Chloe's Pov

My name's Chloe Cerise, my dad is William Cerise, a famous economic scientist and natural scientist. My mother is Talia Cerise, she used to be an artist, and she occasionally does free-lance artwork in her spare time, but now, she's a cop, working for the police force of Boston. My brother Parker goes to a different school to me, he's alright with me but his high school isn't particularly interesting for him, mainly because it's very uneventful for him. I have several friends at high school, but I'm not part of any of the sporting endeavours of the school, even though I do occasionally go to the gym, to keep my personal fitness up. I have previously considered cheerleading or gymnastics. My mother was a cheerleader in her later high school years since she viewed it as a way of expressing herself in another art form. The closest person to me in the entire school though is Goh Hughes. When he first came out as bisexual, I was one of the first people he told, because we had been friends for so long. I always knew he liked both genders because he always told me about the beauty of people from both genders. However, for me, things haven't always been so simple with Goh. I have a big secret which nobody else knows about, except for one person, Iris. Iris found out about my crush on Goh when she found my diary, which fell out of my bag because I had forgotten to fully zip it up after the previous lesson. She read a bit of it before she gave it back to me. Sadly, she hasn't been able to help me with Goh. Now, what's the trouble with losing a diary anyways? To the average person, the loss of a diary might just be a mild inconvenience, revealing only the boy they liked, and how they daydream of them every day and every night. I'm not the average person though. To the outside world, I am a caring and innocent girl, similar to how the world may view others in my year like Serena and Dawn or even Lillie. However, no one is truly who you think they are. Everyone has a dark secret they want to hide. I know the dark secrets of all of those girls, and they know mine. None of us will ever rat the others out. Innocence is only a deception for us modern females, birthed into a world where there are misogynists, rapists, and other bastards. Iris knew my dark secret after reading the diary, so why was this a concern? I've stolen from people. I stole from one person though that I shouldn't have, Ursula. She has never discovered who was responsible, and she may never know it was me. I would hope it remains that way, but I can't be too cautious. It would also be an issue for Goh if he discovered the truth since I was not the only person involved in the robbery. His cousins were involved in the robbery with me and if Ursula found that out, she would have a way of attacking Goh, maybe assuming that Goh had a role in the theft of precious items like jewellery, purses and more. I don't want more people to know this because it has consequences for the rest of my family. My younger brother was responsible just a year ago for a bust-up between his school and another at an American Football game (or just Football as the native residents of America say). According to my mother, my father isn't always comfortable with the top businessman of the state and often found himself in bar fights when he was younger. I don't know about my mother, she's often very secretive about her younger adulthood days. Part of me thinks she has skeletons in her closet that she doesn't want to reveal to the rest of her family including her children. I also don't want to reveal that I know anything about his past, because a lot of what I have done in the last few years, has left traces to information about Goh's past. I am willing to put myself in the firing line to stop Goh from having his family ruined. I also would do so to stop his past issues from being exposed. 

All of this relates to the past few days, the ones that I consider to be the worst of my life. I had an economics class with Goh to begin my Wednesday. I tried to liven up his day since he did not appear to appreciate Elm's teaching. I don't understand why I raised the point about Elm potentially watching porn, probably typical teenage thoughts, just to discuss porn of all things. I had asked Goh during the lesson to help me with my studies in the evening. There was nothing planned by me, I wasn't planning on it being a night where I'd wear revealing clothes or confess my feelings or seduce him because the test was the very next day, I care a lot about my studies, so what he did later was weird. He completely isolated himself from me, when he was in the gym, I tried to get his attention just to make sure he was doing ok because there were times where he pushed himself beyond his limits. He's important to the sporting teams of the school, injury to him would be problematic for the team to handle. The next issue between the two of us came near the changing rooms. I had reminded him about our study session that we had arranged for that evening, and I wanted him to be able to help me with some of the topics I struggle with. Not everything about economics makes sense to me, and I was confident Goh would be able to explain things in a way that I could understand. He just told me, he'll be late as he has to run some errands for his parents. However, I grew doubtful that this was the case as the day went on. He didn't speak to me for a few hours and that perked my suspicions up a lot. I had decided to go round to his house around 5 pm since I knew he was likely out running some errands. I entered through his window since he clearly forgot to close it before leaving. I found a book lying on his desk, I opened it and read a few pages then I took it with me for later reading. I felt guilty about the entire thing, but at the same time, it was the thrill of knowing that I might get found out, that made the whole situation more enticing. I searched around for anything more interesting, a couple of clothes lying near his bed wasn't going to catch my attention. I left his house within half an hour of getting there since the book I found was seemingly the only interesting thing in his room. Couldn't he be a little more interesting with his posters, having a picture of Ed Sheeran isn't particularly interesting, it's cliche as fuck, and why the hell would you have a poster of him anyways? I was on my way back home to see if Goh was either already there, or whether my father was home since I knew my mother was working. I always enjoyed my mother's stories about her work, since she had fascinating tales to tell about how her co-workers were catching drug dealers, burglars and more. She was a detective some of the time but she was also very hands-on in local crime as well as the paperwork within her department. I swung by the police station to volunteer myself to help my mother with jobs she didn't have the time for that night. I was told by her, that she would call me if she needed me for a job. I waited for Goh to arrive, I sent text after text to him, asking him where he was, and why he was running late. 7 pm on the clock, he wasn't here, then 8 p.m., still no sign of Goh, 9 pm? No. 10? Still no sign. By half 10, I got in my car to deal with a complaint my mother received, from several houses on the street where Ash lives. Little did I know that I was at the beginning of a horrible chain of events for me and many of my friends. I arrived at Ash's house 15 minutes later, and I could tell there was a rightful complaint to be made about the events at the house. Multiple vehicles were on his porch and it seemed from the sounds of things, people were doing drugs inside. I parked my car further up the street, but once I walked to the door, I saw a sight which confirmed my suspicions; Goh had lied to me, there were no errands, it was all bullshit, was this funny to him? To piss others off and use them as tools. I knew the next time I saw Goh, I was going to give him a piece of my mind, show him who runs the show around this town because it certainly isn't him. 

I don't know if it was fate or brilliant timing from me, but the door opened just as I was about to knock on it. Ash seemed a bit startled to see me.

'Chloe Cerise, what a pleasant surprise, what can I do for you?' Ash asked, with a bit of fear in his voice. Oh boy, I love having the moral high ground, a bit of a turn on for me, that should be noted. 

'You can explain why you're allowing drugs, for starters.' I responded coldly.

'I'm not taking drugs, apart from alcohol but I'm sure you understand, madame.' Ash replied.

'Legal drinking age is 21 but it's water under the bridge, since, back home in Britain it's 18.' I replied.

'Glad you understand. About the drug use of others, confiscate them, I don't care, I've had to snatch several bags of weed from them all tonight, and it's pissing me off. I've been down in the basement for a few hours and I would say ask my sister but............' Ash replied.

'But she's high, yes I can see, I'm not blind.' I responded, clearly unimpressed by Ash.

'Look Chloe, can I leave, I just came here to chat with Ash. I'm heading home for the night, and I need to cook myself some food and I need to make sure my dog is ok.' Goh asked me, with a pleaful look in his eyes.

'You're a horrible liar Goh Hughes. You don't have a dog, because I've been to your hous-' I said, before realising the words that came from my mouth. Shit, why did I have to reveal that, if he knew that I looked at his diary, I'd be right royally fucked, and definitely not in a pleasurable way. Thankfully I knew how to keep myself from saying anything else that might incriminate me, so I might have gotten away with it, I think.

'You've been at my house?! Are you trying to get a criminal record, my mother is literally a fucking cop.' He shouted at me.

'Newsflash so is mine.' I shouted back, pointing my finger straight at his face.

'What's with the attitude Chloe? We're friends.' He asked.

'You sure as hell have a weird way of showing that. Why the hell are you avoiding me so much? I asked you yesterday to help me study for the economics exam that's in 2 days, and you promised me you'd help me study for it. What did you do? Ditched me to talk to this clown.' I responded angrily.

'I'm not a clown.' Ash shouted, offended at the insult.

'You're the entire circus.' His sister shouted from indoors.

'I could easily tell your parents.' I shouted back.

'They already know she takes drugs at the occasional party. It was literally me and my brother who told them. I thought she was quitting, but she hasn't.' Ash replied, coolly.

'You are still going to get a fine for the disturbances caused by this event.' I coldly remarked.

'I'll view that as a minor offence. My apologies Miss Cerise, but you aren't an officer so you can't charge me, strictly speaking.' Ash stated

'Sadly, it's not me who has contacted the cops, the locals did, so the report was already noted and I'm just helping out my mother.' I responded.

'Anyways, let Goh depart, he has no relevance to this situation, and you really are wasting his time' Ash requested.

'Not yet, he can wait outside, I have other matters to discuss with him.' I responded slyly.

'I'll pay the fine, I've been working part-time as of late anyway. By the way, Miss Cerise, I have just remembered something. Dawn is hosting a lavish party at her place in the coming week or two. She told me to personally invite you to her party, I heard you're friends with her, it would make sense after all. The party might also help you get close to a special someone if you catch what I mean.' Ash replied, with a smirk at the end.

I wasn't sure what Ash was trying to achieve but I realised my face turned completely red, not from anger but from embarrassment I think, probably because he could tell I liked Goh.

'I'll be there, don't worry, anything for a friend of course.' I responded, my face still lit up like a tomato.

'Good, I'll let her know.' Ash replied.

'Just pay the damn fine by the end of the week and you'll be fine.' I added.

'Understood. I'll leave you two to it.' Ash replied, edging Goh out the door before shutting it.

'So.... what's the reason you wanted to talk to me?' Goh asked.

'You seriously think you can escape what you've done tonight, don't you. For the love of god Goh, I've been your best friend for years and I've trusted you and you have done the same for me, but tonight, you broke that trust. You went to Ash's place and ditched our study session.' I said angrily.

'It's one fucking revision session, I'm sorry, what else do you want me to say?' He responded.

'Do you think I'm thick as pigshit or someone who is dense? I know you've had a crush on Ash Ketchum for years, and you always tried to hide it. That's the whole fucking reason you ditched me.' I shouted.

'Chloe, it's not like that, I came to tell him...' He started before trailing off realising I was pretty close to the truth.

'Save it, you've shown you don't actually care.' I shouted now on the verge of tears.

'I'm sorry, I didn't want to hurt you, I can make it up to you I swear.' He responded in desperation.

'That's not going to be good enough, Goh.' I responded.

'Chloe, please.......'  He pleaded.

'You've hurt me enough, go fuck yourself.'  I shouted before running off to my car in tears. I departed pretty quickly from the area. I was left to my own emotions, trying to solve them, and figuring out what I was really feeling at that point. I'd realised my relationship with Goh was more than a little fucked at that point. Love isn't easy to understand, but, is it tough to love when the one you love betrays your trust?

 I was back at my house within half an hour. My father was the only one at home, he had a beer in his hands. I saw him watching a comedian's show, can't remember who it was, Fallon or Corden perhaps? More likely to be Corden since he is originally from the UK. I didn't pay my dad any particular attention, mainly because I was in such a shit mood, so I didn't want to annoy my father with my 'issues'. Before I could even make it to my room, I heard my dad call out to me. 'Chloe, you're not seeming... well. particularly bubbly like you usually are. I know I am utterly hopeless when it comes to understanding the emotions of the opposite gender, but take a seat on the chair in the kitchen, we'll talk about it.'  Well, I knew it would be pointless to bottle up my emotions, besides talking to my parents about it might help. I was sat down for a while whilst my dad handed me some alcohol. My mother came home 5 minutes later. She was always very calm about me having alcohol, even suggesting that I should be calm about others having it despite none of the people in my friend group being 21. 'What's wrong Chloe, your face seems spoilt tonight by tears?' My dad asked. 'She doesn't have to tell us if she doesn't want to, darling.' My mother responded. 'I need to tell someone.' I stated 'Mom, have you ever been betrayed so badly before. Lied to by someone you considered not only your best friend but potentially someone you loved?' I asked. 'Honey, me and your dad had so many arguments back when we began dating, some of the stuff he did... it broke us apart for a while and for me... I did the same to him.' My mother responded. 'I had an argument with Goh, a massive fight, he's hurt me, and I made it clear to him, I hate his guts.' I admitted. 'What did he do to make you hate him?' My father asked before my mother stated 'He's such a nice boy, I thought you had a crush on the boy, what could he have done to you, to make you hate him?'. I cleared my throat as tears once more rolled down my cheeks. 'I knew he was crushing on Ash, but he came over there to confront him, about his feelings. He lied to me about helping me study, he lied about having errands to run and instead he goes to a party with drugs and alcohol. He then tried to act like he hadn't done anything wrong, and when I even brought up something I shouldn't have, he reacted badly. I may have also snuck into his house and taken a peep at his diary.' I told my parents.' I proceeded to tell them everything else that happened earlier in the night. 'Sounds like you two have a lot to talk to each other about. Give it some time, you're both clearly unstable.' My mother said. Me being unstable, what did she mean? I'm not crazy? Holy shit, now that I think about everything, I wasn't acting calmly tonight. 'I'm going to go to my room, I need to cool off.' I said with a yawn. I went to my room and changed into my nightclothes so I could fall asleep. It was around 2 am when I was awoken by my phone ringing loudly. I reluctantly answered my phone, despite being half-asleep still. 'What happened and who is ringing at this time?' I asked. 'Goh is in hospital' The voice said. 'Who is calling and what happened to Goh?' I asked aggressively. 'My name's Marnie, I found your friend on the ground in the park nearest to me. He's been shot.' The person responded. Shit, did I drive him to an attempted suicide? I snapped myself out of my thoughts. I couldn't be responsible for this, I can't act like this is my fault. 'Was it self-inflicted' I asked, desperate for answers. 'He was shot three times, he's in intensive care. Chloe is your name correct? I got this number from your friend Gary. Anyways, these wounds were not self-inflicted. Someone shot him with an old pistol, at least that's what the police found.' Marnie responded. Whilst I was relieved my argument with Goh hadn't him to attempting suicide, I was still very much feeling guilty. What if I wasn't so harsh with Goh? Would he have gone to the park at all? Was I responsible somehow? 'I'm going to pay him a visit tomorrow, do you know if you can get the hospital to arrange a visit.' I replied. 'I think he'll be having surgery tonight to get rid of the bullets, and maybe later tomorrow they might let you see him.' Marnie replied. 'Thank you for helping my friend.' I said before hanging up the phone. After all that had occurred in my life recently, I was left with pain and conflicting emotions. I let myself fall into an onslaught of tears, I blamed myself for this all. The pain was unbearable. I'd had an argument with the boy I fell in love with and now he was in the hospital. It took me another hour for me to fall asleep, and even then I was only crying myself back to sleep. I didn't even force myself to think who would shoot Goh, but in the end, the answer would be revealed when I least expected it.