Chapter 10: Fool Me Once

I finally made it to the bus stop. I had walked for maybe ten minutes before I made it, and I was grateful to sit down. Honestly, the further away from Chase, the better. The next bus didn't arrive until seven, so I had another fifteen minutes or so to wait. I had been waiting for thirty minutes at this point. It was starting to get dark. My phone went off. It was my mom. "Are you having fun?" she asked. I wouldn't dare tell her the truth. She would come to pick me up, and that would kill me. She already thought that I was at the movies with Hannah. "Yeah, might come home soon though. The movie is almost over." I texted back and shoved my phone back in my pocket. My phone buzzed again, but I could not get away with not responding since I was allegedly in the movie theatre. The sound of a motorcycle caught up to me. As I turned, I saw Chase's bike zoom past me. It turned around. He flipped his face shield up. "Aria, come on, please!" he shouted over the loudness of the bike. I ignored him and looked down. He headed forward on his bike. I thought he was gone until he passed by again yelling my name. He did that a few times before I spoke up. "Chase, shut up! This is a neighborhood!" I shouted without becoming shrill. "I can take you home. I'm fine. See!" He zoomed forward, turned around, and lifted up on his back tire. "That is not convincing, and you should not be on the bike right now," I said, looking both ways. I hoped the bus arrived early so I didn't have to continue this conversation. "Just go home. I can make it home by myself. Go!" I tried to shoe him away like a fly. He didn't budge. He decided to slowly ride in front of me with a sad face, turned back around, and had a happy face. He did this for a few minutes. "I'm sorry about tonight. It was a mistake bringing you there," he pointed out, but I ignored him. He spent the next few minutes going back and forth to try to get my attention. Occasionally, he let a car go by. At one point, one of the neighbors came out to see what was going on. "Just go!" I yelled. He tried to do tricks on his bike, half-successful and the other half not so much. I couldn't tell if he was still on drugs or just completely insane. "I don't want to leave you out here by yourself," he said. "Who am I going to run into? A drug dealer? Besides, whose fault do you think this is?" I spat out. He rolled his eyes and sighed but kept riding. "Come on, that was stupid. Okay? I get it. I beg of you, please get on the bike Aria," he begged. "I'm feeling back to normal already." "No, I'm good. The bus will be here soon. Plus, I don't know what drugs you took, but I doubt they completely wore off that fast." I waved him off. He continued to ride back and forth. Another person came out of their house to inspect the noise. The old woman in hair curlers watched us disapprovingly and reached for a cell phone. "I guarantee you that someone is going to call the cops on your ass, Chase," I said as he passed by me, waving his helmet in the air like he was a cowboy. The bus finally pulled up, and I ran onto it. I found my seat immediately. As I looked out the window, Chase made eye contact. He waved, and the bus pulled away. The rest of the night I spent dreading the next day. I didn't want to deal with his drama anymore. Surprisingly, I didn't see him in our morning classes. I walked out of last-period gym class and into the locker room. I was already feeling sore muscles after playing volleyball for an hour. I was lucky. I had an extra class slot for the last period of the day and figured this would be a good outlet for my frustration of moving to a new town. I was right in that thought. Hannah was not in our other classes this morning. She finally sent me a text at the end of the second period saying she was sick and had been sleeping all morning. It was a shame. I wanted to tell her about last night. I was dying to share it with a human instead of just my journal. I turned off the shower, and I heard giggling. Girls in locker rooms were strange. I pushed my wet hair back and grabbed and twisted it to drain the excess water. I reached for my towel and wrapped it around me. It barely made it over. It was a sign I need to slow it down on the cookies. "Later, Aria," a voice rang out and echoed in the locker room. I didn't know who it was, so I didn't say anything in response. I opened my gym locker and didn't see my clothes. I lifted my gym bag, and it was empty. "What?" I checked the lockers around mine, thinking maybe someone moved them as a joke, or maybe it was me. There was nothing, absolutely nothing. "Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t!" I slammed my locker closed after taking my bag out. I headed over to the lost and found bin to see if Courtney and company tossed my clothes in the bin. None of my stuff was there, and all the other items in the bin were sweaty, gross, or crusty. I was shocked they left me a towel. I peered out of the locker room door. The final bell rang a few minutes ago, and the halls were extra quiet, eerie actually. I needed to find a way out. Even if I did, how I could be sure Courtney wasn't around the corner ready to take a photo? I texted Hannah with no response, hoping to convince her to drag herself out of bed and save me. No luck though, and I didn't want to call my mom. She would end up in the principal's office, and then everyone would find out about this sooner or later. The locker room door swung open, and I grabbed my towel extra tight. 'You've got to be kidding me.' "Need help?" Chase was standing there with a big smile on his face. "Tell me you didn't have anything to do with this. You are getting me exceptionally close to wanting to see you burn Chase Walters!" I was fuming. He was always around when bad stuff happened to me lately. "I am just going to offer you help. I have nothing to do with this. I swear." He crossed his heart as if I would believe him completely. "No, I don't. Please leave. I've got this under control." I said and turned around to sit on the bench. "Oh, do you?" he asked, and I nodded. "Okay, see, I thought you were stuck in here without clothes and needed some extras. But since you've got this under control, I guess I can leave." He turned to leave and opened the door ever so slightly. "Wait!" I shouted. He turned around with a smile on his face, raising his eyebrows. I could tell he was enjoying this way too much. "Okay, I need help, but I don't want to hear about this ever again," I said. He winked at me, which sent shivers down my spine. "Trust me, I will never forget this." He eyed me up and down. I felt my cheeks getting hotter, and I tried not to smile. I had never been this exposed in front of a guy, and, unfortunately, he knew it. "Anyway, I would love to help you, but I am going to need something in return," he said, looking me directly in the eye when I know he wanted to look elsewhere. "Forget it. This isn't a creepy quid pro quo here. I need help. Your so-called friends left me here naked without clothes!" I screeched. "Nothing like what you're thinking, I promise." He stretched out his hand. "Deal?" I was running out of options. In fact, I didn't even have options. I had the option to call my mom and live in permanent embarrassment or let Chase help me and deal with the consequences that way. Since there was nothing worse than dealing with my mom freaking out, calling my dad, and then crying all night, I agreed. "Okay, fine, but nothing nasty and no tricks. I mean it. I'm going to try to trust you here. Don't break that again." I reached out and shook his hand. He lingered just a little longer than I expected. He lowered his head to get closer to me. Time seemed to slow down. I saw myself in his eyes, and I could hear my heart pounding fast.