Chapter 7: Even Angels Fall

            The next morning, Chance awoke feeling depressed and strained. Her head was spinning and she felt nauseous. But there was something that seemed out of place. A hand was around her waist. She turned to see Darren sleeping beside her. His face was the gentlest she’d ever seen that morning, and she knew instantly that he had stayed by her side that awful night. Chance smiled as her hand reached up and stroked his cheek. He was still asleep. She stood up and stretched. Brutus walked over to her and nudged her with his head. He was hungry, as usual.

            “Come on, boy. Let’s get some breakfast,” Chance quietly whispered, taking Brutus by his collar and leading him downstairs to the kitchen. He was muddy from being out the night before during the storm.

            Chance poured Brutus his mean and took a few paper towels from the dispenser. She tried to clean him off with that, but the mud wasn’t moving from his coat. ‘Now I’m going to have to give him a bath,’ Chance thought to herself wearily. She hated giving Brutus a bath as much as he hated having one.

            Chance stood up and went to the sink. She washed her hands and went to the fridge to get some bacon and eggs. This was going to be a special breakfast, and she was actually going to eat it, something she rarely ever did. Before her parents’ deaths, Chance had always loved breakfast the way her mom made it. Afterwards, nothing tasted the same, and she stopped eating anything besides cereal.

            That morning, Chance wanted to go back to her old routine. She cracked a few eggs into a small bowl and beat them until they were just right. She put a pan onto the stove, buttered lightly, and poured the eggs into it. She fried the bacon in another pan beside the eggs, making sure neither burned. Chance brought out two plates and set them on the table, laid the knives and forks beside them, and slipped a folded napkin into the plate.

            Upstairs, Darren began to stir in bed. He sat up to find that Chance was gone, but he could smell the cooking bacon and eggs from the kitchen. As he stood up, he could feel the pain in his right arm immediately. He winced and tried to rub it away, only making it worse. He looked in the mirror to see that he was wearing the same clothes as the night before. Darren walked downstairs unhurried. There was no reason that he had to be down there any time soon.

            Darren walked into the kitchen unnoticed. He watched as Chance cooked the eggs and bacon in the two pans on the stove. Just then, Chance turned to see him standing in the doorway.

            “Hey, how are you feeling?” she asked watching him walk closer to her. Chance turned back to her cooking.

            “In pain,” Darren replied. “My arm is killing me.”

            “Sit down at the table and I’ll take a look at it as soon as I finish breakfast. I made scrambled eggs and bacon.”

            “I don’t eat bacon. I don’t like to eat meat.”

            “Oh, is there anything you want me to make you that doesn’t include meat?”

            “I think going through this trouble is enough. And just being with you this morning and you not being pissed is all I wanted.”

            “That reminds me, are you pissed about last night? I mean, I scared the shit out of you and nearly broke your arm. I thought you’d be pissed at me for that.”

            “No, you made up for it with letting me fall asleep beside you.”

            Chance smiled. As much as this was going to complicate things for the both of them, she couldn’t help her need for a guilty pleasure every once in a while. The phone rang, and she reached over the counter to grab it from the stand.

            “Hello?” she asked.

            “Hey, Chance,” Scott’s familiar voice echoed in her brain.

            ‘Shit!’ Chance’s subconscious screamed. “Hi!” she said in surprise. Everything had just become ten times more complicated.

            “Can I come over and see you?” he innocently asked. “I wanna kiss you again.”

            Chance sat down in a chair across from Darren and stared at him for a few moments.

            “Chance?” Scott questioned from the other end.

            “Come on over,” she replied, realizing she had to say something.

            “You don’t sound too happy. What’s wrong?”

            “Nothing’s wrong,” she answered. “I’m just really tired.”

            “Okay, I’ll see you in a few minutes then. Bye.”

            “Bye.” Chance hung up the phone and held it close to her chest. Her eyes became distant and she felt out of it. Darren watched her become quiet suddenly and knew Scott had been on the phone.

            “Chance,” Darren said.

            “I can’t believe what I did last nigh,” she quietly said. “I flirted with you and fell asleep with you in my bed and now I can’t bare to tell the one person that I love about it.” She looked at Darren and yelled, “How could you let me get so close? How could you let me betray my boyfriend?”

            “Chance, calm down. Nothing happened last nigh. Let’s just completely forget about it. It never happened,” he tried to comfort her.

            “How could I forget about last night?” Chance said in an angry voice.

            “This is between you and me. Nobody has to know, and I promise that I’ll never tell,” Darren replied. “It’s just between you and me. To the rest of the world, this never happened.”

            Chance ran it through her mind over and over again. She couldn’t believe she was ready to lie to her boyfriend. ‘This isn’t the only lie you’re telling. Remember, you’re dating Scott in secret anyway,’ her head yelled. Chance felt a little better about it, but it was still heavy on her heart. She stood up and finished breakfast to get the experience out of her mind for a little while. She set one more place at the table and sat as far away from Darren as she could.

            Darren could see the dazed look in her eyes and completely understood. “Look, if it makes you feel any better, I’m sorry about last night. It’ll never happen again,” he quietly apologized.

            Chance looked away from him and began to pick at her food. She didn’t feel like eating that morning. Everything, including her stomach, had been turned upside down. She kept looking out the window across the sink in hopes of getting away from her situation. It wasn’t until she heard a light rapping at the back door that she was brought out of her darkness. She stood up and opened the door for Scott.

            What Chance hadn’t realized was that she’d be so overwhelmed by seeing Scott dressed in baggy khakis, a tight black velvet tee shirt and black boots that she’d forget about her problems and just be happy to have him near her. He ran to Chance and kissed her with his passionate, red lips. That kiss was like dynamite; everything that she was thinking had disappeared into oblivion.

            Scott looked deep into her brown eyes and said, “I missed you.”

            “I missed you too,” Chance replied, melting at the sight of his own beautiful eyes. She leaned into him and kissed him again.

            Darren turned away from them and began to think that he shouldn’t have even tried to get involved with Chance. ‘What was I thinking?’ he asked himself. ‘She’s only 17. She’s way too young for me.’

            Chance pulled herself away from Scott and returned to the table as if nothing had happened between her and Darren. Scott followed her and looked at him. “Who are you?” he asked.

            “Sorry, I forgot to introduce you guys. Scott, this is Darren Hayes of Savage Garden. Darren, this is Scott Holland, my boyfriend,” Chance introduced.

            “Please to meet you,” Scott said, gingerly shaking Darren’s hand. Darren just nodded his head in agreement. Scott then sat beside Chance and looked at her.

            ‘There’s nothing that’s going to keep these two away from each other,’ Darren thought. ‘And I just managed to blow my friendship last night with Chance.’

            “Well, I’m going to go and change now. I’ll see you guys later,” Darren said slipping out of the kitchen. He ran upstairs forgetting the pain in his left arm. The pain of seeing Chance with someone else was even more unbearable. It was like watching Colby kiss her new boyfriend, but worse. Chance was adding salt to his unhealed wound from the past.