Free Worth the Chase by J. L. Beck

have a slight nagging in the back of my head that says take her and make her yours, but I’m not as dumb as you are. The line was drawn in the sand far before I came along. That and she’s a freshman, and I’m a senior who lucked up and got a TA position. I can’t, nor will I fuck that up.” He seemed composed with his decision, but I knew my brother better than anyone. If a Winchester wanted something− anything, they always went for it, no matter the consequences.
    “I was born to break the rules, Chance.” My words slurred, and I realized I truly was drunk off my ass.
    “Believe me, I know.” He laughed my comment off, heading towards the kitchen to get me something to eat. I stumbled into the living room, flopping myself onto the leather sofa.
    Time seemed to drift in and out, my thoughts circling around Gia as if she wasn’t the one person I thought about all the time.
    You seriously could call it a sick obsession, a fascination, a glorious need to claim her as my own, whatever the fuck you wanted to call it, but I called it hunger, a desire to have her as my own.
    “Eat this, and then go to bed.” Chance ordered, placing a sandwich on a plate in my lap. I eyed it, wondering if he had poisoned it. Eventually, hunger got the best of me and I took a bite, eating it all until it was gone.
    “Don’t regret being a dick when you wake up in the morning. She shouldn’t have used you and then played that friend card when she got what she wanted,” Chance said as he got up leaving me to myself.
    I settled further into the couch, knowing that he was right. I felt used. The same way I had made others feel. It was like a never ending circle for me. I don’t know if God wanted to give me a large dose of karma, or if he felt that waving Gia in front of me was a good idea, but either way I was going to turn into the devil because of her.
    She was the one temptation that I wanted more than anything.
     

“I’m pretty sure he hates me,” I whispered to myself. I wasn’t moaning or crying over Chase. Or the fact that I had done the very thing I knew I would do by telling him to pretend to be my boyfriend.
    I had ruined us before we ever began. I knew that he wanted more, hell I wanted more. I craved his body, his touch, his kisses, and the way he moaned my name, but I knew better than to jump ship with him. He was a playboy, one day he would get tired of me and bam, someone new would be brought in replacing me.
    Yet, I couldn’t stay away from him. I sat downstairs for hours, watching him sleep knowing that it was the closest I could get to him without him walking away. Sometime in the late hours of the night I headed upstairs, afraid that if I fell asleep down here he would wake up and freak out, but also wondering if he dreamed about me like I did him.
    It had been a month since we actually talked, every chance I got to speak to him he blew me off and I understood why, but it didn’t mean that it hurt any less. I wasn’t going to give up, though, I just didn’t know what it was that I could say to him to make him understand. Saying too much gave way to my real feelings, and saying too little didn’t tell him enough.
    As I sat at the island in the kitchen pushing my frosted flakes around before class, I realized I needed to say something to him as soon as I could, and by fate he came rushing down the stairs. His hair was wet and all over the place. His body stiff and full of pent up aggression. His eyes zeroed in on me, as he went the long way around to enter the kitchen.
    “Morning,” I greeted him and he grunted in return. Not even a smile or a look passed to me. Instead he kept his back to me as he got the items he wanted from the fridge. I stared for a moment before dropping my spoon into my bowl, causing a loud clank to fill the room.
    I was so over being ignored and treated like dirt.
    Without thought I got up from my seat and made my way over to him, gripping his arm and forcing him to face me. His