Hope's Chance(67)

I didn’t say anything to her in either of the cars on the ride home; instead, I just held her hand and gazed at her beautiful face. She seemed happy, almost satisfied, in a way that I hadn’t seen in a long time. Of course, when we pulled up at the house, we were faced with two very distraught family members.

Before they approached us, I had to know what had happened. “Hope, care to fill me in?”

She looked over at me and then back to her father and Buffy. “Let’s just say that Trevor will never be a problem for us again.”

“Should I be worried about you?” I asked.

“Nope. I will be fine. I just finally stood my ground and threatened to turn him in for everything he ever did to me, and I also kind of said that we had video surveillance of the outside of the house.”

I laughed. “Wow! Well, here comes the parental units. Maybe we shouldn’t be so close together?”

Hope squeezed my hand. “I am tired of lying Chance. I think we should just tell him.”

“I just got back Hope; do you really think that is a good idea?” I asked, but as I did, I heard the car door opening on my side.

“Chance? How did you…? What the…?” Buffy said.

We both climbed out of the car at the same time. “I can explain, but I think we all need to go inside.”Hope said.

When her father looked at Hope, he had concerned eyes on his face. He put his arm around her as they headed inside, but never said a single word to either of us, which I found weird.

We all headed into the kitchen. I leaned against the counter after Buffy had handed me a beer, while she and Mark sat at the breakfast bar waiting for an explanation.

I looked over to Hope and then back to them. “Hope is going to have to tell you how I got out. She did it all herself.”

Hope looked at her dad. “Well first I need to go back to last year. I guess you already know about mine and Trevor’s relationship, but it was a lot worse than I ever led on. Dad, on several occasions he forced me to do things with him.” Hope put her head down. She couldn’t look him in the eye.

“I will kill that bastard!” Mark yelled.

Hope looked up at him as the tears ran down her eyes. “When I had the nerve to break up with him, I finally severed all ties and then eventually moved here with you all. He still tried to call, but I never spoke with him, not even once.”

I looked up at Mark who still seemed like he was fuming. “How did you get Chance out Hope? Did he make you do something? Did he make you be with him again?” Mark asked.

I cringed at the thought.

“No! No way Dad! I texted him and Rylee to meet me in the park. I took Chance’s baseball bat to protect myself. I only went there to threaten him, not to do anything physical.” Hope seemed to be thinking about her next words. “When I gave him an ultimatum, he came at me. Eventually Rylee stepped in and saved me. With her on my side I was able to convince him that I had proof of what he had done to me and I would use it against him if he didn’t drop the charges against Chance.”

I couldn’t help but smile at her as she talked about her brave move, and there was the fact that she knew where I kept my favorite bat, and the fact that she had used that bat to harm Trevor.

I wanted Hope to stop with the story and leave it at that, but Mark wasn’t finished with his interrogation.

“Hope it is really nice of you to do so much for Chance, but I have to wonder why you would risk your life in a dark park for him? You were very foolish and could have gotten yourself killed.” Mark said.

“It doesn’t matter. The charges are dropped and we are all here together, right?” Buffy chimed in.

Fear stabbed me in the gut when Mark looked from me to Hope. “No, that isn’t it. For the past two months, I have regretted sending Chance away. I honestly feared that he was a bad influence on you Hope, but now I see that you two are great friends. I am sorry.”

Marks confession made me feel guilty and I worried what Hope was thinking, and what she would say next. I just got home and I couldn’t leave her again. It will kill me, especially after this.



Hope



“I think Chance has proven that he would do anything for this family. It wasn’t fair for him to get into trouble because he was helping me.” I wanted to scream out loud how much I loved Chance. How I loved him for always saving me. How he would never hurt me or leave my side. I wanted everyone to be able to see us holding hands. I wanted everyone to know that I was his and he was mine.

However, it was just impossible…

My father was finally seeing Chance in the positive and not the negative that he had always assumed. It was important for me to keep things that way. If my dad knew that Chance and I were intimate than everything would be ruined. I couldn’t take the chance, literally.

Before I could make any more excuses for myself, my dad and Buffy looked at each other and nodded. “Well it has been a really long day. Maybe we should all just call it a night?” He said.

“Yeah, I am pretty tired.” Buffy admitted.

Chance leaned against the counter. He grabbed the last apple in the wooden bowl and took a big bite out of it. I watched as his lips covered a part of the apple as he took that bite. I realized half way through that I had started licking my lips, so just as fast as I had started I turned around and stopped. “Yeah, I will be right behind you guys. Goodnight!” I said as they headed toward the stairs.