Page 1 of His Last Chase

Chapter One

Chase

“Dude, you’re driving me up the fucking wall!” David hollered at me for the millionthtime today. “We’ve only been home a week and you’re already climbing the walls. What gives?”

What gives? Great question.

I didn’t like being alone, that much I already knew about myself. Now with all my best friends practically married I was odd man out and it did NOT sit well. Well, Rhone and Ely technically were husbands, so there was that. No more random hanging out or midnight jam sessions. No more Xbox live and cold, leftover pizza. No more…usand clearly, I was not handling it well.

“An outlet. I need an outlet. All the ones I have are all domesticated and shit.” David flipped me off. “I’m serious. Whenever any of us got bored one of us would find a way to entertain the group. Now you’re all paired up and I’m the outcast.”

“Never an outcast, man, you’re my best friend. I’d say I’m sorry we found our partners, but I’m not. I love you like a brother, Chase, and you’ll find your person, I promise.”

My person.

He said it like they were waiting right outside the door for me, or I could pick them up at the local grocery store.Aisle twelve, tall, dark and handsome has been restocked.

There’d be a mad rush of singles for that insanity.

I shivered at the thought. All those crazed humans rushing down the aisle. No thanks.

But I wasn’t desperate for a partner so much as for…something. If the right person came along with it, then great, though it wasn’t a hard requirement. What that something was, I couldn’t say. My body was like, electrified or some shit as I paced the living room shaking my hands out. It was akin to the one time the microphone I used at a show shorted out and shocked me.

“Dude, I can’t take much more of this. If you don’t stop pacing I’m gonna duct tape your skinny ass to the kitchen chair.” David wasn’t kidding either, he’d do it.

“I’m just, ugh,” I plopped down on the couch. “Fuck, man. I need…fuck all knows what I need but it’s like I’m losing my fucking mind.” Not sure I’d ever used that many fucks in one sentence before. My mind raced from the time I woke until the time I finally crashed, though as of late that wasn’t for long. Four hours at the most was all the shut-eye I got since we came home from the mini-tour with Chaotic Abyss.

Thank fuck Josh fixed his issues with Masterson and our band brothers from Maiden Voyage and Social Sinners, or it could’ve gone way south. I was still surprised he and Stoli bonded as they had. I’d totally expected a full-blown fist-throwing fight between those two. Joey would’ve lost his shit if that happened.

“All those toys in your room and yet you play with none of them. What good are they?” David mumbled, fully engrossed in hisAnimal Crossingworld.

“They’re called collectibles, and they lose their value once they’re open.” I didn’t have much growing up. My mom died shortly after she married my stepdad, and he got stuck raising me. Money didn’t grow on trees and honestly, I never asked for anything. Just reverted inside myself and wrote my feelings down in a journal. At the time that’s all it was, journaling, but now here it was years later, and we’d turned those random thoughts into money-making songs.

Who would’ve ever thought?

And with that first royalty check the toy collecting turned into an obsession. No one had to know that I talked to them through their boxes at night or about Miles, the teddy bear I hid under my pillow and only pulled out to cuddle when I was alone.

“So why not start buying two of everything? One to stare at and one to play with?” David suggested, but I had no answer.

Why hadn’t I thought of that?

I’d been so hellbent on buying everything I never had that I’d forgot to satisfy…not sure what it’s called. Like my inner child or something that screamed at me to play with all the toys they’d begged Santa for year after year only to be sorelydisappointed when they literally got nothing. Now that I had the funds I’d gone a bit wild with the purchases yet hadn’t allowed myself to fulfill the need to play with them.

As an adult, wasn’t playtime frowned upon?

With fierce determination I ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time to my bedroom and slammed the door shut behind me.

Who was I pissed at? David for pointing out the obvious or myself for being oblivious?

“Okay, Chase, you can do this. Just pick one.” Anticipation coursed through me and my hands shook as I talked myself through the process of unboxing a single toy.

I paced back and forth, eyeing every one of the hand-picked items that had taken the better part of the last year to find. The collection was so vast that two walls in my bedroom were now covered with shelves filled to the brim. Repeatedly, my eyes landed on my favorite one.

Poseable Spiderman, fourteen-inch figurine.

Gently, I slid it from its place, cradled the package in my hand and grabbed my phone. A quick search on the site I’d purchased it from revealed they had another.

Just. One. Other.

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