Unraveling [BXB]

Chapter 1

It all started with a party. Well, that's partially a lie. It all started the night Chase met Wren. His older brother, Trey, brought him over after football practice and the older, taller, fairly intimidating-looking Wren decided to make fun of Chase for being short. This, of course, left Chase with a burning hatred of his brother's friend. If the story started there though, it would take years to tell. A quarter decade of insults and bickering arguments had passed since then. He remembered their initial disagreements, how he'd do anything if he knew it'd piss Wren off or ruin his day just that little bit more. But then, as the months and years wore on, his grudge eventually died away and their insults melded into terms of endearment. Somehow, Chase began to look forward to it when Trey said Wren was coming over, if only for the few words they would exchange before Wren disappeared into Trey's room to play video games. Back to the party, though.

Chase had never actually been to a party. He'd heard about them, mostly from books, movies, and his best friend Taylor, but they didn't sound all that fun to him. He didn't like drinking, beer was gross and vodka just burned, so getting drunk wasn't something he was particularly interested in doing. He also wasn't all that interested in sex. He'd kissed a guy before, but he didn't really get what the big deal was. Not to mention, he didn't like most popular music, so he'd probably be uncomfortable and sticking out like a sore thumb for most of the experience. Or at least those were all the reasons he'd come up with as to why he should never go to a party, and they'd all kept him from going to one until his junior year of high school.

See, Chase's entire life was spent doing one thing, preparing for the chance to go to Juilliard. He loved the violin and he wanted to pursue a career as a professional violinist. His dream was to play in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, but he'd settle for any professional orchestra or solo performance opportunity if he was honest. For as long as he'd known Juilliard existed, he'd known the kind of work he'd need to put in to get there. He kept his grades up, never procrastinated, took on every extracurricular known to man, volunteered at the animal shelter, and worked on the side to save up money. Chase didn't know what the word 'break' meant, and he pretended not to know what the word 'burnout' meant either. His school years were filled with work, violin lessons, and classes. His summers were filled with overtime, volunteering, and more lessons. Any free time he had was spent reading Stephen King novels or watching American Horror Story, though most of the time he just studied.

On a rare night when Chase had the evening free just a few weeks earlier, he was watching one of those dumb but somewhat entertaining coming-of-age romance movies about high schoolers and parties with Taylor, and for some reason, he had this terrifying feeling that in two years he would be out of high school and he wouldn't be a kid anymore and his entire childhood would have passed him by without him even really noticing it. That dumb coming-of-age movie led to a  very minor existential crisis, which spiraled into a small panic attack, which leads us to where the story kind of starts, two weeks later, on the night of the party.

The party in question was taking place at Hayden Caddel's house on a Friday night. Chase didn't know the guy personally, but he could be living under a rock and still know that Hayden was the most popular boy in school. He was rich, blond, and apparently pretty down to earth. Chase didn't know anything about it, but Taylor had played cards with him once in his hot tub and said he was chill as far as he could tell. Anyway, Taylor had told him if he was going to go to any party, he should go to one of Hayden's. They were always loud and crazy, but Chase could disappear into a quiet room if he needed to. He still wasn't sure he'd have any fun, but regardless, he cleared his night out in case Trey would take him along. A part of him hoped that Trey would say 'absolutely not' and Chase could just go on with his evening and say he tried his best. But that wasn't what happened

"Hey, are you going to Hayden Caddel's party tonight?" Chase asked when he saw his brother in the kitchen grabbing a glass of water.

"Nah, I have an essay to work on tonight. I think Wren's coming over to try and convince me to come along, though. Why do you ask?"