Egos and Sides (In highschool) --Discontinued--

Chapter 20: He's breaking

As I entered the house, I noticed Dad sprawled out in the middle of the living room, bottle in hand. I rushed over to him and checked his pulse. It was still there. I sighed in relief. I shook him until he woke up.

"Hey, Jameson. Did you just get home from school?" His speech was slow and it seemed he was having a hard time pronouncing certain words.

I nodded.

He gave a single nod in return. "Did your brother make it home?"

I shrugged.

"Ah, well can you go check for me?"

I nodded again.

When I reached Chase's doorway, I could hear quiet sobbing on the other side. I knocked as gently as I could.

"Come in," A raspy, shaky voice approved.

I cracked open the door.

Through the small sliver of space, I could see Chase curled up on the bed. Tears streaming down his face, a look of desperation in his eyes.

Suddenly, his phone rang. He turned over the phone, looked at it, and wiped away his tears. He cleared his throat before answering. "Hello?" He greeted.

"Hi," A voice responded. Virgil's, I think. "My brothers are getting on my nerves. Do you wanna hang out or something? Actually, there is a test next week, we could study for that..."

"Yeah, we can do something. I'm not really in the mood to study, so, should we grab something to eat?"

"Why not?" There was a big clank before Virgil shouted, "Roman, if you don't get out right now I swear I'll toss you down the stairs!"

"With those chicken arms? You wish!" Roman shot back.

"Ugh! I gotta go, but we can meet up at the park by the house in twenty and then go, right?" His confidence wavered in the sentence.

"Right," Chase laughed.

"Bye!" Virgil hung up.

Chase was sitting up now, with sadness brimming in his eyes. But behind that, there was a little excitement. He smiled, and it looked as if he were in pain. He sighed, and looked over to the open door, right at me. "How long have you been there?"

The question startled me so much I closed the door and retreated down the hall. I could tell Virgil's presence in his life would do him good. But it wasn't enough. All it was doing was slowing down the process. The process of his breaking heart.