“Yes. Are you expecting him?”
Dad nodded as he stood from the table, but before he could start toward the front door, Chase appeared in the entrance to the kitchen.
“Chase!” Dad grinned, closing the distance between them and giving him a strong handshake.
“Hi, Mr. Lockwood, it’s good to see you.” Chase was beaming at my dad, and none of the venom he usually reserved for me could be seen on his face. It was like I was looking at a completely different person.
Dad dropped his hand to his side. “You too, son. Have you grown over the summer?”
“His head probably has,” I muttered, earning a reproachful look from my father.
“Ally, be nice,” Dad said before turning his attention back on Chase. “Have you got your bags?”
Chase nodded. “Shane is just helping me bring them in.”
“Bags?” I asked, stepping forward to stand closer to them. I wouldn’t normally enter into a conversation that involved Chase voluntarily, but the mention of bags had me worried. “What does he need bags for?”
Dad and Chase exchanged a troubled look before my father finally turned to me. “Chase is going to be staying here a while.”
“What?” I frowned and glanced nervously in Chase’s direction. “Define a while…”
The front door burst open, and Shane returned to the kitchen carrying two huge suitcases. When he saw my stunned expression, he grinned. “There’s still another couple of bags out front. Chase, why don’t you take these up to the guest room while I grab the rest. I can almost guarantee you won’t want to be here when Dad tells her.”
Chase studied my troubled expression with caution and nodded. His gaze was still narrowed on me, and he looked like he wanted to say something. He opened his mouth but then closed it once more and frowned. “You’re probably right,” he eventually muttered before he took the bags off my brother and headed upstairs with them.
I waited until he was gone before I rounded on my father once more. “What’s going on?” My voice quivered with worry, and a sinking feeling was growing in my stomach.
Dad let out a long sigh and folded his arms across his chest. “Chase will be staying with us for senior year.”
The words felt like a blow to the gut, and all breath left me as I stared at my dad in horror. “What do you mean?”
“His parents are setting up a new office in L.A., and they won’t be around Fairview all that much. They didn’t want Chase to have to move out to California for his senior year, so he’s going to be staying with us.”
I heard the words, but they failed to compute in my mind. I kept repeating them over and over in my head as I tried to process what my dad was telling me, but it just didn’t seem to sink in.
“I don’t understand,” I said. My eyes were wide, and my skin had gone clammy. This had to be some kind of twisted joke. Everyone knew that Chase and I didn’t get along, and I refused to believe my own father would force me to put up with him for a whole year.
“Weren’t you listening, Ally? Dad explained it pretty clearly.” Shane had entered the house again with two more giant bags.
“I was listening,” I growled. “What I meant to say is: Dad, I don’t understand why you would do this!”
Dad let out another sigh. “Because the Williams family need our help, and it’s the least I can do for them after all they’ve done for us since your mom died.”
Great. Now Dad was playing the Mom card. It had been five years since she passed, but apparently, Dad still felt the need to use her as an excuse.
“I know they did a lot for us, but surely, this is too much,” I said carefully. Mom had died suddenly—a car accident to be precise—so none of us had been prepared for it. Dad handled her death by disappearing into his work, and it had been Mom’s best friend, Mrs. Williams, who helped keep our family from completely falling apart. She cooked for us every night for months and always picked Shane and I up from school whenever Dad couldn’t make it. I knew she’d been a massive support, but I wasn’t sure what she’d done was the equivalent of taking on a teen full-time for an entire year.
“And it’s also my senior year,” I continued. “You know I need to focus on studying. I’ve got it all mapped out, and Chase isn’t a part of the plan.”
He let out a sigh. “This isn’t about you, Ally.”
It kind of felt like it was. It was bad enough I had to endure Chase at school every day and sometimes on weekends when Shane invited him to the house. I had become pretty adept at avoiding him, but I wasn’t sure I could manage it if he was in my home twenty-four seven. How could this be happening?
“Surely, there’s somewhere else he could stay…” I started gnawing on my lower lip as my gaze darted to the bags in Shane’s hands again. “Doesn’t he have family members that could take him in?”
Dad shook his head, and I felt all hope of winning the argument drain out of me as I saw the look of certainty in his eyes. “His granddad is too old, and the rest of his family lives out of state. It’s already been decided, Ally. Chase is staying here.”
My shoulders started to slump. I hated the finality to his words, but I knew all too well there was no way Dad would reconsider. I had too much experience with his stubbornness to hope he might change his mind. I’d begged him all summer vacation to let me keep up my dance lessons for senior year to no avail, and his no-dating rule had been nonnegotiable throughout high school. When he made up his mind about something, there was no going back, and if Dad had already agreed to look after Chase, there was a slim chance in hell he’d listen to my objections.
“Now, will you help your brother take Chase’s bags to his room?”
I slowly nodded and took one of the large duffle bags Shane held out to me before following him from the kitchen. I hated that my father refused to hear me out, and it was clear he didn’t care this decision was going to ruin my life.
Chase and I were like oil and water; our molecules wholeheartedly repelled each other. Making us live together was like shaking the two substances up and expecting them to go against their natures and magically mix. It was scientifically impossible, and if my father ever bothered to stop working for half a minute, he would know that.
A firm scowl always spread across Chase’s face whenever I entered a room, and while he didn’t say much to me, the little he did say was deliberately harsh and surprisingly hurtful. He wasn’t afraid to speak his mind, and he never seemed to have any nice thoughts when I was around. I didn’t exactly hold back when it came to him either. But could you really blame me? It was self-defense, pure and simple, and I didn’t want to spend the next year of my life on guard.
As soon as I was certain Dad wouldn’t be able to hear, I pulled Shane’s sleeve, yanking him to a stop. “How long have you known this was happening?”
The corner of Shane’s mouth lifted as his smirked down at me. “About a month.”
“A month!”
Shane’s grin only spread farther across his face. He seemed to be enjoying how badly I was taking the news of our new arrival. I knew it wasn’t malicious. Shane genuinely seemed to find the funny side of everything in life. That was probably why he irritated me so much.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me sooner?”
“Because we knew you’d overreact. Dad and I figured it would be easier on all of us if we waited until the last minute.”
My stomach swirled with anger. “I’m not overreacting.”
Shane chuckled. “You haven’t looked this horrified since that rabbit of yours died when we were five.”
“Don’t bring up Fluffikins at a time like this. Like my day isn’t going badly enough.” I huffed out a breath and looked up at the ceiling. I was being a total brat, but Dad and Shane didn’t get it. They never would. In their eyes, Chase could do no wrong, but they weren’t the ones who had their first kiss purposely sabotaged by him. And they certainly weren’t on the receiving end of all his cruel words over the years. They certainly didn’t
care that he was a jerk, but I did and the thought of him living under the same roof was like all of my nightmares culminating in real life.
“Look, you’ll barely see him,” Shane said. “Chase actually has a life, and it won’t be as bad as you’re thinking.”
I lowered my gaze from the ceiling to my brother. I could tell he was genuinely trying to reassure me, but it wasn’t helping. “I have a life,” I grumbled.
“Ally, you spent the morning in a nursing home and the whole afternoon on your Kindle.”
I wanted to argue with him and remind him that I had friends and that I’d seen them almost every day over the summer, but I let out a sigh and nodded. It wasn’t worth the argument. Shane was so wrapped up in football and his own friends that he was completely oblivious when it came to my life. I didn’t really care if he thought I was a recluse. I liked my friends, but I also liked being alone with a book as well, and there was nothing wrong with that. I had bigger things to worry about than Shane’s opinion of me right now.
My brother flashed me a smile before he turned and continued carrying the suitcase up the stairs to the guest bedroom—Chase’s bedroom.
I still struggled to comprehend what was happening. I felt like I’d been dropped into some alternate reality because there was no way real life could be so cruel.
I slowly traipsed up the stairs, following after Shane. Chase’s room was right across the hall from my own, and he was standing silently by the window as I entered, staring out into the backyard.
“Man, senior year is going to be the best year ever,” my brother announced, as he flung himself onto Chase’s bed.
Chase nodded but didn’t utter a response.
It was always so odd seeing my brother and his best friend together. While Shane seemed to light up every room he entered like some kind of glowing star, Chase was like a storm cloud, dark and rumbling as though he was holding in a thunderclap that could burst out at any moment. The two of them were completely different, and I could never understand how they became such good friends. They used to play football together, but Chase quit last year, and I’d been hoping their friendship would dwindle after he left the team. It had been wishful thinking though, because they were just as close as ever.
I dumped Chase’s bag on the ground by the door. It landed with a loud thud, and the two boys looked over at me. Shane went straight back to staring at the ceiling, but Chase’s eyes seemed to sear right through me. I swallowed and backed out of the room before darting across the hall. I’d barely entered my room when I felt a hand at my elbow. I spun around to find Chase had followed me. He was standing far too close, and I took a step backward to give myself some space.
“What do you want?”
Chase recoiled slightly, like my words had slapped him across the face, and he pushed a hand through his dark hair as he stared down at me.
He let out a long breath. “I know you’re not happy to have me here.”
“Well, that’s an understatement.”
His eyes narrowed at my comment, but he continued like I hadn’t said anything. “And believe it or not, this isn’t my ideal situation for senior year either.”
“Is there a reason you’re stating the obvious?”
He ground his teeth together, and it pleased me to see how I irritated him. “I was getting to it.”
I waved a hand for him to continue. “Well, please do. My dad doesn’t let boys in my room, and I’d hate for him to have to go and fetch his shotgun.” I shrugged. “Or perhaps not.”
Chase rolled his eyes at me. “This is exactly what I want to talk about. I want to offer you a truce.”
I let out a laugh. “A truce?”
“Yes, a truce. If we have to live together, I think we should both attempt to be cordial to one another.”
I folded my arms over my chest and looked into his eyes. He wasn’t staring at me with total loathing for once, and I got the feeling he was being serious. “I don’t think you’re capable of being nice to me.”
“I said cordial, not nice. And for the record, I don’t think you’re capable of being nice to me either. We just need to stop bickering.”
It was an appealing thought, but there was no point in pursuing it. Chase wouldn’t last a week in a truce with me, even if it was his suggestion. Plus, I certainly wasn’t going to simply forget all the times he’d been an ass to me and there was no way I was forgiving him for pulling that stunt at the dance three years ago. He didn’t deserve to be let off the hook. It would make my life so much easier if the truce worked though…
“I’ll think about it,” I said.
“Do you really hate me so much you won’t even consider it?”
“I said I’d think about it.” I pushed him from my room. He moved easily, stepping back into the hallway with barely any pressure from my hand. I slammed my bedroom door and squeezed my eyes tightly shut as I tried to pretend that Chase Williams wasn’t still standing on the other side of it. Chase was chaos in my orderly world; he’d only been here ten minutes, and already, I was a mess. There was no way I could spend an entire year with Chase living across the hall from me—truce or not.
It was like someone had dumped a pile of radioactive waste in the room across the hall from me. They knew it was dangerous and that the toxic material would probably make me sick, but nobody seemed to care. Already, my room was contaminated, and I was certain it wouldn’t be long until the poisonous affects began to overcome me.
Like all hazardous substances, being close to Chase was going to slowly but surely destroy me.
2
Chase
She’d slammed a door in my face again.
I blew out a tense breath and resisted the urge to reach out and force my way into the sanctuary of her room. It didn’t matter how many doors Ally slammed in my face though; it didn’t change the bitter truth of my situation. I was stuck in this house for the next year of my life, and there was nothing I could do to change it.
“Your sister is impossible,” I growled as I returned to the Lockwoods’ guest room. I supposed it was my room now. Everything about the bedroom was sterile and boring. The carpet was white; the walls were white; even the quilt cover was white. Just standing in it made me feel like I was an unwanted dirty mark in otherwise flawless surrounds.
Shane grinned in response. “There was a time when you thought she was impossibly hot.”
My nose crinkled in disgust. “Please don’t remind me.”
Shane laughed and lay back on my bed to look at the ceiling once more. “I guess that was a while ago now.”
More like a lifetime. I’d been completely infatuated with Ally a few years back, and Shane never let me hear the end of it. She wasn’t like the other girls at school though. There was something so innocent about her beauty. She had these huge doe eyes and sweet lips that were shaped like a love heart. I used to think she was some kind of angel. She had become significantly less angelic since I realized her long hair hid a set of horns and she carried a quiver of barbed arrows across her back that she enjoyed aiming in my direction.
Something had changed over the years. Once upon a time, I’d teased her to get her attention. I’d gone out of my way to try to protect her from guys who wanted nothing more than to use her. She should have thanked me the night I stopped Dirty Declan from kissing her, but instead, she told me she hated me and had been nothing but cruel to me ever since. The brightness in her eyes always dimmed when I was near, and her forked tongue loved nothing more than to spread her venomous thoughts when we talked. I was no longer blinded by her pretty looks. No, I now saw Ally for who she really was, and I couldn’t stand her.
“I tried to get her to agree to a truce between us,” I said, hoping to change the subject and move away from talk of the schoolboy crush I’d once had on Ally.
Shane snorted. “And how did that go?”
“Like I said, your sister is impossible.” I wasn’t sure what I’d expected though. I’d decided on the journey back
to Fairview that, if I was going to live with Ally, we needed to put an end to the hostility between us, at least temporarily. I could barely tolerate the girl, but I could keep my mouth shut when I was around her if it meant a little peace for me. I figured she’d feel the same, but clearly, her opinion of me was worse than ever. Was it really that much for me to ask that we be civil to each other? Ally definitely wasn’t the same girl I had crushed on back in the day.
“I’m sure the two of you will work it out.” My best friend was always the optimist, and right now, I hated him for it. “I really don’t understand why you two don’t get along,” he added.
I didn’t reply. Ally and Shane weren’t the best of friends, but she was his sister, and I couldn’t exactly tell him that I suspected she was a descendant of Medusa and that her stare could turn men to stone. The fact I thought she was cute a few years ago counted for nothing now because absolutely everything about her rubbed me the wrong way. She was spoiled, spiteful, and stubborn as could be. It was unbelievable she still held a grudge against me for the Declan thing all those years ago—I hadn’t done anything wrong, but somehow, I’d become the bad guy. Living with her this year was going to be damn near unbearable.
I’d almost rather live with my parents in L.A. and start at a new school than be cooped up in a house with Ally. Almost but not quite. Even living with Ally Lockwood was better than the strained environment of my family home.
I went over to one of my suitcases and began to unpack, trying to push thoughts of my parents from my mind. I already had enough on my mind without thinking about them. I couldn’t seem to ignore my irritation though, not when my parents hadn’t even bothered to drop me at the airport today. Not when they were so happy to abandon me in my senior year.
They frequently let me down, and I shouldn’t have been surprised to be disappointed by them again, but it felt like they’d reached a whole new level of disregard. There was a bright side to all of this though. I wouldn’t have to put up with my father’s criticisms for the duration of my senior year, and that was definitely something to look forward to.
I Hate You More Page 3
