Falling for Fangs

Chloe

Thelittlebottlein the fridge was calling to Chloe. She had taken off the stopper, and it smelled like sulphur. But Jesse’s insistence that it would cure even the worst hangover made her seriously consider downing it.

Chloe chewed her lip, considering the little bottle, and she reached out her hand towards it before stopping herself. No. She wouldn’t take it, even if she felt like the entire Crowley Lake High School Orchestra, which consisted of more trombone players than any band should, were practising inside her head. Chloe had the feeling that a time would come when she’d need it more.

Instead, she helped herself to a Diet Coke and rifled in a drawer for painkillers.

As she swallowed down the painkillers, her phone beeped, and she picked it up eagerly, wondering if maybe there was a message from Maxwell. But it was Julia.

How was poker night? Tell me everything!

Chloe considered texting back; she really did. But her fingers still felt fat and stupid in her hungover haze, and so she simply phoned her back. No video call, of course. Chloe wasn’t looking her best.

“A phone call!” Julia sounded excited. “Ooh, too much to tell me over text. Spill, girl!”

“Nothing exciting to tell you,” Chloe croaked. “I’m just—”

“You sound awful!” Julia said accusingly. “You’re hungover, aren’t you?”

“Little bit,” Chloe admitted. “Maxwell made me promise I’d let my hair and down have fun. I may have overdone it.”

Julia let out a sympathetic chuckle. “Sounds like that, babe,” she said. “So I take it you did have a good time?”

“I did,” Chloe said. “But I definitely drank too much. Maxwell got in loads of Yellowglen, and you know how much I love that stuff.”

“Wait, he got your favourite in for you?” Julia sighed happily. “That was very sweet of him.”

“It was,” Chloe said, biting her lip. “It was a great night, and I didn’t embarrass myself too much, except…” A memory came back to her. Maxwell’s face so close to her own, those dark eyes fixed on her, and she had almost been able to sense his desire.

“Except what?” Julia demanded. “Don’t leave me hanging; I need closure!”

“I kind of tried to kiss him, and he backed away.” Chloe confessed, her cheeks flushing, even alone in her apartment.

“Oh my god!” Julia shrieked. A babble of laughter told Chloe that Harriet and Jude were listening to their conversation. Oh well, that was hardly more humiliating than what had already happened. “You tried to kiss him?”

“Not really,” Chloe chewed her lip. “But kind of. It’s not like I planted one on him, but we were sitting so close, and he was giving me that look, and I just kind of moved towards him and…” She scrunched up her face. “He stood up and told me he’d better drive me home.”

“He drove you home?” Julia asked. “So he wasn’t drunk?”

“No, he wasn’t,” Chloe confirmed. “Just me.”

“Oh, that explains it then!”

“Explains what?”

“Why he didn’t kiss you!” Julia sounded like she was rolling her eyes. “You were drunk; he wasn’t. He probably thought you only wanted to kiss him because of the Yellowglen, and he wanted to wait until he was sure you really wanted to.”

“I don’t know if I really want to!” Chloe protested, but that was a giant lie. She didn’t know if kissing Maxwell was a bad idea, but she definitely wanted to. Every part of her body was acutely aware of just how much she wanted to kiss him – and a whole lot more – every time she was anywhere near the guy.

“Yes, you do,” Julia said firmly, like a teacher exasperated with a student who claimed not to be able to do simple arithmetic. “You’re just scared because you’ve been banging on about how you don’t have time for romance, and you really like him. And you should be scared. Falling in love is scary!”

“Who said anything about love?” Chloe’s stomach lurched at the word, but that could have been the effects of the Yellowglen.

“I did,” Julia said. “Because I know you better than anyone except maybe Jesse, and I can tell when you’ve got it bad.”

“I was just about accepting that I like him. Let’s not get carried away,” Chloe said, taking another sip of Diet Coke and making her way into the bathroom. She needed to scrub the makeup from last night off her face and turn her hair into something presentable. Her first showing wasn’t until ten, thank goodness.

“So what’s the problem? You like him; he likes you. Just tell him! When you’re both sober.” Julia made it sound easy.

“I don’t know if he likes me!” Chloe argued. “Okay, so he likes me as a friend. And he looked at me with lustful desire in his heart. But I don’t know if he, you know, really likes me. He’s already told me he’s not the commitment and relationships kind of guy.”

“Maybe not for anyone else, but I bet he would be for you.”

“You haven’t even met him!”