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Chapter 27:

I found myself shaking violently as I dialed the numbers. Chase was pushing me very hard to call her. I remember the fight, the harsh words, the anger. I felt pain in my chest as the phone rung, once, twice...

"'Ello?" I heard a breathy voice answer the phone. I knew it was Nastasia, and she was laughing like a maniac. Oh, God, I thought her laugh was so cute, something many guys loved about her too.

"Hi Staz." I replied, not even reconizing my own strained voice. Chase looked at me quizzically. He tilted his hair, letting some of his dark hair fall into his eyes.

"Hi? Who's this? I'm afraid I can't make out the voice. I'm such a ditz sometimes!" Nastasia replied as I heard a muffled laugh in the backround, then a hard slap. Howie was there and Nastasia must have hit him from a remark he had stated.

"Staz, it's Lauren." I replied.

I felt the tension grow on the phone as she became suddenly silent. I wondered where she was at that moment. Sitting on her kitchen counter? Cuddling with Howie on the couch? In the bedroom tidying up a bit? It drove me nuts not to know what she was up to!

"Hello Lauren..." Nastasia replied after a few tense moments of silence. I felt the breath being taken out of my lungs, she seemed so formal. That was not my Nastasia.

"What's up?" I replied, as causually as I could make it out to be, which scared me a bit to begin with.

"Nothing. I was just...Ahh...Cooking..." She replied, as if she had to think about the task before she could answer. I heard Howie laugh again, then another hit.

"I'm sorry." I finally managed to muster.

"You mean for being so rude to me on the phone? And for yelling at Chase when he didn't do a thing? You know how long it took for me to loosen that boy back to his normal self? He was clinging to me like a lost puppy." Nastasia replied, the anger flowing thick from her words.

"I...sorry..." I replied like a child, shocked by Nastasia's strong words.

"Apologizing doesn't cover your butt all the time there Lauren." She replied, the ice frosting her words to bitter slaps upon my warm face.

"I..."

"No. I nothing. It was utterly out of character for you to behave like that. I don't care if it was a hard time for you. I know what it's like and I understand. But you NEVER yell at Chase when he did nothing to begin with. That seriously hurts a kid, and it takes forever for that emotional scaring to heal. You should know that Lauren." Nastasia replied, then I heard the dial tone.

She had hung up on me.

I knew what she was talking about as I hung up the phone. My heart started to beat a mile a minute. Her father had been like that. When she was younger he would strike out at her for other problems in his life. That scared Nastasia for life, I knew it was hard for her to see that going on with someone she loved so much. And, again, she was only thinking of Chase's welfare.

"Mommy, we go do Aunt Stazzie's douse dow?" Chase asked with his little lisp of placing d's in his words. I looked down and gave a little nod, knowing what I had to do to make it up to Nastasia.

"We'll go get the icecream and bring it to Aunt Staz. How 'bout that Chase?"

"DOOD!" Chase said with a dazzeling grin, a grin that could cheer up the saddest angels. I was silently hoping that it would help one of his favorite angels, Nastasia.