14. Chase
FOURTEEN
CHASE
TWENTY YEARS OLD
An arm on my chest is what wakes me. I run my hands down my face, groaning, and reach over to pull Goldi further into me, but instead of soft curves, I grasp sharp angles.
The fuck?
My eyes open fully, and see bleached blond hair, not the honey-blond I was expecting.
Lindsay? What the hell?
Throwing her arm off me, I scoot back.
She stirs, blinking groggily. “Chase?”
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I ask, throwing the sheets off and jumping out of bed to find my phone. It’s on my desk, and when I pick it up, I realize it’s turned off. Unease trickles through me like a dripping faucet and I glance around to get my bearings.
The sun is streaming through the closed blinds, creating thin slivers of bright spots in the darkened room. The clock on my nightstand says it’s 7:30 a.m., which means I’m officially the world’s biggest dick because I slept through Goldi’s recital.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“Chase, what’s wrong?” Lindsay pushes back the covers, sitting up in my bed, stretching her arms above her head.
Shock filters through me as I notice she’s wearing nothing but my shirt.
Mistaking my wide eyes for something it isn’t, she grins. “Looks good on me, doesn’t it?” She sweeps her hands down her body.
“What the fuck, Lindsay?” I say, powering on my phone.
It vibrates immediately, over and over again.
25 Missed Calls. 10 New Voicemails. 7 Text Messages.
My stomach knots.
Lindsay stands, coming close to peer over my shoulder. “Your phone wouldn’t stop ringing yesterday afternoon, so I turned it off. Thought you could use the rest instead. I know how tired you’ve been from school and work.”
“What the hell are you even doing here?” I remember her leaving yesterday afternoon. Obviously, once I fell asleep, she decided to show back up.
She runs her fingers up my forearm, and I shrug her off, my teeth grinding. “Actually, never mind. Just leave so I can fix how hard you’ve just made things for me.”
Lindsay scoffs. “Please, Alina will forgive you.”
My gaze snaps to hers. “And how do you know that?”
“Because she always does.” She shrugs.
Her words are a punch to the gut.
Self-loathing beats my insides with the fact that even she realizes how shitty I’ve been to Goldi. “Care to explain why you’re even here? Or why you took it upon yourself to put on my clothes and sleep in my bed?”
“I was tired and didn’t have anything to wear that was comfortable. I didn’t think you’d mind.”
“Of course I fucking mind,” I snap, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Make yourself useful and go start some coffee.”
I look down at my phone, pulling up Goldi’s name and pressing call, turmoil thundering in my veins like a storm about to hit. I just need to explain. She’ll understand.
She has to understand.
The phone rings, but her voicemail picks up. I try Jax next. No answer.
Shit.
I open up my text messages.
Goldi:
I’m sorry about earlier, it’s just hard with you being gone.
Jax:
Hey, bro. Excited for you to be back! Whoop! Let’s chill tomorrow after you get your Alina time.
Goldi:
Are you almost here? We need to leave soon for the rec hall.
Chase. Answer your phone!
I’m having Jax take me. If I wait any longer, I’ll be late.
Jax:
Dude. Where the fuck are you?
Goldi:
I’m done.
This is bad. This is really fucking bad.
I go to my call log next, realizing there’s a string of calls from Goldi during the recital, which is weird because why would she be calling when her dancers are on stage? I keep scrolling.
Jax.
Jax.
Jax.
Becca.
I stop short, my thumb hovering over the screen. Why the fuck did Becca call? It’s no secret we aren’t each other’s biggest fans, and her calling means one thing: I’ve seriously messed up.
Nerves skitter down my spine when I play her voicemail.
“You know, I’ve met a lot of assholes in my life, but you really take the cake. You and that no-good, flighty ass sister of yours have so much in common, it disgusts me. You better stay gone, Chase Adams. Do you hear me? I don’t want to ever see your face around here again, and if I do? I promise I’ll beat the shit out of you myself.”
Becca’s always been a bitch, but her reaction to a missed recital is alarming. I move on to the most recent message from Jax.
“I tried, Chase. I really tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, even after all the shit you’ve pulled. Losing your friendship myself was one thing, it fucking sucked but I could deal with it, because you know what? Despite you being a selfish dick, I love you, man. You’ve been like a brother to me, even though you’ve always been too lost in your own shit to see the forest for the goddamn trees.”
My breath hitches.
“But this…I can’t save you from this. And to be honest, I don’t think you really deserve to be saved. For once in your life, think about someone besides yourself and call me back.”
Panic suffuses my entire body, sharp pains spreading through my chest and down my arm, and I try Goldi again, throwing the phone on speaker so I can pull on the first pair of jeans I can find and a black shirt.
She doesn’t answer, so I pull up social media, desperate to find some clue as to why everyone’s freaking the fuck out.
Lindsay sashays back into my room, two mugs of coffee in her hands.
I give her a brief glance and then focus back on the screen, my heart stalling and free-falling to the floor when I see the new photo I’m tagged in.
My stomach bottoms out so fast it makes me dizzy, and I practically fall onto the bed, sitting on the edge to keep myself from collapsing entirely.
“Here’s your coffee, Chase.” Lindsay sets the mug on the nightstand next to me, and I reach out fast, gripping her wrist so tightly I’m sure it will bruise, holding her in place.
“Ouch, what the hell?” She tries to wrench it from my grasp, but I tighten my hold.
“What the fuck have you done?”
She peeks at my phone screen, a soft smile taking over her features. “Honestly, Chase, I was tired of waiting for you to man up and make a move, so I figured a little push in the right direction was needed.”
“And you thought this would make me, what...grateful?” My tone is incredulous.
She lifts a shoulder. “It’ll get that pathetic lapdog of a girlfriend out of the way at least.”
My mouth drops open and I finally let go of her wrist. “You posted this so Goldi would see?”
She smirks. “A girl can hope.”
“Are you out of your goddamn mind?”
“Jesus Christ , I can’t do this anymore,” she complains, running a hand through her tangled hair. “Do you know how tiring it is to play the damsel in distress to your fucked-up issues every day? What happened to you, anyway? You have a serious hero complex.”
Bile rises up my throat and my palms grow clammy. Has she been manipulating me this entire time?
My phone vibrates.
Jax.
I point my finger at Lindsay, anger swirling so strongly inside me that my hands tremble. “Get the fuck out of my sight before I do something I can’t take back.”
Her face turns down, lips puffing out like she thinks I give a single fuck about how she feels right now. “Come on, Boy Scout.”
The thin threads holding together my sanity snap like broken rope, and I shoot to standing, marching past her to where her purse and clothes are stacked in a pile by the bedroom door. I pick them up and spin around, shoving them into her chest harshly.
She stumbles back, gripping them to her body.
“Don’t you fucking call me that,” I say quietly, my voice sharp as a knife. “Get the fuck out. Now.”
“But I need to?—”
“I don’t give a shit,” I interrupt her, reaching out and grabbing her arm, hauling her forward until I physically force her out of my door. “I swear to God, Lindsay, if I ever see you again, I will make you regret ever coming into my life.”
She scoffs, her cheeks ruddy and her eyes wide with shock. “You’re psychotic.”
Leaning in, I lower my voice. “Then you should have known better than to fuck with me, bitch.”
I slam the door in her face and turn the lock, before dialing Jax’s number to call him back.
He answers on the second ring. “Chase.”
“Jax. Listen, I can explain.”
The line stays silent. I pull the phone away from my ear, looking down to make sure it’s connected. “You there?”
“I’m here.” His voice is flat.
“Look, I know this seems bad, man, but I can explain. Lindsay, she?—”
A sharp laugh cuts me off. “We all know what Lindsay’s been up to, you giant fucking douchebag.”
His words cut through me, but I don’t have time to focus on the feeling. Not when I need to get ahold of Goldi.
“You know where Goldi is? Are you with her?”
Usually, the resentment would rear its ugly head when I think of them together. But right now, if it helps me reach her, I welcome the thought.
“Yeah. I’m with her. No, you can’t talk to her.”
“Jax, come on, man,” I chuckle, the sound hollow. “This is all just a big misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding ? Seems to be a lot of that with you lately.”
My temper flares, burning like a fireball in my solar plexus. “Put Goldi on the fucking phone, Jax.”
“You’re one selfish son of a bitch. You know that? Not everything is about you .”
My fingers rip at my hair in frustration and I pace a hole through my floor. “I never said it was.”
“You didn’t have to. Do you have any idea of what’s been going on? Any clue as to what the fuck you’ve done?” he asks.
“I haven’t done anything, if you’d just let?—”
“Alina’s mom was dying in the hospital last night, and instead of being here with the girl you claim to love, you were MIA. In bed with that snake Lindsay, so don’t tell me what you have and haven’t done, because I’ve seen the fallout. It’s currently shattered into a thousand pieces on my living room couch.”
I stop pacing, my footsteps halting so quickly I’m surprised I don’t fall flat on my face. My heart bangs violently against my ribs, like it knows if it stays with me, it’s bound to break. “What did you just say?”
He exhales heavily. “Look. Alina needed you last night, but she doesn’t need you now, so don’t waste your time and come back here when you’re not welcome. I won’t let you get near her again, and neither will anyone else. We’re done letting you ruin everything you touch.”
He hangs up.
The icy tendrils of dread creep up my back and wrap around my chest, squeezing the air from my lungs until I drop to my knees, nausea rising up my throat and making me vomit on the floor.
Jax is right. I’m a selfish son of a bitch.