Page 86 of Jack

Before I could move, the door swung open and a crowd of people poured into the room.

“Casey, what are you doing?” Jack barked.

Casey looked crushed, I’m assuming because Jack had yelled at her. “I-I…uh…” she stammered, starting to wave the gun in all directions.

Jack started to slowly make his way to me, but I put my hand up, making intense eye contact with him. “Jack, tell Casey that she’s made a terrible mistake. Tell her that you want to be with her, that you’re finally ready.”

Jack paused for a moment, then comprehension dawned on his face and he turned to Casey, his lips quirking in an easy grin that belied the severity of the situation.

“Hey, Casey. You’ve been waiting for me?”

She looked at him suspiciously, but nodded her head, wanting to believe.

“Casey, I’m so sorry it has taken me this long to finally make my move. I mean, this is a lot of dramatics just to get a guy to notice you,” Jack said, jokingly referring to the gun, as if this had all been a silly ploy to get his attention.

Normally, I wouldn’t even consider that anyone in their right mind would fall for this, as it was just so patently transparent, but Casey was one hundred percent not in her right mind, so even though her expression was laced with doubt, an excited grin was starting to emerge.

She started to slowly lower the gun. “Really, Jack? You’re ready for a real relationship?” she asked hopefully. God, if she hadn’t been holding a gun on me two seconds ago, I’d feel really badly for Casey. There was something so sad about her hopefulness.

“Sure, Case. I’ve always liked you. I just didn’t feel…worthy yet, you know?” he asked, playing her perfectly.

“Yes, Jack, of course! I completely understand.”

“So, you’re not mad it took me so long to catch on?” he asked charmingly, slowly moving toward her.

Casey giggled, the gun nearly dropping completely to her side. “Of course not! Guys are always like that.”

He was standing a foot away from her, looking into her glowing face. “Why don’t you give me the gun, so I can give you a real hug?” he whispered.

Without a word, she lifted her hand and handed it over. He took it and quickly handed it to Nikolai as the group took a collective sigh of relief. To Jack’s credit he looked at Casey’s deranged happiness and pulled her in his arms for the hug he promised her.

She looked ecstatic, tears streaming down her face. I wanted to hate her for what she put us through, for threatening to kill me, but there was something so totally broken about her, so damaged and sad, it was hard to hold a grudge.

I guess Hannah was right. I just couldn’t hold Casey accountable for anything.

****

Chapter 46

Ava

“Wow! Casey. I still can’t believe it,” Hannah said from her place on Nikolai’s lap, taking a sip of her beer. Hannah, Nikolai, Jack and I all headed back to Jack’s after the dust had settled. It was only around ten o’clock when everyone had stormed into Casey’s room. Now we were all sitting in the living room of the pool house, allowing the night’s events to fully register.

I nodded. “I’m still in shock and I had to stare at her pointing a gun in my direction for like twenty minutes.” Jack, sitting next to me, squeezed me more tightly to his side as my comment was a dark reminder of how badly things could have gone.

“Jack, did you have any idea that Casey felt that way?” Nikolai asked from the other side of the L shaped couch.

Jack shook his head, a look of frustrated confusion stamped on his features. “No idea. She was always around Addison, who was always around me, at least when we were younger, so I never really thought about it. When we got older, I don’t know, I just never saw her that way.”

“I mean, now that we know, everything makes sense, but I never would have suspected her. She just didn’t seem capable,” I murmured.

Jack nodded his head. “Yeah, when we look back at all the stuff that happened, it all fits. She must have been spying on us when she slashed your tires. I guess she tried to smash my window at Rico’s party because she was mad about us getting together, and it was her BMW that was watching us at the beach.”

God, it was so creepy when he said it like that. “Right. Then she wrote on my locker, stole my clothes and took that picture. It’s still so hard to imagine her doing that stuff.”

“I know I shouldn’t say this, but I felt bad for her tonight,” Hannah said. “She’s in that giant house all alone, going totally crazy and there was nobody there to help her. I mean, she must have shown some signs of losing it before tonight.”

I nodded. “Yeah, why hadn’t Addison noticed anything?”

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