Chapter-30

ʏᴏᴜ'ʟʟ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ʙᴇ ᴀʟᴏɴᴇ

ɪ'ʟʟ ʙᴇ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʏᴏᴜ ғʀᴏᴍ ᴅᴜsᴋ ᴛɪʟʟ ᴅᴀᴡɴ

......

"You're staring!" Rome closes my eyes.

"RESPECTFULLY." I reply.

"That's my boyfriend!" He argues.

"I'm supposed to look, he's a model!" I argue back.

"You're checking him out." He points out. Honestly, I was checking him out. In my defense, we're supposed to check out what the model is wearing, aren't we? I'm checking out, respectfully. Need to support my boyfriend's brother. Go Caden!

"Don't say that like you're not looking." I say.

"He's my boyfriend, I'm allowed to look." He says and turns around with the phone in his hand from which we were looking at the videos of Caden.

"Go, you were supposed to be baking a cake for your man." He says, shooing me away. I already baked the cake, it's in the fridge now. Caden took Chase away so we could prepare. I invited Rome since he's invited to the little party, he should help me. I invited Alec too but he's late. It was a little party, me, the birthday boy, Caden, Rome and Alec. I didn't want to make Chase feel uncomfortable since Caden told me he doesn't celebrate, but everyone deserves extra love on their birthdays!

"As if thousands of girls and guys are not looking at him right now." I roll my eyes before peeking in his phone from above his head.

"Damn.." I say, more to annoy Rome but honestly, damn. "Look at those cheekbones." I comment.

"I'm telling Caden you were simping over him." Rome says.

"He knows I used to have a crush on him." I reply. He did know, it was like for a week then he decided to feed me dog food saying it's a secret recipe that he uses for his good body.

"You're getting on my nerves." He says, tackling me.

"Oh it's on." I say before wrapping my hands around his neck, getting him in a headlock right at the same time the asshole decided to stand up. I immediately wrapped my legs around him.

"I'll drop you." He warns as Piccolo just looks at us like we're idiots and struts away. Pico didn't like Rome, his reaction was the funniest thing I saw.

"You tackled me first." I remind him, I look around keeping my chin on his shoulder. "Whew, that's how you see the world? I wanna be 6'5 too." I ask him. It feels so wierd, like everything got a little smaller? God, can you increase my height by 8 inches? I want to be as tall as my friend Roman here.

"Celeste, leave my neck you idiot." He says, bending backward at the same time bell rings.

"It's Alec!" I yell, jumping down from his back and opening the door. It sure was Alec.

"I have never seen you look so happy just by seeing me." He says, amused.

"Oh no, we were just waiting for you to blow your part of the balloons." I say, pointing to the one-third part of the balloons we left for him.

"Assholes." He mutters before walking toward the table and doing his job.

"Less talking, more working!" I clap my hands.

Pico was quick to jump in Alec's lap. Three days back when they met, he got a liking towards him. "That little wanker." Rome says, making faces at Pico.

"Don't be mean to my baby." I say, elbowing him in the stomach.

15 minutes later, Alec was done with the balloons. He leaned back on the sofa, breathing heavily.

"You are evil, you could've ordered already filled balloons." He says, shaking his head.

"Why will I pay for something we could do ourselves?" I ask.

"It's 11:58." Rome tells us. "Ask Caden where is he." I tell him, turning the lights off.

He lifted up his phone to his ear when the door opened. Caden or Chase must've stepped on a balloon because it burst, making four of us scream. I quickly turned on the lights, looking at Chase who was looking down at his feet with a burst balloon now under his shoe. So it was Caden, Rome, Alec and me who screamed.

"Happy birthday." I say, god, I already ruined it.

"Happy Birthday bro." Alec said followed by Caden and Rome.

"Y'all are cleaning this mess up." That is what he says after a long silence. Bro? Thankyou?

"Excuse moi?"

"Yes excuse us?" Alec says, setting the cake up on the table.

"This wasn't needed." He sighs.

"Yes it was, now come here." I make grabby hands at him as he walks to me. "Caden, you did a good job." I tell him.

Chase stands infront of me. I tilt my head a lil to look at his face, which is gorgeous, and put the birthday hat on his head. He was about to remove it but I gave him the best glare I can so he stopped.

I pick up Pico from the floor and made him wear the little hat I bought for him.

"See." I show him around.

"Can we cut the cake?" Caden asks. "He didn't let me eat anything." He says pointing to Chase.

"There's cake?" Chase asks.

"That's a stupid question boo, ofcourse there's cake. Are you sure you turned 30 today?" I ask.

"Fuck off."

"Aww, how about no?" I ask again.

"Okay, let's cut the cake." Alec intervenes.

I hand Pico to Alec and lit up the candles. "Before he cuts the cake, if anyone smashes his face in the cake, I will kick you ass so hard that you won't be able to sit for days, now carry on." I pull my boy infront of the cake.

"Make a wish." I say and he looks at me. "I have everything." He replies.

"That was.." Caden sniffles. "Emotional." He completes, keeping his head on Rome's shoulder while recording on his phone.

"Ignore him, blow the candles." I say, before he can, Alec does.

"Alec you dick." We all yell except Chase.

"I'm sorry, I always wanted to do that." He says, smiling sheepishly.

"Do it again, I'll kick you out." I warn, lighting the candles again. This time Chase blows the candles and we all sing happy birthday song to him while he stands there awkwardly.

He cuts the cake, feeds me and then himself and wipes his hands with a tissue paper.

"That was mean." Alec says, cutting a big piece of cake for himself.

"You should've fed your son." I say, frowning at him.

"Not my son." He replies.

"Forgive him Pico, it's his birthday. We'll get back at him some other day." I tell pico before feeding him a little bit of cake.

••••••

Chase kicked them out as soon as they finished the cake. He's getting meaner day by day. We were sitting on his bed while I was forcing him to open the gifts. He wasn't though. I mean, who isn't excited to open their gifts?

"I'll open the ones the guys got you. You have to open mine." I tell him as I open the gifts.

Caden gifted him a phone. I'm glad, his previous phone was getting old and he won't change it. Rome got him tickets to his match and a bottle of expensive wine that I put away earlier. Alec got a package for the weekend getaway to The Hamptons.

"Now open mine." I say, after telling him about his gifts. He picks up a random gift. I bought him lots of gifts.

"A perfume?" He asks.

"Yeah, you stink." I say. He doesn't. I'm lying. He narrows his eyes at me before picking up another one. It's a pair of cufflinks. "They're nice." He says.

"Good, now next." I say.

He opens the biggest gift of all, it contains two jackets and shirts. They were the gifts I promised myself that I won't buy but I did anyway.

"They're...good." He says. One by one he opens every single gift. The little smile on his face made all the money I spent worth it.

"A watch?" He asks opening the last gift.

"Umhmm, you have a collection. I liked this one alot. Here, let me." I say, taking his hand and removing the watch he was already wearing to make him wear the other one.

(Tw: mentions of suicide & sexual assault)

I keep the old one away and pull his hand forward, I look down at the same time he does making us both go still.

"Wha- whe- why?" I manage to say with all the tightening in my throat. He pulled his hand back, looking away.

"Why Chase?" I ask again. "Is that why you never took off the watches?" I continue, turning his face towards me, he doesn't meet my eye. "When did you do it Chase?" I ask.

"18th birthday." He replies.

"Look at me, please." I say, cupping his face. "I don't wanna lose you, ever." I pull him in a hug.

I don't know for how long I was hugging him but somewhere in between, he made us both lie down. I'm not ready to let go yet.

"Was it your father? Was he the reason you took this step?" I ask.

"Partly." He replies. I wait for him to continue. "They're not my real parents. I'm adopted." He tells me.

"What? So you and Caden?"

"No, we're not blood related. Marissa and Pete couldn't have kids, they adopted me when I was one. Those were the best years, two years later they had their miracle baby, Caden. Everything started changing, I wasn't the first priority anymore not even the last one. I tried to hate Caden you know? But it wasn't his fault. As he grew up we got closer, he was the only one in that house who didn't make me feel like I'm not wanted there, Pete never liked that. He took him away from me, everything I loved was taken away from me. They didn't care I was just a child." He laughs bitterly at the memory.

"You don't have to-"

"No let me. I used to spend hours in the library, since that was the only place no one bothered to go into, that's why I know lots of languages. I read, for hours. That was the only option I had, they sent Caden away for school in a different state, to keep him away from me. I learned to cope with that, but then he started the abuse. I was the mistake and I was made aware of that every single day. The only birthday they celebrated was my 18th birthday. I tried to run away so many times, He always found me. On my 18th birthday.." He stopped as he started choking up.

He cleared his throat. "On my 18th he threw a party, I was happy to finally get the recognition in his eyes. There were a lot of people, I never was good with them, Alec was the only one I talked to. His friend, she, she used to visit alot. She was always touching me, it started when I was 15, I didn't know her intentions at first. It was uncomfortable, I tried to tell my father. He never listened. Mother was never home. She locked us in a room at the party, she tried to- tried to-" He couldn't complete but I knew what he was going to say.

"I was weak, I gave up, she didn't succeed as her husband at that time interrupted her. It was all too much, too much to take. Ending my life felt easier than dealing with the pain every single day. Caden found me in the bathroom, we didn't talk for years, I was angry at him for finding me earlier and he was well." He completed.

I was fully crying till the end. "I'll forever be thankful that he found you. I can't even think about you not being here, You're the most precious person in my life Chase, you didn't deserve all that. Did you report her to the police?" I ask.

"I didn't have the courage or power. I got the money my grandparents left in my name at the age of 21, by then it was too late to file a case or show the proofs. No one would've believed me, she was way too successful and powerful than me." He says.

"I'll never let anyone hurt you again." I promise him, kissing his forehead. "You weren't weak, you are stronger than they ever will be."

He stays silent.

"Happy Birthday Chase." I say before I feel my eyes getting heavier.

•••••

Going to hide, I was nervous about this chapter..I hope it wasn't too much. 💀