Quiet Heart

Chapter 12: Picture Perfect

That night was a mess. I had to come clean to Hailey about everything that had happened that week. I told her and Sam about the incident with Madison, about the text, and everything that happened with Andrew and even Ethan. The next two weeks after that flew by. I had only received one more threat during that time. Andrew and I were gonna partner up in Math to work on a project (yes, a project in Math. Ridiculous, I know), but I found a note in my book bag that said if I did partner up with him, Ethan would receive more than just pictures. I didn't want to know what else this person had on me so I partnered up with Sam instead. After that, Spring Break eventually rolled around and it was time for our annual lake house trip. I was going to invite Sam to come with us, but her and Madison's family would be leaving the Wednesday before break for a family trip to their lake house on the opposite side from where we would be. I was kind of happy about this because that meant Madison wouldn't make it to Andrew's party.

***

I walked downstairs carrying the last of my bags and headed out the door locking it behind me. I walked over to Andrew's car and he helped me put my bags in the trunk. Once he closed it, I hopped in the back seat with Hailey, and Ethan sat in the front with Andrew.

"One more pick up and we'll be on our way." Andrew said backing out of my driveway.

We drove to Chase's house, helped him pack his things in the trunk as well, then switched around our seating arrangement. Ethan got out of the passenger's seat to let Chase sit there. I saw them kind of glare at each other which made me suspicious. They'd been acting weird around each other since that Monday they were both late to lunch. I'm surprised that things were more tense between them than between Ethan and Andrew.

Anyways, Ethan came and sat in the back next to me, while Hailey sat on the other side of me. The drive wasn't too terribly long thank goodness. Once we arrived, we went to our rooms and unpacked.

***

Chase's POV

While the girls were in their rooms unpacking, I decided to go talk to Ethan across the hall. I wasn't gonna let him get away with what he had done.

"Hey," I said as I entered his room.

"Oh hey Chase! What's up?"

"Don't act stupid Ethan. You know why I'm here. I'm not an idiot." I said closing the door behind me.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He turned back to his suitcase.

"I saw you with Madison again. Dude, I thought you broke it off?" I whispered getting closer to him so no one would hear.

"Oh, that... It wasn't like that. She kept coming to me after I broke it off. She kissed me and I told her to eff off. That's all." he explained as he took the t-shirts out of his suitcase.

"Are you sure? I don't wanna have to keep another secret. It was bad enough the first time."

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Fine. I'll believe you, but if find out otherwise, Sophia is only one room down from me. Just saying." I was about to leave when I noticed this gift box laying on the bed.

"Who's that from?" I questioned pointing over at the box.

"Dude, chill out. I'm pretty sure it's from Sophia," he grabbed the box and opened it, pulling out a camera, " I found it on my front porch Tuesday with a note saying that she was sorry and that she needed me to print the pictures on here. I was gonna go do that in a second."

"Why was it in a gift box then?"

"She said I could have the camera afterwards as a gift since she's getting a new one soon."

"Ah cool. Well I'm gonna go finish unpacking and check on the girls."

"See ya!" Ethan said as I left the room.

***

Sophia's POV

"Hey need any help?" someone said from the doorway. I turned to see that it was Chase.

"Oh, hey! Thanks, but I'm almost finished actually," I smiled at him, "Hailey might need some extra help though. She had like 2 more bags than I did."

"But look who finished before you," Hailey said walking up next to Chase, "Hey babe," she said kissing Chase on the cheek before walking over to stand next to me.

"How on Earth did you finish before me?!" I asked in shock.

"I dunno," she said shrugging her shoulders.

"Well anyways Sophia, Ethan was about to go print those pictures from your camera that you sent him. That's a pretty nice camera you're letting him keep."

What is Chase talking about? I thought to myself.

I shot a concerned look over at Hailey and I could tell she was thinking the same thing.

"Oh yeah, Hailey we should probably go find him to see how they turned out," I played along.

"Yeah let's go," she responded and we both darted out of the room past Chase.

We both knew who had sent him that camera and we could not let him see those pictures...