Earth Angel

Chapter Twenty-Five  

[Quick note: The Tropical Temptation story happened just like on the show, except for Jan's rape, because ICK. I wish it had never happened in the first place. Pretend that Phillip and Chloe get back together after he wakes up from his coma, since I'm assuming that's what WILL happen on the show. Blech blech blech. I must be patient with the show until Broe bliss ensues.]

(Dot.Com...)

Chloe went to Dot.Com in the hopes that at least one of her friends would be there. She was in luck, as she entered to see Phillip, Belle and Shawn in their usual booth. Chloe walked over and slid into the seat next to Phillip who kissed her quickly on the lips.

"Helloooo everyone."

Phillip looked at her with a wrinkled brow. "Chloe... you didn't call me this morning, so I guess you're feeling better."

Chloe nodded and smiled. "200 percent better actually. But, I have some bad news..."

Belle and Shawn looked at her intently and Phillip held her hand in his. Chloe sighed and her smile faded. "I was at the hospital and I ran into Jan."

Shawn nodded and half grinned. "Well, that's always bad news."

"No, this is REAL bad news. Jason was in a car accident last night, he was drinking and he drove his car off the road and into a tree."

The group fell silent in shock. Belle let out a small gasp and spoke first, "Is he going to be okay?"

Chloe shrugged sadly. "Well, Jan told me he's going to make it as long as he stays stable... but uhm, he may never walk again. They're waiting for all the swelling to go down to see if he's paralyzed.

Phillip slid down in his seat, completely in shock. "I can't believe it... Was he alone?"

Chloe nodded. "Thankfully... Jan refused to get in the car with him, and it saved her life. She feels awful, she tried to stop him but it was impossible."

Shawn shook his head in disbelief. "How's Jan holding up?"

"Well, besides the blame... not too good. She's not handling it all too well, but I talked to her, and I think I made her feel a little better."

Belle's eyes widened. "You talked to her? And you two didn't kill each other? What is this world coming to?"

"I don't know. I think we may have found some common ground, at least for a moment. But don't worry, we'll probably go back to pulling each other's hair out after all this is over."

Phillip looked at her curiously. "Why were YOU at the hospital? I thought you said you were feeling better."

Chloe smiled uneasily. "I am feeling better. I wasn't last night though. The stomachache went away, but then the headaches came. I got up in the middle of the night and the headache ended up making me black out. It woke up Nancy and Craig, and then it went away suddenly. But, Craig still made me come in for a full check up."

Belle frowned slightly. "Are you're sure you're okay? A migraine that makes you black out isn't really a common thing."

"Oh, I'm fine. Craig couldn't find anything wrong with me, and by the time I got up this morning it was like it never happened. I feel better than ever, actually."

Shawn looked at Belle and clasped her hand in his. "Maybe we should go to the hospital and check on Jason. You think?"

Belle nodded in agreement. "Definitely... Phillip, you want to go?"

Chloe interjected and glanced at Phillip. "Actually, I kinda need to talk to you about something. We can wait until after you go to the hospital, if you want... it doesn't matter."

Phillip paused to consider and then looked at Belle. "Uhm, I guess I'll meet up with you guys in a little bit. I'll head over as soon as I'm done here."

Belle and Shawn slid out of the booth. Shawn nodded towards Phillip, "No problem, we'll see you there."

Shawn walked out with his arm around Belle, and Chloe shifted herself in her seat so she could look at Phillip better. Phillip placed a gentle hand on her knee and looked somewhat worried. "Chloe... is there something wrong?"

Chloe fidgeted nervously in her seat. "I don't know actually... I'm not even sure what I came here to say to you, I just feel like we HAVE to talk. Let me ask you something, and think about it really hard. Ever since... you know, the thing at the dance with the website... how do you think our relationship has been?"

"I think it's been fine. It's been great."

Chloe put a hand up as if she was stopping him. "No, stop. Be honest with yourself. Dig down deep if you have to, but be honest. How would you describe our relationship since we got back together?"

Phillip sighed and looked downward. "Different. But our relationship has never been perfect."

"No, it was too perfect at first. But ever since the thing with your father, and then the website... it's been different."

"Chloe, I'm confused... what are you trying to say? Do you not love me anymore?"

Chloe shook her head and placed her hand on his. "No, I do... That's not what I'm saying at all. I just think... that neither of us have any idea of what we're doing, or where we're headed."

Phillip shrugged his shoulders in confusion. "Isn't that part of the fun?"

"Not anymore. How much fun are we really having anymore? We fight all the time, Phillip. It's like, when things are good they're great, but when they're not they are completely terrible."

"Couples fight, Chloe. It's nothing to panic over."

Chloe sighed in frustration. "I know, couples fight, that's what they do. Our fights aren't like other fights. They're awful, and mean and hateful. The things that you said to me, I've tried to get over them, but I can't. I've tried so hard to put it out of my mind, but I can't help thinking that if you really love someone you would NEVER say those kind of things to them. And... if you can't trust me, or believe in me, than it's NEVER going to get better. I got back together with you because you apologize for what happened at the dance, and because I love you. But, that doesn't change the fact that you're still acting the same way that you did before. You still don't trust me."

Phillip wrinkled his forehead and looked at her intently. "I DO trust you. I've told you that."

"No... you don't. When you came back from Puerto Rico, you were mad at me, and you were jealous of Brady. You didn't trust me to be away from you for one second and you still don't. It took a lot of convincing for you to finally believe that nothing happened with Brady while you were gone. You still don't trust me, even now."

Phillip sighed and looked downward. "I was afraid to lose you, that's why I acted that way."

"Phillip, acting that way only makes losing me a reality."

"I'm sorry... You're right..."

Chloe sighed and nodded slowly. "Phillip... what does love mean to you? Because I'm trying to figure out what that word means to me."

Phillip bit his lip nervously and looked her in the eye. "I don't know. I guess there's different kinds of love, right? I mean, I love my parents... but not the same way that I love you or the same way that I love my friends."

"What about unconditional love? Do you think it exists?"

Phillip shrugged. "I don't know. Parents love their children unconditionally... but maybe that's the only case."

Chloe shook her head. "See, I disagree. I think that TRUE love is unconditional. My theory is that if you truly love someone, you love every part of them, the bad and the good. And, you'd never try to change them or make them be somebody they're not."


"What are you trying to say? That I don't love you unconditionally?"

Chloe squeezed her eyes shut tightly. She nodded slightly and let a few hot tears rolled down her cheeks. Chloe opened her eyes and saw the shock on Phillip's face. "I'm sorry, Phillip... I don't want to hurt you. But, I just don't think that you do..."

Phillip's blue eyes were filled with pain. "But, I do love you, Chloe..."

"And I love you... But, I'm just now realizing where our problems lie. You either want to completely ignore my faults, or blow them up like they're going to cause the end of the world. You can't do either, you have to accept them. You have to be able to accept me, all of me... not just the parts that you want to."

Phillip sighed sadly, "I thought I was doing that..."

"No, you weren't. You were intrigued with me because I was different, and unusual. And then there was that damn red dress... That's what really made you pay attention. What if you had won that bet? What if I had gone to the dance with Shawn instead? What if I had not worn that stupid dress and dressed all in black?"

"I would have still fallen in love with you..."

Chloe shook her head. "No, I don't think you would have. You would have never paid enough attention to me to get to know me. I would have still been Ghoul Girl to you, the weirdo, the freak."

"No, because now I know that it's what is on the inside that matters. I've changed, I'm not like that anymore."

Chloe groaned in frustration. "You've changed NOW, Phillip. But, even after you started dating me... you still judged people by their 'image'. I heard you call Susan names to her face, the same thing with Kevin and Penny. You don't do that anymore, but that only changed because of that school trip. You only paid attention to the inner me because of the way I looked on the outside. So, even though you've learned to judge someone by their inner beauty now, you fell in love with me for the wrong reasons."

Phillip raised one eyebrow in confusion. "Is there such a thing as falling in love for the wrong reason?"

"I don't know... that's what I'm trying to figure out. But, it feels like you've never gotten to really know what goes on inside my head or my heart most of the time. You know a lot about me, but you've never bothered to find out what really makes me tick."

Phillip slumped in his seat and threw his hands up in frustration. "I'm confused..."

Chloe nodded in agreement. "Me too... I don't know how to even describe what I'm feeling, and the last thing I want to do is hurt you... but, I just think that you and I are on VERY different wavelengths. You still have a lot of growing up to do..."

"And you don't?"

"Oh no, I do, not to mention the years of therapy I'll probably need... And, I think that we're both too young and inexperienced to even know what we're doing half of the time. I think I'm finally beginning to see that. You know, we always act like we're the perfect couple... but I feel like I'm just pretending to be the perfect girlfriend to make everyone else happy. I just want to be me."

Phillip sat back up and nodded in her direction. "Well, I get part of that. Maybe other people should stop looking at us as an example of the perfect couple. Maybe they should look at Shawn and Belle."

Chloe nodded and sighed. "Yeah, those two have it figured out."

"Chloe... is this just about the way I feel? How do you feel about me?"

"No, it's not all about that. Because frankly, I don't understand you either. You've never let me in all the way, and I think it's because part of you doesn't want to. So, I'm not blaming you for all of this. It's my fault too. I've never pushed you to tell me all your secrets and your heartaches, and your hopes and dreams. And, it's not because I don't care... I just... never thought to. And that's a really terrible thing to do to you."

Phillip nodded slowly, a bit of understanding seemed to finally be creeping in. "So is there any hope for us at all? Maybe if we promised to be more open and communicate with each other, we can work this out."

"I don't know... maybe there is. But, I think we need to back off for a while. Take a break..."

Phillip sighed softly. "Break up?"

Chloe paused and nervously replied, "Well, I uhh... I hate to call it a 'break up'. I just think our relationship needs to cool off. I don't want to lose you entirely. I want to be friends, and I want to get to know you better. Things with us happened so fast and furious, it was like a huge whirlwind, and we never bothered to be friends first. We just skipped ahead REALLY fast. I think if a relationship is going to work, you have to be friends with the other person, not just lovers, or significant others. I mean, honestly, Belle... and..." Chloe paused. She didn't want to mention Brady at this juncture, not when she wasn't completely sure about how she felt for him. "And other friends... they know things about me that you don't. And, not because I wasn't willing to tell you, but because you never bothered to find out. I'm sure they could say the same for you, they probably know you better than I do."

Phillip nodded stoically; his pain had faded into acceptance. He knew that Chloe was strong willed and if she wanted something, nothing he could say would stop her. "Okay, I understand... So, what does this mean?"

Chloe gave him a half grin. "I don't know. I'm kind of making this up as I go along."

Phillip rolled his eyes and smirked. "Oh great. That makes me feel so much better."

"Really... honestly... I just knew that something was eating away at me, but I didn't know what it was until I said it out loud."

"I think I know the feeling... I'm usually the oblivious one. So, where do we go from here? Friends?"

Chloe nodded affirmatively. "Definitely... I mean, if you didn't want to be my friend, then I wouldn't know what to do. I think we just need a few months to JUST be friends. And, then we can decide later... if there's a reason to go further with this. I just feel like we need some time apart. I need to remember what it's like to just be Chloe, and you need to figure out what it's like to be just Phillip. It's like, neither of us have a identity without the other person. Heck, people could probably stop calling us Phillip and Chloe, and just blend it together into one name."

Phillip cracked a smile and raised one eyebrow. "Like... Phloe?"

Chloe laughed and nodded. "Something like that. I know, it sounds ridiculous... But, do you see what I'm saying? We need some time apart in a non-couple sense to find out if we can exist without each other. Then we just go from there..."

"How's that old cliche go? If you love someone, set them free, if they come back to you, they're yours forever. If they don't..."

Chloe continued his sentence, "...then it was never meant to be. Right, something like that."

Phillip nodded slowly. "I think I can accept that."

Chloe looked at him with a touch of surprise. "You know, Phillip... you're really handling this much better than I expected."

Phillip shrugged at grinned at her, "Maybe it's a sign of things to come... Gotta grow up at some point."

"Not a bad idea... I think I'll try that growing up thing too."

Phillip hugged her tightly and softly spoke into her ear. "I think you're already closer than I am."

Chloe looked him in the eyes and smiled sweetly. "Thank you... I don't know if that's true, but thanks."

Phillip nodded and stood from the booth. "I think I'm going to go to the hospital and see Jason now. You wanna go?"

Chloe stood and shook her head. "No, I have something I have to do. Call me later though, let me know how he's doing."

"You got it."

Phillip smiled at her and exited, leaving Chloe alone. She hesitantly pulled her cell phone out of her purse and slowly dialed the seven numbers to Brady's cell phone. She took a deep breath and waited for him to answer.

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