Small recap of Chapter 44

I walked around my neighborhood, a few seconds later feeling a strong grip on my arm. I immediately turned around and slammed whoever it was against a tree, I was always prepared for any possible random attacks.

"Hey, hey, relax." The voice of an older male spoke up. I looked up at the guy, making eye contact for the first time with him. I could feel my bloodstream rush all over my body when I recognized who he was.

"Isaac? My god you've grown so much."

Chase?!

There is no way that was Chase..

"You have no idea how much I missed you.." He pulled me into a tight hug. I stood frozen in place, still stunned over the fact this was all happening right now. I quickly returned the hug though, determined to keep calm.

It wasn't easy though, since its been years since I last saw Chase.

*ch 20-21 to help refresh memories if needed

"Are you.. Crying?" I asked somewhat jokingly, trying to repress my own emotions. I've taught myself to not feel any emotions, especially any soft ones that included crying.. But
I found those the hardest to control.

"Of course not." He chuckled, drying his teary eyes with a single swipe of his sleeve."Something just got in my eyes." His face then dropped to a dead serious one, he grabbed onto my shoulders tightly.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be? Haven't seen you and my brother in years now." He smiled, suddenly breaking eye contact. He stared at the floor, bursting into quiet laughter. It soon died down and he sniffled a bit. It was obvious he didn't like the fact he was being emotional, since he just swallowed down a lump forming on his throat.

"Joe..." He managed to choke up quietly.

"He's doing good." I assured him.

"He really misses you, we both did." I said in a practical whisper. If I spoke any louder I would probably release each and every single emotion I was feeling within, and I didn't want that. But I held onto him as hard as humanly possible, since I have missed his company so much. Hugging Chase was like hugging family, he just brought a feeling of safety and protection I haven't felt in years.

"Miss you buddy." He rubbed my back, my phone suddenly started ringing.

Ring ring

I sighed quietly as I pulled away to pick up the call.

"Isaac.. Where the hell are you?" The drunk voice asked.

"Is that-" Chase began.

I nodded. "I know how to deal with him." I told him, at this point I knew how to deal with his bullshit.

"None of your business." I spoke through the speakers, not wincing when the expected happened.

"Don't fucking talk to me that way, you little fucker!" My drunk father hissed, the phone was loud enough to make me cringe.

"Now you get your ass back here, if you don't want things to get worse than they're already going to get."

"I'm coming home when I fucking feel like it!" I shouted back, throwing Chase off guard.

"Raise your tone down, idiot!! I can track you down if I feel like it, and you know if that happens that I'll have you struggling to walk for weeks!!" Our conversations were loud enough to grab people's attention that walked past by us.

"Don't talk to your son that way!" Chase had suddenly grabbed the phone and interjected into the phone call. I couldn't hear anything else Rick and Chase were talking about since he walked a few feet away from me.

"You think you scare me? I just got out of prison and I'm willing to go back again if you don't fuck off!!" Chase growled loudly.

I ran over to him, about to grab the phone but he moved it away from my reach.

"Issac, let me talk to him!" He insisted, continuously moving the phone away from my reach until I finally gave up.

"What the hell dude?" He sighed frustrated when my father hung up.

"You still live with him?" He questioned.

"Look-"

"Just answer my question." He ordered, in a dead serious tone. I sighed.

"I told you to move in with Jonas didn't I? Why in the world are you still-"

"Look, I know how to take care of myself. I'm not that kid you used to look after anymore."

"Isaac.."

"Look, let's talk about this later. Can we just get out of here? It's freezing here." I shoved my pockets onto my jacket. My hands felt practically numb. Chase nodded in agreement.

"Don't think I'm forgetting about this whole convo though." he promised.

I sighed.

Of course not.

"I know just the place." He flashed a grin.

~

"Hello, how may I help you?" A barista with a name tag that said "Karla" asked politely as we walked over to the counter.

"May I have a chai with almond milk? As well as an eclair." Chase said as he looked through the options in the menu. Karla wrote everything down, hurrying as Chase suddenly started adding more shit.

"And a croissant. Oh, and maybe a lemon tart... Maybe 2." He continued on. Karla and I stared at him, he rubbed his arm.

"What? I'm starving!" he mumbled, chuckling awkwardly.

Of course.. How did I forget.. When he literally just came out of prison.. That food they gave was some of the crappiest shit ever. I would know cus I've been thrown there a couple of times, I've had my fair share of arrests.

"What about you Isaac? Anything you want?" he asked.

"No.. I'm fine." I replied, starting to walk towards the tables until Chase locked his arm on mine, stopping me.

"Hey, what the-"

I turned back to look at them, Chase crossed his arms as he waited for me to order.

"I don't want anything." I repeated.

"Come on dude, my treat!" He insisted.

"I'm sorry for interjecting, but I think you should listen to your friend. He's just trying to be polite." The Karla girl added, patting me in the shoulder.

"Alright, fine." I sighed.

"Just order me whatever you want.." I told Chase, starting to walk to the tables, I don't know how I didn't expect it to happen, since it already happened once, but I was stopped by Chase.

"Just order me what you want, really man. I'm not picky." I really wasn't. I've had to eat that prisoner trash a lot of times, I could keep myself alive by eating fucking mud, I've just trained myself to eat whatever.

"Pick something right now." Chase persisted.

"I swear to god Isaac-"

"Alright, alright! I guess I'll have.. A cappuccino.." I said as I looked through the menu.

Karla nodded. "Anything else?"

"Yes, and he'll take an apple pie as well." Chase butted in.

I opened my mouth to speak but Karla had already written everything down.

"Got it, I'll be back in a few minutes. But I can try to be faster for you guys." She smiled, looking directly at me as she finished her sentence.

"I think she's into you." Chase teased as we walked to our table.

"Oh, shut up." I responded, sitting down across from him as we waited.

"Just you wait." He practically mouthed, shutting up as soon as Karla arrived with what we ordered.

"Here you go gentlemen." She beamed as she placed everything on our table.

"Thank you." Chase smiled.

"Of course. That will be $24.47." She stated as she looked at the check.

"Alright, I got you." Chase pulled a 20 dollar bill out of his pocket, handing it to her.

"Now I'm sure I had a 5 dollar bill here somewhere..." He mumbled as he searched through his pockets, a look of mild panic appearing on his face as his pockets turned out to be empty.

"Shit... I'm 4 dollars and 47 cents short."