Emma's POV
"Still going out with me?" Chase popped his head in my room and asked
I had long stopped bolting my door.
It didn't stop anything. Every single time I tried to do it, thinking it would keep me away from Chase, it only brought me closer to him. I'd overthink myself into unlocking the door again.
"That's the most hideous hat I ever saw." I joked with him.
"There's more where it came from." He responded. He was obviously in a better mood, and it was good, for me.
"I'm sorry about earlier." I apologized, getting out of bed.
"That's alright. I'm the villain in every story. Hurry up before I show you why that is." He joked with a little wink.
Chase was crazy, there was no going back about it.
"Alright." I replied, laughing.
"Would you like me to watch, or you'd rather I stayed out in the cold?" He asked, with a very exaggerated sense of need.
"I'd rather you froze over than watch me get dressed." I replied to him.
. He made a very funny disappointed face and banged the door behind him.
Immediately he went out, I pinched myself. I had sworn to not be his plaything just a few hours ago.
I wore the sluttiest summer dress I had and threw on some hat too.
"You look like a catch. You're making me question what else I'm going fishing for." He ogled at my body, shamelessly.
"For some actual fish?" I suggested, sarcastically.
He reluctantly tore his gaze away and looked at my face.
"Why do you have so much lip gloss on?" He asked.
He made me feel beautiful, at the same time, self cautious.
"Why do you ask so many questions?" I shot back at him.
He smiled and opened the door for me as I got into his dads mustang.
The car was a whole different experience.
It was chic and lit. And I enjoyed being a passage princess to Chase.
"What are you thinking of?" He asked.
I had been staring out of the window for about ten minutes, which was technically halfway.
I was bad at making conversations, that asides, I was nervous around Chase.
"Nothing." I replied to him.
"Oh, there definitely is." He put his hand on my thigh and a gasp escaped my lips.
I was so ashamed. Every single time, my body responded like it hadn't been touched before.
"Can you concentrate on getting us there? Alive?" I said, taking his hands off my leg.
"That's what I'm doing." He said, smiling. "Seriously though, what are you thinking about?" He asked me.
"If I wanted to share, I would." I said, and looked out the window again.
"You want to be that way? Fine. I'm just gonna stare at you till you turn back and talk." I know I said Chase was crazy, scratch that. He was mad.
I could feel his eyes on the back of my neck, and we were driving above the speed limit. Fortunately, the road was deserted most of the time.
"Can you please look at the road?" I begged him.
"Can you please look inside?" He replied. One car passed us, going in the opposite direction and honked very loudly, throwing curses at Chase and I.
"Alright. I'll talk. Please face where the car is going." I conceded.
"Good girl." Chase said in an accent I never heard him speak in. It was sexy and posh.
I had always known there was a lot I didn't know about him. But I was determined to figure it out.
"What is it Gray was talking about?" I asked him, point blank.
"You saw the letters. We said we were gonna talk. We haven't yet." He replied. Chase spoke too fast, and his pitch was unsteady. I could tell he wasn't being completely honest with me.
"Y'all have had a discussion before." I said. "At least he implied that." I added.
"You're getting all the wrong messages, Emma." He said.
I hated how he was trying to keep me in the dark.
"I'm no child, Chase." I cut him short.
"Since you want to know so bad, Emma. News flying around is that you and your mom killed a man in Starry." He said.
My intuition was right. He did know something.
"Is that all?" I asked him, I knew he knew more than he was letting on.
"The man's Grayson's uncle from his mother's side,"Chase confessed.
That was it! That definitely was it. It justified how bitchy Gray had been acting.
"So everyone has been talking about this and I'm the last to find out?" I asked, more to myself than to him.
"I thought it would die down. I didn't think Gray would tell anymore people." He said.
"And how many more people do you think he's told?" I asked Chase.
"Personally, only a few. But bad news spread like wildfire. So it's gonna be no surprise if half the school knows about it already." With every single additional information I heard about it, my heart sank.
My shaky reputation was already in shreds and I was still out frolicking with my Stepbrother.
I could only imagine all sorts of things people thought about me.
"It would have helped if you had told me earlier." I said to him, shakily.
I began to break apart faster than I thought.
A part of me thought I could hold it in, but it was a colossal failure.
Was that why Mr Rudd was acting strange? Was that why Lily decided we could no longer be a thing anymore?
"When are you going to leave too?" I asked him.
"What the fuck does that even mean?"it was the first time I heard Chase raise his voice at me.
"I've learned to accept my life in seasons." I replied to him. "People are here today , gone tomorrow."
I was saying more than I planned to.
"Do you still think you're fit for this?" Chase asked, pulling up to the side of the road.
"No. Please take me back." I know I sounded either like a whiny little baby, or a bitch, but either way was fine as long as I got home.
I didn't have any reason to doubt Chase. Gray was already giving me a corresponding attitude. There was nothing to defend either.
The murder of Mike was brought us to County city months before we planned to. We literally left like thieves.