Chapter 17

As my eyes focused on Cason, who had his back to me, I was still frozen in the sand.

Slipping my flip flops off quietly in the sand, I took a deep breath and proceeded to walk slowly out towards the end of the rickety looking pier.

Even though you could still hear my footsteps as I stepped on the worn out pieces of wood, I was thankful that I decided to discard my shoes, as they would’ve just ruined the serenity of the moment.

I wasn’t a genius, but as I reached the end of the dock and sat down in the empty space beside Cason, I realized that he must have heard me coming up the dock. There wasn’t another way to explain the fact that he didn’t react to me at all, and I will be the first to admit, if somebody were to suddenly turn up beside me out of the blue, I would at least jump at their sudden appearance.

I let my feet grace the surface of the water slightly as I settled myself into a relaxing position on the dock.

Breathing the sea-side air into my nostrils, I released the air gently as I released that I would have to be the one to start this conversation.

“So, you just decided that today would be a perfect chance to relax on a pier instead of going to school and being bothered with all the drama that is roaming around the school.” I commented, taking a really lame route at breaking the ice. “Oh, and let’s not forget about the education you could’ve got today… such a stupid concept, isn’t it?” I finished, turning my face slightly to peek at Cason.

I had an eyebrow raised in question as Cason finally pivoted his head in my direction with a blank expression on his face.

Our small stare down lasted only a couple of seconds before Cason cracked a small smile at my lame statements and chuckled slightly.

“Was that the best you could come up with?” he asked with a slight teasing tone attached to his words. In the middle of his question, he averted his gaze and set his sights on the beautifully calm waters that lay in front of us.

Shaking my feet off a little bit, I brought them up onto the pier, bringing my knees up to my chest as I also brought my arms around to hug them tightly. “It was the only thing that came to mind.” I replied quietly, letting the slight breeze blow strands of my hair around in the wind.

We were both quiet for a little while longer, however, this time it was Cason that broke the sound of silence.

“How did you find me?” he asked, and if my ears weren’t trying to deceive my, I’m pretty sure that there was a slight sense of vulnerability to his voice at this moment.

“Well since you chose to ignore me all weekend,” I started with, sending a quick and aggravated glare at the side of Cason’s head before painting my face with a neutral expression. “I decided to take matters into my own hands and ask Evan where the hell you were.”

“And he told I would be sitting here?” he inquired.

I shook my head, deciding to tell him the truth. “I asked him if he knew about you going to the party, because I assumed that you would’ve gone with him, but he was still clueless and thought you were still mad at me for not agreeing to go with you.”

“Yea, I didn’t exactly tell Evan anything that happened this past weekend.” Cason said, cutting me off in the middle of my explanation.

“Could you not cut me off?” I blurted out rudely before I realized what I was saying. My eyes widened slightly as my words sunk in and I saw the surprised look on Cason’s face. “Oh god, I’m sorry. It’s just, when I got to school this morning, I asked Evan what happened at the party that made you think showing up at my house was a good idea and he had no idea what I was talking about. Once I explained vaguely what happened to him and you had been avoiding me ever since, he mentioned that you sometimes hang out at an old rickety pier to clear your head.”

“And you just thought that this was the one he was talking about?” Cason asked, with a small smile on his face.

I returned the smile softly before shrugging my shoulders. “I’ve been here before.” I answered simply. “Since you live right down the street from me I figured that this would be the rickety old pier he was talking about. Plus, it helped that he said it was on a private beach.”

Cason nodded in understanding, before taking a couple of deep breaths of sea air.

“So, why here?” I asked, resting my head on my knees as I turned my face to Cason.

Cason, who still had his bare feet swirling slowly on the surface of the water, simply shrugged his shoulders as he released a deep breath. “I guess it’s just peaceful here.” he replied, looking out at the water in front of us. “There are barely ever any people roaming this part of the beach, plus, the calmness of the water and the slight breeze is great for when I just need a place to think.”

“Sometimes you just need a quiet place to be alone.” I commented, adding my two cents into his train of thought. “That’s why I like it here too.”

As I kept my gaze loosely on him, I saw his head droop slowly, as if he was ashamed of something. I couldn’t figure out what was going through his mind at this moment in time until he started to speak.

“I’m sorry.” I heard, as his voice was just above a whisper.

I was shocked at his out of the blue apology, not understanding what he was sorry for. In my head, it should me apologizing since I came here and ruined his peaceful surroundings, however, before I could speak my mind, Cason continued on with his apology.

“God, I’m so stupid.” he said, speaking a bit louder than before as he ran one of his hands through his hair in a stressed manner. “I’m sorry for getting mad at you on Friday for something that wasn’t even your fault, I’m sorry for showing up at your door Friday night drunk off my face, and I’m sorry about ignoring you all weekend. With all the idiotic stuff I have accomplished this weekend, I think it’s sufficed to say that I am probably the worst friend you’ve ever had.”

“We were friends?” I asked jokingly, trying to lift this serious mood that was surrounding us.

Cason, who was previously as stiff as a board after his apology, let some of the tense energy leave his body as I saw his shoulders relax slightly as he rolled his eyes at my reply. “You know what I mean.” he replied, looking at me with a small smile on his face for a second before averting his gaze back to the sea.

“Yea I do.” I said. “And honestly, I’m sorry too, you know, for interrupting your thinking time or whatever the hell this was before I got here.”

Cason chuckled at my apology as he also shook his head in amusement. “Why are you apologizing?” he asked as his laughter wore down.

I shrugged my shoulders a bit, a small smile of my own appearing on my face. “I don’t know if I’m intruding or not.” I replied simply.

“Well trust me, I wasn’t doing anything besides replaying the events I remember about Friday in my head and how much of an idiot I was to go to that party alone.” he replied clenching his fists in anger.

“Hey, it’s fine.” I said, and acting on instinct, I placed one of my hands on his arm soothingly.

I guess after a couple of seconds, both Cason and I realized what I was doing and I immediately retracting my hand in embarrassment.

“But I was just wondering,” I said, trying to forget that I just tried to comfort this guy, “Why did you go alone, or at all really?”

He looked as though he was expecting me to ask this as he released a deep sigh before turning to face me. “At first I just wanted to go with you because I thought it’d be a good way to start breaking you out of your shell.” he explained softly, before continuing. “But then when you rejected my request, I don’t know, I guess I just felt stupid for suggesting it, especially after you said you didn’t really interact with anybody your own age back home.”

“It wasn’t stupid.” I interjected, trying to make him see a bit of reason. “I honestly would’ve come to the party with you if I didn’t make plans with Olivia.”

Cason laughed dryly. “I know that, but I only truly realized that after I had downed a couple of beers.” he replied sadly. “And the only thing that made me realize it was when the very same guy who was trying to hit on you at that corner store ended up at the party for some reason, and he was retelling your story of embarrassment to some of his buddies. I got mad as I heard him making fun of you because I remembered what you said about people teasing you in your old school, so I went up to him and told him off before I left. Then, in my drunken state, I thought it would be a good idea to apologize to you at that very moment, thus the whole showing up at your house drunk thing that happened.”

“Wow.” I said, not knowing what other word fitted into this situation.

Before either of us could continue our conversation, I felt a vibration on the side of my thigh and quickly realized that it was my phone.

Pulling it out quickly, I was just hoping that it wasn’t my mom and that somehow she had figured out I was skipping school. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that it was just a message from Olivia, wondering where I was. I speedily typed out a reply, telling her that I wasn’t coming into school today and that I’d fill her in on everything tomorrow, before turning off my phone and slipping it back into my pocket.

Cason was watching me the entire time I was using my phone; so naturally, I felt the need to explain. “It was just Olivia wondering where I am.”

He nodded in understanding before moving his gaze away from me.

“What about you, does your cell phone work?” I asked innocently, picking at a loose piece of wood at the edge of the pier.

Sending me a strange look, Cason nodded hesitantly. “Yes...” he said, stretching out his word as if he was confused about my question. “Why?”

“Oh, so what was the problem you had replying to the hundreds of texts I sent you all weekend?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He must have realized what I was talking about as he shot me a quick, but sheepish, smile before sighing and dropping his head slightly. “I’m sorry about that, it’s just, when I woke up early on Saturday morning, I immediately left your house because I was embarrassed about having basically barged in late the previous night. Then, I was just too embarrassed to talk to you and I thought you’d get mad at me or something so I just ignored you.”

“You should know me better than that Cason; I was worried all weekend because I thought something had happened to you.” I replied. “It wasn’t until I actually went to your house and your mom told me you were out that I realized you were actually ignoring me and not in some type of trouble.”

“Well I’m sorry for worrying you, like I said, I was just embarrassed about how I acted on Friday that I thought a little time to cool off would do me good.”

I sent a small, yet sincere smile towards Cason. “I get it now, it’s fine.” I said softly before gazing out at the calming sea in front of me.

“Jessa.” Cason said suddenly, effectively getting my attention as he broke through a few minutes of silence. “Did I happen to say anything stupid or strange on Friday night? I mean, I know I ended up at your house but I don’t actually remember a lot about what we talked about.”

“Well…” I started, and before I even spoke another word, Cason let out a groan of embarrassment, at which I had to laugh. “Don’t worry it wasn’t that bad.”

“Trust me, I’ve been drunk a couple times before and Evan and my mom are either laughing at me the entire time or are mad at me for blurting out harmful truths.” he groaned.

“Well you didn’t blurt out any harmful truths, but you did say that I had nice spaghetti, except you were really talking about my hair.” I said, trying not to laugh at the memory of our conversations. “Also, you said that when you sat on my couch you felt like you were on top of a cloud. Other than that you basically were trying not to throw up as you complained about how your mom would kill you if she found out you were drunk.”

Cason sighed in relief. “At least I didn’t tell you a deep dark secret or something like that.” he mumbled quietly, but since there was no noise around us, I heard him loud and clear.

“You have deep dark secrets?” I asked, intrigued by the idea of him hiding something so horrible that he would die if somebody find out.

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” he replied coolly, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively as he spoke.

I rolled my eyes at this, but couldn’t help and smile at how his mood seemed to have picked up since I first sat down. “I don’t think so.” I replied, and suddenly another part of our short conversation on Friday popped into my mind. “Oh, and you may have mentioned something about your father.”

As soon as the word father came out of my mouth, Cason’s whole demeanor shifted. He had been starting to chill out and get a little bit relaxed; however, when I spoke of his father, he immediately tensed his shoulders again. Along with the tenseness of his shoulders, I also noticed that he had clenched his fists and a blank expression lay upon his face.

“What did I say about my father?” he asked blankly, no emotion to his voice at all.

“Umm... you just said that you didn’t want to end up like your father.” I said, repeating the words he had spoken as he drifted off to sleep on Friday night, confused about what was happened.

Cason took in a couple of deep breaths as he wrapped his head around what I had just told him, but it didn’t look like it was doing any good.

“You don’t have to or anything, I mean, we’ve only known each other for like two months or so, but…” I said, rambling on before taking a deep breath, “Did you want to talk about your father?”

At my question, I saw Cason shoulders tense up even more and an unreadable expression appear on his face. It looked as if his mood was somewhere in between exceedingly angry and extremely uncomfortable.

Closing his eyes tightly, as if I had brought up painful and repressed memories, he exhaled loudly. “Jessa, this isn’t something I like to talk about.” he said emotionally, not even sparing a glance in my direction. “It’s a long and horrible story, and by the time I’m done, you’re probably going to be running down the beach in the opposite direction.”

“You think I’d do that?” I replied in a whisper, looking in Cason’s direction.

Cason turned his head towards me finally, and I saw that there was a tiny bit of regret in his eyes. “I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just,” he said, shaking his head as though he couldn’t come up with the right words. “I guess it’s just embarrassing sometimes when I think about those memories.”

“Well, like I said, if you don’t want to, you don’t need to tell me.” I replied, giving him an encouraging smile before turning my view back to the water. I rested back on my hands, relaxing, as I accepted the fact that he was probably not going to tell me about his past at this very moment.

I was just enjoying the serene feeling I had inside me at the moment when I heard Cason start to talk.

“We were a family.”

At his words, my eyes widened to the size of soccer balls and my head whipped to the side so quickly I was surprised that I didn’t receive whiplash. I realized from his tone, which was soft yet angry at the same time, that he was opening up to me. He was about to tell me something that not many people in this town knew about, and that thing, was his dad.

“We were a happy family.” he continued slowly, breathing evenly as he talked as to not get too aggravated. “About three years ago my family lived approximately three hours north of here, in a regular sized house with normal neighbours and we all had our priorities straight. I could see it in their eyes every time they looked at each other that my parents were in love, and surprisingly enough, I was actually a shy guy that wanted a love like that one day. I was just a nerdy freshman that had a few close friends and didn’t really know how to talk to girls.”

Even though I couldn’t really imagine Cason as the guy he was currently describing, I stayed quiet. I knew that this was probably the only time soon that Cason would be voluntarily opening up to me, and I was determined to leave any questions I had until the end.

“I guess in the middle of my freshman year, my dad went out one night with his friends to play poker or something for fun. You know, he just wanted to hang out with his friends, have a bit of beer and play cards with his buddies, and it was understandable.” he explained.

Suddenly, I started to tear up because of the similarities between the explanation Cason was currently giving me and my own dad’s last day. That night my dad had gone out with his friends to play poker and drink, but he never came back.

“When I woke up the next day and heard my mom yelling at him about something, I was shocked.” he said, and I let out a deep breath when he mentioned his dad’s return. “My mom and dad never fought, and if they did, it was over stupid silly things that they would have a laugh over once they made up. I stayed in my room for the majority of that first day because I didn’t want to believe that my parents, who I thought were the epitome of happy at the time, were having problems. I mean, if they were so good together at one point, and then the next second were falling apart, what hope was there for me.”

I saw him sigh, expelling some built up air in his lungs as he paused his story-telling for a second. This must have been a hard topic for him to speak about if he was so rigid recounting the memories of his past.

“I guess in my naïve mind, since I wasn’t witness to another huge fight between my parents after that first time, I thought everything was fine.” he said dryly, clenching and unclenching his fists slowly, as if he was trying to calm himself down. “I should’ve seen the signs though. My dad was always out later than usual after that, saying that he was being held up at work, and he was always going out with his ‘friends’ on the weekends. Plus, on top of my dad’s sudden disappearing tricks, I was too blind to see that my parents just weren’t all that in love anymore; there were no more loving glances or stolen kisses between them while I was in the same room, but me, being the stupid idiot that I am, didn’t see anything wrong.”

By this time, he was looking as if he wanted to punch somebody in the face and keep on punching them until they were knocked out. I wanted so desperately to calm him down somehow, however, the only way I knew how was to throw my arms around him and give him a hug.

Since I didn’t want to make this moment more uncomfortable than it already was, I settled for scooting my butt slightly closer to Cason and putting my hand gently on his shoulders, releasing a little bit of the pent up tension.

Cason sent me a slightly grateful look as I kept my hand on his shoulder before continuing on.

“It was nearing the end of the school year when I needed money for a class trip, but when I asked my mom, she simply told me to go and look in my dad’s briefcase for his wallet.” he recounted, but paused as though the rest of his story was too horrible to say out loud.

“It’s okay Cason.” I whispered in a soothing voice, bringing my feet in front of me as I sat cross-legged right beside the guy who looked like he was about to cry.

“But that’s just it; it’s not okay. Do you want to know what I found when I opened that stupid briefcase?” he asked, raising his voice as his temper spiked. “I found nothing!” he yelled, but repeated it again in a voice that was just above a whisper. “Everything that he was supposed to be working on at his law office was missing and there were just a few slips with random addresses on them. I didn’t want to go to my mom right away so I copied down the addresses on a spare piece of paper and googled them, but all that came up were a bunch of small houses located in the poorer neighbourhoods around the city. After I was thoroughly confused, I waited a couple days before confronting my dad, and let me tell you, it wasn’t pretty when I did.”

I was holding my breath at this moment, waiting for him to just come out and say what had happened to his father, because at this point, my mind was jumbled and jumping to all kinds of wild conclusions.

“It was almost a week after I had been in his briefcase when my dad and I were home all alone, so, I decided to suck it up and just straight out ask him what was going on.” Cason released a huge breath as he spoke, getting ready to drop a huge bomb. “He got this look in his eyes that I never saw before, but that was before I realized that my dad was indeed drunk on one of his days off. He started yelling at me for going through his stuff and starting shooting out all these reasons why my mom and I were bringing him down.”

“I stood there frozen, because really, at that point in time I was way a lot more scrawny than I am now, and what else was a shocked boy to do who had no muscles and a mad man yelling at him.” he said, justifying his actions, although I think that part was more to make himself feel better than to explain to me his situation. “After his tirade was finished, he simply walked out. Not a goodbye or an apology in his mind; he just walked right out of the house and drove to god knows where. An hour or so later, I was seated on the living room couch, just waiting for my mom or dad to come home, but when there was a knock on the front door, it was neither one of my parents faces that greeted me when I opened the door.”

Releasing a deep breath myself, I knew that whatever was coming was in no way good.

“There were two police officers at the door that night, and the first thing that came to my mind when I saw them standing there with slightly remorseful expressions on their faces was that my dad had gotten into an accident or something.” he stated dryly, gulping down his thoughts as he continued. “But when I saw another police officer coming up the driveway with my dad in handcuffs, I just remember my stomach dropping and any loving or forgiving thoughts about my father fly out of my head.”

“Apparently they had arrested him for a DUI that night however; they also sensed something else was wrong with him.” Cason explained, and I couldn’t help but focus on the lone tear drop that was slowly making its way down his face.

“After a short investigation, they looked throughout the house and found a heavy selection of drugs hidden in a secret pocket on the bottom of his briefcase.” he spit out angrily, so I started to rub his shoulder again to calm him down. “The police concluded that my dad had been a part of a heist they were trying to bust for the past month or two. My dad… the one that I loved with all my heart and the man I looked up to my entire life.”

"What happened after that?” I asked softly, leaning into Cason slightly, giving him a sense of comfort.

“My mom was called, there was an extensive court case scheduled and my dad admitted to everything he had done wrong.” he said sharply before sighing and explaining his hostility. “At the end of it all, my mom and I found out that my dad had lost his jobs a few months previous, and to avoid giving us the embarrassment of having a fired lawyer in our family, he started to gamble with not only his friends, but a bunch of underground gangs and fighters for money to support us. One night, he confessed to almost draining my college savings fund just to enter a top-secret competition, however, he ended up losing in the second round and realized that he had made the family bankrupt.”

“After a couple of days he went to talk to the guy who took his money and asked if there was any way he could earn the money back, and because of his desperateness and willingness to succeed, the guy gave him a deal; do a few drug deals here and there and he would pay him some heavy cash.”

“My dad, not seeing an alternative, took the man’s offer and starting dealing.” he said; with no emotion in his face any more besides the stray tears that leaked out of the corner of his eyes. “After a couple of weeks he had started to gain a significant amount of money, however, being around all the drugs and fighting changed him a bit. He started to do the drugs once and a while and he took up drinking while he was at home. My mom knew that something was up, but didn’t want to question the goodness that was always present in her view of my father.”

“After everything was said and done, my dad was sent to jail for the next ten years, I was left with no funds for college since the police confiscated all the money that my dad was earning while dealing, and my mom and I decided to start a new down here in Avondale, where nobody really knew my father or his story.” he finished, and I could see that underneath all the resentment and sadness, Cason did still have love left for his father.

“So that’s your story huh?” I asked softly, trying to get us out of the depressing air that was currently surrounding us.

Cason chuckled lightly as he used the back of one of his hands to wipe the tears off of his face. “Yup.” he replied. “So, are you getting ready to run for the hills yet? Oh, and let’s not forget you have the perfect opportunity to tell all of the kids at school that Cason is a huge baby for crying.”

I shook my head seriously at his question. “Crying about something painful in your past doesn’t wake you a wuss or a baby Cason; it actually makes you a man.” I stated. “Plus, at least you could still visit your father once and a while because I’m sure he’s changed after all that’s happened to him.”

“I’ve only seen him once since he was put into jail, and it was last year on his birthday.” he responded quietly. “He seemed better, but I can’t help but remember the things he did. He cleaned out my college fund for fuck sakes. I have to work my ass off at school every day just to make sure I have the grades to apply for scholarships because I only have a bit saved up from summer jobs and my mom’s savings to put me through post-secondary.”

“Yea,” I reasoned, seeing his side of the glass for a second. “But at least you still have a family. Sure, it may be a broken family with a bunch of history and problems, but it’s still a family, and you’re lucky to have that”

Cason must have seen something in my eyes as I told him how lucky he was, because before I knew it, the questioning had turned around on me. “So, what’s your sad story?” he asked softly, obviously not ready to break the atmosphere of sadness that was floating around us.

“What?” I asked in shock, not believing that even though I was interested in his troubled past, that he was interested in mine.

“What’s the reason that you and your mom move to Avondale, and where’s your dad?” he asked again, this time being a little more specific as to the answers he was seeking.

“Are you sure you want to hear this, it’s a long and horrible story that may have you weeping again before I’m through?” I asked with a hint of teasing in my voice as I repeated the gist of what Cason had said before he recounted his past.

Cason, obviously realizing my lame attempt at copying his words, chuckled lightly as he moved his arm to comfort me; resting it behind my back. “If you’re going to be a good person and listen to my tragic tale of woe, I’m going to treat you the same and let you get your feelings off of your chest, because just being around you the past couple of weeks, I know that you’ve been hiding something other than your insane shyness.” he explained softly. With his tone of voice and kindness, I honestly wasn’t recognizing the guy that sat beside me. “If you want to talk, I’m here.”

I took a deep breath, knowing that it was now my turn to recount to him my tragic past.

“It was a regular night I guess you could say, I arrived home from school on a Friday night and since I never went out or did anything with the kids in my city, I usually just hung around the house and my mom, my dad, and I would have a family night.” I explained, willing myself not to tear up just yet.

“My mom and dad were talking when I got home and I realized that one of them was probably going to bail on our family night, but at the time, I didn’t mind so much because I knew that I’d still have fun with only the other parent. I got along great with both of them and they were the two people I would always love and trust with my life.” I continued, smiling slightly at the thoughts of how close our family was.

I took a deep breath, calming my senses before continuing. “One of my dad’s friends had rented a boat for the night for all his friends. They would have a barbeque as they sailed, play some poker and have a couple of drinks, like he normally did with his friends when they went out, which wasn’t all that often.”

As I was telling the story, I could see that same emotion flash through Cason’s eyes that had passed through mine when he mentioned his own father playing poker and drinking. It seemed as though our fathers, had they still been in our lives, would’ve made a good set of friends, just like our moms.

“Anyways, he was a little hesitant to go because he knew how much I enjoyed family night, but I reassured him that going out with his friends was fine with me and that I would be okay just hanging out with mom.”

“We hugged one last time before he left the house and headed towards the beach where his friends had docked the boat and were waiting for him, but that was the last time I ever saw him smiling.” I said, but this time, I didn’t hesitate to let my tears trickle down my face.

“The police showed up during the night and informed us what had happened, and all I can remember is the horrible sounds of agony my mom was making as she cried that will surely be etched into my skull forever.” I sobbed, not wanting to stop until this dreaded recount was finished. “The boat had malfunctioned or hit a huge wave, but all that we were told was that my dad was the only one that didn’t survive that night. I don’t know if they left out the important information because they didn’t want us to know, or they might have told my mom what happened when I wasn’t around, however, I just remember screaming that night; ‘why did it have to be my dad’.”

Cason, who had moved impossibly close to me, now had his arms situated around my body, hugging me close to him in a sense of strength and comfort.

“So, the weeks that followed were tough; the funeral was brought together and I had to witness the sight of my dad being lowered into the Earth, even though it wasn’t his time to go.” I said softly, trying to stop the last of the tears that were flowing. “The weeks after that were extremely tough because both my mom and I were mourning the loss of him; however, we were both trying to be strong for one another as well.”

“After two and a half weeks, I returned to the school where I was constantly bullied, and honestly, I didn’t get an ounce of sympathy for losing my father, I just got teased a lot more.” I said shakily as flashes of my old classmates and school entered my mind.

Cason, who seemed to be sticking beside me through my story, squeezed me closer to him, urging me to continue my story until it was finished.

“Anyways, I guess my mom had always known about the bullying and after I stuck out the last couple of weeks of my junior year, she simply informed me that we were moving away and getting a new start.” I finished. “We ended up here in Avondale and the rest is history; we left our old life and the memory of my dad in our old town by moving here, and honestly, I’m not forgetting my father or anything because he was an amazing man, I just need to move forward with my life.”

“Wow.” Cason commented blankly, looking down at me with some sort of awe as I stopped speaking.

“What?” I asked shyly, his hard but intense gaze burning as I moved my gaze away from him.

I felt Cason shrug, and that’s when I realized that his arms were still safely locked around me. “I guess I never realized how strong you really are.” he responded. “I mean, I know you say that you’re shy and not all that social, however, you have a strong mind and soul if your dad only passed away a few months ago and you’re smiling now.”

I looked up at Cason, touched by his kind words and sent him a small, but genuine smile. “Thanks Cason, but you know you’re just as strong. You probably hear all the rumours going around about you at school, yet you do nothing to stop them because you’re totally okay with people thinking what they may.” I said.

“I might not be okay with them, but if they don’t actually want to get to know me, why do they deserve to know the truth.” he replied truthfully, before averting his gaze out to the sea.

I too, averted my gaze from Cason and looked out at the sea in front of me.

Both of us didn’t say a lot after that conversation came to a halt. For one, we were boarding on the line of friendship, having revealed major parts of our pasts to one another just a few minutes previous, and second of all, we were just enjoying the soft breeze and the placidity of the moment.

I don’t even think that either of us realized that we were currently skipping school at the moment, or that our friends were probably worried about us. All we were focusing on was the serene silence that surrounded us as we rested in each other’s arms. We were looking back on our not-so-happy pasts while hoping for a better future.

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So, this is what happens after the dreaded cliffhanger on the last chapter. You’ve heard Jessalyn’s story in short before, however, this is Cason’s.

I hope you are all enjoying this book and I am overly joyed by the amount of reads, comments, and votes this story is getting. I am trying my best to make it realistic and entertaining at the same time, so I hope I am accomplishing that

Also, I do appreciate feedback in the comment section, as well as all the votes that will help me later on in the year when I enter this story in the Watty Awards

As always, thank you all and check out the website for information about the next update :)