Chapter
6: Uninvited
The next night, Chance sat on the couch in her other room and flipped
through the channels wondering if anything good was on. It was only 7:30, and
“Who’s Line Is It Anyway” wasn’t on for another half hour. She stretched her
legs out and yawned. The day had been brutal. Brad kept his distance, but Scott
told her that he was planning his attach.
As Chance began to flip through the channels again, the doorbell rang.
She sat up and hastily walked down the marble steps barefoot and clad in pajamas
to the front door. It wasn’t Scott; he would have gone through the back. Instead,
she saw someone shorter with black hair through the cut glass windows next to
the door.
“Darren!” Chance exclaimed when she opened the door. “Oh, my God! What
are you doing here?”
“I need a place to stay. Everyone’s going back to Australia, and I have
the leave the hotel and find a place to live out here. So, Chance, my dearest
friend, the coolest girl in the world, can I stay with you?” Darren asked, giving
her the sweetest pleading face she had ever seen.
“I can’t resist a face like that,” Chance blurted. “Get your ass in here
before I change my mind.”
Darren walked in with his suitcase in hand. Chance looked out the door
to see large black clouds rolling in from the west. She shut the door and led
Darren upstairs to the room she had previously occupied.
“You can sleep here tonight until I can find you somewhere else in the
house to sleep. As of right now, there are no beds made, and this is the most
comfortable couch there is,” she explained, removing a bag of chips and some
dip from the cushions. Chance wiped the excess crumbs off the couch with her
hand to the floor. “Sorry about the mess. I wasn’t expecting anyone tonight.
I’ll have it cleaned up by tomorrow though.”
“I don’t really mind the mess. I’m used to it,” Darren replied.
“I’d give you my room if it wasn’t for the fact that it looked worse
than this.”
“I’m just happy to have a place to stay.”
“Anyway, I was just about to watch some TV before you showed up. Wanna
watch with me?” Chance offered as she sat back down on the couch.
“I wouldn’t mind at all.” Darren sat down beside her, and she stretched
out across him, her legs landing in his lap. “Hey!” he blared.
“I’m letting you stay here, ain’t I?” she retorted. Darren mumbled a
few things then lay back on the soft cushions. He was tired, and being able
to sit down and rest eased the pain of constant touring. He closed his eyes
and breath in deeply.
Chance took the opportunity to hold the chips under Darren’s nose. “Hungry?”
she questioned with a silly smile on her face.
Darren immediately opened his eyes and retorted, “No.”
“Okay, the more for me.” Chance took a long, slow bite and added, “Are
you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.” Darren moved her feet away from his lap and stood up.
“Would you mind not bothering me for a few hours?”
“Why? Did I do something wrong?” she innocently asked.
“I have a lot on my mind right now, and I just want to be left alone,”
Darren said in an annoyed voice.
“Care to talk about it?” Chance offered. She sat up on the couch to tell
him that she was being serious now.
“You wouldn’t want to listen,” he replied.
“Oh, come on. We’re friends. You can talk to me about anything and I’ll
listen. Sit down and tell me about it. Maybe it’ll make you feel better. It’s
always worth a shot,” she comforted.
Darren hesitated for a moment, then walked back to the couch and sat
down next to Chance. She turned off the TV to give him her full attention. “You
know what I said to you before about leaving because everyone was going home?
Well, I was lying, but not completely lying. Everyone’s going back, but not
for a few days,” he began. “You see, I got into a little spat with Dan about
the next album.”
“What do you mean?” Chance asked.
“I mean, we couldn’t agree about when we should go back into the studio
and record together. I want a few years off so I can do my own thing, and he
wants to get back as soon as possible. I got angry, yelled a few choice words,
and then I hit him,” Darren finished.
“You hit Dan!” Chance shouted.
“Yeah, I hit him.” Darren’s head dropped down to show that he was ashamed
of what he had done to his best friend. “I don’t know what got into me. I just
got so angry, I couldn’t control my fists.”
“Well, I can see what you mean. I totally understand. I did the same
thing yesterday, but I squeezed the guy’s balls so hard he turned red,” she
sympathized.
Darren started to laugh. “You squeezed a guy’s balls? Whose? What did
he do to get you so mad?”
“Well, you know that guy I was telling you about? The total jerk? Well,
it was him. His name is Brad. It all started the day of the contest, right after
I won. He and his friends had dropped off this really nasty message at my house.
The next day at school, he said some really rotten things to me, and I just
let go of my anger. I grabbed him by the balls and made him say he was sorry.”
This was the first time she had told the story to anyone, and after hearing
it, she began to giggle.
“I would hate to get in your way,” Darren replied as he began to shiver
at the thought of someone doing that to him. Chance laughed even harder when
she saw his reaction.
“You know I’d never do that to you,” she said as she began to calm down
again.
“I would hope not,” he answered.
“Okay, do you feel better now that you got it off your chest and I shared
something with you?” Chance asked grabbing the chips and dip.
“Yeah, much better,” Darren said, reaching for a chip.
Chance pulled the bag away and retorted, “I thought you didn’t want any.”
“Well, now I do,” he answered back.
“You’re just gonna have to come and get ‘em then.” Chance jumped off
the couch and began to run around the room with the chips in her hands. Darren
ran after her. She jumped back onto the couch and he followed her. Just as it
seemed he was about to catch her, she jumped away from him and bolted out the
door.
“Catch me if you can!” Chance chanted while running down the stairs.
She ran into the kitchen and hid behind the door. She heard the pitter-patter
of Darren’s feet coming closer on the marble floor, and she braced herself to
scare the living daylights out of him.
“Chance!” he hollered, walking past the wooden dining room table. “Chance!
Where are you?”
Just as Darren was about to step through the door, Chance jumped out
from behind it and screamed, “Boo!”
Darren jumped back nearly three feet and hit the edge of dining table
with his left arm. “Shit!” he yelped holding his arm close to his body.
“Oh, my God! Darren, are you all right?” Chance ran to his side and sat
next to him on the warm carpeted floor. It was obvious that he was in pain from
the tears that welled up in his eyes. “I’m so sorry. Let me take a look,” she
begged. Darren shied away from her and kept holding his arm. She slid closer
to him and put her hand on his cheek to wipe away few tears. He looked into
her concerned eyes and held out his hurt arm.
“Where does it hurt?” she asked. Darren pointed to a deep gash near his
elbow. It was bleeding and turning colors around the edges. Chance stood up
and went to one of the farther cabinets to retrieve the first aid kit. On her
way back to Darren, she made a stop at the fridge and pulled out a bag of ice.
She sat down beside him again and began to examine his arm.
“Do you think it’s broken?” he asked with a sniffle.
“It looks like you hit it pretty bad, but I don’t think it’s broken,”
Chance observed. She searched the first aid kit for some cotton and the peroxide.
After finding them both, she softly began to clean the blood from the cut. Darren
tried to pull away, but she held tightly onto his hand. “It’s okay. I’m almost
done,” she comforted. “Just a little more.” Her hands gently finished cleaning
the wound and began to wrap it in gauze. She slipped the ice over the gauze
and wrapped in once more making sure nothing would move out of place. Searching
the kit once more, she found a sling, and slipped it around his arm.
“Where did you learn this?” Darren asked, rubbing the ice with his free
hand.
“Anatomy,” Chance answered with a smile.
All too suddenly a crack of lightening lit the sky outside and the house
went dark. Chance screamed and buried her head between her knees. She began
to shake violently.
“Chance!” Darren huddled next to her. He put his free arm around her
shoulders and held her close to his body. “It’s okay. It’s just a little power
outage.”
Chance looked up with a frightened expression on her face. “I’m so scared,”
she sobbed. “I hate lightening.”
Darren knew why and didn’t bother to ask. He stood up and took Chance’s
hand to life her up from the floor. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go back to your
room.” They slowly made their way back upstairs as the storm raged on outside.
Chance headed towards her bedroom because she felt it was the safest place in
the house. She slid under the soft covers and buried her head in a pillow, bursting
into tears again.
“This is how the plane crashed,” her muffled voice came from the pillow.
Darren sat beside her on the bed and gently stroked her hair. He didn’t
say a word. There was nothing to say. He could only sit beside her and comfort
her.
Chance rolled over and looked at him. She just stared into his deep blue
eyes and became mesmerized by their clearness. She stopped crying and began
to drift off to sleep. Darren lay beside her until she was out and slowly began
to drift off himself. The peaceful calm kept him for getting up and going into
the other room, and the need to keep her safe was more than enough to convince
him to stay where he was. Darren drifted off to sleep beside Chance, feeling
the comfort of having someone to lie beside again.