I Touched Your Stereo

 

Chapter Eight

 

This has got to be the most awkward car ride ever. Chase isn’t talking to me. In fact, he’s completely ignoring me. He turned the music in his Porsche up really loud so he couldn’t hear me when I tried to talk to him. Serves me right. My dad did always say curiosity killed the cat. Not that I know what that means, but still.

Oh, crap. What if it means curiosity kills you? So what, I’m going to die now? Oh, damnity damn.

“Chase!” I yell over the music. He either ignores me or can’t hear me. I poke him in the arm, which may I say, is rock hard with muscle. I ignore the flutters in my stomach. “Chase!” I yell again.

He glances over at me. “Eyes on the road!” I scream. He drives so freaking fast. I see him roll his eyes and then I finally groan in frustration and turn down the music. Chase looks pissed and starts to say something but I stop him. “Yeah, I touched your stereo. Now, listen to me.” I say, staring at Chase as he drives. Have I mentioned that he’s gorgeous? Cause he is. Really gorgeous. “I’m sorry for…looking at your things, okay? I honestly didn’t mean any harm, I just…I’m really curious about things is all…and I know it was wrong of me to snoop, so I’m sorry. Really,” I add, sounding my sincerest.

I see Chase’s jaw tighten and loosen as if he is having an internal argument.

“It’s fine,” he finally says and his voice is hard. I sigh. He’s going to hold a grudge forever, isn’t he?

“So can you not be mad at me anymore, then?” I ask sweetly. He glances over at me and almost smiles.

“I’m not mad at you, Skye. I’m just…thinking about things.” He finishes, and I can see tension written all over his face.

“About what?” I ask gently. There I go, prying again. I really never learn my lesson.

“My father, mostly.” Chase says, making me feel like crap for starting this discussion. I don’t say anything; mostly because I’m afraid it’ll be wrong. “And love.” He adds.

I look at his face and am surprised to see that it isn’t tense anymore, it’s almost…serene.

“What do you mean?” I ask curiously. I know that if Chase doesn’t want to talk about this he’ll put me in my place. He’s that kind of guy.

“I just wonder if love is worth it.” Says Chase sadly. I look out the window as the trees blur past.

“Why would you wonder that?” I ask Chase. “Of course love is worth it. Think about what the world would be like without love.” I tell him.

Chase turns to me and says in a sad voice. “It’d be a painless world.”

I feel my mouth fall open in shock. “You don’t really believe that, do you? What about all those happy couples out there, in love? Is their love painful?” Something about the face that Chase doesn’t believe in love really bothers me. I don’t know what it is.

“There’s no such thing as a happy couple.” Chase says to me. I throw up my hands.

“You are such a downer! There is too such a thing as a happy couple.” I say defensively. “Take my parents for example, they’re happy.”

I think about my mom and dad and with that it brings images of my mother dying, which churns my stomach. Chase looks at me and notices how I’m looking.

“You okay?” He asks me, slowing the car marginally. I shake my head and then nod it.

“No. Yes, no. Sort of. But kind of not.” I mumble, unsure of what my true answer is.

“You never seem to be able to answer simple questions around me, Skye. Why is that?” Chase asks me, his eyes dancing.

I flush and look away from his inquisitive eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe because you fluster me.” I mumble lowly, hoping he won’t hear. Of course he does.

“How do I fluster you?” Chase asks me and pulls his car into a parking spot in front of a grocery store. He turns his body towards me. I turn away, try to open the door, and find that the locks have been put on. Glaring, I turn back to Chase. “Simple question,” he murmurs, his eyes pulling me in. I narrow my eyes at him, trying to keep myself from falling into the trap that is his eyes.

“Like that.” I say, poking a finger at his hard chest. “You do stuff with your eyes, like your doing now. You make them smolder or something. I don’t know. Listen to me; I’m talking like a crazy person. Can we go now?” I ramble. Chase grins at me, his perfectly straight white teeth showing.

“Am I doing it now?” Chase asks me, his eyes burning, pulling me in some more. I frown.

“Doing what?”

“Flustering you,” he says and I can hear a smile in his voice.

“Yes.” I mutter. Chase grins again and then lifts a hand to my face. I want nothing more than for him to kiss me right now, if I’m being one hundred percent honest.

Chase trails a finger down my cheekbone, sending little dancing flames to my skin. I freeze, staying completely still. His finger trails down to my lips and traces the outline of them, sending dancing flames to them as well. I take a deep breath.

Chase’s eyes are watching me as his finger leaves my lips and his hand cups the side of my face. His face gets close to mine and I can feel his warm breath on my skin, causing the flutters in my stomach to turn into flurries.

And then, because the universe really does hate me (I’m not even joking), his phone rings. At first we ignore it and Chase’s hand stays on my cheek, but when it keeps ringing he sighs and pulls himself—and his hand—away. I let out a breath, not realizing I had been holding it. I turn to look out the window, embarrassed for some reason.

I listen as Chase talks to the person on the phone quietly. I hear somebody ask on the other end of the line who Chase is with, to which he responds,

“Nobody.” There is a giggle on the other line. So it's a girl. I sit, offended, waiting for Chase to finish talking. After what feels like forever he ends the call.

“You ready to go?” He asks me, as if nothing had been going on five minutes earlier. As if he hadn’t just called me nobody. I ignore the sadness I feel, and the flurries that begin whenever I’m near Chase. Of course he was probably just teasing me before. Trying to see how flustered he could make me. He’d probably joke about it later with his brothers. I nod instead of answering Chase, not trusting my voice, and he unlocks the doors. I open it and slam it with as much force I can—hopefully pissing him off quite a bit.

Chase doesn’t say anything as we walk into the grocery store, and I try my best to ignore him as well. As if it was that easy.

Once we get into the store I stand beside Chase, waiting for him to tell me where to go. Because he’s like that: bossy, grumpy, and arrogant. Yeah, that’s Chase. The jerk.

I decide in the first few minutes in the store that my sole mission during this shopping trip will be to successfully piss Chase off—maybe to even embarrass him a bit.

Not that I care if I embarrass myself, of course. No, we’re in a grocery store quite a ways away from the one I usually use, so it’s not like I’ll know anybody. But Chase will, surely.

“Okay, first on the list is orange juice.” Chase informs me. Oh, how kind of him, to let me know where we’re going for once.

“Awesome!” I say really loudly, receiving a few looks from older customers. There isn’t many people in the grocery store this early, but I think I’ll be able to piss Chase off enough with the crowd that there is.

Chase gives me a questioning look and then decides not to say anything. He pushes the cart in front of him, towards the back of the store. I follow, clomping my feet as I do so. As soon as get in an aisle, I grab the first thing I see—Goldfish. I get the biggest size I can find and throw it into the grocery cart. Chase looks at me, confused.

“You want Goldfish?” He asks me. I nod excessively and grab another flavor of them, dumping it into the cart as well.

“And Ritz,” I say loudly, grabbing a jumbo-size box of Ritz crackers and throwing them into the cart. Chase doesn’t say anything but rather looks down at his list and ignores me.

I walk down the rest of the aisle, grabbing Pop-Tarts and Nutri-Grain granola bars as I go. I walk back to Chase, my arms full of boxes and dump them into the cart. Chase still doesn’t say anything.

Oh, come on! He’s got to get pissed off at some point. Maybe public humiliation will do it.

An older couple—mid sixties, probably—wander down our aisle, arm in arm.

“See, Chase,” I say rather loudly, pointing to the couple. “They’re happy. You said happy couples didn’t exist and look at them!” I’m practically shouting, I’m talking so loud. I pop a bubble of gum—loud. “You are happy, right?” I question the couple, who look at each other and then hurry away from the crazy girl in aisle two. Chase shakes his head at me, but still doesn’t say anything, which just adds fuel to my fire. Something’s got to give: he has to get pissed off at some point.

We wander down each aisle, with Chase looking for things he and his brothers might like, and with me dumping practically everything that looks remotely appetizing in the cart. We reach the candy aisle and I brilliant idea dawns on me.

“Chase…” I whine like a little girl. He looks over at me.

“Yeah?” There’s a middle aged woman with her young son down the aisle from us.

“Can I get caaaaandy?” I ask him, batting my eyelashes obnoxiously. Chase frowns.

“Yeah, sure.” He says and then waits for me to pick something.

“Well, what should I get?” I ask him annoyingly. Most guys hate this sort of thing. Why is he still so calm?

“I’m not sure, Skye. What do you want?” He asks me patiently. I kick it up a notch.

“All of it.” I decide, grabbing almost everything I can see with two arms and bunching it together before tossing it all into our full cart. Chase shakes his head. As we walk down the remaining aisle’s I talk nonstop to Chase. He ignores me for the most part, but doesn’t give me any reaction. I wonder if he’s immune to pissed off-ness.

When we get to the liquor aisle, I grin like a maniac. “Chase….” I whine again. He sighs. Yes! This has got to work.

“No, Skye.” He says before I can even ask. I stare longingly at the alcohol in the refrigerated area and sniff dramatically.

“Please?” I ask him, pouting. I pretend to tear up. Chase looks uncomfortable.

“No.” He says, not giving. I fake-hiccup and work up some tears. I think about all the sad things I can and soon enough I have real tears falling down my cheeks. I hiccup again.

“Please….” I whine. “Please, please, please.” I stomp my foot. This has got to piss him off. I force more tears to fall and hiccup some more. Finally, so I don’t cause a scene, Chase lets out a little groan.

“What do you want, Skye?” He snaps, glaring at me. I blink me eyes at him innocently.

“Those,” I say and grin at the fruit coolers sitting in the refrigerator. Chase groans again and throws open the door, grabbing the coolers and putting them in our cart. I’m honestly shocked. He’s not really going to buy those, is he? I mean, he looks older, but I know for a fact that he’s under twenty-one. There’s no way he can get those.

When we finish our grocery shopping a few minutes later, we wander up to the front to pay for our things. Our cart is full and Chase sighs as he places the items on the conveyor belt.  I, however, do not help Chase as I normally would, and instead flirt endlessly with the guy bagging our items. I can feel Chase’s eyes on me so I kick it up a notch. I watch from my peripherals to see how the check-out guy is going to react to the alcohol he has to ring up.

When they reach him, the check-out guy scans the coolers and pushes them down the belt towards the bagging guy. I’m in complete shock. How could Chase not get carded? I know he’s an intimidating looking guy, but really, the law’s the law.

And then I remember that Chase is a Controller, and that he had probably just mind controlled the check-out guy’s thoughts so that he wouldn’t think twice about scanning the alcohol. Wow. Impressive.

After what is probably ten minutes, the guy tells Chase the total. $295.75.

I try not to gasp, but do anyway and then cover it up with a cough. The bagging guy asks me if I’m okay.

“Fine,” I say to him, staring at the amount. I cannot believe it. Chase isn’t really going to pay for all of my needless items, is he?

To my shock, he does, and without even a flinch. I remember that he is loaded beyond loaded, but still feel the ball of guilt forming in my stomach. When our things are bagged and back in our cart, I squeeze the bagging guy’s arm when Chase is looking. He looks really pissed now. Excellent.

That’s what he gets for toying with my emotions and then brushing me off.

When we leave the store, we walk in silence back to Chase’s Porsche, which we then fill with bagged groceries. I get into his car while he puts the cart away. When he gets into the passenger’s seat he doesn’t start the engine. I hope he doesn’t make me walk home.

Chase turns to me, his eyes angry, his words sharp.

“Now." He says. "Do you want to tell me what the hell your problem is?”

Oh, damn.

Reviews

[Rusty]

I really dig your characters, can't wait for more.

[Anya]

Now that, was seriously funny! I was cringing though, the whole way through. Skye over reacted a bit... a lot... a heck of a lot. I can not wait for more chapters! Im hooked!!! Again, please mail me if you put another chapter up!