emerged from; I followed shortly behind.
When we got back to town, the sun was now hanging low in the sky, casting a yellowish glow over everything. Chase didn’t walk me all the way to my house; once it got in view he stopped walking and looked at my house.

“Well there it is.” He said, with his hands in his pockets. Ever since we had started walking, my mood had slowly grown better and better with each step I took. It was something about Chase that just seemed to make me that much less upset. I smiled at him slightly.
“I think you’re under thinking the term ‘take me home.’” He shook his head and stuck out his lower lip.

“Nah, I mean I did take you home. You’re home’s right there.” I looked over at my house, and my lips cracked into a full smile, and I even chuckled a bit as I spoke.

“That’s a good five minutes away.”

“Even if, that’s your home. So I took you home.” I stared at him with my eyebrows raised. He sighed and hung his head low, then looked back up. “You’re going to force me to be a gentleman, aren’t you?”

“Someone has to.” I said sarcastically, looking away like I didn’t say anything; he smiled.

“Hey!” I laughed and looked back over at him. “Ugh, fine I’ll walk you to your damn house. Come on.” He said as he started to walk, I ran to catch up to his side.

When we actually got close to my house, he stopped and looked at me. “Is this close enough?” He said with a smile. I sighed dramatically.

“I suppose it will do.” He laughed.

“Good. Now go in there and get some sleep. I didn’t exactly mean to keep you out all night, and we both know that tonight will not be a good night at work if you’re tired and falling asleep on the job.” I thought of how angry Sam would get at me, and grimaced.

“Well in that case, I suppose I should go.” I said with a small grin. Chase nodded.

“I suppose you should.” I smiled then turned around to unlock my door. “But wait.” I turned back around and looked at him. In that second he bent in and kissed me lightly on the cheek. When he pulled away he smiled and looked at me. “What kind of gentleman would I be if I didn’t say goodbye the proper way?” It made me smile, not because it was unexpected, which it really was, but just because it was so sweet. I blushed slightly and looked down at my feet. I smiled brightly then looked back up at him.

“Goodbye Chase.” He smiled and began to walk away. I once again turned into my steps and began to unlock my door when I heard someone.

“Mallory?” I looked up.

“Oh crap.” I silently said out loud to myself under my breath. I stood up straight and looked over at Luke. “Uh, hi.” Luke pointed over his shoulder into the direction that Chase had just walked way in.

“Chase?” For a reason unknown to me, I started to feel guilty.

“Uh, yeah. We kinda became friends.” I was talking a little low, like I didn’t especially want him to hear me.

“Yeah, I saw that when he kissed you.” Luke said with a slight attitude. I felt mildly offended, and as I normally do when I’m offended, I got an attitude right back at him.

“It was only on the cheek.” He crossed his arms at me.

“So where exactly where you guys that you got back so late? Or should I say so early?” He cocked an eyebrow. I walked toward him a little, and stared at him with my eyebrows furrowed.

“What does it matter to you?” He seemed thrown off at my question.

“It doesn’t. I’m just asking.” I could hear no emotion in his voice, whatsoever.

“We get off work at three in the morning. No matter what time we get back it’s going to be late.” I said trying to reason with him.

“Then where were you for two hours?” I guessed that lying to him would only make matters worse, so I told him the truth.

“We were at the beach.” He looked at me with another cocked eyebrow, like he thought I was hiding something. “Nothing happened.” I said after a moment of silence. Luke looked up at the sky like he was puzzled.

“Hmm, a guy brings you to a beach at three in the morning, a romantic spot might I add, and you expect me to believe that nothing happened?” He asked accusingly.

“What is your problem?” I nearly yelled.

“My problem is that you’re going to the beach at night with strange guys.”

“Chase isn’t a strange guy, he’s my friend.” Luke laughed sarcastically. I had never really seen this side of him before; his angry side. I didn’t like it, but I suppose that I should deal with it, I knew I’d only be seeing more of it in the future.

“Yeah, a friend that wants to get in your pants.” He put his hand on his forehead for only a second then removed it and looked back up at me. “Look I told you not to trust that guy. He’s nothing but a mean kid who just wants to hook up with girls. I actually care about you Mallory, unlike that jackass who’s only going to hurt you.” For some reason, when Luke said that he cared about me, instead of it making me feel better, it was like a sharp knife in the stomach.

“Why the fuck do you care so much? I’m not your girlfriend; I’m not obligated to you!” I snapped at him.

“I never said you were.”

“Sounds like you’re getting jealous of him.” Luke laughed.

“Hah! Why would I be jealous of him?”

“Because I’m spending time with him now, and not with you.” He pointed his finger at me.
“Who says that I want to be with you all the time? No, I don’t want to be with you. If you're going to go hang out with assholes.”

“Luke, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t even know him.”

“You’ve only known him three days, you don’t know him either!”

“I know him better than you, and he’s not like that at all! In fact, we got to know each other pretty damn well just a few hours ago on that beach!” Luke grimaced, and I knew what he was thinking when I said that. He thought that I meant that Chase and I slept together; I had told myself that I wasn’t going to lie to Luke, and I wasn’t. I just wasn’t going to say anything that would make him think otherwise.

“Mallory, you didn’t…” Luke said suddenly calm. Angry at him now, I just kept running with the thought, though I knew that I was going to regret it royally later.

“Yes, we did Luke. Chase and I spent a good hour on that beach getting to know each other. I found out a lot about him and he found out a whole hell of a lot about me.” Luke’s face was dropping, and I knew at this point that I was purposely hurting him. But now, I couldn’t seem to stop myself, I just kept going. “And if you can’t deal with that, then oh well. Chase and I are going to be spending time together now, and if you don’t like it, then maybe our friendship is over.” I opened my door, walked inside and slammed it behind me. I stood up against the back of the door for a few minutes; I heard Luke walk away. I slowly slide to the bottom of the door and sat there. I began to cry. What in God’s name had I just done?