I give another shrug. “What can I say, my parents’ style of child-rearing was more hands-on, not giving me much time in front of a TV. Heck, just the other day, I discovered that you can binge-watch almost any TV show ever made—I mean, what will they think of next, watches that act as your phone?”
“Vel, please say you're shitting me?”
I look to Chase and chuckle. “Yes, I’m just playing with you, but I’m not when I say that I was never really into video games. It just wasn’t my thing.”
“Well, now I have a new mission. I’m going to turn you into a gamer,” Chase replies.
“You can try, but I’ll tell you now, my parents tried the whole piano thing with me until even my music teacher told them I was a lost cause. I have absolutely no hand-eye coordination.”
A smile crosses his mouth. “That’s just because you didn’t have me around to guide you, young grasshopper.”
“Ha, I know that reference, that’s Mr. Miyagi,” I let out.
Chase’s smile drops quickly. “Kwai Chang Caine in Kung Fu—I certainly do have my work cut out with you.”
I pull into my parking spot just outside the apartment complex. The building’s older and in a rundown, less than appealing part of town. Thankfully, my landlord, Mr. Volpe is one of those people that takes pride in that which is his, making our building one of the only in the area that’s actually quite nice to live in.
“I never realized you lived this far out. Why are you not living on campus, or at least in town? This drive must kill you every day,” Chase observes.
“I don’t have much choice. It’s just my dad and me, and well, let’s just say our situation doesn’t allow for us to live apart. So, this was the only place closest to the school that was both affordable and liveable.”
Chase looks around, then turns to me. “I guess that makes sense.” He Shrugs. “Well, let’s get going. It’s not every day that I get an invite to Velyn Adler’s lair. I don’t want to waste a moment.”
I let out a snicker. “Then grab your suitcase of tricks and follow me.”
We gather everything up and make our way inside. When I reach the door to my apartment, I turn to an overly excited Chase. “Have you truly never been invited to someone’s house to hang out?”
“Does Connie’s count?”
I shake my head. “No.”
“Then, only once, when I was six. But the kids weren’t the nicest, and my father put a stop to me doing anything like that again.”
“Because they bullied you?”
“Not because they did it, but more so because he was embarrassed that I got bullied at all. He expected that because of my family name and that Dylan was my brother that I’d naturally be the leader of the pack, but that wasn’t the case, and anything less than the best is not acceptable to my father, even his own son.”
My heart drops. “I’m sure that’s not true.”
Chase lets out a soft chuckle. “You don’t know my father. But it’s okay, I know where I stand with him, and I’ve come to terms with that. Now, I live my life for me. So, you see, the fact that you live in a small apartment is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is that you’re living your best life.”
I look to him and smile. “How is it that at seventeen, you’re more together and have more common sense than most people twice your age?”
“You’ve met my brother, right? Well, one of us had to put on the big boy pants and figure it out.”
I let out a belly-filled laugh. “You’re the best, you know that?”
“I try,” he replies with a side smirk.
I unlock the door to the apartment and lead the way in. It’s quiet when we enter with no sounds from my dad and no faint smell of a meal that he let burn on the stove so that counts as a good day in my books.
When we enter the living room, Chase takes it all in. “I like it. It’s quaint, and to be honest, it feels more like a home than my place.” He looks around some more. “Is your dad working?”
“No, he’s probably in his room.”
“Ah, the night shift?”
I shake my head. “No, actually, my father doesn’t work…he can’t.”
“Oh, sorry. I shouldn’t be asking so many questions,” Chase apologizes with a half-smile then heads over to the couch, but before he takes a seat, he catches a glimpse of the empty vodka bottle on the floor by the recliner. He tries to make like he doesn’t notice, but I know he does.
“That’s why,” I start to explain. “My father has some struggles; he’s an alcoholic.”
Chase turns to me with his eyes holding the sincerest of sympathy. “I’m sorry.”
“Thanks, but he wasn’t always like this. He used to be great. The best. But then my mother passed away and he never came back from it.”
“Not even for you?”
I shake my head. “No, not even for me. But I get it; my mother was his world.”
Chase pinches his brow. “And you’re not?”
I let out a breath. “I am, but my father is still lost in the grief of losing my mother.” I move to the couch opposite Chase. “He tries, but then something will happen that brings back a memory of her and he falls right back into his depression.” Chase doesn’t say anything. “I know the dad I knew before is still in there, so I have to believe that one day he’ll come back.”
“You don’t have to defend your choices, Vel. I’ve
