Their Little Princess | ✔️

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Before dinner that evening, I sit on my bed brushing my hair out on a facetime, it's kind of tangled from the plane ride. I have my phone propped up on the bottom of the mirror i have propped up on my headboard. Its a very practical setup.

"Why does Chase look so pre-occupied?" I ask, glancing in the mirror I have set up behind the phone.

"Hopefully he's realizing how much of a jerk he's been," Jess says, "He asked Ava to the winter dance, and then danced with Theo Quintmere the entire time."

"Dang," I say, looking back at the screen, "Did he at least apologize to Ava?"

"Nope, he spent almost the whole night dancing and hanging out with Theo, and then went and danced with some girl from the Yearbook club, Bella was her name? And then asked me if I wanted to go with him and a few other people to the diner, Theo and Bella were both invited, but he didn't even invite Ava," Jess explains.

"If you had such a problem with it, why'd you come with us to the diner," Chase mutters.

"I should tell your mom," Jess says, ignoring his last statement.

He sighs, "I said I was sorry. We're literally only 14, I didn't know it was that big of a deal."

"You don't sound 14, you just sound like such a jerk," Jess says.

I hear her parents voices in the background. She sighs, "Alright, I have to hang up, my parents are calling me, Merry Christmas Eve, you guys. Love you."

"Love you too," Chase and I say at the same time as she hangs up.

Chase genuinely looks like he feels off about the whole situation. His white blonde hair looks freshly trimmed, and I remember him saying his mom was having a Christmas dinner tomorrow. I remember having a crush on him in middle school. Me and Jess both had crushes, it almost split up the friend group, the thought of the petty arguments we had over it makes me smile.

I miss Seattle so bad.

I set my brush down. "Jess is right," I say finally, "That wasn't right. You should have at least talked to Ava."

"I know, but I don't like her like that. I just didn't want to hurt her feeling by cancelling. I was interested in a lot of people. And once I already messed up, it was like, what am I supposed to do now? I can't take it back, so I just kept going, I don't know."

I frown, "That's not an excuse. You should apologize to all of them."

He shakes his head, "Theo and Bella weren't upset, just Ava. She was taking it so seriously."

"You can be a jerk sometimes, Chase," I say, "She'll come around, she's really nice." I was never friends with her, but she was one of the nicest people I knew.

I hear his mom calling him in the background, he looks over at where his door is before turning back to me, "My mom is hosting some important people tonight, I have to go. Merry Christmas, Mads."

"Merry Christmas," I hesitate, "Wait, Chase."

He looks back at the camera, "I know it's not prudent to ask for gifts or whatever, but I um..." I pause, trying to word it, "I just...I miss you guys a lot. Can you and Jess send me something? Don't buy anything. Something personal."

"Obviously we're getting you a gift, Maddie," He says, "We called Alessandro and we forced him to give us your vacation home address!" He sounds really proud of himself. I honestly just can't believe they had the confidence to call him. Xander gave Chase's mother Sandro's and Elijah's numbers when he was inviting Jess and Chase over.

"Seriously?" I say.

"Of course Jess jumped at the first chance she got to call Alessandro, but yeah, we shipped it last week, so it can be there on Christmas tomorrow. We really want to visit again, can you ask your brothers if we can come back to New York?"