For Better
Chase laughed as he stumbled and nearly fell on the sidewalk. Luckily, his left arm had been around Justine's shoulders and she half-balanced, half-pulled him upright.
"What is wrong with you?" she asked, smiling at him.
"Undoubtedly," Chase began, adopting a pretentious English accent. "A great many things doth be wrong with me. Not least of all my companionship with you."
She pushed him and he removed his arm from around her, feeling the slight enjoyment from her touch echo softly within his heart.
It had been just over a month since her baptism and things between the two of them were going well. While many of their measures for one another were still in place, the strain and pressure of Chase's lie and Justine's previous life had started to leave them. The nights spent alone in the apartment had slowly been replaced by going out to restaurants and movies. The days of silence had been filled with discussions and laughter once more. Justine had resumed writing poetry and from what snippets Chase had observed (she was reluctant to actually let him read her work) she was also extremely happy, feeling more free and loved than she had in years.
The one thing they hadn't yet breeched was the discussion of their actually starting to date one another… romantically. Which was a stupid connotation anyway, Chase had figured. After all, they basically were dating. After all, couples went to dinner together, saw movies and spent time with one another. It was all but a label as this point. However, there was an undeniable, thousand-ton weight attached to that label.
It was quite simple in the end. So far, their relationship could've been friendly, or romantic. In a way, it was beautiful. Yet he had already admitted his feelings for Justine. If they put a label on it, it would mean they were both admitting romantic interest, and that of course meant there was the chance of romantic rejection.
If Chase were brutally honest with himself, a part of him had always felt for Justine ever since her efforts to get clean. Perhaps even before that in a very small way. It was just as he got to see more and more of who she really was, the more and more his feelings for her deepened. It wasn't just that she'd opened up to him either. The more and more time he'd spent with her, the more he'd opened up too, and despite his closed-off lifestyle he'd never really considered himself a loner.
Yet, it was only when he'd had someone like Justine in his life that he realized all the thing he wasn't doing. She'd enhanced so much of his experience and so many aspects of his life had been far more fun because she'd been a part of it. Plus, she'd seen him at his lowest, and not left. That counted for a lot, just as he knew his help with Justine's addiction counted for a lot with her. When you went through the most difficult times of a person's life with them, it could transform you, and make your relationships more than it would've ever been otherwise.
They reached the car and Justine looked at him expectantly, holding out her hand. Chase felt a moment of trepidation as he reached his hands into his pockets and pulled out his keys, handing them over. Last week, he had foolishly accept Justine's challenge to a footrace, with the stipulation he would allow her to drive his car if she beat him. Shockingly, his morning jogging apparently hadn't been nearly enough of a boost in his speed to outrun her, and she'd finally decided to claim her prize. Still, fair was fair and he had made the agreement.
So, Chase climbed carefully into the passenger's seat of his own vehicle and buckled himself in, silently wishing the seat offered a break pedal that the passenger might be able to utilize if needed. He'd heard that some of the driver's education cars offered such things and was silently regretting his oversight in not purchasing such a car.
Justine smiled brightly as she climbed behind the driver's seat, starting up the car confidently and quickly switching over the radio to another station Chase didn't recognize. The station was playing Beethoven's Für Elise and Chase inwardly chuckled at the thought that only a year ago, he would've still been attending his old church and never could've placed the song. It was in April of last year that he'd met Peter and Miranda, only one month after his first dream about Justine.
So much of his life had changed since then and yet so much of it was exactly the same. It was like his life had been a painting on the wall, hung in exactly the right spot, but it had been just slightly askew and now it had been straightened out.
Justine cut the wheels to the left and began to creep forward. Unable to stop himself, Chase anxiously glanced around, unsure of exactly what he was could actually do to help the situation. Justine creeped closer and closer to the car in front of them, inching forward at a pace that would've made any passing butterflies quite jealous. Nevertheless, Chase bit his tongue and didn't protest, as promised. After was seemed like several minutes, Justine grew so close to the vehicle in front of them, Chase shut his eyes and groaned softly.
However, he didn't not hear the offending crunch of two cars connecting and opened his eyes to see they were cruising down main street, and Chase silently noted that Justine had clearly been making an effort where her driving was concerned.
"How's that?" she asked, smiling over at him while wind blew in through the open window, causing tendrils of her shoulder-length hair to whip about like tree branches in a high gale.
He smiled back and allowed himself to relax, trying to let the moment happen as best as he could.
"It's great," he said, and so in that moment, it was.
As they continued down the street–miraculously avoiding hitting anything or anyone else–Chase felt his stomach rumble uncomfortably.
We're getting old, he thought, as if conversing with himself in his mind. Popcorn and soda are practically nutrition to an eighteen-year-old, but we're thirty now. You'd best be ready to begin rejecting food and to feel constant back pain, Chase old boy.
Sure enough he felt pressure begin to build up in his stomach, and he shifted slightly, attempting to quell and control the air buildup. Hoping to either distract himself, or allow some flow of air in case said distraction failed, Chase rolled his own window down. His hope of distraction failed immediately as the flow of fresh wind in his face caused his thoughts to immediately drift to a whole other type of wind.
It sparked a thought in his brain. In books and movies, relationships were always depicted as this perfect, all-encompassing thing, and the only problem that arose in them was if they were interrupted by an outside force, but real life was messier. In real life, people need to fart. The thought was so perfectly absurd and so incredibly stupid that it made him laugh aloud, regardless of his attempts not too. As his chest shook with the laughter, he couldn't but release the air.
Had the smell been the only evidence of his act, it was entirely possible that he might've gotten away with the act. At the very least, it would've allowed Justine to ignore the act, as if nothing had happened. However, Chase's aging body decided it had no interest in subtlety or stealth and decided to throw noise into the mix.
As the excess air exited him, the sound hit his ears and Chase it was loud enough that Justine could hear it as well. He felt as if all the warmth in his body had just exited him along with the fart. A full second of silence permeated the air around them. Then, Justine started laughing too, waving her hand in front of her nose rapidly.
"Seriously?" she asked, her laughter betraying her use of the word. "What's wrong with you?"
Chase relaxed, her laughter and joking question putting him at ease. So sure, their relationship wasn't some stupid dime-store romance novel, so what? And really, what did the classics know anyway? Romeo and Juliet had died young and dumb in the end.
"At the moment? Upset stomach," he said, a few echoes of his laughter escaping him. "You really need to think better than allowing me popcorn."
"Suddenly I've never been more grateful we sleep in separate rooms. You are ridiculous."
But he knew she didn't mean it. Well… maybe in pieces, but he knew she wasn't upset with him.
About ten minutes later, they pulled into Chase's parking spot, Chase took two deep breaths, working up his nerve.
"See?" said Justine, gesturing at her parking job. "I did just fine."
"Really?" he asked, pointing to the car's position.
"I'm inside the lines!"
"Well… technically you're not over the line. You are on top of it though."
"Please… That's by like, an inch…. at most."
"The neighbors will raise a stink, here I'll fix it."
She tossed the keys to him, rolling her eyes playfully as she did so and Chase re-parked the car, centering the vehicle in the parking space.
"You did good," he said, climbing out. "I'll admit I am considerably more alive than I had predicted."
Justine hummed softly to herself, a habit of hers when she was pleased, and Chase led the way up the stairs into the apartment.
Justine took off her jacket and Chase removed his hoodie, and they placed them on the coat hooks near the front door, while Chase tossed his keys into the bowl on the kitchen counter. Justine pulled her mattress out and began wrapping herself up in the sheet and comforter, resembling a burrito more than a lovely woman. Still, the pure-hearted nature of the image made him smile. So, Chase moved towards her and sat in the large armchair, looking Justine in the eye as she knelt down on the mattress.
"What's up?" she asked, looking up at him curiously.
"I just wanted to say…" he started, and swallowed nervously.
Come on, he urged himself. Just man on up and say it!
"I like you… I mean, I wanted to see if we could maybe have a relationship with one another… a romantic relationship, I mean.
Oh great, he thought sarcastically. James Bond levels of smooth there, Chase.
Justine however, didn't laugh, or appear horrified by his words. Instead, she smiled brightly and he saw her face go slightly pink, which was nothing compared to the intense heat he felt in his own cheeks.
"I'd like that," she said softly, wrapping the blankets even tighter around herself.
"Oh," he said, unsure if he was relieved or surprised.
Whatever it was, it was happy.
"Goodnight Chase."
"Goodnight Justine."