Chapter 59

Grayson's POV

Jessica and I spent a lot more time together after the ugly incident with Rudd. 

I told Chase about it, and while he did seem remorseful, he didn't look surprised. 

 "You don't look surprised." I observed. 

 "Are you?"He retorted. 

 "Come on man. This is our friend here." I said, hitting him on the chest. 

 "Whatever." He said, looking away. "We all knew she's had this sort of thing coming. I mean, she's been sleeping with him since forever. The school trip was their honeymoon. They've been in all sorts of clubs and hotels since then. It's on school property and so it becomes rape?" He asked. 

 "No man." I said, annoyed that he was thinking that way. "She was drugged." 

Chase turned to me, alarmed, and then tried to mask it. 

 "You see what I'm talking about?" I asked him, pressing the severity of it in. "And then he goes ahead to leave the school."

 "I did that." Chase said. 

 "You drugged Jessi…?" I asked. 

 "No, fool." He said, slapping me playfully on the back of my head. "I sent him away. He messed with Emma's grades, almost fucked up her chance of college. Jessica made him do it." He said. 

I was ashamed for her, and of her, but it still didn't defend what just happened. 

 "That doesn't justify this though." I said, looking away, embarrassed at how far Jessica had gotten. 

 "No it doesn't." Chase replied. "I feel bad for her. But we can't deny the fact that sometimes, she deserves retribution." Chase said and stepped out of the car. 

We rode together. It was the last time we talked till, three days after he called with the dumbest idea I ever heard. 

 "Hey man." He said. "What's up?" Chase sounded bubbly. 

 "Hey. There's too much chattering in the background. You don't sound like you're home." I said. 

 "No." He said. Chase sounded excited. "In at fRosty." 

 "fRosty?" I asked, to confirm. "You hit the jackpot or something. Wanna get a new ice?" I asked. I'd always known Chase wasn't such a big fan of jewelry. So the few times he bought it, it was diamonds or nothing. 

 "Not for me, for Emma." He replied. 

I laughed for a long while. 

 "You running errands for your sister now, man?" I asked him. 

 "Nope." He replied, and didn't say anything after even though he knew I was expecting. 

 "What's the suspense for man? What are you up to, bruh?" I asked. 

 "I'm gonna propose." He said, chirpy. 

I hope I heard wrong, matter of fact, I prayed so before asking again. 

 "I said I'm gonna propose. I'm gonna ask her to be mine." He repeated. 

Chase had lost his damn mind! I was so convinced of that. 

 "Come over." I said, for lack of anything better to say. 

 "Doesn't Jessica spend most of her time with you?" He asked. 

I wanted to deny that, but there was no point. 

 "Yes." I affirmed. 

 "Matter of fact. Isn't she there with you now?" He asked again. 

 "Yeah." I admitted, resignedly. 

 "I just thought to tell you. Before you go though, what would you get if you were in my shoes? A necklace or a ring?" He asked me. 

 "I'd get some sense." I replied. I wonder how Chase wasn't thinking this through. 

It's not the Chase I used to know. 

 "That's for all your help man." He replied sarcastically. "You'll see it on her when she wears it." Chase lugged and cut the call. 

I was still stupefied from what I just heard. 

But for the sake of my friendship with Chase, I knew not to tell Jessica anything about it. 

I thought about it all through that day. I knew to expect a lot of drama in school the next. 

 "I wanna talk to you." Chase said, pulling me away from Jessica as soon as we arrived at school. 

 "I think you should." I said, signaling to Jessica to go on, and that I'll catch up with her. 

 "It's today." He said. "I thought about waiting, but I've decided to go on with it." He added. 

 "Firstly, you look like you were chased by a bear." I started. 

He chuckled nervously and looked around. 

 "Secondly, you look like you got no sleep all night." I observed. 

 "That part is true." He replied. "I actually didn't." 

 "What's up, man?" I asked, willing to hear him out. 

 "It just has to be today." He said again. 

 "Why?!" I screamed out of annoyance. "We got our whole lives ahead of us. We're just high school kids. We're young and dumb and you're willing to throw your forever into someone's pocket?" I asked, confused. 

 "You're too much of a lover boy to be thinking so clearly." He said, laughing. "I do love Emma, but see this." Chase pulled out his phone and opened his chats. 

In his frenzy, he pressed a chat, an unreplied text, it read. "Emma's mine. Keep off!" 

Alarmed, I asked him what that was about. 

 "That's just some never-do-well." He said, disregarding it. 

There were a bunch of messages like that from that person, but since Chase wasn't bothered, I chose not to be. But the picture on the profile looked a little too familiar. 

 "This!" He said, opening Mrs Linda's chat.

He handed me the phone to read through and I did. 

It had all the answers I needed. Chase had her mom's blessing, so I let it go. 

 "That's just one thing though, there's another." He said, taking his phone from me and tucking it into his pocket. 

 "What's the other?" I asked. 

 "Let's just meet in the bathroom, immediately the alarm for lunch break goes off." He said and walked away. 

I looked at him, a little happy for him, but my emotions were mixed. 

Who'd have thought it was Chase who was gonna be engaged fresh outta high school. Not even Chase himself. 

I had a bigger chance of being cupped than Chase did. 

I relegated all those thoughts to the back of my mind and went after Jessica. 

The classes were a blur. We had a cute new teacher, who was a sub for Rudd. She was pretty, petite and had a nice accent, more stool, caught my fancy. 

 "Hey." Jessica said, hitting me on the shoulder. "Let's go to the hall." I glanced at my watch quickly and saw that it was already lunch break. 

 "I'll meet you. I have to use the bathroom." I said, excusing myself. 

I couldn't see Chase anymore, that meant he was already there. 

 "What's up?" I asked as soon as I entered. 

I could tell Chase had been pacing up and down. Matter of fact, I think I heard it through the door. 

"I need you to drop the charges against Emma and her mom." He said.. 

 "Are you mad?" I asked. 

When I told him I was gonna be pressing charges, he said he didn't care, that he was sure I was wasting my money, I'd be better off giving it to charity or a nursing home 

I remember how hard he laughed at me. 

 "My answer is no." I said, blatantly. 

 "You can't do this to me man, not after all I told you." He pleaded. "That's the basis of our agreement." He divulged.. 

I opened my mouth wide. 

Once a fucker , always a fucker. 

 "You're a bastard." I said to him, in my most menacing manner. 

 "I know." He replied. "Are you gonna do it?" He asked. 

 "No!" I answered clearly. 

 "Just stop man, stop the whole thing. Save yourself, save us all." He said, getting pissed. 

 "The fuck do you mean 'stop', man?" I replied, angry at how insensitive he was being. 

 "I mean, quit it!" Chase screamed. "Just stop. If you have no use for all that money, give it to charity or something!" Chase added, and punched the wall. 

 "You don't tell me what to do with my family." I said, snidely. "I don't tell you what to do with yours." I added. Chase rushed at me and we both crashed against the door. 

We paused when we heard a whimper from the other side of the door. 

 "Who's there?" I asked. 

I flung the door open fumbling with my shirt too.

We didn't f ind anyone, but Chase was going ahead, there was no stopping him. 

My heart in my mouth, I tagged along behind him, standing in a corner as he went ahead to make a fool of himself.