Taking Chances

“Nope.” I hit ignore for the third time.

He let go of the seat belt and scooted toward me. Cupping my face, he wiped away the remaining tears with the pads of his thumbs. “Tell me what happened.”

I opened my mouth to speak but my phone rang again, “What Brandon?!”

“What the hell Harper, what's wrong?”

“Seriously? You're really going to play that game with me?” I puffed and dropped my head into my other hand.

“Sweetheart, what are you talking about? Where did you go? And where's all your stuff?”

“I left.”

“I got that, but where are you going?”

Tears started streaming down my face again, “Please stop calling me Brandon.”

“Wha– Harper, why?”

“Why don't you ask Amanda?” I sneered, “I'm sure she'd be more than happy to show you why I left.”

He cursed away from the phone, “Harper, I swear –'

I hung up and turned my phone off.

After a few silent minutes, Chase grabbed my hand in his and spoke softly, “Who's Amanda?”

“Apparently she's some girl he's sleeping with. Bree and I saw her on Monday with him and a group of guys.” I wanted to smack myself. I thought he was incredible for trying to keep my i

He glanced at my face, eyebrows furrowed, “Why do you think he's cheating on you?”

I told Chase about the texts and pictures I found on his phone, which brought on another round of tears. “I feel so stupid.”

“You shouldn't.” He paused for a second and gripped the steering wheel tighter, “I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I think you're wrong Harper.”

“Excuse me? I know what I saw Chase!”

“I'm not saying that, but he wouldn't do that to you. That's not the kind of guy he is, but even if he were, he would have told one of us. We tend to brag about girls we're with.” He reasoned, “And as much as I hate him for it, all he does is talk about you.”

I shook my head and leaned against the door, “Do you realize how all over the place you are? A week ago you were telling me not to go on a date with him, and now you're defending him?”

“I'm not doing it for his benefit, trust me. I don't want you with him, that hasn't changed; I just hate seeing you hurt like this.”

We sat there for another minute before I reluctantly took my hand from his and opened the door, “Thanks for the ride Chase.”

“Are you going to be okay? Do you want me to stay with you?”

“I'll be fine, I'm tougher than you think.” I flashed an unconvincing smile, “Go to work, I'll see you around.”

He frowned, but didn't say anything else. After I got upstairs, I took a shower and put on clean pajamas before falling into bed. My eyes burned from crying so much and I desperately wished I had some eye drops. A knock sounded on my door but I didn't move. I had a feeling it would be Brandon and though I was surprised it took him so long to come here, I wasn't ready to face him. My heart hurt too much. After another soft knock, a key turned the lock and the door slowly pushed open.

“Sweetheart?”

I didn't answer, I just stared at his darkened figure through blurred eyes. He flipped on a lamp and I watched his shoulders slump when he finally saw me.

“Harper.” His deep voice was thick with emotion.

“Did Bree give you her key?”

His brow furrowed as he slowly nodded.

“Traitor.” Wasn't she supposed to be on my side?

“You have got to let me explain, I swear it's not how it looked.”

“I doubt that and it was all pretty self-explanatory, so don't bother.”

Brandon took a step toward me, but dropped his outstretched arm when I flinched away, “There is nothing happening with Amanda. She's just trying to get us to break up.”

“Well, it looks like she's getting what she wanted.”

A horrified expression passed over his face, “No. Don't – don't say that. Please Harper.”

“Just go Brandon, I'm not going to do this with you.” I turned to face the wall so he couldn't see how much this was killing me. First boyfriend, first kiss, I fell too hard too fast, and now I'm getting hurt. Him being here was just dragging it out. “Go home Brandon. We’re done. Goodbye.”

“God, please don’t say that.” He said softly to himself. Leaning over onto the bed, he ran his fingers down my arm, and continued to my back when I flinched away, “I can't leave until you hear me out. She's mad that I kept turning her down, she's seen me with you this week and she told me this morning that she would make sure I ended up with her. Right after lunch I started getting these pictures, she's just been sending the same messages over and over all day.”

“And you didn't see any reason to tell me this?” I asked the wall since I still wouldn't look at him.

“I thought she was going to stop, I saw her after my last class and told her to drop it because I wasn't going to leave you.”

“Is that why you were in a bad mood?”

“Yes. She knew you were staying with me this weekend, I was afraid she was going to do something else.”

“Meaning?”

He blew out a deep breath and moved his hand back up to my arm, “She said she'd stop the texts, and told us to have a good weekend together. The way she said it and stressed the word ‘together’, I just knew something was going to happen.”

I sighed and rolled back to face him, his face fell when he saw my heartbroken expression.

“Harper I'm so sorry, I should have just told you earlier.” He cupped my face, and though I flinched once again, he kept his hands there.

“Are you cheating on me with anyone? Not just Amanda.”

“No. I only want you.”

I searched his face carefully for any sign that he was lying, but didn't find any. He had been painfully honest with me from the begi

Brandon - 'This is Brandon's girlfriend, I don't know what you're trying to accomplish, but I'd really appreciate it if you stopped sending him pictures of yourself. He doesn't want you, and desperation isn't cute. So back off bitch.'

Brandon read it quickly and managed a laugh before dropping his phone to the ground and sweeping me up in a big hug. “I'm sorry I hurt you.”

“You didn't, I should have just asked you before ru

“I really wish you would have, but I don't blame you sweetheart.” He kissed both cheeks and my lips, then leaned away to look in my eyes again, “Can you tell me one thing though? Why'd you run off to Chase?”

“I didn't, how did you know I'd been with him?”

“He called to tell me where you were.”

Chase defending Brandon was weird enough, but I for sure hadn't expected him to do that. “I didn't run off to him, I left and he saw me walking back here. He gave me a ride.”

He still look worried, and I thought about the already countless times he'd asked if there was something going on between Chase and I.

Taking a deep breath in, I put a hand against his cheek and smiled softly at him. “If I can believe you about a girl that keeps sending naked pictures of herself to your phone, then you should believe me when it comes to a guy that does nothing but piss me off.”

He kissed my palm and placed his hand over mine, “You're right, I just wish I would have been there for you, not him. I'm sorry it took me so long to get here.”