Page 7 of I Hate You More

Chase nodded. “Shane is just helping me bring them in.”

“Bags?” I asked, stepping forward to stand closer to them. I wouldn’t normally enter into a conversation that involved Chase voluntarily, but the mention of bags had me worried. “What does he need bags for?”

Dad and Chase exchanged a troubled look before my father finally turned to me. “Chase is going to be staying here a while.”

“What?” I frowned and glanced nervously in Chase’s direction. “Definea while…”

The front door burst open, and Shane returned to the kitchen carrying two huge suitcases. When he saw my stunned expression, he grinned. “There’s still another couple of bags out front. Chase, why don’t you take these up to the guest room while I grab the rest. I can almost guarantee you won’t want to be here when Dad tells her.”

Chase studied my troubled expression with caution and nodded. His gaze was still narrowed on me, and he looked like he wanted to say something. He opened his mouth but then closed it once more and frowned. “You’re probably right,” he eventually muttered before he took the bags off my brother and headed upstairs with them.

I waited until he was gone before I rounded on my father once more. “What’s going on?” My voice quivered with worry, and a sinking feeling was growing in my stomach.

Dad let out a long sigh and folded his arms across his chest. “Chase will be staying with us for senior year.”

The words felt like a blow to the gut, and all breath left me as I stared at my dad in horror. “What do you mean?”

“His parents are setting up a new office in L.A., and they won’t be around Fairview all that much. They didn’t want Chase to have to move out to California for his senior year, so he’s going to be staying with us.”

I heard the words, but they failed to compute in my mind. I kept repeating them over and over in my head as I tried to process what my dad was telling me, but it just didn’t seem to sink in.

“I don’t understand,” I said. My eyes were wide, and my skin had gone clammy. This had to be some kind of twisted joke. Everyone knew that Chase and I didn’t get along, and I refused to believe my own father would force me to put up with him for a whole year.

“Weren’t you listening, Ally? Dad explained it pretty clearly.” Shane had entered the house again with two more giant bags.

“I was listening,” I growled. “What I meant to say is: Dad, I don’t understandwhyyou would do this!”

Dad let out another sigh. “Because the Williams family need our help, and it’s the least I can do for them after all they’ve done for us since your mom died.”

Great. Now Dad was playing the Mom card. It had been five years since she passed, but apparently, Dad still felt the need to use her as an excuse.

“I know they did a lot for us, but surely, this is too much,” I said carefully. Mom had died suddenly—a car accident to be precise—so none of us had been prepared for it. Dad handled her death by disappearing into his work, and it had been Mom’s best friend, Mrs. Williams, who helped keep our family from completely falling apart. She cooked for us every night for months and always picked Shane and I up from school whenever Dad couldn’t make it. I knew she’d been a massive support, but I wasn’t sure what she’d done was the equivalent of taking on a teen full-time for an entire year.

“And it’s also my senior year,” I continued. “You know I need to focus on studying. I’ve got it all mapped out, and Chase isn’t a part of the plan.”

He let out a sigh. “This isn’t about you, Ally.”

It kind of felt like it was. It was bad enough I had to endure Chase at school every day and sometimes on weekends when Shane invited him to the house. I had become pretty adept at avoiding him, but I wasn’t sure I could manage it if he was in my home twenty-four seven. How could this be happening?

“Surely, there’s somewhere else he could stay…” I started gnawing on my lower lip as my gaze darted to the bags in Shane’s hands again. “Doesn’t he have family members that could take him in?”

Dad shook his head, and I felt all hope of winning the argument drain out of me as I saw the look of certainty in his eyes. “His granddad is too old, and the rest of his family lives out of state. It’s already been decided, Ally. Chase is staying here.”

My shoulders started to slump. I hated the finality to his words, but I knew all too well there was no way Dad would reconsider. I had too much experience with his stubbornness to hope he might change his mind. I’d begged him all summer vacation to let me keep up my dance lessons for senior year to no avail, and his no-dating rule had been nonnegotiable throughout high school. When he made up his mind about something, there was no going back, and if Dad had already agreed to look after Chase, there was a slim chance in hell he’d listen to my objections.

“Now, will you help your brother take Chase’s bags to his room?”

I slowly nodded and took one of the large duffle bags Shane held out to me before following him from the kitchen. I hated that my father refused to hear me out, and it was clear he didn’t care this decision was going to ruin my life.

Chase and I were like oil and water; our molecules wholeheartedly repelled each other. Making us live together was like shaking the two substances up and expecting them to go against their natures and magically mix. It was scientifically impossible, and if my father ever bothered to stop working for half a minute, he would know that.

A firm scowl always spread across Chase’s face whenever I entered a room, and while he didn’t say much to me, the little he did say was deliberately harsh and surprisingly hurtful. He wasn’t afraid to speak his mind, and he never seemed to have any nice thoughts when I was around. I didn’t exactly hold back when it came to him either. But could you really blame me? It was self-defense, pure and simple, and I didn’t want to spend the next year of my life on guard.

As soon as I was certain Dad wouldn’t be able to hear, I pulled Shane’s sleeve, yanking him to a stop. “How long have you known this was happening?”

The corner of Shane’s mouth lifted as his smirked down at me. “About a month.”

“A month!”

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