“You really put a lot of thought into this plan, huh?”
He slid his wallet out of his back pocket. He flicked through his money inside, and took out two white pieces of paper. “I was actually banking on it.”
In his outstretched hand were two airline tickets – one of which had my name on it.
“Chase…” I began.
“Please don’t say no right away,” he begged. “If you don’t want to come with me, then I’m not going anywhere. It’s both of us, or neither of us.”
“No pressure or anything.”
“I’m not trying to pressure you. I just need you to see that I want my future to include you, and that I don’t want to leave you behind while I go off and fulfill some pipe dream. I know you would love California. After everything we’ve been through – after everything you’ve been through – we could get a fresh start, together. If you think about it, and decide that you don’t want to go – I can always get a refund for my tickets. Just please don’t answer right now. Sleep on it.”
I flopped backward onto the couch, staring up at the ceiling.
Sleep on it. As if I’d actually get any sleep after this.
Chapter Twenty-three: The Knock
“He wants you to move where?!”
I winced in pain. “I think you scrambled my brain with that octave.”
“There is no way you are considering actually going with him, are you?”
I uncovered my ears. “Is it safe to come out?”
“Be serious, Merr. What are the odds that he’s going to be the next big star? And what are you going to do while he’s off playing gigs in bars? You’ll be all alone.”
“He brought up going to school there.”
“How are you going to afford all the expenses? California isn’t cheap.”
“I know. It all sounds crazy.”
“That’s because it is crazy.”
Brody sighed loudly.
“Oh, don’t you dare say a word right now,” Shelly warned.
Brody smiled. “Listen, I know you two are best friends, and you don’t want to be apart from each other. But she’s my best friend, too, and I have to be honest with her. What else are they going to do stuck here for the rest of their lives?”
“I cannot believe I’m hearing this.” Shelly covered her face with her hands.
“Dude, you should have just agreed with her.” I winked at Brody.
“She knows I’m right.” He rubbed her knee. “You can’t stop her from going any more than she can stop Chase from going. It just wouldn’t be right.”
“I haven’t made my decision, yet. I’m just bouncing it off of you.”
“Who would you bounce it off of in California, huh?” Shelly fired. “You’d be out there all by yourself.”
“She could use this nifty new invention called a phone,” Brody retorted.
“No! You’re not on my side. You don’t get to use sarcasm.”
I stifled a laugh. Shelly actually looked like she was genuinely upset.
“This is crazy.” She shook her head. “What about the shop? What will Tanner and Beverly do without you? What about Khloe? She would be heartbroken with you.”
“Geeze, Shell. Don’t use the kid to guilt her into staying.”
I nodded. “She’s right. These are the things I brought up to Chase last night.”
“What did he say to that?” she asked, with hope in her eyes.
“He said that his mom might be selling the place.”
Brody’s eyebrows lifted. “Really? That’s surprising.”
“That’s Tim’s shop – how could they sell it?”
“I don’t know their finances or anything, but I don’t know how they can manage with Tim gone. I told Chase to go without me, and that I would help his mom and Tanner in the shop. Maybe we could hire an extra person so the workload wouldn’t be too much.”
Shelly’s eyes widened as if I had just told her I had one day left to live. “Merritt, no! You cannot let him go without you. That’s the kiss of death!”
Brody shook his head. “Don’t listen to her.”
“I’m serious. You’ve seen how girls act around Chase. California would be like high school all over again; only this time, the girls would have fake boobs and modeling contracts.”
I grimaced at the thought.
“Don’t go putting these crazy thoughts in her head.” Brody leaned towards me. “Chase loves you, Merr. He’s crazy about you, and everyone knows it.”
“All he has to do is tell those twits about the time he saved someone from a burning car.” Shelly shook her head. “They’ll be dropping their panties like it is Spring Break at Cabo.”
“You’re like a demonic Jiminy Cricket, you know that?” I laughed it off, but I wanted to vomit at the thought of Chase and panty-dropping models.
She shrugged. “It’s my job as your best friend to keep it real.”
“Keeping it real would mean you help her weigh the pros and cons of a major decision like this – not scare her into making the decision you want her to make.”
Brody was right. Shelly knew it, and I knew it.
A knock at my door signaled Chase had arrived. Shelly was closest to the door, so she got up to open it. She rolled her eyes when she saw who it was. “Why are you even knocking?”
He walked in, his eyebrows raised. “Hello to you, too.”
Brody laughed, shaking his head. “Watch out, man. Your biggest fan has turned into your worst nightmare.”
Chase flopped onto the couch, leaning over to give me a kiss. “Uh-oh. I’m guessing you told her.”
“Yes. Apparently, going to California with you is a terrible idea; but if I don’t go, you’ll be cheating on me with panty-dropping models.” I used air quotes to emphasize the model part.
Now Brody was not the only one in the room shaking his head. “You really think that I would do something like that, Shell?”
Her arms were crossed over her chest. “You’re Chase Brooks.”
He almost choked as he laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding me! You’re the one who was pushing us together this whole time, and now I’m back to being that Chase Brooks?”
Shelly stood, frustrated, with her little girly hands clenched into fists. “I almost lost my best friend in a horrific car accident, and now you want to move her across the entire country? Do you have no heart?!”
Chase sat up, a soft, sincere expression on his face. “I told her: if she doesn’t want to go together, then I don’t want to go at all. Her happiness means everything to me.”
“Well, she’s very happy here with her best friend,” Shelly replied matter-of-factly.
I giggled at how difficult she was being. “And I told him that his happiness means everything to me, too. I would never hold him back from doing something he wanted to do… unless it involves panty-dropping.” I shot him the death stare for good measure. “Think about it. If you knew Brody’s dream was to do something, you would never want to be the one to stand in his way. That’s the kind of shit that builds resentment.”
Brody nodded silently.
“Does that mean you’re considering coming with me?” Chase asked in a quiet voice.
“I’m considering the pros and cons of each option.”
“That’s better than a straight up no,” Brody offered. He stood, tossing his jacket over his shoulder. “Come on, babe. Let’s give these two some time to discuss everything.”
She stood in a huff, thrusting her arms angrily into her jacket. “Fine. But once you decide you’re running off to California, don’t decide that you’re leaving immediately. You have to give me fair warning.”
“What’s fair?” Chase asked, curious.
“At least a week!”
I covered my ears. “Not again! My ears were just recovering.”
She made a face at me, and swung the door open.
Brody took my hand, pulling me off the couch to hug me. “Make the best decision for you. Not Sh
elly, and not Chase. You deserve to be happy, so follow your happiness. Do you hear me?”
I nodded, wrapping my arms tightly around his midsection. “I would miss you, too, you know.”
His cheeks pushed up into his Cheshire cat grin. “Ditto, Adams. You were my very first friend here. Don’t forget about me.”
I waved goodbye as they trotted down the stairs, and closed the door behind them.
Chase heaved a loud sigh. “Think Shelly will ever forgive me if I take you away?”
“I’m not sure. That girl knows how to hold a grudge.”
“So… which way are you leaning towards?”
I laid my head in his lap, hanging my legs over the arm of the couch. “I keep imagining myself standing at a fork in the road. I have two paths ahead of me, and either way I get to be with you.”
Chase twirled a lock of my curls around his finger, listening quietly.
“If I go down one path, you will get to have the experience of a lifetime, and fulfill your true potential. I will get to watch you make your dreams come true. In turn, that will fill me with so much joy. This path, however, is absolutely terrifying for me. I’d be moving to a place where I know nothing, and no one. I can’t see my future down this path.”
“And the other path?”
“The other path, I can see my future very clearly. We would work at the shop, and stay close to your family and my friends. We’d get to watch Khloe grow up before our eyes. Your mom wouldn’t be so lonely. I know I’d be happy, because I’m already happy now with the way things are going for us.”
“But?”
“But… there would always be that nagging feeling in my gut. The kind of feeling that wakes you from a dead sleep ten years down the line, when you ask yourself if your life could have been more. I don’t want to have that feeling, and worse, I don’t want you to have it.”
Chase nodded as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Those are the same questions I have racing around in my mind.”
“Want to know what I keep thinking about? That Robert Frost poem.”
A smile crept onto his face. “The one about the road less traveled?”
“Yup. That terrifying untraveled road.”
“You did say you wanted to live life to the fullest.”
Just then, a knock came at my door.
“How much you want to bet this is Shelly?” I jumped up and ran to the door.
“Tears running down her face, sobbing about how horrible your boyfriend is for taking you away from her,” Chase chimed in.
I swung the door open, and my heart almost stopped beating on the spot. I was frozen where I stood, unable to move or make a sound. It was as if all of the air had been sucked out of the room as I struggled to take a breath of air.
“Who is it?” Chase’s voice sounded muffled by the sound of the blood pounding in my ears.
“Hi, Merritt.”
Chase was now standing by my side, peering out from behind the doorframe. His stunned expression matched mine.
“It’s…” I couldn’t get the words out. “It’s my mom.”
THE END
Get the sequel here:
Avoidance
Dear Reader,
Something about this book made you decide to buy it. Maybe it was the cover that intrigued you; maybe it was the blurb I wrote to summarize the story; maybe a friend read it, and recommended it to you. Whatever the reason was – thank you.
I went through major life changes while writing this book. I have been through marriage, divorce, remarriage, and became a step-mother, all while writing this story – and I’m only in my thirties! It is a story that has been in my head for quite some time now, and I am still in utter disbelief that it has come to this point – the point where you are reading these words.
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Kristen
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