The Dating Game

THIRTY-EIGHT

I feel Chase's eyes on me as I keep mine glued to Carmen's in a staring contest. She furrows her brows in subtle confusion but keeps that smile plastered on her face.

"Oh, um," she stammers over her words, "Okay?"

Suddenly, Chase cuts into the conversation calmly. "You said you heard a lot about me? All good things I hope."

She giggles warmly. For once, can Chase not be so charming?

"Yeah, definitely," she assures him. I still refuse to unlink our arms. "But I mainly wanted to find you to ask you about student government? I heard you're involved this year."

Chase chuckles to himself in disbelief. "Who told you that?"

Carmen just sighs and crosses his arms. "I'm guessing I was misinformed."

"Unfortunately so," Chase responds. "If you're really interested in student government, I'd talk to Cora Thompson; she's the president and knows everything there is to know about it."

"Thanks!" She smiles brightly yet again and I wish I could cool down the heat swarming my face right now. Truly, I should not be getting so upset over some new girl asking Chase about something like this; after all, he's still one of the most popular people around here. But I doubt Miss Carmen here was looking for him solely for that reason.

Before I know it, Chase tugs on my arm by my hand and pulls me back to reality. We've somehow ended up in front of my first-period classroom despite me having no knowledge of how we got here.

"Michelle, what are you doing?" Chase asks when I'm fully conscious again. Hearing him say my name catches me off guard and I can't remember the last time he used it.

"I—" I try to answer him with something that won't make me seem like a stupid teenage girl, but nothing really comes out. "I'm not doing anything."

He just gives me a blank stare. "Not doing anything? You dragged me all the way across the hall after randomly telling the new girl we're together. That doesn't sound like you at all."

When I try to come up with an excuse, Chase seems to beat me to it, already opening his mouth before I can even think about opening mine.

"Wait," he says slowly as if he's actively putting two and two together as he speaks, "Are you... jealous?"

Even though my face heats up and the reality begins to settle in that maybe I was getting jealous, there's no way I'm telling him that. Especially not when I know these ridiculous feelings I'm having for him could get in the way of us winning that prize. The prize that still has yet to be announced even though the last day of this game is tomorrow.

Wait. The prize is a great subject to focus on instead of this.

"I'm not jealous," I tell Chase quickly. "I've just been distracted."

"By?"

"Well, the game's been fun and all," I tell him, watching a wave of disappointment flash across his face, "but the month is almost over and we still don't know what we're winning."

"Yeah, we do."

"What?"

Chase's thick eyebrows furrow in confusion. "Holly never told you?"

"Wait..." I close my eyes to speak as clearly as possible. "You've known about the prize this entire time and didn't say anything?"

"Not the whole time," he admits, "but for a while, yeah. Why?"

"This whole time I thought we were playing this game just to play. And you're telling me I'll actually benefit from this in some way when it's over?"

"You mean being with the hottest guy in school hasn't been beneficial to you at all?" He asks, raising his eyebrows with a smug grin. "Not even the time we've spent kissing?"