Stella's POV

Can you believe I'm being blackmailed into doing this? Please send help.

I smiled down at my phone to see a photo of Ryan in the midst of all things baby. It was so adorable. He had pink and blue bow ties in his hair with checkered flags crisscrossed in them. Apparently Emma's husband-to-be is a racecar driver so the party was racing themed.

Blackmailed?

I shoot off a text and it took all I had to not tell him how adorable he was. A second letter another came through.

This is what happens when you have sisters. They demand that you help them in fear of this photo being released into the world. I can't believe I'm even showing you this!

I died laughing when a much younger photo of Ryan filled my screen. He had to be no older than 12. His hair was dyed pink with blue eyeshadow, rosy cheeks and plum covered lips. He looked to be wearing some type of dress with costume jewelry while holding up a tea cup.

You're so adorable!

Oh God, not you, too!

I laughed, feeling warmth flood my soul even though today was the day I was going to talk to Chase.

After leaving Ryan's in the beginning of the week, I've been making a plan to best go about all of this. I know Chase is going to blow up when he finds out how I know about him and Ryan. He's also going to blow up when I tell him I can't be with him anymore.

Truth be told, I've been losing sleep about the whole thing and I know I'm going to end up in tears. I don't want to do this, but I know I have to. It's not fair to Chase. He should be with someone who is capable of loving him back.

I wish I could be there with you tonight.

It was like Ryan could read my mind.

I wish you could, too, but I need to do this on my own.

Call me. No matter how late it is when you get back to your dorm. Call me.

I promise. xx

**

"Stella? You okay? You haven't touched your pizza." Chase looked at me from across the corner booth we shared at The Stonehouse. This was our favorite pizza place. Everything was made fresh to order and thrown into a brick oven to cook. I hated the fact that Chase wanted to come here tonight because I had a feeling it was going to be forever tainted by what is going to happen.

"I have a lot of stuff on my mind." I took a drink of my beer, hoping it would give me liquid luck.
"Like talking to your teacher about getting out of that project with Blaney?" I laughed at the irony. I already tried that but it didn't work. He didn't need to know that.

"Why don't you like him?" Since Chase brought him up, I figured it was now or never.

He just shrugged, "there's just something about him, that's all." I stared at Chase and he could tell that answer wasn't good enough. "Why are we even talking about him? Tonight should be about us." Chase's jaw flexed and I knew he was getting annoyed.

"Hey, you're the one who brought him into our conversation. I just want to know why, Chase."

Chase looked me in the eyes and I knew he was fighting with himself over something.

"I don't like the way he looks at you," he whispered.

"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh c'mon, Stella, you're shitting yourself, right?" I shook my head no at him. I had no idea what he was talking about.

"Fuck." He pushed his plate away. "Stella, he looks at you like he's in love and you wanna know what's funny about that? You look at him just the same." Chase took a long hard drink of his beer and motioned for the waitress to bring him the check.

I opened my mouth to say something but Chase shook his head no. "I don't want to have this conversation here, let's go." Chase stood up, opened his wallet and threw down a few bills that more than covered our dinner. He smiled at me weakly and allowed me to lead the way out of the restaurant with him close behind.

Neither of us said a word as we walked hand in hand down the street to his apartment around the corner.

I wanted to wait on Chase to finish this conversation, so when he opened the door to his apartment, I went straight to the couch knowing our night was just getting started. Chase followed me, "c'mere." He took my hand and I followed him into his bedroom.

"Chase..." I warned and he just shook his head.

"Sit." He ordered, pointing at the edge of the bed. I watched as Chase went over to his dresser, opened the top drawer and pulled out a small black box and handed it to me.

"Chase..."

"Just open it." I looked down at the tiny black box in the palm of my hand and pulled off the lid. Tears pricked my eyes when I saw the beautiful necklace. Chase picked it up from the silver chain so I could get a good look at it. "The Scales of Justice with a little birthstone gem and your initial." I stared at it in awe. It was so beautiful and thoughtful.

"I can't accept this, Chase."

He sighed, placing the necklace back into the box. "I want you to have it, Stella. Think of it as a token of what could have been."
I could hear the sadness in his voice and it killed me. "Chase," I jumped up and wrapped my arms around his shoulder and kissed him on the cheek. "I love it. Thank you, but..."
"No, Stella, let me talk first."

Chase grabbed my hand as we both sat on his bed. I kicked off my shoes and turned towards him. My heart was thudding hard in my chest and a overwhelming sadness filled me. I grabbed a pillow and hugged it.

"I know it's only been a few days, and I shouldn't put time on this, but I have a feeling I'm going to be waiting for something that's never going to come. Am I right?" I shook my head yes because I know exactly what he's talking about.

"I'm so sorry, Chase."

"Me, too." Chase sighed, and fell back onto the bed, and then he laughed. "I do love you, Stella, I'm just afraid I said it too late." He sat back up and cupped my face, his touch was so soft and tender. "But looking in your eyes tells me you don't feel the same, not even close." He dropped his hand and ran his fingers through his hair.

I bit my lip waiting for him to go on, but he didn't. I looked down to where he was pulling a piece of thread from his duvet cover and spoke what was on my mind.

"Chase," I grabbed his hand with both of mine and looked him straight in the eyes. "I fell in love with the idea of us. You had me at hello, Chase. That day I met you, I felt like I was on cloud 9 and ever since that day, I was just floating higher and higher. Our summer nights were the best ones I've ever had. I was completely smitten and no one could change that."

"But then?"

"But then you told me to wait, and I did. I was happy to do that so you could enjoy your football season without any distractions from me. However, something unexplainable happened and I can't ignore that."
"You mean your kiss with Ryan."

"It was so much more than a kiss, Chase. It was the first time I've ever felt needed." Chase pulled his hand from mine when I said that.

"Don't I make you feel that way?" He was starting to raise his voice now.

"Chase," I sighed.

"No, tell me. What does Ryan have that I don't?" Chase got off the bed and started to pace back and forth. "Why does he get to have the girl? Why? I swear, I should have never been his friend. He's always ruining things." Chase stopped dead in his tracks when he said that and looked up at me. "Shit."

I know how I should be reacting right now; shocked, surprised, mad, but I'm not. I'm just staring at him as realization dawns on him.

"You know already, don't you? Fuck. I can never win." Chase yelled out in anger and before I could stop him, he was punching the wall. Chase fell backwards upon impact, clutching his hand and arm as a huge hole broke open where his fist just was.

"Chase!" I got up and ran to him, "oh my gosh, are you okay? Why did you punch the wall? Your hand!" I went to grab it but he just pushed me away. It was red and it was already starting to swell. "We need to get you to the hospital, now." Chase didn't argue with me. I helped him into his coat, opting to only put in one arm and drove him to the nearest hospital.

We were completely silent on the drive and whenever I peaked over at Chase, his eyes were closed and I could tell he was in so much pain.

This wasn't how tonight was supposed to go.

This is all my fault.

**

A/N: Yikes! Chase went from 0 to 100 real quick! This is certainly not how things were going to go, but who is surprised?

Ya'll are spoiled for getting another chapter so soon. Also, that jawline in the pic I used.  I can only imagine how hot Chase looks when he's angry (I tired to use a gif of him being angry, but it was too big *sigh)

There's only a few chapters left and I really hope to have this wrapped up soon! I have so many new projects planned and I'm so eager to get them up!

Love you all for leaving me comments. It seriously makes my day!