Lily's POV I didn't mean to, but Gray was fond of bringing out the worst in me. I hated being around him. I had been cheated on, played a lot, by him and Chase and I had no more desire to see or be with any of them. The only reason I obliged Jessica was because she was the only one around to listen to my shit and somehow face it with me. Her modeling gigs were getting fewer with the ‘Rudd’ scandal. Rudd somehow managed to make it out of the country on time. As of when Jessica's parents heard it and were ready to sue, he was already on international waters. Brands weren't so enthusiastic about working with her anymore. She somehow poured all that attention into me, and we began to relate more. I followed her anyway to Marty’s because she convinced me that Gray had what we needed. I threw a sleeveless hoodie on. The weather was quite warm, but I still felt the need to seem invisible, and the only thing that could do that was the camo hoodie I got during a shopping spree with Em
Emma's POV I was getting a little too worried, but I knew I was justified. Chase had a house he never told me about, and chose the day he proposed to me to move out. I sat in my bed, trying not to over think. I texted Lily, but she said she was busy. And I could believe that. Her family was gonna know its fate, or had known it already. Things must not be easy on her. So I made a mental note to take some of the stuff Mark got me as gifts to her the next day. My phone rang, finally, and it was Chase. But it was already five hours past noon. My mom was back, which means my curfew for ten pm was too. “Hey babe.” He said, treading gently. “Don't do that.” I said. I was really angry with him for leaving me like that. “Chase, this is barely six hours after you go down on your knees, and you're away, somewhere I do not know. Chase, this isn't fair.” I said, near tears. “Emma, I'm sorry.” Chase's voice had this effect on me, one I didn't like. I wanted to stay mad at him. I wante
Jessica's POV I got home that night, after meeting with Lily and Gray. Lily had served him the biggest revelation of his life. She was gonna have a baby with Chase, and he made her abort it at two months old, over ten months ago. Only three of us, Chase, Lily and I knew about it. I felt poorly for ever aiding that, but Chase was my friend, my childhood friend. . That was the beginning of Lily's depression. We also had to bully her to make sure she didn't report to the authorities. I don't know how Chase further did it, but her lips were sealed, except now. I didn't know what she had coming, but I knew she was going through a lot, and that could account for the way she acted. Gray called me when he got back home that night. “Hey, sorry if I cut your sleep short,” He started. “Come on, you know I don't sleep that late.” I said, I didn't like how he was being so formal because of what just happened. “You know, I still like to visit my toys.” I teased him. “Well those ar
Chase's POVEmma spent the night at my house and woke up at four am to about twelve missed calls from her mom. I counted them all. “Are you always up so early?” I asked her. She ruined my breakfast in bed. “Why are you looking like it's not a good thing I woke up?” She said, squinting even though there was very minimal light in the room. My bedroom was upstairs. I requested one that overlooked everywhere. “That's because I wanted to bring you breakfast in bed. ” I protested. “I now know to start cooking by two hours past midnight.” I joked. “That's easy. I'll sleep back, just watch me.” Emma said, enthusiastically throwing the blanket back over herself. “Not so soon.” I rushed to her and tore it off immediately. “By the way, why aren't you asleep yourself?” She asked me. I traced invisible lines on her body and watched her respond to my touch. The deal with girls who didn't have much experience sexually is that they were so responsive, and I enjoyed that in Em. “
Chase's POV Emma had arrived yet, but I didn't want her to meet the word air that was brewing between Gray and I. Just a few hours ago, I assured her that Gray had nothing to threaten us with again, and that he might even soften towards her in the very near future. “What's going on?” I asked Gray, sitting next to him in class. He had a pensive look on, and stared unblinking at Jessica and Lily. “You mean you never thought to tell me?! Me of all people, Chase?!” He said, but he maintained a low voice. “I hate how I got to know about it, Chase, but I hate it more for you. I'll claw you with every weapon in my arsenal and I'm gonna bleed you where it hurts.” He said. I thought to reason with him, but there was so much disrespect in all he had said and done. “I'm not gonna take this shit anymore.” I said. “Gray, it was a fuckin mistake, I was fuckin paranoid. None of us was in a place to raise a child. Lily's family was breaking apart, I have no parents.” I said to him, “If y
Lily's POV “Hey baby.” My dad said, walking into my room. The old man's heart break was only too visible. It seemed like he miraculously had more lines and creases on his forehead. “I'm sorry about earlier.” I apologized. “Oh, baby. I'm not annoyed. I'm not the one with about fifty percent hearing.” He joked, and we both laughed. “I thought you'd be angry with me.” I confessed. “And that is where you get me wrong, Lily. You are the least expressive of both of you. You are the only girl I have. It's a cruel world to women out there. You need to learn to speak for yourself, Lily. And for what you did,” He said, lowering his voice, “I'm proud of you.” I had not been happier in a minute. He pressed a kiss to my forehead and rocked me a bit. “I'm glad I have you.” I said, my heart was full and the tears were already at the brink of letting themselves out. “That births the other news I have.” He said, pulling away from me. “And what is that?” I didn't know what to e
Emma's POV Once again, thanks to another boy, one I almost gave my life to, my nudes were floating around. It was deja vu. I should've seen it all coming. Pictures of Chase with Jessica and then pictures of me and him at the hotel. I shamelessly went through some others social media accounts and even saw pictures I sent to him privately. I should've known better, I should've seen it coming. Worse still, he didn't even run after me. “Hey baby.” My mom, in one of her very fancy floral outfits, walked in unannounced to my room. I was so grateful I didn't pack any of my clothes to Chase's house. It's been three days since it happened, but it was still the talk of the town, second only to speculations about prom king and Queen. The or I had planned so carefully for was going to elude me. There was no way I was setting my feet in school if it wasn't for school. “Hi, mom.” I croaked. “Come on. What's going on? It cannot possibly be your period.” She said, I lied to her that it
Chase's POV Lily somehow beat me to it. I didn't need a soothsayer to know that Emma was done with me. She blocked me on all her socials and even calls. I couldn't reach her in any way I tried, and her mom wasn't exactly someone she fancied. Plus, Mrs Linda and I have had our fair share of deals, deals I wanted to be over soon enough. I retired to my home after it. The days that went by were like a blur. The first day, I woke up to expecting a good morning text from Emma. I refreshed my phone as much as I could, but it still wasn't forthcoming. Worse still, she blocked me already so I didn't even know if she was online. I didn't want to live without Emma, I didn't want to learn how to. But I couldn't escape it. It's how love works. Someone does, or someone gets hurt. I took to finding comfort from whiskey. We hadn't been together for so long, but it felt like a very huge part of me was ripped out. Emma was exactly what I wanted. Despite all the bottles I drank, I only got
Emma's POV “Welcome. I've got wine.” I said, and sprang up to my feet as soon as Kevin got close enough to me. I didn't enjoy the rush of blood to my nether regions at the sight of him and smell of his cologne, but really, my body had a lot to do in coming to terms with my mind and heart. “Not too happy to see me.” He said and smiled sadly, looking away. “Would you rather be alone? I'd just drop this and be on my way.” He held my keys up, before tossing them gently to my reading table. “You're breaking me, Kevin.” I managed to say. “I don't even know where we are, I don't even know where to start, you can't blame me for acting like this. Even though I genuinely think wine would help.” I said, looking down. I didn't have the mind to look Kevin in his face. I felt so shitty. This must've been how Chase felt every single time he fucked up. It hurt so bad being on that other half of a relationship drama. As horrible as it is to admit, I'd rather be the one cheated on. I just cou
Emma's POV “I think you know where your keys are.” Chase looked me in the eyes. His blue eyes were no more sexy, they were icy. “We can take it from here, Dave.” I turned to the uber guy, dismissing him. “To think that you're the one who was so concerned with how I'd handle Kayla!” Chase screamed. “I think you should know that I didn't think this was gonna happen!” I yelled back at him. I wasn't known to be the noisy neighbour, and I didn't want Chase to make me be seen as one, so I entered my apartment, which was stuffed full of flowers and hampers and gifts, a note on my reading desk which I snatched up immediately, and a wine on my bed. Gosh! It was so sexy. I didn't know how to feel. Kevin really went out of his way. What I didn't understand was why he'd do that, knowing when he left, he left me to Chase, and really, the outcome was inevitable. “I see y'all have a fun night planned, I wouldn't want to interrupt any plans you've made.” Chase said, with his hand
Emma's POV “Is it just me, or is this trip actually unnecessary?” I asked him, as we boarded a flight back to MA. “Come on!” Chase said as he took my hand. “You know it is. We're not planning to accumulate a lot of school work, are we?” He smiled. We didn't have to wait with the business and economy passengers, cause, well, we're first class. “Every single trip to reality sucks so much.” I whined. Chase held my hands tightly under his, maybe ensuring I wasn't gonna run away, and it's not like I wanted to either. “We have to keep taking it.” He said and sighed. “You really do not know much about being supportive.” I muttered and just let myself be led like a sheep to the slaughter. “Come on, Em.” He said, still not taking his eyes off the road, “You know everyone's just doing what they have to do.” Chase said. “Do I have a choice?” I whispered to myself. I wasn't mad at Chase, I was just angry that our little baecation was over and that we were gonna be separate
Emma's POV “Hey mom!” I was overfilled with excitement and anticipation. From what Chase briefed me, we had a whole lot of fun stuff to do. It was quite risky that we were taking such a break from school, but it's nothing Chase's dads connections couldn't fix. He said that we were gonna have fun, and he was gonna make sure of it. “How are you, sugar?” She asked. It'd been a minute since I saw my mom that happy. “Never been better.” I replied a little too enthusiastically, I was so happy to be away. Somewhere no one knew me. “You look it.” She smiled. “Why did you not call me? Forgot about your woman in all your boy dramas?” Unfortunately for me, the phone was on speaker, and Chase wasn't far. Which definitely meant he was paying more than the usual attention. “Come on, mom!” I chided. “It didn't exactly end the way we thought.” I was trying to be as cryptic as possible, if I had my way, I'd have avoided the whole topic all together. “Tell me.” She said, looking s
Emma's POV “Do you wanna come in with me?” Chase asked. The answer was gonna be hell yeah, but because of what happened in the past-less than twenty four hours ago, the question was necessary. “Yes.” I answered affirmatively. “Are you sure you're gonna be comfortable here?” He asked again, looking at me doubtfully. “I'll try.” I replied. “That's not such a good thing.” He remarked, heavy on his amateur British accent, taking a step back. “I can't help it. It's too many memories.” I apologized. “Don't do that.” He said, and appeared to think pensively. “Let's go somewhere. What do you say?” He looked at me. “What?!” I asked. Can't lie, I was shaken a bit. “Just like that?” I blinked so hard and fast. “Yeah. Somewhere different. Somewhere we could be ourselves. Somewhere we can start on a fresh slate and get back on our feet.”He couldn't have sold the idea to me any better. “Uhm, I,uhm. Is that possible?” I asked. The sun was so bright, I had to squint, and
Emma's POVDon't even ask why I walked out of Chase's house, cause I couldn't give myself a sensible reason. I just wanted to be away from there. It felt like something was haunting me. I had a troubled sleep, matter of fact, I had no sleep at all that night. I tossed and turned and cursed myself out for being so trashy. I kept wondering if I was cursed. Could I just not mess my own happiness up? I wanted to do something desperately. It was the day after and I was still the only one in Mark's house. It gets lonely real fast when no one is home. “You've gotta do something, Emma.” I said to myself as I sat alone in Mark's big ass living room. Confused and ashamed, but ready to make things right, I hopped into the easiest car to back out of the garage, and once again, was on my way to Chase's house. As I drove, I thought of a million things I could say. Really, just anything to explain my behavior the previous day, but nothing came to my mind. I could not even convince myself t
Chase's POV “Fuck!” I didn't understand why Emma was in such a rush to get away from me. We literally were just unloading our hearts content to each other. Was she bored? Tired of me? Did she see something that triggered her? She wasn't even with her phone. I'd have concluded that she got some type of news. Two days after my dads anniversary dinner, and I was still in Starry, against my own will. Having sworn to leave town, immediately after the dinner, with all traces of me gone if Emma didn't come into my life, I surprised myself. For every single thing I thought could never be, life kept sending it my way. Emma and I had sorted our issues, but she wasn't speaking to me. I woke up as early as 6:00am, checking my phone for texts from her constantly, and there were none. I wondered what I did to deserve the cold treatment again. It's one thing to be in someone's bad books, it's another thing not to know why. I thought long and hard of what to do. But no sensible ideas wer
Emma's POVThe person I was at Chase’s house wasn't the regular me. I was feeling a million things and I wanted anything, anything at all, that would make me feel even just a bit better. Being that close to him, saying everything I said was a new feeling. My heart was racing and my throat constantly ran dry. “Can I admit something I think of sometimes?” I asked Chase. “Yes.” He said, really enthusiastically. I thought to myself if he'd be that hyped up if he knew what was on my mind, but since I'd concluded that I'd stop keeping stuff I thought to just myself, I said it. “You might not be too enthusiastic if you knew the shit that's about to fly out of my mouth.” “Come on, Em.” He said. “I don't fancy when you refer to yourself that way.” “Okay, okay.” I said, putting my hands up in surrender. “What if Gray and Lily weren't there?” I asked him. Chase looked at me, for about ten seconds, his bright blue eyes were beginning to get their spark. Instead of being terrified
Chase’s POV “I was about to ask if I ever made you doubt that, but I remembered I have, over a thousand times.” I said, shooting myself in the foot. “People change, Chase. I believe you can too.” She said like she was holy or something. “Come on girl, don't treat me that way.” I played along. “Can we sit?” she asked, pointing at the chairs I'd already wrapped. “Sure we can,” I said, “tear them off.” “What were you gonna do, really?” She asked her. “I don't know, actually, and I'm not even lying. The plan was to be away from everywhere you were.” I replied, truthfully. “Do you still feel that way?” She asked me. “Come on!” I said. “You know that's not possible.” “Just checking in to make sure, really.” She remarked and looked away.. “Can I go now?” I asked her if I could ask my own questions. “How do you think life would have been if both of us ended up in MIT?” I asked her. “I know it'd be great, for sure. I also know it'd be straining, maybe a