Wherefore Art Thou, Chase?

Chapter One: Nine Years Later

Janelle flopped into her seat with a groan, her head banging against her desk in one, fluid motion. The redhead sitting in front of her turned around and gave the other woman a sympathetic smile.

“What’s wrong, ‘Nelle?” the redhead asked, genuinely concerned while trying to make Janelle smile by using the nickname only those very close to her were allowed to use. She hated the nickname, but her parents had called her that since she was very young, so it stuck.

Janelle lifted her head and flashed her latest math test miserably at the redhead.

“Whadda you think, Erin?” she asked sarcastically, pointing at the large red “D” at the top of the exam. Erin MacPherson–who looked as Irish as her name suggested–shrugged and flashed a smile that was meant to encourage.

“So math isn’t your forté. You’ll get it eventually,” she assured Janelle, who just rolled her eyes.

“Eventually isn’t good enough! You know my family will kill me if I can’t get at least Cs in everything. Besides, we need at least Cs to get into any of the plays in this class,” Janelle reminded her best friend, frustrated. The Shakespeare class she was taking as part of her acting major was the only thing that kept her striving for the grades she hadn’t gotten since middle school. This particular D, which was preceded by grades just like it, wasn’t going to do her average any good.

Janelle dropped her head onto her desk once more, groaning miserably.

“Well, you know, I’ve always found getting laid helps me before exams,” Erin suggested casually, before making a cooing noise which made Janelle lift her head to laugh. “Here comes the perfect candidate,” the redhead added, tousling her auburn hair, her green eyes lit with hungry interest. Janelle turned her head to look and her jaw dropped. She recognized those eyes far too easily–they were the same chocolate brown ones that haunted every one of her erotic dreams.

“Chase Nicholson,” she whispered hoarsely, completely caught off-guard.

*********

Chase couldn’t believe the luck he had. After all, it was hard enough to find a good school with acting and film majors, but for those particular majors to still be free late in September–during his senior year, no less–was a true miracle.

Not to mention all the babes in this class, or the fact that the professor was the director of a Shakespearean theatre troupe and she allowed all of her students to audition, so long as their grades stayed up.

The professor was also a taskmaster and had demanded, upon his entrance into the class, that he turn in all of the assignments the rest of the class had done by next week.

While he took furious notes on…whatever Professor Curtis was talking about, Chase glanced around the room to try and find someone who looked nice enough to fill him in on what had been going on during the week or two that he’d missed. One particular student caught his eye. Her long brown banana curls were the color of maple syrup and hung loose around her shoulder blades. It was thick and made him want to plunge his fingers through it, just to see what it felt like. His gaze traveled down her body. Beneath her loose T-shirt, he could make out the outline of small, but firm breasts. Her hips were seductively wide and tapered off into slender, athletic legs that were, at least, a mile long and made him practically drool. She tried to hide them with, quite possibly, the longest pair of shorts Chase had ever seen a girl wear, as it was still too warm to wear pants or even capris. He got the sense that he’d seen her before, but Chase couldn’t place her. He wanted to go over to her and ask her out on a date. She’d say yes, he’d take her out someplace nice, they’d go back to her place, and make the walls shake…

“Mr. Nicholson, could you please repeat what I just said?” an amused voice rang out through the small class, knocking Chase out of his pleasant thoughts and into the harsh reality of getting caught staring at a girl. He felt like he was thirteen again, which was irrational, considering he was close to graduating from college.

“Uhhhh…Well, that is to say that, uh…” he stammered, feeling himself blush hotly. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d blushed from anything, least of all embarrassment. “Well, you were, uh, saying that, um…I should be paying more attention to you than the other hot babes in this class?” he offered, trying to make a joke to take attention off of him. After all, nearly every head–all except his mystery girl–in the classroom had turned to look at him and, while he appreciated attention and knew he needed to get used to it if he wanted to succeed in acting, he’d always preferred his sense of humor getting him noticed rather than his looks or his libido.

A ripple of laughter went through the classroom, not missing the mystery girl or even the professor. After his comment, most of the girls were either blushing or trying to flirt with him from across the room and, before the professor could tell him what she’d said, a bell rang, ending class. Chase’s mystery girl stood and rushed out of the classroom, her stuff hugged tightly to her chest and the redhead who had sat in front of her trying to keep up in her miniskirt and high heels.

If Chase hadn’t known better, he would have said that his mystery girl was avoiding him.

*********

“I just don’t see why you won’t even talk to him, ‘Nelle,” Erin remarked to her friend, who was sitting on the couch they shared with Lily–Janelle’s cousin and their other room mate–while Erin rifled through her closet. The three women, who had–coincidentally–gone to the same college, had decided it would be cheaper to rent a good-sized apartment for the three of them. It worked out well, considering Lily and Erin had grown up across the street from each other, Erin and Janelle were in almost all of the same classes, and Janelle, who had no siblings, had always treated Lily and their cousins like they were her siblings.

“I mean, just go up to him and ask him out on a date. I doubt he even remembers you, so there’s no risk,” the redhead explained from her room, unable to see that her comments, which she thought were encouraging, were actually depressing Janelle further.

Janelle couldn’t bear to think that he’d forgotten her, not when she could still remember the first time she’d ever seen him with the keenest clarity. She fiddled distractedly with her class ring, which rested on her right-hand ring finger, before standing and walking into Erin’s room.

“Its not that simple, Erin,” she explained, flopping down into the comfortable papasan chair that the redhead had brought from home. “I don’t do that type of thing. You do,” she added, teasing her roommate. Erin MacPherson had a penchant for being a “wild child,” bringing home a new guy nearly every month. In fact, the longest relationship she’d ever had was the one she had with her current “boy toy”, Grant “I-can’t-believe-I’ve-been-going-out-with-you-for-nearly-two-whole-months-now” Smith.

Erin merely met her friend’s eyes in the mirror and faked a scandalous expression.

“I think I’m offended by that, Miss Prudish Scott,” she replied, whirling around and making the skirt of the dress she had been considering swish in the air. Janelle tucked her legs up into the papasan chair and hugged them to her chest while she laughed and rolled her eyes at her friend’s antics.

“You should be,” Janelle retorted, before changing the subject to the party they were going to later. Or, rather, the party Erin and Lily were forcing Janelle to go to that night. They were always doing things like that, despite the fact that Janelle wasn’t a “party person” and usually stayed by herself the entire night.

That’s probably why they say you’re an excellent designated driver, she thought wryly as Erin continued to consider dresses to wear to the party.

************

The party was at the star quarterback’s frat house, which was already covered with toilet paper and littered with unconscious bodies all over the lawn.

Jesus, its only 9 pm, Chase thought as he stepped over a couple who were sprawled on the ground and making out like they were animals in heat. He followed Seamus into the house, feeling Huey Kent, their other roommate, following behind timidly. Huey–who was only 18, but a genius, nonetheless–didn’t go to parties often, opting, instead, to stay home and do whatever he did when he stayed home.

Chase had used to be a party animal, but lately he’d been staying home, as well, finding no pleasure in the rowdiness of his peers and loud, raucousness of the music. Tonight, though, Seamus had insisted because it was the first party since he’d moved back and the Irishman wanted to show Chase around to all the “cool party spots.”

As they stepped inside, a tall, well-muscled blonde guy who already looked drunk and wore a letter jacket greeted them. This must be the host of the party, Chase thought to himself as he looked around. A movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he turned his head to glance that way, only to have to do a double take at the sight that met him.

His mystery girl was standing not too far away from him with her back towards them. Her hair was down, like in class, and the way it tumbled to her shoulder blades made Chase imagine how it might feel to have fistfuls of that hair in his hands during climax. His gaze drank in the sight of her navy blue T-shirt–tighter than the one she’d had on in class–clinging seductively to her frame and the way her jeans molded perfectly to her ass and thighs and modeled her legs flawlessly. He watched her lift a red plastic cup to her lips and tip her head back to empty the cup and marveled at how such a mundane activity could look so sexy when his mystery girl was doing it. Chase noticed, as she lowered the cup, a glint of silver on her ring finger. Looking at her fingers made him want to know what those fingers would feel like spearing through his hair, or splayed over his naked chest, or cupping the evidence of his desire right before lowering her mouth to lick it…

Whoa. Chase blinked and expelled a long-held breath, reviewing his times tables in order to distract himself. Down boy, he told himself, observing the people she was talking to with nothing more than vague curiosity.

She was talking to the redhead from their class, whose willowy frame was flaunted in an emerald green dress with a hem that barely fell to mid-thigh. Her red hair fell past her shoulders in waves and her green eyes were lit with something more than excitement from the party.

Standing next to the two ladies was another woman, this one with blonde hair, blue eyes, and curves that most women would kill for. She held a red plastic cup just like Janelle, but only took sips few and far between. Apparently the blonde wanted to remain conscious and aware of her surroundings. She had worn a white T-shirt and a matching white skirt that had a diagonal cut and fell just below her knees at the highest point. If he had to judge, Chase would say she was only needed a halo to complete the picture he guessed she wanted to portray.

Glancing around, he saw Seamus and Huey had each found something to do, so he decided to approach his mystery girl and, finally, solve the anonymity shrouding this girl. But, when he turned back to approach her, his mystery girl was gone.

“Damnit,” he swore under his breath, pushing through the crowd to search for Mystery Girl. If nothing else, he thought resolutely, I’m going to get her name by the end of the night.