Page 122 of Saving the Halfback

But Nolan was ghost white. “Nolan? What’s wrong?” I asked.

“We have to go.” He was frantic. “Bailey, we have to find himnow.Chase,” he said, as if I had forgotten who he was talking about. “Where would he be?”

Ethan had slowed the truck, and Lachlan pulled his phone out, bringing it up to his ear.

“Nolan, stop! You’re freaking me out. What is going on?”

Nolan waved the letter at me. “He left a note. It’s a fucking suicide note.”

Ethan swerved off the road and onto the shoulder, letting morning commuters pass by before turning around. “I’ll go to his place.”

“Are you sure?” I whispered.

“Hey, man, it’s us. Call as soon as you get this. We’re looking for you,” Lachlan said into his phone, then he started texting.

“Where would he go?”

“I don’t know. He…he could be anywhere.”

“Stop!” Ethan ordered both Nolan and me. His voice was calm and in control, but I knew he was just as terrified as I wasright now. “It could be nothing. Let’s just get to his place. We aren’t far.”

“He’s not responding to texts or calls,” Lach said.

“I’ll call.” I pulled my phone out, but Nolan reached over and grabbed my arm.

“Call for an ambulance,” he said. “Send an ambulance to his place.”

“What if he’s fine? What if we misunderstood?” I asked. It had to be a misunderstanding. This couldn’t be real. Why? Why would he?

Nolan handed me the note.

Bailey.

I wasn’t going to write a note, I had no one to write to. No one that would care if I was missing. No one that would suffer in my absence. No one that needed an explanation. Or so I thought. After last night, I realized I needed to tell you that this has nothing to do with you, that you didn’t cause this, that you couldn’t stop this, no matter what. This is just how it was bound to happen…

I stopped reading. I couldn’t stomach it. “Lachlan, call an ambulance,” I said. “Please.”

Lachlan pulled his phone out and dialed the emergency number. Everything around me was a blur. “Hi, ambulance please…” He rattled off Chase’s address. “We think something might have happened to my friend… We found a note, and it looks like a suicide note… no… his parents aren’t around. He’s seventeen…”

“Eighteen,” I whispered. “He’s eighteen.” Fuck.

“Bailey, it will be okay. We will get to him,” Ethan promised.

“No, we don’t know if he’s in the house or where he is… Yes, we tried calling him,” Lachlan continued. “I don’t know if he hasweapons.” Lachlan looked to Ethan frantically. Ethan shook his head. “We don’t think he does.”

This didn’t feel real. This couldn’t be real. We were blasting through town already, and I prayed a police officer would see us. I prayed they would turn their sirens on and chase us all the way to his house. I closed my eyes.Please, Chase, don’t let this be real.

Ethan tore down the driveway, ignoring the curves and turns and taking the truck right over the grass. I was somewhat relieved when I saw Chase’s car, but then I remembered, just because he was here didn’t mean he was okay. In the distance, I could hear the sirens of an ambulance, and all I hoped was that this was a mistake. I hoped this was a misunderstanding.

Ethan barely had the truck in park before Nolan and Lachlan burst from the doors. I left the note in the truck as we ran to the front door. It was locked. “The side door,” Lach said.

“I’m going around back,” I told them. “The pool house door is always unlocked.” I hurried through the back gate and across the patio…that’s when I saw him.

His dark shirt gave him away at the bottom of the pool. My heart leaped into my throat, adrenaline coursing through my body as it registered the danger. I ran to the edge of the pool. Chase was still moving, his arms up over his head. Surely, he was just swimming, holding his breath…but then I saw the rope attached to his foot, tied to a cement block at the other end.

I dove into the water, forcing my eyes to open. I swam right to the rope and tried to pull apart the knot that was attached to his foot, but it was too tight. I swam back up to the surface, taking another breath. Looking down, I watched as Chase’s arms relaxed and hung unnaturally around him, as if suspended in time.

Then I screamed. I braced my arms on the pool edge and screamed until I couldn’t breathe. I heard running, then dovedown again, trying again to pull the knot loose, but it was no good. I dragged myself deeper and tried to get the knot loose on the cement block, but my fingers were useless. Chase… Chase was dead, and I couldn’t get him free.

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