Chasing Euphoria

Chapter Fourty Eight

Landon

Hours had passed since I woke up. My head was spinning from recalling everything that went wrong.

After the dinner, Coco suggested we go back to her place for a change and though she fell asleep almost instantly, I was tossing and turning, barely getting any sleep. As soon as the sun began to rise, I stopped trying to rest and got comfortable on her sofa instead. Every half an hour, I went back to check on her and each time, she was still snoring.

It was definitely a long couple of days for her. I wasn't going to be the one to interrupt her resting.

After seeing my mom so excited to hear about Cassie, I thought that the dinner wouldn't go too badly. With all she had tried to do in the past to keep me and Hailee on her side, I guessed that she would try to make things as nice as possible. I guessed wrong.

When my father sat down, there was an unmistakable tension in the air. I looked across at my sister who shook her head and took a deep breath, already irked from being sat in between them. Once he had the nerve to bring up Cassie's family, I thought I was going to lose it until Cassie assured me it was okay.

Before we went out, I made sure to speak to both of my parents over the phone to tell them what they could and couldn't say. The main part of that was asking about her family.

I should've known that the worst line possible would've been crossed.

My phone had pinged earlier, then a few more times. So much that it drowned out Hailee's message.

Hailee Rivers: Tell Cassie I'm sorry for how yesterday went. I want to meet her again sometime. Preferably without you.

When Hailee was gone, I knew it had hit a new level. The embarrassment of the pair bringing out their issues in such a public place was overwhelming, I didn't know how much I got involved until I left.

Of course, since we left they had tried to contact me. Once I replied to my sister, I switched off my phone to ignore them. I was nowhere near ready to accept whatever apology they tried to push on me. Quite frankly I didn't want to speak to them for a while.

Not after how we went on with each other.

Seeing them through the window, I planned to return and intervene. Hearing my mother question why I had never mentioned Coco to her riled me up, then when she so carelessly brought up the "dead parents" right in front of her, I lost it.

I didn't want her to be around when speaking to my parents, Adrian was prepared to take her outside. Before they reached the door, I was already saying everything that came to my mind.

"This is why Hailee and I didn't want to stay with you," I said, being met with a faux innocent frown. "It's the same shit with the two of you."

I wasn't wrong. They knew it.

They couldn't tolerate being in close proximity for more than five minutes. Hailee tried so hard to arrange a nice family dinner with everyone. Neither of them cared. It was back to their selfish ways in no time.

At that moment, they didn't care about their children. It wasn't a battle of getting us on their sides, it was them fighting each other.

It didn't stop there. "You think that Hailee wants you to be around her baby when you act the way you do? Believe me, she's considered cutting you both off many times. She doesn't want her kid to have the same experiences as us."

Another hit they couldn't handle. Anyone who didn't know them thought it was an immaculate separation and they were just waiting for the divorce to be finalised. It was more than that. Behind closed doors, the catastrophe was torture.