Hope's Chance(21)

When dinner was all finished Mark and Buffy started clearing the table. I jumped up from my seat and grabbed the plates from their hands. “I think that Hope and I can take care of cleaning up dinner tonight. Right Hope?”

She gave me a dirty look, but put on a smile when she turned to face her father. “Sure, it’s a great idea.”

“Oh Thank you guys. I still have so much to pack.” Buffy admitted.

“Thank you both for helping. She really out did herself tonight didn’t she?” Mark said as he followed my sister upstairs.

As soon as they were on the steps I felt Hope burning a hole through me with her stare. “What?”

“Don’t ever make decisions for me without asking first.” She exclaimed.

“Excuse me. I thought it was the least we could do. Did you not enjoy the meal my sister spent all day on?”

“The meal was great. It was the company that made my stomach hurt.”

I grabbed a couple more dishes off the table. “Can you be civil for a half hour so we can get this mess cleaned up?”

“Whatever Chance.”

I couldn’t take her attitude. “What is your problem? What have I done to you since you have moved in that is so horrible?”

She gave me a dirty look, and part of me thought that a bowl of marinara sauce was going to be flung at my head. “Obviously whatever you touch turns to shit. Isn’t that why you live in a pool house?”

I felt like I was going to throw up, but instead I held my ground. I swallow my pride and headed into the kitchen where I immediately started filling the dishwasher. I wasn’t going to let that little bitch see that her words had affected me.

Hope came in from the dining room and instead of her lips being scrunched up in anger they were relaxed. She had a sorrowful look in her eyes. She set the rest of the dishes on the counter and started to grab my arm. “Chance, I..”

I pulled away from her touch. “Don’t touch me Hope. Don’t you ever f*cking touch me again. I take it you can handle the rest of this. I’m out of here.” I said as I walked out the kitchen door and headed to the pool house.





Chapter 12


Hope

I had made a terrible mess of things. How could those words have come out of my mouth? Never in my entire life had I said something so hurtful to another human being. There was no way Chance would ever forgive me. I didn’t know if I could even forgive myself.

I took my time finishing the dishes. I cried the entire time, hoping that my father wouldn’t come downstairs and ask why. When I finally turned on the dishwasher and threw the table cloth in the laundry room I peeked outside. Chance was standing outside the pool house door smoking a cigarette. He was leaning against the house with his hand covering his face. My hand touch the door as I considered going out there and apologizing, but I heard someone approaching from behind me.

I turned around to see my father walking to the fridge. “Hey sweetie. Did you finish cleaning up already?”

I pretended to yawn so he would think my watery eyes were caused from that instead of tears. “Yeah, I just finished. I was thinking about swimming, but I can’t stop yawning. I think I am just going to call it an early night.”

“Well give me a hug. We are probably going to head out before you wake up tomorrow. “ He reached over and pulled me into his chest.

“Please tell Buffy that dinner was amazing.”

“I will sweetie.” My father said as he headed back upstairs with a tall glass of milk.

I turned off all of the lights and followed behind him. I just wanted to bury my head in my pillow and forget how I had made things ten times worse that they already were.

When I got to my room, I noticed my cell phone blinking. I had missed three calls for Rylee.

I called her back as soon as my body hit my bed.

Hey Ry, Did you call me?

Yes. I have some news.

What is it?

Tyler is taking me to the beach to meet his family. Isn’t that awesome?

Yeah I guess. Did you tell your parents about it?

Hell no! Are you kidding me right now? They would flip out if they even knew I was dating him.

You are crazy Rylee. How are you going to get away for an entire weekend without them knowing?

Well, that is why I called my best friend. I figured you could cover for me.

Oh!

So will you?

I guess. I mean my dad is going away for the weekend anyway.

Yay! I can’t wait to tell Tyler. Thanks Hope. I owe you big time. Bye!

Before I could even tell her goodbye I noticed she had hung up. Talk about feeling worthless. Even my own best friend would rather do something else than hang out with me.

At least I hadn’t pissed her off so bad that she wished I was dead, like I had with Chance. Tomorrow I was supposed to go to the hardware store to look at paint colors. Instead of Chance going with me, like I had wanted, he would probably tell me to “go to Hell”.

I grabbed some pajamas into my hands and walked into the bathroom. Luckily this place came with great bathrooms. The large soaking tub had been calling my name for over a week and tonight was as good as any to put it to use.

The window that sat against the back of the house didn’t have curtains. The house behind my father’s was way too far away for someone to see inside, but the pool house wasn’t. I climbed over toward the edge of the corner tub and looked down. Chance had turned out all of his lights. He probably went out, or to bed. Both would be my fault.