AN: Wow I got this chapter out fast! I'm pretty happy about that!

I have decided that this story will 12 chapters over all. This is, of course, subject to change as sometimes the characters decide to go on a side-quest.

I hope y'all enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 9: Being a Teenager is Hard

Only Chase's closest friends really knew just how much he hated going to visit his father, Bohai Chen. After years of living under his thumb and under his roof, Li Hua took her son and filed for divorce, taking Bohai to court and going by her maiden name again, Young. Even though the case should have been very cut-and-dry (the man was an alcoholic with violent tendencies), it was dragging out. Unfortunately, Bohai was an excellent business man and managed to get permission to take Chase on the weekends.

Of course, being the type of man he was, Bohai grumbled and complained most weekends, saying he didn't have the time to entertain a teenager. Then he got moody about not getting the predetermined weekends with his son. This led to a monthly weekend visit. The sheer hypocrisy of the entire situation made Chase grind his teeth so hard, he was sure he'd cracked a molar.

The fact of the matter was that Chase was old enough to make a legal decision on whether he wanted to go over there or not. But after threatening to no longer pay his tuition at Weld-Smith… Chase reluctantly decided to honor Bohai's wishes and visit once a month. That, and he didn't want his father's frustrations to trickle back into his mom's life. He could handle the occasional bruise. He didn't want to see them on her.

So for the most part, he managed to avoid his father while staying in his childhood home. But the act was difficult to maintain all weekend and he usually came home with a bruise or two for mouthing off.

This particular weekend when Chase came home, Li Hua was sitting at the table, sipping a cup of tea. She was in a bathrobe, a paper unfolded in her hand.

"Oh, good, you're home," she greeted. "Come join me."

"Actually, mom, I'm really tired. I'm going to unpack and—"

"That wasn't a request, Chase."

Chase's heart plummeted to his stomach. Crossing the living room, he dropped his duffel bag and slumped in the chair across from his mom. She regarded him with a soft frown.

"Was it bad this weekend?"

"Not that bad," Chase muttered, shifting. "It could've been worse."

"Chase…"

After a pregnant pause, Chase pushed up his sleeve to show the handprint around his forearm. It was a mottled purple and wrapped completely around his limb, showing how he'd taken after his mother's stature; he was a lot smaller than Bohai.

"That's the only one, mom, I swear."

Li Hua pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh. It struck Chase just how tired she looked. There were dark shadows under her eyes and lines around her mouth.

"I'm doing everything I can to make sure this restraining order goes through. I know it's been months but—"

"It's alright, mom" Chase cut her off earnestly. "I'll be eighteen in half a year and then it won't matter anymore."

"I know but… I just don't like seeing my baby hurt."

"Ugh, mom, please."

Li Hua waved her hand with a slight smile as her son's ears turned pink. She knew him well enough to know that any form of affection from her embarrassed him to no end.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop. But seriously, Chase, this is what we need to talk about."

She slid the paper across the table to Chase, which he picked up. His stomach churned uncomfortably when he saw the Weld-Smith crest at the top of the page. It was his progress report. And it did not look good. Of course, his Athletics grade was flawless, the A giving him a soft swell of pride in his chest. The B's he was pulling in Social Studies and Language Arts weren't that bad either. But he had a C in Chemistry and a nightmarish D in Pre-Calculous.

"Your grades aren't typically that low," Li Hua pointed out. "What's going on, Chase? When I get home in the evening, you're rarely here. I assumed you were out studying with friends like you tell me you are. But these grades tell me differently. Why have you been lying to me?"

Chase swallowed thickly. He focused on the necklace she wore around her neck. It was a simple golden chain with a lotus pendant on it, the gift he gave her for Mother's Day when he was sixteen. He'd sold several batches of Hannibal's Lao Mang Lone to save up the money to buy it for her because he knew Bohai wouldn't take him to get her anything.

He hated lying to her. But there were some things he couldn't bring to tell her.

For instance, the duffel bag on the floor nearly burned a hole of shame in his shoe; roughly five hundred dollars he'd stolen from his father was stashed inside, ready to be given to Hannibal little by little for every dosage of Lao Mang Lone "sold". That would buy him a month to figure out what the hell he was going to do about the pickle he was in.

"I guess I've been stressed," he forced out, his mouth dry as cotton. "It's junior year and-and I'm supposed to be looking at colleges and the workload is huge… They're starting us on SAT prep work so it's a lot. But I have been slacking off a bit… Everything a little overwhelming."

"Why don't you ask for help?" Li Hua suggested gently. Chase wrinkled his nose.

"You mean go to tutoring?"

"Yes, exactly. Or you could ask a teacher to help you with your time management skills. Maybe you could find a way to help organize your thoughts when you feel overwhelmed."

Chase nodded. His stomach still rolled over. He wished he could tell her what was going on with Hannibal. And Wuya. And… And Jack. But he couldn't put that on her. She had enough legal mess to deal with already.

Li Hua smiled.

"You know I'm proud of you, right?"

Chase was not about to cry, not even in front of his mom. He bit back the stinging in his eyes and nodded again.

"Thanks, mom."

"Get some rest. You've got school in the morning."

Chase left the progress report, bending to pick up his duffel bag. Giving Li Hua a kiss on the cheek, he turned and headed to his room.

"Goodnight," she called. "Love you."

"Love you too. Goodnight."

-oOo-

Chase stared at the ceiling. The fan above his spun and blurred into a strange dark shadow above him and his mind spun with it. Yang was curled up asleep on his right foot, the kitten's warmth seeping through the blankets, Yin loafing up on the desk. The end of her white tail flicked back and forth as she chirped lightly at something outside the window.

Despite his company, misery threatened to burn and spill out the corners of his eyes. He missed Guan and Dashi and worrying about silly things like homework. The dosages of Lao Mang Lone Hannibal pushed onto him sat in his backpack in the closet. He had the money, he thought faintly. And he still had his syringes. He could take a dosage, numb out his anxiety…

He missed Jack.

He rolled over, the pull of Lao Mang Lone drowned out by Jack. Was he alright? They hadn't spoken in… Three months? Had it really been that long? Chase swallowed. It had been that long.

He thought of Pre-Calculous, of how he sat a row over and a few seats back. Jack's hair was bright red on the first day of school. He seemed to like it and kept the color up. It drew Chase's eyes to him like a beacon. He never told Jack but… He quite liked the eyeliner. It made his eyes pop. When focusing, Jack chewed on his bottom lip, sometimes on the end of his pencil, and Chase could almost see the gears turning…

His fingers twitched below his waistband. Heart racing in the darkness, Chase felt his breath come faster. He thought back to the lake that summer, to their accidental kiss… The soft meeting of their mouths neither one of them had planned. How good he smelled, all coconut and salt and sweat. Then the fantasy changed, morphed, and he saw Jack flushed and hungry, pale skin stretching for miles under all that black. What if Chase did everything to him he wanted to do? Would he bite his lip and tremble under Chase's hands? Moan and plead for more?

He knew it was wrong. But he couldn't stop himself. Not this time.

Images of him flashed through Chase's mind, Jack's name a prayer on his lips. Bliss flooded his senses, toes curling, back arching…

Then only the sound of his breath, coming in pants, heartbeat a drum in his ears. Yang jumped from Chase's foot to the floor with a mew of irritation. He slunk under the bed, likely to crawl into the hole he'd clawed in the bottom of the box spring. Chase sat up slowly, limbs like jello.

Cleaning up in the bathroom, Chase avoided his reflection in the mirror. His hands began to shake as he realized what he'd done. He couldn't run from it any more. How long had he liked Jack? Why did he have to feel this way? He couldn't answer those questions.

When he made it back to his room, he stared at his backpack, the new revelations making him a bit desperate. Maybe… Just a little wouldn't hurt…?

No.

He started to pace, fingers tangling in his hair, trying not to think about it. He still remembered the high, the uncoiling of inhibitions, the wow-I'm-on-top-of-the-world-nothing-can-hurt-me rush.

In a panicked haze, Chase opened up one of his desk drawers. Yin lifted her head with a soft questioning chirrup. There, in a Ziplock bag taped to the underside of the drawer, were several syringes, a spoon, and a lighter. It shook in his hands. He couldn't keep this stuff in his room, it had to go. The longer it stayed, the more he wanted to get high.

Yin mewed, drawing Chase's attention. She was pawing at the window.

"No, Yin," Chase sighed shakily. "You can't go out."

He scooped her up gently with his free hand. That's when he saw it. Depositing Yin on his bed, Chase returned to the window and opened it, leaning out. Across the street, one window was illuminated, the light within steady and strong.

Jack's window.

He knew what to do.

-oOo-

Tap, tap, tap.

jack jumped roughly a foot in the air, looking up from his laptop. His eyes widened significantly when they fell on Chase, who was perched like a gargoyle on the slant of roof outside his window. Shifting his laptop aside, he pulled up the blinds and unlatched the window, pushing it up and open.

"Chase? What're you—?"

"Ssshhh…" Chase hushed with a wave of his hand. "You don't want Wuya to hear."

Jack's eyes darted to his closed door and he nodded. He gestured for Chase to come inside, stepping back so he could.

Jack drank in his appearance. Gray sweatpants with Weld-Smith emblazoned in blue and gold down a leg, a black tank top, an unzipped blue hoodie, barefoot, hair down… It struck him he'd never seen Chase's hair down before. It fell in long, dark cascades down to this waist. Was it…? Yeah, it had a slight curl to it. He'd never noticed that before.

Jack felt pretty self-conscious in his presence. Especially since it was midnight and he not only didn't have on his eyeliner (he'd worn it so much, he felt naked without it), he also didn't have gel in his hair. It hung, red and limp, around his ears.

"Chase, are you o—?"

"We've got to talk," Chase interrupted him quietly. "I have… Things… To tell you."

"What the fuck is going on?" Jack intoned furiously. "What was with that note? Are you avoiding me because of Hannibal?"

Chase sighed, lowering himself to sit on the floor. The anger drained right out of Jack when he realized his hands were shaking. Quite badly, too. Jack sat slowly as well, staring. His heart skipped a beat; Chase was in his room in the middle of the night. He pointedly ignored the hundreds of different scenarios that flashed through his head and the effect it had on his body.

"I…" Chase paused to clear his throat. He pushed his hair back out of his face, inhaling deeply before releasing his breath slowly. "I'm sorry to bother you. I know it's late."

"I was up," Jack assured him, gesturing to the laptop.

"I just… Here," Chase said with finality. From his hoodie pocket, he drew out a Ziplock bag which he tossed to Jack. After examining the contents, Jack looked up at Chase with wide eyes.

"Chase, is this—?"

"It can't stay in my room anymore," Chase cut him off. "Hannibal has me selling for him again."

"Lao Mang Lone, you mean?"

Chase gave him a sharp look. Jack shrugged apologetically, stuffing the bag and his hands into his hoodie pocket.

"Guan told me. You were addicted before, weren't you?"

"Yes. I'm not proud of that."

"I guessed. So that's why you're here."

"I don't trust myself around it. I don't want to slip back into old habits."

"It's okay. I don't mind you being here. So… Is Hannibal the reason we haven't talked? Like, at all?"

Chase leaned back, resting against the desk. The dark shadows under his eyes were prominent in the dim room and Jack wondered just how much sleep he'd been getting.

"Unfortunately, yes. I don't want you anywhere near him. He's dangerous."

"So people keep saying," Jack grumbled. "But he hasn't messed with me yet so what gives? Like… If I'm in trouble with Hannibal, I'm unaware of it."

"He's disgusting," Chase hissed, leaning forward again. "I'm only selling again because he threatened you!"

Jack stared.

"He… Threatened me? Chase, why didn't you tell me?"

"Your older sister hangs out with him all the time," Chase mumbled, ears burning. "I was concerned the news would get back to him somehow. Ugh, I don't know, Jack. It made sense to me at the time."

"I-It's okay, I get it," Jack said. There was a strange rabbiting in his chest, a lump in his throat. "So why are you dating Wuya? I thought you didn't even like her."

"I don't," Chase groaned. He let his head lean back against the desk, considering his next words carefully. "It's not a real relationship. It's a cover."

"A cover?"

"I'm gay."

He couldn't look at Jack. His eyes were burning, fear writhing in his stomach.

"Yeah? Me too."

Chase's eyes snapped forward. Jack was flushed, avoiding his gaze as well, knees pulled up to his chest. He knew that feeling. That I-just-bore-my-soul-please-don't-hate-me feeling. The last time Chase was that openly vulnerable, Bohai had caught him holding hands with a classmate. He walked away from that encounter with a broken wrist, a reminder that it was wrong and bad and not the way he was supposed to feel.

He never wanted Jack to hurt like that.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Don't tell anyone, okay?"

"I won't. I may not be that good of a friend, but I'll keep your secrets."

"I… I think you're a great friend."

Guilt squirmed horribly in Chase's stomach at Jack's quiet words. He didn't deserve that.

"You think so?"

"Mmhm. The best I've ever had."

"I haven't been a very good one recently," Chase apologized softly.

And he meant it. He'd been horrible to Jack. He couldn't admit it aloud but he woke up every day hoping he'd have the guts to say something, anything to him, to apologize for his behavior. To apologize for kissing his sister. He'd always suspected Jack might have a small crush on him, the way he fumbled and flushed around him. But he'd lost hope in that a while back, convinced that Jack hated him for ghosting him. Jack shrugged.

"It's okay."

"No, it's not," he insisted. "I've ignored and avoided you for months now and it's not fair to you. Jack, I'm sorry."

Jack looked up at Chase, tears pearling in the corners of his eyes. Chase's breath abandoned him. He wanted so badly to reach out, to touch, to hold…

"I was upset at first," Jack admitted, voice wavering slightly. "Then I was mad. But I'm not anymore. I… After the note, I figured if you weren't talking to me, you had a pretty good reason. I forgave you a long time ago."

Chase released the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding.

"I don't deserve it."

"Maybe not. But I'm gonna forgive you anyways."

Chase shook his head, the corner of his lips quirking up. Jack examined the bag in his hands again before reaching behind him under his bed. After shifting some laundry aside, he procured a shoebox. Chase leaned over to see inside when he opened it. There was an assortment of odd objects. Little gears and washers, napkins with notes and designs scribbled on them, a couple of firecrackers, three manga volumes from the same series with two boys on the front…

Jack flushed.

"No one will find these here," he told him with such confidence, Chase had no choice than to believe him. He hid the bag under the mangas, closed the lid, then shoved it back under his bed. It blended perfectly in with the other junk he had hiding under there. Chase felt a rush of gratitude.

"Thank you, Jack."

"Don't mention it.

He stood, stretching. Now that he'd talked to Jack, he felt lighter.

"I should probably get home."

"Yeah, it's late," Jack yawned, also standing. Chase's eyes flickered over the laptop. There were some sort of blueprints glowing on the screen, several equations typed up in the margins.

"Planning a new robot?"

"Yeah. With all the stuff I'm learning at Robotics Club, I finally have the ability to build something functional. I'm hoping for a bot that'll clean my room while I'm at school."

Chase snorted, shaking his head. He'd missed him. How had he missed so much?

"You're talented, Jack. You're going to go far if you keep building these sort of things."

"… No one's ever told me that before."

"Well, they should," Chase said, pushing the window open. He clambered out onto the slant of roof. "It's true."

"Chase, wait—"

"Yes?"

Chase turned his head back to look at him and his voice jammed in his throat. Jack was leaning on the desk, out the window, face mere inches from his own. His mouth went dry. The soft red of his eyes were dark in the night. Time hung suspended like the stars above them.

Jack's lips pressed to his. Chase's mind blanked, a red hot bubble bursting in his chest.

As soon as it happened, it was over. Jack's face was bright red. He licked his lips.

"Goodnight," he blurted.

The window was closed.

The last remnant of denial escaped Chase in a shaky sigh as he slid down the slant of roof, climbing down the trellis. Even though his feet were firmly planted on the pavement, his head was several thousand miles up, featherlight and not likely to come down any time soon.

In the middle of the street, he turned back to look at Jack's window again. And smiled.

-oOo-

Jack was unsure how much sleep he actually got that night. Tossing and turning, he relived the midnight meeting over and over in his head. He could hardly believe his own boldness. After months and months of pining and longing and doodling his name in little hearts in notebooks, he'd done it. He'd kissed Chase Young.

His sister's boyfriend. Who wasn't really her boyfriend. What had he gotten himself into? No one could know. Not without the risk of exposing Chase and his secrets to all of Weld-Smith. He trusted Chase to keep his secrets… So he would keep his in return. As much as it felt like his heart would burst right out of his chest and leave giddy shrapnel everywhere.

After hitting the snooze button several times, he went to school the next morning looking an absolute mess. Eyeliner smudged and hair sticking up at the back where he slept on it, he slumped into his chair in homeroom with a styrofoam cup of french vanilla cappuccino from the cafeteria. He sipped it, feeling the thick, hot concoction warm him down to his toes.

Ashley snorted, spinning her pink gel pen between her fingers. She cracked her gum.

"Damn, Spicer," she commented with a laugh. "Did something make a nest in your hair?"

"Fuck off," Jack groused, opening up his spiral notebook. "I'm not in the mood."

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."

Nova lifted her head off her desk. Jack suspected she'd been sleeping like she did every morning before class began, but now she was taking in Jack's appearance from under an arched eyebrow.

"Are you okay?"

"No one was talking to you, freak," Ashley spat at her.

"Shut up, Ashley" Jack snapped. "What's your fucking deal? Is your lifelong dream to be a bitch? Or were you just born that stupid?"

Ashley made a noise of outrage, opening her mouth to respond. It probably would've been explosive in nature too, if Mr. Shield's hadn't chosen that very moment to start addressing the class.

"Get bent, Spicer," she hissed under her breath instead. Jack smirked smugly.

He looked to Nova and the smirk slid right off his face. She'd shrunk back down into herself at her desk, hood up and facing the front of the room.

Ashley, who'd started off stuck-up but tolerable, had taken a shine to Wuya. The slow, resulting change made her steadily more awful and taunting. Jack didn't know how the help; the bullying had gotten worse. It wasn't just in homeroom either. And it wasn't just happening to Nova.

When Jack joined his friend in the art room during lunch, he heard all sorts of stories.

Toshiro was consistently picked on for being overweight. There was always something derogatory being shouted across the gym or across the track, usually accompanied by giggling, sending him into a sad spiral until Jack was able to cheer him up again. He'd joined him in the art room after repeatedly sitting alone in the cafeteria.

A new kid came with him, too, a French exchange student named André. He barely spoke a word of English, choosing instead to mime most of what he wanted to say. So he was also often a target for ridicule. He sought refuge in the art room, sketching in charcoal next to Toshiro, shyly sharing his sketches on occasion.

Harriet shared her art with the group as well, usually something drawn with graphite and colored pencils. But even more than drawing, she loved singing. She wasn't bad at it either but when Jack asked why she didn't sit with the choir during lunch (they had their own table), she'd flushed, muttering something about how she didn't get along with them. Which struck Jack as odd; to him, she was one of the friendliest people he'd ever met. When he finally got the story out of her, it turned out the choir girls ostracized her because they felt their teacher favored her.

"Which is kind of true," she admitted with a shrug. "I use to spend my lunch organizing all the sheet music for her so… Yeah…"

Nova was another matter entirely. Ashley had made it a point to make her life a living hell. Notebooks went missing and turned up torn up, there were rumors and whispers that spread faster than wildfire… While the others were only slightly bothered by the treatment they received at the hands of their peers, it wasn't uncommon for Nova to show up to the art room in tears.

Harriet was always the first one to her side. They had quickly, somehow, become inseparable, spending as much time outside of school together as they did inside of school. It was the strangest friendship Jack had ever seen. He never saw two people who were so different and yet… They balanced each other out.

He couldn't help but wonder if that's how people saw his friendship with Chase before everything went to hell.

-oOo-

Meanwhile, Chase's behavior hadn't changed at all. Determined to keep Hannibal fooled, he continued to lean on his desk and talk to Wuya with a smirk during Pre-Calculous. He still sat with them at lunch, slipping Hannibal a wad of cash under the table, just enough to make him think Chase had sold five or so dosages over the weekend. In reality, all fifteen dosages he'd been given were still in his bedroom at home, taped to the underside of his desk drawer, unused.

Chase wondered how long he'd be able to keep this up. He'd have to get rid of the Lao Mang Lone at some point.

"He's going to get caught," Guan hissed to Dashi on their way to Krazy Kung Fu Klub. Dashi shrugged.

"We can't do anything about it," he reasoned. "After all, we both know there's not much even he can do about it."

"Hey, may I walk with you?"

They both paused, turning to see Chase. He had his duffel bag over his shoulder. Dashi raised an eyebrow.

"You're actually going to join us?" He drawled. "After… What? Three months?"

"Yeah, I know it's been a while."

"So Hannibal actually let you come out to play?" Guan asked wryly. Chase's ears burned.

"You know I don't have a choice."

"We know," Dashi assured him, elbowing Guan in the side. He shifted with a huff.

"Well, if we're gonna go, let's go."

"You know Guan," Dashi intoned to Chase as their friend went on ahead down the hall. "He'll sulk for a while…"

"Then he'll ask to get pho and be back to normal," Chase finished for him. "I know."

"So what made you leave Bean-brain's table?"

"I sold enough this weekend that he won't isn't making me sell during lunch."

Dashi frowned.

"Chase, you shouldn't—"

"I'm actually not." At Dashi's questioning expression, he sighed. "It's complicated."

"I'm all ears."

"Club first," Chase sighed. "I feel like punching something."

Dashi snorted.

"Hell yeah. Let's go."

-oOo-

AN: OMG A KISS

Are they together yet? Nobody knows... :D

Stay tuned! Evermore should be updated in a week!