Chapter 31-2

Giving a tight-lipped smile to a waiter I almost ran into, I step around him and continue on my journey across the ballroom and towards the bar. How interesting that my body seemingly gravitates towards a bar whenever one exists. Hmm... As I march along the edge of the crowd, a pair of arms wrap around my waist and I'm hauled into the moving crowd and struggle to find my footing. Suddenly, the person who captured me stops and I stumble into their chest. I glance up at their face and roll my eyes, "Seriously? I could've rolled my fucking ankle, you idiot." "I haven't seen you all night. I missed you." Chase smiles softly down at me as one of his hands finds the small of my back and the other takes a hold of my hand. "You saw me at the start of the night and you didn't even say a word. How rude, Everett." I retort cheekily. He chuckles as he glances down at my body between, "I could barely fucking function after seeing you coming down those stairs." "Very smooth." I roll my eyes as he begins to sway us to the sound of the music. "Dance with me Jones." Chase smirks adorably at me as I glance around at all the lovey-dovey couples surrounding us. "Look at your arms." Chase chuckles as he lifts our conjoined hands and kisses the inside of my wrist, "All scuffed and grazed." "I know, I should've bought a dress with long sleeves. But I didn't know I'd need to sit Vanessa on her ass." I give a casual shrug as Chase laughs fondly at me. I chuckle at his laughter, "What?" He hums, "Trouble is inevitable with you, Jones." "I'm taking that as a compliment." I smirk up at him as he rolls his eyes with an amused scoff, "I do so much dumb shit that it's become a fuel for me. It's like I thrive off of my own stupidity and rage." "Fuck, I love you." Chase says while laughing at me as he pulls me tighter against him and swoops down to kiss me. I quickly duck my head and turn my face away while staring at everyone around us. "They'll see us, y'know." I whisper and sheepishly glance up at him. Chase frowns in confusion at me and I continue, "My mom, David, Noah, Emily and her parents too. They'll see us and freak out and jump to conclusions." "Let them," Chase mumbles as his fingers start running up and down the bare skin of my back, causing me to shiver, "And it's not like those conclusions would be wrong, would they?" "No, not exactly...but it's conclusions I was trying to avoid." I mumble as I bite my lip while continuing to glance around. I hadn't seen any familiar gawking faces yet so we were still in the clear. "And why are you trying to avoid it, Jones?" Chase questions with a raised eyebrow and a petty tone, "You know, I keep hearing myself ask the same questions over and over again but I'm not hearing any damn answers." I sigh and roll my eyes, "Don't do this Everett." "That's the thing I don't even know what this is because you never tell me anything." Chase exclaims and I could feel the anger rolling off him. "You wanted to break up because you said you couldn't do long distance. Sure, I agreed with it back then but we both know it was some bullshit excuse." People were beginning to glance at us as feeling the tension shift in the air. "Then we get back together and you want to keep it a secret. You say it's because you don't want to move too fast. I said I was fine with that but yet again, it's a bullshit excuse." Chase continues, his anger spiking so fast, "So are you going to tell me the real reason why you keep breaking my heart, Hayden? Or am I just going to have to keep guessing and going out of my goddamn mind." "It's not like I'm choosing to break your heart, Chase. It fucking breaks my heart more to even think about doing that." I say while holding his hand wrapped in mine against my chest. I sigh heavily, "I just want to protect you from everything. I want you to be happy and stay connected with your grandfather because you need—oh fuck." "My grandfather?" Chase repeats as sweat instantly begins dripping down my neck and I freeze. Chase's expression darkens, "What does Thomas have to do with this?" "I—uh—can we please not do this right here." I plead while nervously glancing at all the prying eyes. Rich people also like shove their noses in others people tea, it seems. "Okay, fine." Chase says as he grabs my hand and marches through the crowd of dancing people. I hike up the front of my dress but still struggle to match his pace in my stupid high heels. We finally break from the crowd but I was still having trouble keeping up with him. "Everett, slow down please before I break an entire fucking leg." I tell him while squeezing his hand. Chase spins around suddenly, frightening me slightly, and throws me over his shoulder, "Shit! Are you serious!?" Chase remains silent while holding my legs steady. He marches past my mother, David and Noah who all stare at us with wide eyes. It's like we slid past them in slow motion as all their expression turned to a mix of confusion and amusement. He storms out of the ballroom and down one of the halls as the music fades out, becoming more quiet as we move away. The people littering the halls outside all stare at us two. I can only give them a sheepish grin. I hear doors open as Chase walks us outside. The cool night air hits me as he plows through the french glass doors. "Can you put me down now, Hulk?" I question as I pat his back. Chase gently drops me to my feet and while I smooth down my dress, he shuts the double french doors. My heels hit the white pebbled path beneath. I glance around to see that he had brought us out into a garden. It was really beautiful with golden string lights and all the neatly trimmed greenery. There was even a fucking fountain that the pompous white pebbled path lead to. I was too captivated by the scenery that I forgot about Chase's anger. "Hayden, what the fuck does Thomas have to do with this?" Chase questions as I turn around to see him angrily walking towards me. I instantly begins o nervously fumble with my fingers. I shrug indifferently and turn away from him. I make my way to the lit up fountain and mumble, "Nothing really, he just opened my eyes to things I was doing. That's all." "What things were you doing, Jones?" Chase asks from behind me and I could hear from the crunching gravel he was following me. It was so quiet out here and obviously we were the only ones.