Chase: and the girl who came back
– Chapter 24

Dad stayed true to his word. He spent Sunday with us, only disappearing to go get groceries.

He cooked dinner, watched movies with us and even asked me questions about my diabetes. I explained that Arden had arranged for the sensor to be put in and how much it has helped me monitor everything.

He asked more questions about the gang. He doesn’t like the idea of me dating, but he knew it would happen. He also understands that at the moment he has lost his right to act as a parent to me.

I’ve listened to what he’s said, but actions speak louder than words.

He needs to prove that he is going to be a parent.

He was even still at home when Millie and I left for school this morning. Again, I was surprised.

I’m sitting in Wander reading, avoiding going into the school for as long as possible. It won’t be the same without Chase here and I don’t know how Arden, Rhys and Ally will react when they see me. I never responded to their messages over the weekend. My phone vibrates with two messages.

One from Dad and one from Chase. I open Dad’s first.

Dad: I hope you have a good day.

He’s trying I’ll give him that.

I hesitate before clicking on Chase’s name. He stayed true to his word and has messaged me every few hours. He kept me updated on what he was doing. I love that he is still including me.

Chase: I’ll miss seeing you today.

He doesn’t ask questions or expect a response. Just tells me what he is thinking.

I head into home room just seconds before the bell rings and sit at the table opposite from where we usually sit. This is the table I first sat at with Ally on my first day. We haven’t sat here since Rhys moved our chairs over to the other side of the room.

The gang walk in and nod in my direction but take their usual seats without saying anything.

I wore my hair down today. I let it hang over the side of my face blocking my view of them.

I know I need to apologise. I just don’t know how.

I pull my phone from my pocket after it vibrates for a second time.

The first message is from Chase. This makes me smile. He’s already messaged me this morning.

Chase: Arden says you look pretty with your hair down.

I scoff. Is Arden really going to repeat everything I do to Chase? I could have some fun with this. I don’t reply.

The second message is from Arden.

Arden: Do you know what the national animal of Scotland is?

I don’t, so I quickly pull up my web browser for a quick search. What the hell is Arden on? This is such a bizarre question. As soon the results come through, I start laughing. I can’t help it.

A unicorn? How is their national animal a fictional creature?

Arden starts to laugh at my reaction.

Another message comes though.

Arden: Good right?

I still don’t reply. Instead I glance over at him and nod. He smiles and goes back to talking with Ally. Rhys watches the entire exchange.

The morning goes quickly. Ally still sits with me in all our classes, but we barely talk. It’s kind of uncomfortable at the same time that it isn’t. She’s giving me space, but not actually giving me space.

When I walk into shop class, Arden isn’t there. I was expecting this to be the lesson he bailed me up, especially because he’d have me one on one.

I start working on the car after Mr Williams checks that I’m okay on my own.

Halfway through the lesson, Rhys walks in and heads straight for me.

He holds out an apple and a jar full of red frogs.

“Arden says you need to eat this.” Rhys says by way of greeting.

“What?” I ask confused.

“Your app keeps going off. You’re starting to crash and need to eat.” He says forcing the apple into my open mouth. Rude much. I take the jar from him and turn it around to read the label. ‘Yasmin’s Emergency Stash’. I look at Rhys confused.

“Chase gave them to us, just in case you ever forgot yours again,” Rhys says, explaining the random jar.

“When you didn’t answer your phone, Arden sent out an SOS. He’s not here, Ally couldn’t leave her class, and obviously Chase isn’t here either. So, you get me,” he says by way of explanation.

I pull the apple from my mouth and look at him dumbfounded.

“My phone is in my bag. Sorry,” I say taking a bite of the apple. I’m a little woozy, nothing too bad though.

“It’s fine. Take a walk with me?” He asks, shocking the hell out of me.

“Why?” I ask dubiously. I’m not sure Rhys has good intentions. I trust him. But I also know he didn’t like me at the beginning.

“I want to talk to you, and Arden told me I had to stay with you for a bit. Two birds, one stone.” He responds. He looks completely out of place in the workshop. He’s wearing his school uniform and his signature tan boots.

Rhys doesn’t wait for me to answer.

“Mr Williams I’m taking Yasmin,” Rhys throws over his shoulder while he drags me from the room. Stopping by the door to pick up my bag. When your mum is the principal, teachers don’t bother telling you no it seems.

He doesn’t speak but lets me go. I eat the apple while following behind him. There’s no point in arguing with him. Especially if he’s following Arden’s orders.

We walk towards a table and chairs outside near the oval.

Rhys sits down and puts my bag on the table. I get my phone. 10 missed calls from Arden, 3 from Chase and 1 from Ally. There are messages from everyone telling me to eat.

“I’ve already told everyone you’re okay.” Rhys says.

I finish the apple, waiting for Rhys to talk.

He doesn’t.

“What did you want to talk to me about Rhys?” I ask prompting him.

He hesitates. “I wanted to tell you in person that you’re right.”

I don’t say anything, waiting for him to continue.

“I know that I need to stand up to my dad. I just can’t. I know you know what it’s like to have a parent you can’t talk to.” He looks off in the distance.

This isn’t the Rhys I’m use to seeing. This is Rhys being vulnerable.

“I’m holding out until next year. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to figure out a way around this. I just hope Ally can hold out for me.”

I already know how Ally feels.

“Rhys, you know how Ally feels about you, but you need to remember she’s human. She has needs. You can’t expect her to be celibate while you have a girlfriend. You know Ally well enough to know that the guys she chooses are just to scratch an itch. Don’t make a scene about it. Don’t be that guy,” I say. This is a conversation I’m happy to be having with him. I wanted to talk to him about this; I just didn’t know how to approach the subject.

“I know, I just get jealous and react,” he says openly, finally meeting my gaze with honesty in his.

“I know it’s hard. We all can see it, especially now we know the truth about yours and Ashley’s relationship. I’m not sure how Chase and Arden missed it.”

“I think deep down they always knew, they just never asked because I’m with Ashley.”

“Give it some time. We’ll figure it all out. You deserve to be happy.”

“Does that mean you’re sticking around?” Rhys asks. I’m glad he didn’t beat around the bush and asked the question.

“Yes Rhys, I’m sticking around. If you guys will have me. I know I have some making up to do. I just need some time to work through the crap in my head. It’s not easy for me to let people in. You guys are a lot to take on all at once,” I say returning his honesty.

“I know we’re a lot. I was you, not so long ago. I’m sorry if it seemed I didn’t like you at the beginning.”

“Can I ask why you didn’t?” Curiosity killed the cat. I’m aware Rhys could shut down at any moment. But at the party he said he never told them because they didn’t ask. Rhys likes direct. I’m hoping that is still the case today.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t like you. I saw how Chase reacted towards you. In the almost five years I’ve known him, he’s never reacted like that. Then Arden and Ally took an immediate liking to you. I didn’t like you because you changed them,” he says while picking at the wooden table. “Not in a bad way. I was just surprised. I didn’t want them to get hurt. I was trying to protect them. We didn’t know you. We’d never let someone sit with us before. You were different.”

“I didn’t intentionally do anything. You know that right?” I ask.

“Yeah I know. But I know I was a jerk. I need to tell you something. But I need you to know I haven’t told anyone.”

“What?” I have no idea what he needs to tell me. But the way he says it makes me nervous and on edge.

“I know what happened. I know why you moved here.”

I’m not sure what I was expecting. But it wasn’t that. “What? How?” My voice lacks the confidence it held earlier when I was asking Rhys for the truth.

“I found out the Friday after you arrived. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I needed to replace out, I needed to know if I had to protect my friends from you,” he replies, trying to justify his actions.

It’s odd. I’m not really surprised. This is something I’d expect Rhys to do. I don’t know why I didn’t think about it earlier. It makes sense. He warmed to me a little more after that first week.

“How did you replace out?” I thought everything was swept under the rug.

“I used some of Dad’s connections. Asked around. I even spoke to Jason,” he admits.

“You what?” I’ve spoken to Smalls almost every other day since we’ve been here. He failed to tell me this. My friend has some explaining to do.

“After I found out what happened I wanted to speak to the only friend of yours I could replace. I wanted to know what kind of person you are. I guess you could say I ran a very thorough background check. I like Jason. He loves you. He promised to keep quiet as long as I promised to keep an eye on you and let him know if anything happened,” Rhys says.

“That’s why Smalls wasn’t surprised when I spoke to him yesterday to fill him in on what had happened. You’d already told him?” I ask. Smalls was a little strange during our facetime. I just figured it was because we woke him up early on a Sunday.

“Yeah, I spoke to him after we found Millie. I needed to know what to do.”

“What did he say?” This should be interesting. Smalls is a wildcard. He could offer great advice or something completely ridiculous. Kind of like Arden.

“He told me to give you a few days. That you’d need to sort out your head and feelings and the best thing to do is to let you get lost in some books. He then said if after a week you were still ignoring us and hiding to show up with a bunch of junk food and Disney movies.” As Rhys speaks, I picture Smalls giving the advice. He knows me too well. Dammit.

“Sounds about right,” I comment.

“Yep, so this is us giving you space. Well, kind of. This is us giving you space in our own way.”

“I appreciate the space. But since you know what happened, you know why I freaked out?” I ask, even though I already know the answer.

“Yeah, I figured it was the reason. It was why I tried to stop you from flipping out. Smalls said that there is very little chance of calming you down when you hit that level of freak out. I’m sorry Hayden was the reason behind it. I’ve spoken to him. He knows he isn’t allowed to turn his phone off when he is with the girls. I extended it to Julia as well. Because Arden would flip if he was unable to get a hold of her, especially now she’s let us back in.”

“Thank you. You didn’t have to do that,” I say in response.

“I did. Hayden knows better. You know you have to tell them what happened eventually, right?”

“I know. I just don’t know how.”

“We all care about you. We all want to help,” he says.

“We?” I ask with a hint of humour in my voice.

“Yes, we smart ass. I’ve already apologised and explained myself. I’m not doing it again.” Rhys grumbles.

I can’t help but laugh.

It’s obvious Rhys doesn’t apologise often. He’ll likely deny this conversation ever happened.

“Stop laughing. This isn’t funny.”

“It kind of is. I didn’t think you’d be the first one to get me alone,” I tell him, while getting my laughter under control.

“Me neither, but I’m glad that I am. I’ve wanted to tell you that I knew, I just didn’t want to freak you out.”

“You know they are all going to be pissed when they replace out?” I ask. I’m not sure that’s true. They may be mad for a moment before they’ll understand why he kept it from them.

It’s not his secret to tell.

“I know, but they’ll understand why. You better answer that.” He says nodding at my phone that started to vibrate across the wooden table. Chase’s name flashes on the screen. “I’ll leave you to it. I’ll see you soon Yasmin,” he says as he makes a quick retreat back towards the school.

I don’t even hesitate. I answer the call.

“Hello.”

“Pretty Girl, you scared me.” He’s voice blankets me and I know I’m not going to be able to stay away from him for long.