**Hello! I hope y'all didn't think I was dead! It has been over a year. I tried writing this a few months ago, but I suppose I have been going through a period with no inspiration and motivation. Terrible combination.

ANYWAYS, it has been a quite a long time since I've written something decent. I'm a bit rusty, so forgive me if this chapter reflects just that.

Enjoy! :) **

Chapter 19

I woke up to see the sun shining unusually bright outside. I must have woken up late. It didn't surprise me, as I was rather tired from the day before. I had forgotten how tiring vomiting involuntarily could be.

I could feel my stomach crying for food. I wasn't sure if I should eat or not. Would I just throw it back up? All I knew was that I was so hungry that it hurt. So, I got up and grabbed the box of crackers I had the night before. That would hold me off until I found a real meal. I thought about why I had thrown up in the first place. It was too bad I had to throw up a meal that Chase really tried to make perfect for me. I suppose it's the thought that counts.

I got dressed and started my regular routine of tending to my crops. The yam and spinach plants looked green and healthy. It made me excited for when they will be ready to harvest. I could already hear Luke cheering about the freshly grown spinach. I watered the crops and headed for the barn to feed Giselle.

"You're growing so much, girl!" I said to her as I brushed her fur.

Giselle kept her eyes closed while she enjoyed the brushing. If she were a cat, I am confident she would be purring.

"Hey, Molly! Are you here?" I heard someone shout from outside. It sounded like Chase.

"I'm in the barn!" I shouted back.

Chase came into the barn and pinched his nose. "It stinks in here."

"Yeah, you get used to it though. So, what are you doing here?"

He ran his hand through his peachy blonde hair. "I wanted to make sure you weren't still sick and throwing up."

I smiled. "Oh, thank you! You didn't have to do that. I feel a lot better. I'm just hungry now. Do you want to get breakfast with me?"

"Umm, I would, but it's almost 2 o'clock," he said with a laugh.

"I knew I woke up late, but I didn't realize I slept for that long!"

"Want to make lunch at my house?

"Sure!"

We walked and talked on the way to his house, where we made sandwiches with some fresh red apples. Although I was hesitant, Chase convinced me to put a little turkey meat in my sandwich. Apparently, Dr. Jin said that eating a little at a time should help my body get used to the idea of digesting meat. I put two very thin slices on my sandwich and ate it. The turkey definitely did make it tastier. I just hoped that it would stay in my stomach.

"So, I was thinking…" I said.

Chase spoke before taking a bite of his sandwich. "What were you thinking?"

"I'd like to use those tickets to go to the mainland some time this week. It would be fun." I lifted up my hat to show my blonde roots showing below the brown. "Plus, I need to go soon."

"Let's go. Pascal just got back in last night. We could leave tomorrow. I would just need to warn Hayden that I would be gone. It'll take about three days just to get there, so we can definitely count on being gone for about a week."

"I guess I should make sure Luke and Bo know that as well. Hopefully Luke's father will be okay with it."

"I hope he isn't."

"Don't say that! Luke and Bo were really excited when I gave them those tickets. I would hate for them not to be able to go."

Chase sighed. "You're so sweet, Molly. It's really killing me."

After lunch, I decided to head over to Garmon Mines to talk to Luke and Bo. Chase decided not to go; he figured that since he would be spending a week with Luke soon, he might as well enjoy some peace and quiet while he could.

I found Luke and Bo outside the carpentry, chopping wood while Luke's father supervised.

Luke looked over Bo's shoulder and pointed towards me. "Look, Molly's come to visit us!"

"How did you know I was coming to see you two?" I asked.

"Because everyone else here is lame!" Luke said proudly with a loud laugh.

"Knock it off, boy," Luke's father grunted.

"What'd I do this time?" Luke said, getting irritated.

"Anyways," I quickly intervened, "I know this is short notice, but I wanted to ask something."

"What is it?" Bo asked.

I told them about wanting to go to the mainland the next day and how it would be about a week until we got back. Luke and Bo immediately responded by begging Luke's father to let them go for a week.

"Please, Boss! Just one week!" Bo pleaded.

"C'mon, Pops! We'll make up the work when we get back!" Luke added. He even dramatically got on his knees and seemed to try force himself to cry.

Luke's father glanced over at me and said, "Okay, but you boys need to work your butts off until you leave."

They cheered and jumped up and down. I couldn't keep count of how many times they said "thank you." Luke looked like he was ready to kiss his father's muddy boots.

Luke and Bo asked me to walk with them to Fugue Forest, where they would most likely spend the rest of their day doing nothing but gathering lumber. I didn't mind; I needed to go to Flute Fields anyways to talk to Renee and Anissa about watching over the farm while I was gone. When I talked to both of them, they said they would help me out in return for a souvenir from the mainland. I also offered to pay them what I could for their troubles. It was really the least I could do considering they would be doing a week's worth of work for me.

I walked around the area to gather some plants and herbs to sell before heading down to the bar for dinner. I wasn't too hungry when I got there, so I ordered a salad.

"Luke and Bo can go to the mainland," I announced to Chase.

"Hayden said I can go too," he said.

"Yay! Now we can just go tomorrow!"

Chase smirked. "You're really excited about this."

"Of course! It'll be like a road trip, but with a boat!"

"Aren't you worried about somebody out there recognizing you? Maybe people on the mainland know you're missing and looking for you."

"Yeah, I guess so…" I pondered the idea for a while. I really had no idea if my parents had search parties out there, besides Bryce and his crew. I sighed exasperatedly. "I think my life would be a whole lot easier if I didn't have parents that wanted to find me."

He shot a look. "You know, you should probably be a little more grateful that they are trying to find you."

"I'd rather they not try find me."

"No offense, but you're coming off as a bit selfish right now."

I couldn't believe he had just told me that. Usually, I was told the complete opposite. I had never had someone provoke me like that in my life. Frankly, I did not like it. I was not going to hesitate though. I was done trying to filter or take back what I feel to make other people happy. "Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I do take offense to that," I hissed.

"Well, that's too bad," he muttered. He looked like he didn't want to look at me.

"Yep, too bad." I reached in my pocket and grabbed some money. I slapped it on the counter. "Keep the change."

I walked out after that. It probably seemed very dramatic of me, but I didn't care. When I got home, I hastily went to bed. It was hard to sleep knowing that I was mad and that Chase was most likely still mad as well. I took the next few sleepless hours to lie in bed and reflect.

I had never been mad at Chase before. In fact, there weren't very many times in my life that I had been angry with anybody at all. I suppose I had always been too afraid to get angry. Anger led to outbursts, which would have definitely made my parents look bad. I cannot even imagine what my parents would do if I embarrassed them the way Whitney Wells would to her parents practically on a routine basis. Ship me to boarding school? Disown me? When I started thinking of it that way, I almost considered having angry outbursts to be the solution to my old problem.

But why did Chase and I have this little clash? All I said was that my life would be easier if my parents didn't want to find me. We both knew for a fact that that was true. If they weren't looking for me, I wouldn't have to worry so much about covering my tracks or getting caught. I could live a normal life on Castanet Island where I don't have to keep secrets from everybody that I know. Why would he call me ungrateful for that? I didn't understand until it hit me.

Chase is an orphan. An orphan.

I sat up in bed and let that explain every reaction Chase had during our fight. I buried my face in my hands. I could not believe what I had done. No wonder why he snapped at me for being ungrateful.

I felt so terrible, so guilty. I considered the idea of him not wanting to talk to me after that careless remark I made. I would not have blamed him; however, the idea of that hurt. It made my chest painfully tighten and made me want to cry. The one time I decide to think selfishly, I lose someone that I really like.

I hurried out of bed and tripped over the furniture looking for my shoes. I looked at the clock. I still had time to catch him walking home from the bar. I needed to apologize. I didn't know what else I could do.

I opened my front door and was shocked when I saw Chase ten feet away from my door. He was walking to my house. Why is he here? Shouldn't he be upset with me right now?

I didn't know what to say. The fact that I was looking at him while knowing what I had said made me feel even worse. It was hard to hold back the urge to burst into guilt-ridden tears.

"H-Hi…" I said.

"Hey," Chase said, looking down to the ground, scratching the back of his head. He didn't look angry at all; he looked sad and awkward more than anything. "It didn't feel right planning on going to bed tonight, knowing that you were probably mad at me."

He thought I was still mad at him.

I couldn't hold it in anymore. I rushed to wrap my arms around him and let the tears come out. "I'm so sorry!" I said into his chest.

I didn't feel his body react very quickly to my embrace. I imagine my crying all over him made him a little uncomfortable. My cries were starting to hiccup.

After a few seconds, Chase finally started to react and gently put his arms around me. "Shhh, calm down," he said while softly rubbing my back. "It was only an argument. It's really no big deal. No need to get so emotional as if…" He cut himself off and sighed. He continued to rub my back in an effort to soothe me.

I calmed down enough to lift my head up from his chest to look him in the face. "I thought that you might not want to talk to me anymore," I said. He reached into one of his pockets for a handkerchief. He gave it to me, and I wiped my face while uttering a small "thank you." When I finished, I took notice of how close we were to each other; we still had our arms around each other and our faces were only a few inches apart. I did not want to move, and I hoped that he felt the same.

Chase shook his head. "That wouldn't happen. To be honest, I look forward to seeing you every day."

"You do?" I thought I was the only one.

His face began to turn red. "Well…yeah."

At this point, it was impossible to ignore how close we were and how fast my heart was starting to beat. His face was slowly getting closer as he watched me with careful eyes, as if to ask if it was okay. I did the same thing and inched closer. I knew what was happening. I was nervous, but I wanted every part of it.

Chase closed the small gap between us and pressed his lips onto mine. They were thin and surprisingly softer than I would have imagined. I felt him smile, and he went in deeper. I brought my hands up so that I could run my hands through his hair. His hands ran down to my waist. I did not want this to stop. This is what writers were talking about when they wrote about "sparks flying" during a kiss.

We slowed down for a minute and stopped to look at each other. His violet eyes were much more beautiful up close.

Chase was the one that exhibited self-control when he said, "We have to get up early tomorrow."

I took my hands out from the back of his head. I actually wanted him to stay a little longer, but I was too embarrassed to say it. "Y-Yeah, you're right."

He saw that his hands were still on my waist and awkwardly brought them back to his side. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, good night. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," I said, slowly backing up to my doorstep. "Good night."

I went inside and closed the door behind me. I felt that I had to give my brain a few minutes to process the last ten minutes. Now I definitely wasn't going to fall asleep.

** This chapter was a bit short compared to how long I usually write my chapters, but I wanted to start their journey to the mainland in the next chapter. I wrote this all in one night (although I did stay up quite late to finish it).

So, I want to take this time to thank the people that have kept encouraging me to keep writing and update. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT, GUYS! I can't believe after all this time, you still want to know what will happen to Molly and Chase! I knew I had some loyal readers, but WOW. Seriously, thank you.

It did help with my motivation a little and reminded that I had left something unfinished. If you follow my other stories, you know that there are some others of mine that are unfinished. I will get to them as I can, but for now I would like to focus my energy on finishing this story here.

This story is almost finished guys!

I'll see y'all next chapter! :) **