Free Nobody Girl by Leslie Dubois Page B

of a chance of exposure. If Chase wanted to get her into trouble he would have done it long ago. And as he stated at the club, he didn’t want anyone to know about their relationship. It would be bad for his “image.”
     
    She thought about the two completely different people she had encountered, C.J. and Chase. Maybe Chase was the real him after all. He was just trying to keep up this C.J. image for his classmates.  She had the freedom to just be her nerdy self. She decided she needed to help him. She had to show him that it was much easier to be yourself than who people wanted you to be. And she knew just how to do it.
     

Chapter 9
     
    Most of the homecoming dance at the Capitol Hilton went off without incident.  There were, of course, three or four students Delia had to send home in a taxi because they had shown up intoxicated and the obligatory fight between two best girlfriends that ended in tears, but that was to be expected. She would deal with a million hysterically crying girls if it meant she didn’t have to talk to Chase/C.J. 
     
    But then, thirty minutes before the dance ended, just when she thought she would make it through the night without seeing him, he entered … no, swaggered into the room with a girl on each arm. He was too cool to wear a suit, so he had on a tuxedo jacket with jeans and a dark blue T-shirt that matched his eyes exactly.  He made no attempt to control his hair, but that only added to his I’m -too-sexy-to-care look which made him even sexier.
     
    Chase scanned the room until he found what he was looking for or, rather, who he was looking for.  He released his two lady friends, walked straight up to Delia and said, “You look beautiful.”  Delia sneezed three times, causing Chase’s lips to curve up into a sly grin.  He knew what effect he was having on her.
     
    “It’s Ms. Clark to you,” she said as she took her allergy medication out of her purse and swallowed two more pills. She briefly wondered how many she had taken that day.
     
    “How many of those have you had tonight?” he said with a concerned look in his eyes.
     
    “Why?”
     
    “Well, I’ve seen what two glasses of wine does to you.  Taking too many of those pills could have the same effect.”  Delia sneezed again.  How dare he bring that up?  She couldn’t help but think of her embarrassing underwear comment and the events that happened after.
     
    “Do you want to dance?”
     
    “I don’t think that would be appropriate,” she said even though earlier that same night she had joined her students on the dance floor for a fast song. 
     
    ***
     
    “Well, it’s good to see you,” he said after drinking her in with his eyes for a while.  She really did look good.  As he stared at her in her emerald cocktail dress that made her eyes sparkle, he couldn’t help but wonder if she was wearing underwear.
     
    As the dance winded down, Chase noticed that Delia was a little unsteady on her feet.  He followed her as she made her way out of the hotel and toward the parking lot and he was there to catch her when she tripped on her heel and almost fell to the ground.
     
    “I’m taking you home,” he said as he placed his arm around her waist and helped her up.
     
    “What are you doing?  Don’t touch me.”  She tried to swat him away, but found that she actually needed him to keep her balance.  “What’s wrong with me?” Delia asked as she clung to him.
     
    “Dan emptied his flask into the punch. The alcohol is reacting with your allergy medication and … ”   He didn’t need to finish his sentence because Delia passed out.
     
    ***
     
    She woke up two hours later, not completely aware of what had happened.  She recognized her apartment and the fact that she was still wearing her dress, but she had no memory of how she got there.  Then she saw Chase sitting in the corner of the room.
     
    “What happened?”  Her voice was hoarse and her throat dry.  She felt like she