The Bachelors: a tiktok story

149: Another Letter

When you walked to the door, all of the laughter from earlier had been absorbed by the phone call to the prosecutor. Chase stopped you just before you put your key in the lock and pulled you into a hug:
"Everything is going to be okay. I promise. I won't ever let anything happen to you ever again."

You let yourself get lost in the smell of Chase's shirt as you buried your cheek against him. Nothing ever made you feel safe the way he did. When you walked in the door, Josh was sitting on the sofa and to your surprise, Nessa was sitting right next to him. It almost seemed as if you'd interrupted something.

You: "I thought you weren't home?"

Nessa: "I wasn't. Now I am. Is that a problem?"

You shook off your fears, determined to not act jealous when you'd made a big deal of Josh being able to trust you going out shopping with Chase.

You: "Of course not. Whatcha guys been up to?"

Nessa hopped up and grabbed an envelope off of the mantle:
"Here. This was taped to the door when I got home."

Chase: "There's no mail on Sundays?"

Nessa: "I assumed it was your court paperwork? Cooper had said it came by messengers, 7 days a week. I don't know. You were waiting on it so I just assumed."

Josh: "Why didn't you tell me this came?"

Nessa: "Because your name isn't on the envelope?"

You ripped open the envelope and dropped it to the ground as you recognized the font on the letter inside.

Josh: "What is it?"

You stuttered out:
"I- It's another letter."

Chase grabbed it before Josh could and read it out loud. Nessa laughed:
"Really? That's the best they could come up with?"

Chase glared at her:
"Come on, Nessa. If you had something to do with this it really isn't funny anymore."

Nessa: "I didn't have anything to do with this, you psycho."

Before you could say a word, Josh jumped to her defense:
"You know Nessa wouldn't ever do that."

You: "Well how would I know that? No offense, Nessa but I'd known you for like 5 minutes before you invited yourself to move into my house."

Josh: "I know her better than anyone and I'm saying that she would never do this."

It really hurt to hear him defend her so vehemently. You were still trying to come to terms with their past but this present was really hard to swallow.

Nessa: "I'm gonna account that accusation to your state of shock because I thought we were becoming real friends."

To diffuse the situation, you decided to facetime Emma. Chase quickly added that he still needed to facetime Jaden and suggested you conference them into a 3way call.

You: "Hey guys. It's a group call."

Emma: "Hey, sweetie. What's up?"

Chase interrupted:
"She got another letter."

Josh spoke over him:
"This time it was taped to the door."

Jaden: "That kinda supports the theory that it was someone at the party because they wouldn't have had the same access inside as last night."

Emma: "Well we ruled out just about everyone: Sab, Tayler-"

Josh: "How is Tayler ruled out but not Nessa?"

Emma laughed:
"No offense but Tayler isn't smart enough to do something like this. He misspells half the words on the employee memos."

You looked over to Nessa and assured out loud:
"And Nessa is ruled out. If she said she has nothing to do with this then I believe her and that's all that matters."

Chase: "What about Olivia? Would he have done it for Olivia if she was the one behind it?"

Emma: "I have to go but I'm gonna call you back."

Jaden: "I gotta go too. I'm still at work but I'll stop by on my way home."

*EMMA'S POV*

After hanging up, Emma sighed and Bryce asked:
"Is everything okay? I mean, I know it's not but how are you doing with everything?"

Emma: "I just feel bad. Like, this had to have been the worst time to move out. She's my best friend and she needs me and I'm here."

Bryce pulled her into a hug:
"I get that but you can't always put your life on hold for everyone else."

Emma: "I abandoned my best friend when she was most vulnerable to shack up with my boyfriend."

Bryce was clearly a little hurt by that but powered through:
"Well, I didn't think we were just shacking up. I mean we were moving forward. That's what she would want you to do."

Emma: "You're right. I'm sorry. I just feel so helpless here."

Bryce: "Baby, you get to be an amazing friend and have a life of your own. I know Olivia and Eva kinda screwed with your head about how friendships work and all but it is true. I mean this is such a great chance for us to try out living together so that hopefully someday soon we can get our own place and get married and have a life together."

Emma smiled up at him:
"You wanna marry me?"

Bryce: "Someday, 100%."

Emma was suddenly struck with a thought that interrupted the moment:
"I have Olivia's new address because she wanted me to send her furniture over soon."

Bryce: "Well, let's go and pay her a visit in person so we can feel out if she knows anything about this letter business."

When they got to the apartment and knocked on the door, a guy answered the door and told them that he'd just moved in. The former tenant broke her lease and moved out suddenly and hadn't left a forwarding address.

*END EMMA'S POV*

You woke up and were surprised to not feel Josh next to you because he'd stayed with you every night since the letters began. It'd been a week without any new letters and you were really hoping that whoever it was had been pranking you and realized it wasn't that funny after all.

When you made it to the living room, you saw Josh sitting there with Cooper. You weren't surprised because you'd heard him and Josh making plans to play basketball together soon. When you turned the corner and saw Cooper holding your letters, your feelings changed to anger:
"W- What are you doing here?"

Josh blindsided you with the announcement:
"I asked Cooper if here could process the envelopes and letters for possible DNA or fingerprints."

You shook with anger:
"I told you I didn't want to go to the cops!"

Josh: "Cooper isn't a police officer. He wouldn't even file a report."

Cooper: "I have a few favors I can call in to have it run anonymously."

You were stunned absolutely stupid and couldn't find the words to express how you were feeling which was probably a good thing because none of them were healthy. Cooper paused for a moment to give you a chance to stop him before excusing himself:
"I'm gonna go ahead and start looking into these and leave you two to talk."

You didn't even wait for the door to latch before yelling:
"What happened to supporting ME deciding what I wanted to do?"

Josh: "I didn't go behind your back at least or lie to your face about it. But apparently, THAT would have been easier to forgive, huh?"