Chasing Chance: Gilcrest University Guys Book One Read online

  Chasing Chance

  Gilcrest University Guys

  Book One

  M.E. Parker

  Table of Contents

  About Chasing Chance

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgement

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  A Note from the Author

  About Chasing Chance

  There are moments in your life that become part of you. They become so ingrained in your memory that you can’t let them go, no matter how hard you try. Some may seem small and insignificant when they happen. Others are so big and important that you know, even while you’re in the moment, that your life will be forever changed. For me, almost all those moments—both the small and insignificant as well as the big and important—were moments I shared with Chance Wyrick.

  If I were in a support group for hopelessly pathetic gays, I’d have to introduce myself by saying, “Hi, I’m Andy Michaelson and I can’t stop myself from thinking about Chance Wyrick.”

  From the time we met, when we were only six years old, and for the next twelve years, he was my best friend. I fell in love with him along the way. I couldn’t say exactly when it happened, only that it happened.

  Words of advice:

  Never fall in love with your best friend, especially if he’s one of the most popular kids at school, the best high school quarterback in the state, or if he happens to be your next-door neighbor.

  But most of all…

  Never, I repeat never, fall in love with your best friend if he’s straight. Nothing good can come of it. Trust me.

  Our friendship was over before we finished our last year of high school. My best friend became my ex-best friend. I hoped to forget about him when I went off to college. But Chance followed me there. So did all the memories.

  I tried to forget him. I did. But he was more beautiful than ever. He was the starting quarterback for Gilcrest University. He was larger than life. He was impossible to ignore. We hadn’t spoken in years, but the memories still hit me out of nowhere, and they still hurt.

  By the time I started my third year at Gilcrest, I was beginning to think I’d never be over him.

  As it turns out, I was right…

  Chasing Chance is the first book in the Gilcrest University Guys series. It’s a full-length, “friends to lovers” romance novel. It has “coming out” and “first-time gay” themes, is stocked full of STEAM, heartache, and laughter, and it has a guaranteed happy ending. The series will follow the love stories of four college friends. Chasing Chance is the first of two books that will tell Andy and Chance’s love story. Look for book two, Catching Chance, to come out next month!

  THIS BOOK IS FOR ADULT READERS ONLY.

  Copyright

  Chasing Chance

  Copyright © 2019 M.E. Parker

  [email protected]

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to an actual person, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original publisher only.

  Copyright and Trademark Acknowledgement

  The author acknowledges the copyright and trademarked status and trademark owners of the trademarks and copyrights mentioned in this work of fiction.

  Dedication

  For Joey.

  Acknowledgement

  Thanks so much to Amber with Exemplary Editing for all her hard work on this book. Thanks to Amy, Jenn, and Sarah for beta reading this story at the last minute and for providing valuable feedback. And, most of all, thanks to all the readers out there who continue to support my writing!

  prologue

  Andy

  There are moments in your life that become part of you. They become so ingrained in your memory that you can’t let them go, no matter how hard you try. Some moments may seem small and insignificant when they happen. Others are so big and important that you know, even while you’re in the moment, that your life will be forever changed. For me, almost all those moments—both the small and insignificant as well as the big and important—were moments I shared with Chance Wyrick.

  There was a little park across the street from my campus apartment. I liked to go there sometimes to clear my mind. Especially in the mornings. I liked to sit on one of the park benches, take in the fresh air, drink coffee, and think about stuff.

  As I took a seat on my favorite bench, I thought about how the weather was warm for a November morning in Gilcrest, North Carolina. There wasn’t much to the small college town where I lived. But still, after nearly three years, I’d come to love the place. It felt a bit like home to me, even though home was really Wytheville, another small town in North Carolina, three hours northeast of Gilcrest. Aside from Wytheville and Gilcrest being small towns in North Carolina, the two had nothing in common. In fact, they should be located on different planets, as far as I was concerned.

  I closed my eyes and let my head fall back. I relished the warmth of the sun on my face. I heard a dog bark in the distance and opened my eyes to find a puppy bounding across the grass in front of me. Its owner, a cute brunette with short hair and a big smile, laughed and ran as the little dog chased her across the park. My heart skipped a beat as I studied the little dog.

  It’s funny how memories hit you, I thought. Tiny flashes of your life that used to be buried somewhere deep inside you suddenly appear from nowhere. The puppy. It reminded me of hot summer days. It reminded me of home. It reminded me of my twelve-year-old self. It reminded me of Chance Wyrick.

  It was a Saturday morning in the middle of summer. I stood in our kitchen, staring into the open refrigerator. It was the third time I’d done it in the past hour. I’d had breakfast, so I wasn’t particularly hungry. I was mostly bored.

  “Andy, honey, close the refrigerator. Why don’t you go out in the backyard and play? Get outside and get some fresh air. It’s a beautiful day,” my mom called out from the living room. That was Mom code for "Get outta here. You’re driving me crazy.” Even at twelve years old, I knew that.

  I looked at the clock on the microwave before I ran out the back door—9:33 a.m. Too early for Chance to be awake on a Saturday, I thought. I’d be lucky if he was up before eleven. I picked up a stick and threw it across the backyard. I kicked another on the ground in front of me before I slowly made my way towards the treehouse. That’s when I heard it. The grass rustled first, followed by a high-pitched noise.

  I stopped in my tracks and frantically searched for the source of the noise. I finally spotted him, sitting in the grass, just a few feet away from the treehouse. He looked me right in the eye and let out a little yelp.

  “Hey, buddy,
” I said in the most soothing voice I could muster. “It’s okay. Are you lost?” He looked at me and cocked his head as I slowly walked towards him. I wanted to run, but I didn’t want to scare him away. When I finally reached him, I held out my hand. He sniffed it and let out a loud bark. As soon as I took my hand away, he whined. I dropped to my knees and patted his little head. “Oh my gosh, you’re so cute. Where’d you come from? Are you lost?” He jumped up and licked my face and I fell in love.

  I studied him for a second. His fur was short and white, but he had a big tan spot on his back that wrapped around his belly. His ears were floppy. One was completely tan with a little white spot on the bottom; the other was completely white, with one tan spot in the center. He also had two tan spots just above his forehead. Iquickly discovered that he liked it when I scratched them.

  Normally, I wouldn’t wake Chance early on a Saturday morning, but I considered the situation an emergency. I quickly climbed the rungs of the ladder to the treehouse. I didn’t go all the way inside, on account of the fact that the puppy was standing at the bottom of the ladder crying. I scrambled through the treasure box that Chance and I had stored in the corner until I found the walkie-talkie. I didn’t even bother climbing back down, I just jumped.

  I put the puppy in my lap and used one hand to lavish him with attention and the other to turn on the walkie-talkie.

  “Chance, come in.” I prayed he left his turned on the night before. “Chance, come in.” I let go of the button. “Chance, do you copy?” I let go of the button again. When he didn’t answer, I frowned and pressed the button again. “Chance, come in. Do you copy? Emergency.”

  “Andy?” Chance answered in a grumpy voice.

  “Come to the window, now.”

  “What’s the emergency?” he rasped.

  “Come to the window, now!” I demanded.

  As soon as I heard the window open, I picked up the puppy and ran around to the other side of the treehouse. I looked up to Chance’s window. He was standing there, rubbing his eyes.

  “Andy?”

  “Down here,” I called out.

  He turned his head until he found me. “What’s the emergency?”

  I lifted the puppy in the air with both hands, and he let out a little yelp. “Oh my gosh, where’d you get him?”

  “I found him. I think he’s lost, or a stray or something. Get some food and a bowl of water and meet me in the treehouse.”

  He didn’t respond. He just slammed the window shut. He showed up about three minutes later. He had a granola bar for himself, several slices of American cheese, some ham, a bottle of water, and one of his mother’s good bowls. She’s gonna kill him, I thought.

  I poured some water in the bowl and we watched him happily lap it up. “Where do you think he came from?” he asked as he petted one of the puppy’s ears.

  “I don’t know. It was like he was just waiting for me out by the treehouse.”

  “He doesn’t have a collar,” Chance said, petting the puppy’s back as it settled down for a nap beside the water bowl.

  “Maybe your mom will let you keep him?” he asked, looking up at me with hope in his eyes.

  I shook my head. “No way. Dad’s allergic.”

  “Maybe we could talk your mom into letting you keep him?” I asked, with very low expectations.

  Chance looked dejected. “It won’t work. I’ve been trying for years. She says we’re not home enough to have an inside dog and we can’t have an outside dog because we don’t have a fence.”

  We spent the next couple of hours coming up with a completely unfeasible plan to keep the puppy. It involved building a ramp from the treehouse window down to the ground, so that the dog could come and go freely from his new home, which, of course, would be the treehouse. It also involved somehow keeping the puppy a secret from our parents.

  After we decided we had come up with the perfect plan, I looked at Chance. The puppy was asleep on his lap. “We have to name him.”

  “Gabe,” Chance said, without even thinking about it.

  I furrowed my brow. “Why Gabe?”

  Chance shrugged. “After Roman Gabriel.” He said it like I was supposed to know who he was talking about. I shook my head. “Quarterback. Played for NC State. First round draft pick.”

  “I have absolutely no idea who you’re talking about.”

  “Come on. Played for the Rams? NFL player of the year, 1969.”

  I snorted. “Oh my gosh, 1969? You know more useless facts about football than anyone I’ve ever met.”

  Chance furrowed his brow before a slow smile crept across his face. “It’s better than memorizing the periodic table for no good reason.”

  Laughing, I playfully pushed his shoulder. “Agree to disagree?”

  Later that day, we pooled our money and Chance rode his bike to the store and returned with a small bag of Puppy Chow, and a toy that was basically a rope with a tennis ball on the end. We spent the rest of the day playing with Gabe, stopping only for lunch and dinner. My mom was happy to send our meals out to us in the form of a picnic, which we ate in the treehouse, while Gabe took turns scavenging from both of our plates.

  By the time the sun set, I fully believed that Chance and I were the proud new owners of a little tan-and-white puppy named Gabe. By nightfall, Chance and I were lying shoulder to shoulder in our sleeping bags. Gabe was snuggled between us, snoring.

  The next thing I knew, my whole world was falling apart.

  “Andy,” my mother called up to the treehouse. I quickly looked at Chance who was hastily hiding Gabe in his sleeping bag.

  I jumped up and looked through the door down at my mother. “Yeah?”

  “Do you boys have a dog up there?”

  It was the moment of truth. I seriously considered lying, but I couldn’t make myself do it.

  “Yeah.”

  She frowned. “He belongs to Mrs. Johnson. She just knocked at the front door, wondering if we’d seen him. Come on. Bring it around to the front porch.”

  “Wait! What? No! She can’t have him. She doesn’t take care of him. I found him in our yard this morning. She hasn’t looked for him all day. We can’t let him go back there. We can’t. She won’t take good care of him. Please, Mom.” I’d never felt so much desperation in my life.

  Mom’s voice softened. “Andy, they just got home. They’ve been gone all day. They left the puppy in a crate on the back porch. He must have gotten out.”

  I shook my head. “You’re just proving my point.”

  Her voice grew firmer. “Andy, he doesn’t belong to you.” I wanted to argue, but I knew it would be for nothing.

  Somehow, I managed to return Gabe to Mrs. Johnson without crying. The worst of it was, the dog didn’t even belong to her, he belonged to her niece, who would pick him up the next day. We’d never see him again.

  As soon as I got back into my sleeping bag, I couldn’t stop myself from crying. It was dark. I tried not to make any noise. It wasn’t cool for a twelve-year-old kid to cry. I didn’t want Chance to know. He propped himself up on his elbow.

  “Andy, are you crying?” he whispered.

  I shook my head and furiously wiped my tears away. “Don’t tell anyone, okay?”

  He looked down at me. The light from the moon streamed through the window of the treehouse. His big brown eyes were watery. He put his hand on my chest. “I promise. Someday, I’ll get you another dog just like Gabe.” I didn’t know why, but I believed him.

  As I stared up at him, I thought about something I’d never thought about before. I thought about kissing Chance. It was a startling thought. I’d never thought about kissing anyone—not even a girl. I’d never even liked a girl. But I liked Chance. I liked the way he looked. I liked everything about him. I quickly turned over in my sleeping bag and pretended to fall asleep.

  But I couldn’t sleep. All I could think about was the beginning of the summer. A car ride home with my parents after church. My parents were quiet that Sunday. Mom
finally turned around and smiled at me. “Andy, did you listen to Pastor Wyrick’s sermon today?”

  I slowly shook my head, hoping I wasn’t in trouble. “I tried.” That was a lie. I was playing hangman with Chance.

  “It’s okay if you didn’t, baby. Dad and I were just wondering if you had any questions about it.”

  “No? What was it about?” I seriously had no idea.

  Dad cleared his throat. “Well, as you get older, you might start liking girls or you might start liking boys. But either is okay. There are men who fall in love with men. There are women who fall in love with women. And, of course, sometimes men and women fall in love, like your mom and me, but God loves everyone, no matter who they love.”

  I was still confused. “Are you talking about gay people?”

  Mom laughed. “Yes.”

  “Is that what Pastor Wyrick’s sermon was about?”

  Dad answered. “Yes, but Mom and I wanted you to know that we didn’t agree with Pastor Wyrick today. We just wanted you to understand the truth. God loves everyone, no matter who they love.”

  “Duh,” I responded. They both laughed. I didn’t really understand why it was funny. I’d heard Pastor Wyrick say that God loves everyone thousands of times.

  As I laid there next to Chance, pretending to sleep, remembering the conversation I’d had with my parents, I wondered for the first time if I was gay.

  My phone vibrated in my pocket, startling me from my thoughts. I opened my eyes and sat up straighter on the park bench. I was surprised when I looked at my watch. It was time for me to head to class. I’d been on that bench much longer than I’d thought. I searched the park for the puppy. It was gone.

  I sighed and pulled out my phone. It had been years since I’d thought about Gabe, just like it had been years since I’d thought about that night with Chance. I shook my head.

  I saw I had a text from Mark. He wanted me to meet him that night for drinks at Wild Orchid. I have no interest, I have a test tomorrow. That’s what I wanted to text him. But, instead, I replied with: Sounds good. I’m a good boyfriend, and good boyfriends know how to compromise.