099

ROOT ACCESS

{Playlist Suggestion: "System Magic" by Goldfrapp / "Glory Box" by Portishead}

~CHASE POV~

The apartment was quiet, but it wasn't peaceful.

I sat in my wheelchair at the small kitchen table, the hum of my laptop fan the only sound in the room. In the living room, a fortress of blankets and cushions dominated the space. Underneath it, my sister and Kade Kingston were asleep.

I could hear their breathing…slow, synchronized, heavy with exhaustion.

I looked at the counter next to me. The orange prescription bottle sat there, glowing in the pale morning light. Tacrolimus. Prednisone. The pills that kept my immune system from eating my own organs.

Next to the pills was a receipt Chelsea had left out. Four hundred dollars for groceries.

I picked up the bottle. It felt heavy.

My life was expensive. My breath was a luxury item that my sister was paying for with her dignity.

I thought about the photo on Crawford Confessions. The rain. The jacket. The comments calling her a whore, a