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My eyes widened and my jaw dropped, but no sound caether, and he’s raised me as his own, but they raised ot together, Chase’s family had pretty much already adopted her because she was best friends with uess So we have this weird family that consists of my dad’s family, my mom’s dad, and then Chase’s fa as shit, and we’re all close"
"That is confusing," I mumbled "And justjust oh my God"
"Yeah" He took in a heavy breath, then released it and stared up at the ceiling again "But you need to know all that to understand the tattoo"
When he didn’t say anything for a while again, I squeezed his hand "You don’t have to tellabout Chase," he began, his eyes still glued to the ceiling "There wasn’t onewith Dad and Uncle Konrad that there weren’t stories of hirandparents--Chase’s parents--stories were told No one wants his et it to an extent Kristi and I don’t understand completely because we didn’t know hiot older, I stopped looking likemore and randparents, Aunt Bree, or Mo atat e with his best friend
"The stories--shit, I could tell you stories about Chase like I had been there But I have no real emotional connection to the or accidentally callingon et s--I don’t even remember But everyone was there, and she was busy, so she ras really quick that she neededto her Tords Just two fucking words, and my entire fa"
"What did you say?" I asked when he didn’t offer anything else
Liaed "I said, ‘Okay, Princess’ I was just being a dick because she was giving s to do on my birthday Out of all the stories they’d told me about Chase, no one had ever mentioned that he called my mom ‘Princess’ Ever So , and that, mixed with how I looked just like himit was too close to home, and I kinda lost it I went off on all of theet over what happened, that it’d happened long enough ago that they shouldn’t be upset anyoing I was pissed and said I wasn’t Chase and it wasn’t fair that they all kept putting his life onI said it wasn’t rew up to look like himand then I looked at s closed, I wouldn’t have to deal with everyone’s bullshit now,’ and then I left"
"Liam" I said on a breath, shock apparent in the one word
"I knoent back to my dorm and didn’t talk to any of them for a week, and not one of them tried to contactI could to them They don’t want me to be him, I knew that even then I knew all they wanted was fora dick It had just started feeling like the Chase thing was forced on me all the time My middle name is Chase, and a friend of the family only ever calls me LC--for my first and middle name--or Little Chachi He and his wife always called Chase ‘Chachi,’ so once I started looking like him, the nickna like hih school, and then that’s all anyone could talk about So for the few years before that birthday, I just felt like I couldn’t get away frohostif that even et to me when I shouldn’t have
"So when I’d cooled off and realized what I’d done and how I’d hurt uy who came up with the Chachi nickname--is a tattoo artist orked with Chase and is still close with my parents; he does all of our work I went to see him, and of course he’d already heard about what I’d done on my birthday When I told him what I wanted, he just s I still remember like it was yesterday--probably because it was the first time he’d ever been serious around me He said, ‘What you did was fucked up, LC, but we’ve put a lot on you that no kid should have to deal with When Chase died we all had to cling together to keep going--this fauy, and I think ere all terrified of forgetting him So we made sure ouldn’t Your mom and dad’s intentions were from the heart Chase meant a lot to both of theet to h having you here and seeing Chase through you has been the biggest blessing of my fucked-up life, I don’t want you to be hi at you and seeing hioddamn trip I’ve ever been on’ "
My lips tilted up in a small size?" When Liaain, "So what do the letters stand for?"