Blayne

 

It was a beautiful evening and that was why we decided to walk. I suggested it, Chase wasn’t much of a walking enthusiast. I on the other hand, loved the feeling of my feet on the ground, and the fresh air.

Walking in Williamsburg was a treat, if you knew how to do it right. I don’t think Chase felt the same way. “You don’t like doing this,” I said, trying to keep a straight face as we walked because his resistance was hilarious. I’d never seen him that awkward.

“Watch a dog pee on a homeless guy?” Chase said, avoiding a puddle. “Not my favorite part of the day.”

“You haven’t even seen the sexual deviants yet,” I told him. “There’s this one street I know, where an old man will unzip his pants and show you his penis…like every time. Doesn’t matter if you’re a guy or a girl, he still does it.”

“No one’s taking him away?” Chase asked in disbelief. “How could no one report something like that?”

“People usually just end up feeling sorry for him. He’s really old and sad looking.”

“I bet that’s just an act,” he said. “I bet he gets his rocks off this way and no one sees through it.”

I started to laugh. “Look who turned out to be against nudity!”

“That one almost didn’t suck,” Chase was grinning. “But you have a long way to go before you reach the expert level of sarcasm.”

“Oh please, you know I’m ridiculously good at everything I do.”

“Blayne?”

We both stopped in our tracks to find out who had called me by my name.

The same hazel eyes that I was trying to avoid, stood in front of me.

“Nick?”

He was right there, in front of us, and he looked furious. There was anger in his eyes that I had never seen before. It was intimidating. “Nick,” I said, finally able to find my voice. “What the hell are you doing here? Were you following us?”

But instead of looking at me, Nick was glaring at Chase for some reason. I didn’t like one bit where this was going and I had that feeling inside that Nick wasn’t here to just chat. The street was deserted. I kept thinking of possible escape plans in case something did go wrong.

“You never spilled the truth,” Nick almost spit the words at Chase. “You haven’t told her everything, Mr. Cooper.”

I had no idea what he was talking about but when I glanced at Chase, I knew what that look meant—confusion and being caught off guard.

“What do you want, Nick?” I tried to make him listen and this time Nick looked right at me and started talking.

“Remember that girl you saw with me?” he said.

“Of course, I remember Nick,” I said. “It was one of the best moments of my life.”

I hoped my sarcasm was obvious enough and Nick would back off but he kept going in the same vein. “That girl,” he continued. “You know what her name was?”

“No Nick, I have no idea and I don’t give a damn—”

“It’s Sydney,” Nick said. “Her name was Sydney.”

I knew that name…

Chase.

She was at the club with Chase, but I hadn’t been able to see her face.

“Chase was the one who sent her to me Blayne,” Nick said. “He sent her to break us up.”

It was obvious Nick was lashing out, trying to find something about Chase to be angry with him. And to make me upset. “You think you know him Blayne,” Nick said. “But you don’t. I just had someone tell me the whole story. This guy has been after you for a while now. I don’t know, he must have seen you somewhere. Whatever. And he planned to break us apart, so he could take my place! Come on, Blayne think about it! All those coincidences! They weren’t random at all, he’s been stalking you. I have proof of that!”

He thrust some pictures at me.

I saw them and I couldn’t understand what I was looking at. It was Chase and Stanton and the limo, and another man with a scar on one side of his face. The man who ran into me on the subway and helped me. He even wore the same Bluetooth device. This was getting ridiculous. The further I delved into those pictures, the more I saw of Chloe’s apartment and of me mostly. There were pictures of times that I didn’t have a clue I was being watched. It was all very creepy and it was all very Chase Cooper.

“How’d you get these?” Chase said. “There’s no way Carl would let you see them unless you did something to him.”

Nick was suddenly smug. “For a guy who thinks he won the genetic lottery, you’re pretty stupid. You know there’s always a way to threaten someone. Especially when the person can’t exactly report you to the cops because then the cops will know about all the shady shit he does.”

I could sense the danger in Chase. But he still hadn’t taken action. He also hadn’t denied the allegations against him. “It was all planned, Blayne! Every moment was premeditated!”

Nick had to be lying.

Why wasn’t Chase saying anything in his defense?

“And I’m supposed to take your word for it, Nick?”

Chase was quiet and I wanted nothing more than for him to deny this. I wanted him to tell this never happened, that Nick was making it up.

Nick wasn’t done.

He produced an envelope and handed it to me.

“Look inside,” he said.

Nick had come with a purpose and he wasn’t leaving until it was done, so I opened the envelope. There was a folder in there. Inside the folder, there were details, and odd documents, newspaper clippings and other paraphernalia, but there was one thing common about each one of those things: they were all related to me or my friends and even Nick. There was a picture in there of some party, an event we all attended and that was the reason his face had been so familiar when I first saw him.

This gets creepier and creepier.

“What’s all this?”

“That came from his office,” Nick said, gesturing toward Chase. So, Chase had information on me, big deal. I mean, it was a little impolite and not such a great thing to find out this way but still, there was nothing incriminating about it.

“You asshole,” Chase couldn’t hold it in anymore and grabbed Nick’s throat. “You’ve been digging into my private life!”

“Feels awful doesn’t it?” Nick said, trying to pry Chase off himself. “Having someone stick their nose in your life without your consent!”

“I did it to protect her,” Chase countered. Not the answer I was looking for.

“She wasn’t yours to protect.”

Chase let go of his grip on Nick.

“Here’s the kicker Blayne,” Nick continued. Never had I wanted him to stop talking as much as I did then. I didn’t know what I was going to find out next, or how much of this I could take. But Nick clearly wasn’t done.

“Look at the date,” he said. “It’s from before we got separated. When we were still together, Blayne! He did this to us! Don’t you get it? He’s been lying to you all this time!”

Once again, I turned to Chase, hoping he would lie to my face just to have a second spin on all this.

“Blayne,” Chase said. “It’s not what it looks like.”

I was about to think of something to say, but Nick didn’t allow me to carry out the conversation. From out of nowhere Nick sucker-punched Chase and I saw Chase reeling with the impact of the hit.

“Nick!” I yelled but it was too late. There was already a small war going on between them, because Chase Cooper couldn’t stop himself and neither could Nick Callahan. They were attacking each other and then, Chase had Nick pinned down and reached inside his jacket for something and when his hand came out there was a gun in it.

I felt immobilized. The sight of the peace-loving Chase with a lethal weapon, made no sense. He wasn’t carrying the gun like it was his first time, he looked like he had practice. It was shocking to see him capable of killing someone. The gun was pointed at Nick’s face.

I knew he was about to do something awful—

“Chase!” I yelled.

His hand lingered around Nick’s throat for a while and then he let go of him. I was standing there with so many thoughts going through my mind. I didn’t know how to react or respond, I just knew that I needed to be far away from all this. But first, I needed to send Nick a message that he would understand.

“Listen to me Nick,” I said. “What Chase did or what some hooker did, or what anybody else in the universe did is not my problem. No one was forcing you to sleep with her, Nick. You get that, right? This wasn’t the first time you cheated on me. This was the last time for sure, but it wasn’t the first time you’ve hurt me, Nick. Ever since we started living together you’ve been an asshole! How could you not know that? You were treating me like shit, always taking me for granted! I kept telling myself it was going to get better. That you will get better but you kept hitting your worst Nick! You kept trying me! Testing my patience! Why are you so surprised that I left you? Are you really that dense, or do you get something out of acting like you’re some deep, loving guy that I would hate to lose?”

“I’ve made mistakes Blayne,” Nick said. “I’m not denying it. I told you a million times I know what I’ve done. I’ve apologized! And I’m telling you it’s not going to happen again. Why can’t you believe me?”

I felt tired.

“Nick,” I said. “It doesn’t matter now. Don’t you get it? I’m over you. I have been for some time but I wanted to wait and see if I was right. And that night, when I saw you…with her…I knew it was the right time to do what I did. If it hadn’t happened that night, it would have happened some other night Nick. All Chase did was speed it up!”

Nick was listening to this and I thought he got the message. But then he went ahead and said, “You don’t mean that.”

“Oh God Nick,” I made sure he heard it this time. “I mean every word. Stop doing this. Stop acting like we have a chance because I am telling you right now that we don’t. It doesn’t matter if I’m with Chase or not. What matters is that I am never going to be with you again. Please, for the love of God Nick, stop bothering me or I will get a restraining order! And I know how much you hate legal proceedings.”

I said this and went over to Chase whose face was bleeding. Nick stared at me for a while, but then I think he couldn’t think of anything to say so he turned and left.

“Are you okay?” I asked Chase who had a nasty cut on his cheek. “Let’s go get you help.”