Chase

I grabbed Whitney’s hand and dragged her upwards. “C’mon, Whit! It’s just up here! I swear!” I called, trying to be quiet but yelling in my excitement. She laughed.

“Chase, we have been friends for years and you have never been this excited. What are you going to show me, hmm? Some vent from the stateroom up on the roof? She threw back her head and laughed as I frowned slightly. We were staying at a hotel in Washington DC as part of a class trip. And, yeah, I was dragging her up to the roof, but did that warrant a sarcastic comment? I think not. Anyways, we burst through the door into the bright sunlight and dashed across the roof.

“Does Mrs. Hall know where we are? Because if I get in trouble. . .” Her voice trailed off as we stopped at the edge of the roof. She gasped. “It’s so beautiful! How did you know we could see everything from up here?”

“I guessed.” I said slyly. Actually, I assumed that, since we were just outside the Government District and were up on a little hill, we would see. If I had been wrong, I never would have lived it down. But I had been right. From where we stood, we could see The White House and all the historical buildings around it. Even though our country wasn’t great shakes, seeing the flag flapping innocently over the great behemoth of a building was pretty awe inspiring.

“Good guess.” Whit breathed, and she turned to me. “You know, for a boy, you have a great eye for detail.” I laughed and punched her lightly in the arm. We had been friends for longer than I could remember, nothing more than that. Although, lately, I couldn’t help but notice how pretty she was. . . Shut UP, brain! Stop it! I do not want to be thinking that about her! I swore to myself. I mean, liking her wouldn’t get me anywhere because I was pretty sure she didn’t like me in that way. At least, she hadn’t let on that she did. . . Again, my brain really had to shut up!

We stared at the city for a few minutes before a wind kicked up. It ruffled my dirty-blonde hair and I smiled. Skater hair rocked so much, even if it was a bit shorter than I would have liked. Whitney glanced at me and smiled. The wind was weaving in her brown hair, too. Her blue eyes sparkled with childish delight, even though she was turning sixteen in a couple of months. I blinked slightly. I would be turning sixteen after her. Great, more months of ‘I’m older than you are!’. Joy.

I decided to break the silence with a witty remark. “And over here. . .” I said, turning Whit so she was facing one of the huge vents around us. “Is the vent that leads down to the stateroom.” She giggled.

“Oh, you.” she said finally, and then turned away from me, pointing up into the sky with a frown on her face. “What’s that, Chase? It looks. . .bad.”

I followed her finger to a high, dark cloud. It was billowing up from the south at a terrible speed, and, every so often, you could see a flash of lightning and hear a grumble of thunder.

“It looks like a storm is moving in. We should head back inside.” I said, grabbing her arm and starting to drag her back to the door. She batted my hand away, eyes locked on the cloud.

“Chase?”

“Whit, come on! We really have to go now!” I said, eyeing the cloud. It was almost on top of us. She stayed where she was. I shrugged and ran to the door, trying to fling it open. It wouldn’t come. I felt Whit run to my side and she gave me a worried look.

“It’s locked, isn’t it?” she asked in a hushed voice. I nodded and she stepped back. She paced for a minute and jumped at every blast of thunder.

“Whit, we need to find shelter. Like, now.” I said. She ignored me. The wind picked up, really whipping by us. I glanced at The White House and saw the flag thrashing back in forth like a whip. “Whitney? Really, we really have to go. Now.”

“Chase!” Her voice sounded frightened, a high pitched shriek of dismay. The wind began to howl as the storm barreled over us.

“Shit!” I yelled, running foreword to grab Whit. I dragged her behind a vent, the one I had been joking about minutes before. Her hair flew madly behind her, her eyes wide and scared.

“Chase!” she screamed as a bolt of lightning struck the roof in front of us. We covered our eyes as loose shrapnel flew everywhere. Whitney hid her head in her arms, whimpering softly. I chanced a glance over the top of the vent and almost joined her. I could see the wall of rain coming, and then it hit us. The stuff was almost flying horizontally, the wind was so ferocious. It hurt so much when it hit your bare skin, and breathing was like breathing underwater. After a few minutes of torture, the rain stopped. But, if it were possible, the wind blew even harder.

“Duck!” I yelled as the vent was torn off of the roof. We both threw ourselves to the ground, spread out next to each other. We dug our hands into the roof, feeling the wind pluck at us with greedy fingers. I felt for Whitney’s hand and gave it an encouraging squeeze. She turned and met my eyes in surprise, trying to smile, but I saw the terror that lurked just below the surface.

“What are we going to do?” she said, mouthed, rather, as the wind tore her words away before I could hear them.

“Hold on tight.” I said, mouthed, whatever, back to her. She closed her eyes and tightened her grasp on the asphalt roof. I looked at her shaking form and decided to take a huge chance. I carefully lifted an arm and put it around her shoulders, pressing her further into the roof. Unable to take the wind anymore, I closed my eyes and ducked my head into the ground.

Just as suddenly as it had started, the wind died away. I looked up in a mixture of fear and surprise, soaking wet and about as bedraggled as you can get. I stood, then helped Whitney stand. She stood there, shaking like a leaf, hugging her arms close to her body.

“What happened, Chase?”

“I really don’t know.” I replied, and looked up. The cloud was still hanging ominously over our heads, blocking almost all the light from filtering through, giving the world a gray, defeated look.

“Chase?” Whitney said quietly, staring into the distance. I followed her gaze and almost curled up in a ball of defeat. A wall of bright light was rushing at us, faster than I could have thought possible.

“What the heck?” I managed to mutter before it was upon us. Whit and I both started screaming in the same instant, voices joining in a strange harmony. I lifted my arms up, trying to protect my face from the intensely white light. It screeched around us, burning hot to the touch. It moved ever foreword, never slowing to accommodate for the shrieking figures in it’s depths. I remember reaching out, fighting against the extreme resistance that made up the light, to grasp Whitney’s hand in my own. And then I blacked out.

---

You know what people say about how your life flashes before your eyes? That’s what started happening to me, or something of that notion. The images started in about third grade, the year I met Whitney. . .

I was at a stupid Christmas party, one of the ones where your parents go off and leave you with a bunch of kids you don’t know or really want to know. Mommy had just plunked me down in the corner and then gone off with Daddy, giggling. I cast a look over the others in the play room, and sighed. They were all laughing and having fun, but no one was coming up to me to ask if I wanted to play. Selfish meany poo bottomed mommy loving cry babies. . .

“Hi.” I looked up, startled out of my string of mean names. There was a girl standing over me, in a little green and red dress with curly brown hair.

“Hi.” I said finally. She smiled.

“Can I sit down?”

“Don’t see why not. It’s not like I own the floor or anything.” I grumbled. I really wanted her to go away, but Mommy said that I had to be a good little boy tonight, and that included letting people sit down next to me.

“Ha ha. You’re funny.” she said sarcastically, then sat down next to me. I turned and looked at her. She had really pretty blue eyes, and seemed as if she knew it.

“My name’s Chase.” I said finally. She hid a smile.

“Mine’s Whitney. What kinda name is Chase?” I looked away. Everyone teased me about my name. Why did my stupid parents have to give me such a stupid name in the first place?

“I dunno.” I murmured. Whitney kind of made a double take and sighed.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like it was a bad name. I think it’s cool.” she said quietly. I looked up in surprise.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“For truth and ever and in richer or poorer and all of that stuff?”

“For truth and ever and in richer or poorer and all of that stuff.”

“You sure? ‘Cuz everyone else says it’s a dumb name.” Whitney smiled.

“Well, I like it. And that’s final.”

“Really?” I asked, smiling and laughing.

“Don’t you start that again!” she yelped, and then laughed. “You’re funny! I like you! Let’s be friends for ever, okay?”

I thought about that for a second before saying, “Okay.”

And the rest is history. Whit and I have been friends for ever, ever since that day.

Well, that was as far as my flashback got, because I woke up right then. And it really wasn’t pretty.

---

A/N: Please review, and I want true opinions. I will try to update about once a week, but, depending on the mood my teachers are in, it may stray to two weeks.