Perhaps the worst is that I ever let you go.....

Chase stood at the top of the stairs and raised an eyebrow as he watched his girlfriend get up from the floor and walk to his new dorm room. He had no idea what was going on or why she'd been sitting on the floor, but he knew whatever it was it couldn't be good. He was soaking wet as well, having forgot his umbrella in his first class. "Have you lost your mind?" He joked, not realizing that moments ago she'd been bawling her eyes out in the palms of her hands on the floor. The fact that she'd been getting up off the floor when he'd finished climbing the stairs, should have alerted him that she'd been having a moment of pure distress, but his head was buzzing with a new recipe he wanted to try. "I didn't think I'd ever see the day when you'd sit soaking wet on the dirty floor." He put his arm around her shoulder, the grocery bag bumping gently against her shoulder. "Hey..." He still hadn't noticed that she was upset, he assumed the tears on her cheeks, were simply rain water.

Chase grinned when shewrapped her arms around him and it grew steadily as she kissed him frantically. When she pulled away he set the grocery bags on the floor and pulled her into a brief hug, kissing her on the mouth. "If you'd called or sent me a text, I never would have witnessed you sitting on the floor." He pecked her on the lips and released her so he could grab the bags and open the door. "Is everything alright with you?" He might have been oblivious before to the tears on her cheeks, but he noticed the tears welling in her eyes. "I have a t-shirt you can change into if you want to get out of those wet clothes." The door opened and Chase walked inside, placing the bags on the counter.

Chase nearly dropped the carton of eggs he was holding with her news and the sudden onset of new tears. He caught himself of course and placed them on the top shelf of the refrigerator before closing it and going to her. He put his arms around her, gave her a brief hug and disappeared through his bedroom door. When he returned he held out a long sleeve plaid shirt, one that would surely fall just above her knees. "The bathroom is between mine and Jaymen's room. When you're finished freshening up, we'll talk alright." He'd never been in a situation where a best friend ran away or even in a position where a dog ran away from home, so he had no idea how he was going to make her feel better.

Chase smiled at her when she reentered the room and shook his head at her question. "Nope, he's out being Jaymen, probably at that little hole in the wall Cafe they like so much." He couldn't wipe the warm smile off his face, she was so cute with his plaid shirt on and nothing else, with her hair all frizzy and most of her makeup gone from crying. He made his way to her and wrapped his arms around her, breathing her in and holding her tight. "You're beautiful, you know it." He kissed her forehead and sneaked a short kiss to her lips. He chuckled a bit and kissed her forehead again. "I think you like coming into my presence half drowned." He laughed again, so she'd know he was joking and led her to the sofa where he had a warm blanket waiting for her. "So um, would you like some hot chocolate? And then you can sit here and tell me everything on your mind. I'm not sure I have any advice for you regarding Kylie, but I can listen." He raised an eyebrow, hoping he was giving her his best 'I'm concerned and willing to be a shoulder for you to lean on."

Chase gave her another one armed hug and got up to fix her some hot chocolate. He got all the ingredients together and started to prepare it. He could have gone the easy route and just used a Swiss Miss prepackaged hot chocolate, but he wanted to do something extra special for her because she was upset. His dad had let him in on his hot chocolate recipe only the year before and this was his first time preparing it for anyone other than himself. He'd been a little shocked when he'd learned that one of the ingredients was salt, but he got over it quickly. He stirred in some half and half to get it down to a decent drinking temperature and brought it over to her. "What about us is on your mind?" He didn't like the sound of that and if he could clear anything up between them, he'd like to do that first so it was one last thing for her to worry about.

Chase smiled, proud that she was enjoying the hot chocolate and happy that she didn't mind that he'd spent close to ten minutes in the kitchen preparing it. "I'm not the greatest at making bread yet, but I'm working on it." He picked up the cup she set down and took a small sip while he listened. "I don't want you to worry about you and me. We're solid." He kissed her temple. "It felt pretty crappy not having you and not knowing if you were going to come back, but you're here now and it's better not to dwell on it. I've forgiven you and I've almost forgotten about it. As for Kylie I'd just let her know that you still love her and you'd love it if she came home and maybe one day she will." He shrugged. "I'm not really good with the advice stuff so bare with me. What's going on with school?" He didn't want her to remain focused on Kylie because it would only continue to upset her and he was trying his darndest to stear her away from tears.

Chase chuckled. "I think majoring in both would just get messy." He grinned. "Plus running a kitchen is time consuming, I'd have to do psychology sessions at the same time and the patient might get a pot of hot noodles spilled on him." He was joking, if he did somehow commit university suicide by taking on two very complicated majors at the same time and then some how miracuralsy completed both, he'd just have to take part of the week for psychology work and the rest of the week for kitchen work. "It'd be great money, even if I did split up the week and do them separately, but psychology isn't for me." He gave her a hug. "I'll just work with what I was blessed with and let my food do all the psychology work. "I'm good. I was sitting in class, you know one of those general studies classes that have nothing to do with my major and I thought of this new recipe. It's chicken breast marinated in Honey Dijon mustard, teriyaki sauce, with bacon and parmesian cheese." His stomache growled. "I think my stomach agrees with my head. Would you want to try it?" He wasn't sure how she felt about some of those ingredients.