Chase's POV
After I left my dads that morning, I had no other plans but to drink myself to stupor.
I was a failure. Emma was only too convinced that I gave her pictures out.
The one thing I wasn't questioning was that there were more pictures addressed to a certain Kevin. She did not feel the need to explain that, so I didn't see the point in trying to fix us.
I was torn.
If Emma was cheating, then what happened was for the best.
"What are you calling me for, Man?" Gray's hoarse voice grunted.
"I wanna talk." I said. "I'm in your yard." I added.
"Get the fuck outta here, man." He said, and cut the call.
I called four more times, none of which he picked up.
"Since you're so eager to see me, here I am." He said, entering my car with a loaded gun, facing me.
I laughed. It seemed so unreal. Gray was almost my brother. "You're really doing this?" I asked, surprised.
"And a lot more. You might wanna say what's on your mind before you leave here in a body bag." He threatened.
"I hear the case has been transferred here." I said, cutting to the Chase.
"You heard right." He said. "The sad part is you're not involved in any way. I sure would like to see you behind bars." He said in an undertone.
"Maybe I'll finally get some rest there." I didn't realize I said it out loud.
"I don't care about you, or that, or your rest, what are you here for? To tell me what I already knew?" He asked, impatiently.
I held the gun. He looked shocked, but still maintained composure.
"Remember who made me promise not to let 'bitches come in between us?'" I asked him. I heard his release of shaky breaths.
"You have two minutes left." He replied instead.
"You never told me I had a time constraint." I said.
"I have now." He replied.
I raised the gun, further up, to my head.
Grayson's hand was shaking, one finger already on the trigger.
I had no more appeal for life and tended to tread on the unsteady edges.
"I knew you and Lily had sex while we were together." I heard him suck in air through his mouth. He sure didn't expect a turn in that direction.
"It was forgivable, cause I was never really into her. I was just being, well, Chase, at the time." I added.
His grip on the gun was so loose that it dropped to his lap.
"I took the best next exit that presented itself." I continued my story. Grayson's head was bent. "Her pregnancy."
"You're a bastard." He said, getting rolled up again.
"Shut the fuck up!" I yelled back. I was sick of being spoken to, I wanted to speak. "Shut the fuck up and listen." I added. "She pinned it on me, even though you both were going at it hard, harder than we even did. Don't you think there's a reason she never told you about me? About forcing her to abort it?" I asked, and Gray looked up dramatically. "If you want me to draw the lines for you, I will. It was your baby. But she didn't want to have it with you, she wanted it with me." I said. I heard him sniff forcedly.
"I have one great thing, in my entire life, Gray. And you choose to spoil that in solidarity with a girl who doesn't even trust you enough to have your child." I saw bitter tears fall down his face. "You're fighting all the wrong battles. Trying to put Ema down, put me down. Man, you even went ahead to get videos of our stay at your uncles penthouse, what the fuck man?!" The anger and irritation of how petty he had been washed over me again. "I stupidly made videos that night too, and now Emma thinks she had it all figured out, she thinks I'm the one responsible. As if you didn't go low enough, Gray, you tapped my phone! " The gun fell to his foot. I wanted to grab him and wring life's blood out if his neck, but it wasn't going to help my situation with Ema,
"My two minutes are up." I said, opening the car for him to get out of.
Gray left me without another word.
I pulled out the little picture of my mom I had in my wallet. "Please help me." I cried, for the first time since it all happened, I let out tears enough to feel a bit relieved.
My next stop was at Jessica's.
My resolution was dancing between letting things lie the way they were or figuring shit out for Emm and I. If I was going to do that, I needed her to be honest with me. So I took my phone out and texted her.
Her sassy response was exactly what I expected.
"Hey." I called her mom.
"I'm with my husband right now." She said in a singsong voice.
"Oh please." I groaned. "You don't hate me?"
"No I don't. What do you mean?" She asked.
"I thought you did." I said. "You still near my dad?" I asked her.
"Not anymore. Spill." She said,
"I heard you had a visit from the police last night." I said.
"Please do not tell Emma." She said.
"I can't. She doesn't even talk to me." I replied to her.
"I meant to say," She started, "if you don't love her anymore, please leave it." She said. It's the first time I heard her so emotional.
"I'm still working through that." I said, truthfully.
"You don't have to. Please leave her. She's broken enough." She said. "Please tell me you didn't do all that?"
"I swear, I didn't. I was just too careless…" I started explaining.
"It's okay." She said. "It's okay that way." She said.
"Thank you." I replied. She's the one person who's believed me, stuck by me, and in a world like that, I couldn't take it for granted.
"You wanted to say something?" She asked.
"Yeah. This case might be more than I thought. I'm scared." I confessed.
"Chase," She started "you should know I'm not scared for me, it's your dad." She whispered.
"I know." I said.
It's the first time we ever openly admitted why we were trying to sweep it under the rug.
"It might be bigger than we expected." She said.
"I know. I think it's time we let things take their natural course." I said.
"It's hard." She replied, getting teary.
"I know." I was fighting tears myself. "Trust me, I know."
I finally left Gray's porch. I had to see Jessica.
I expected a speed ticket for my drive to Jessica's place. Hopefully, the bitch was home.
Jessica's house was one I was only too familiar with.
There was no need for introduction. Her fancy parents were away, just as always when I visited.
"Look who's back." She announced her presence with the voice I had grown to hate.
"I'm not back, Jessica. I need answers." I yelled at her.
"Remember how we planned to be Prom Queen and King?" She asked, ignoring me. "Guess who isn't going to prom. You and I!" She exclaimed, rather manically.
"That's irrelevant." I said.
"Same as what you're here for." She retorted, wiping the smile off her face.
"Emma's a much better person than you are." I spat in her face.
"Both of us, you mean?" She asked, smiling.
"I'm trying to fix myself, Jessica, but guess who's so stuck they don't want to let me go."
"Me, Chase me." And if you think I'm done, think again. "You're such a nasty person, Chase. You and I know Emma's too good for you."
"You know, before I got here, I was stuck in my head. I thought, 'Do I really want to do this?', 'Are we worth fighting for?', Jessica all the answers to those were affirmative. I'm trying hard to leave this life, whatever you call it. And I swear, you're not gonna break my resolve. I know you did it, I know what you're capable of, I didn't think you were so dumb to let yourself feature in them at least. Your already dying career might not survive this hit." I said.
Jessica's eyes were red and she was lost for words. "One thing Chase, if I'm going down, I'm not going alone."
"You have nothing else to fight with, let go." I said, and left her house.
Her sister threw me sheepish knowing smiles on my way out, thinking it was business as usual.
My phone chimed, Emma's mom had sent her location. I swallowed hard and deep, with that I set out for the last bit of my journey before retiring my miserable self.