Skin Deep (Anna/Chase)

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase didn't want to expand on it. He could hardly even believe he'd said it. Again. He'd said it to Dru before, at least once, and she'd always shot back that he had to want something, and to make up his mind. Anna had turned from him. Chase's jaw tightened. He'd known it. He'd known that if he revealed anything he'd just get rejected again, though it had been different this time. She hadn't even acknowledged him. Chase didn't try to think of what his reaction would have been if she had responded.

Chase turned toward the door, letting Anna think whatever the hell she wanted about him. He didn't care anymore. He'd spent too long fighting or defending reputations that meant nothing. "I'll see you around," he said, stopping with his hand on the doorknob. "Maybe I'll stop by the bookstore some time."

[Annabelle Hennessy]

"No, wait!" Anna said, turning to see him at the door. Now that she'd stalled him, she realized that he was probably waiting for her to say something. She bit her lower lip, trying to think. She hadn't meant to drive him away with her silence, she just hadn't known what to say that wouldn't piss him off. But apparently nothing was also the wrong answer. She didn't miss that his stopping by the bookstore sometime had turned into a maybe, and didn't want to sit around her shop staring at the door, waiting for him to walk through it.

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase stopped, and turned his head slowly to look back at Anna. "Stop for what?" he asked. She'd called him, but then she'd stopped. Did she even have any clue what she wanted or was she trying to keep him around so she didn't have to feel guilty about everything they'd done? She didn't seem like the type, though, considering how adamant she'd been about living and everything. "Well?"

[Annabelle Hennessy]

"When I was little I'd stand in front of the ice cream truck so long trying to decide, that my mum would have to pick something for me. I'd usually end up throwing a fit cause I didn't want what she got, even though I didn't know which one I wanted." Anna blurted out, needing to say something, so reverting back to the topic of their conversation before he'd turned to leave. She almost immediately blushed at how stupid she felt for sharing her story, just meaning that no one knows what they want all the time. "Nevermind."

[Chase Firebrand]

"Yeah, nevermind," Chase said, trying to build himself up so he could walk out with a clear conscience. "You don't know what you want, either. But the difference between us is I don't care." Not right now, anyway. Right now, he wanted to walk away and never look back. Right now, he wanted out of this school. He'd almost gotten to the point where he was ready to owl his dad, to give up entirely and take his place on the oh-so-exalted Firebrand family tree.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

You do to care. Anna thought to herself, but didn't have the courage to say it out loud. "I was just trying to tell you that no one expects you to know what you want all the time. You don't have to go and get all nasty every time someone's nice to you, you know." She hadn't meant to say the last bit, but it had come out, and it was true, so she refused to feel bad about saying it. She stared at him, wondering what was going through his head that he felt like he had to keep his distance. "It doesn't hurt to actually have friends that you talk to."

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase kept his lips pressed tight while Anna spoke, letting her have out with whatever sentimental nonsense she wanted. "I've tried that," he said when she was done. "It doesn't work that way for me. I can't be friends with a girl, and if I'm nasty it's because being nice didn't work out. I tried that and got a line of girls who wanted their names in the Prophet, so you can stop with your fortune-cookie advice and either say something useful or shut up!"

[Annabelle Hennessy]

Anna's eyes narrowed at being lumped in with whatever very *friendly* persons he'd hung around with. She balled her fists, her nails digging into her palm as she resisted the urge to hit, strangle, or do some other physical harm to knock some sense into him. "Have I ever treated you like that? Used you to get into the Prophet?" She bit out through clenched teeth. She realized they were arguing again, hating the fact that they seemed to do it every time they met. She hardly ever argued or yelled, but something about him made her feel like she had to fight back every time.

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase gave a dismissive humph. "You've had your name in the Prophet plenty of times," he said. "How in hell am I supposed to know your motivation? You keep asking me to f~in trust you like I even know you! The world's not all sunshine, Annabelle! Not for everyone! It just doesn't work that way for me! I told you you'd never find it with me, you need to just give up!"

[Annabelle Hennessy]

"You know that I don't read the prophet normally, so stop conveniently pretending that you don't!" She tried to push down the anger that he was purposely stirring in her. She hated the thought of being read about in that stupid gossip column, of having everyone judge her on things that weren't even true. Anna had purposely never read the paper except the two times Chase had mentioned it to her, and she'd never judged him for anything it said about him. She had seen that there was more to him and knew he wasn't all bad, no matter how hard he was trying to prove it to her. " If you'd stop trying to push me away you'd probably realize you know a lot more about me then you thought. The world's not all gray skies and disappointment either, Chase. You'll be miserable and alone your whole life if you don't ever open up and give anyone a chance to prove themselves!"

[Chase Firebrand]

"You know what? I've heard all this before, and it still sounds like the same old bull it sounded like when Dru said it! I'm tired of having the same fight over and over. I tried opening up, and it didn't work, it was never enough, nothing's ever enough! Not for girls, not for Dru, not for my dad, and not for you!" So he may as well just give up, just let his dad smirk knowingly because he was right, because his son just needed to sow his wild oats and he was ready to submit himself to a slow death by boredom.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

It felt like Chase had landed a powerful punch to her stomach and Anna took a step back; her legs hit the desk and she sat on the edge of it. Dru. She wondered how many of the arguments with Chase were due to things that had happened between him and his ex. Or worse, how many times he'd thought of Dru while kissing her. Anna's eyes closed, and she took a deep breath, forcing the thought out of her head. "I'm not Dru." She said quietly, a huge contrast to the volume that their voices had risen to. She opened her eyes, and raised her head to look him in the eyes, searching for something, she wasn't even sure what.

[Chase Firebrand]

In the sudden quiet of the room, Chase couldn't help hearing Anna's barely-spoken words. I'm not Dru. No, she wasn't, but what difference did that make? When they were having the same arguments, when it was the same damn thing, coming together to sate themselves, fighting about the same things, then going their separate ways, what was the difference? Something in the back of Chase's mind screamed that it knew the differences, that Anna and Dru, for all their similarities, were like night and day, but he wouldn't listen. He raged against anything that didn't tell him what he wanted to hear. Even if he didn't know what he wanted to hear. "Is that it?" he asked.

[Annabelle Hennessy]

"Go to bloody hell Chase!" Anna snapped, taking a step forward, every inch of her tense with rage at his audacity. "That's not it. Rot in your bloody black pit of misery you're digging for all I care. You used to be charming and make me laugh. You helped me and were there when I needed someone to talk to. I don't know what happened to that Chase I knew, that I was attracted to. But you're an A**hole!" Annabelle finished the last word of her rant and strode past him, bumping against his side as she reached for the doorknob. Her heart was pounding as she pulled the door open.

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase's hand was out in a flash, flat against the door slamming it shut in Anna's face. "I told you this would happen," he barked, "so quit acting like you had nothing to do with it! I tried to stay away from you, Annabelle! I told you to go away, I pushed and you wouldn't go. I told you I didn't want this and you half begged me, just give it a try, you were the only one getting hurt. I told you to leave me alone!" He had, he'd warned her, he wasn't ready, he wasn't right, and he'd known that if this happened, it'd all go wrong. Then he'd gone and done it anyway. "I don't even know what I'm doing anymore!"

Chase pushed away from the door, turning into the room with a long growl of pained frustration like a wounded animal. Both hands rose, spearing into his hair, just needing to hold onto something, anything to keep him from reaching for his wand like he'd thought of so many times in the past months.

"I'm sick of this!" he shouted, his voice ringing through the empty room. "I'm sick of this life, sick of being bored and angry, hating myself, hating everything!" Chase's hands lowered, and he struck out, both hands grabbing beneath the edge of a student desk and throwing it. "I'm sick of it!"