“Hear me out. Anyway, you didn’t give up on it, and so… I kinda thought I could be one, too. You gave me the idea that I can have a good life once I graduate, and, well… I figured I could use the gambling money I’ve got to get our practice off the ground. That is, if you wanna be partners.”
I choked up. I didn’t think I’d everinspiredanyone. Most people in this major didn’t really care about it. They’d joined more or less to learn how to avoid the criminal justice system once they got out of here. Chancey actually cared about making things better in the world. Better than that… he wanted to be a bounty hunter, too, be my partner and fight crime together.
“I’m honored. I’d love to start something like that with you. We’d be good partners,” I said.
“Yeah. I had an idea that once you and me set up shop, I’d be able to put some money away for me and…” He trailed off.
“For Ivy?” I asked. “I thought you two broke up.”
“We did.”
“But…?” I asked.
“There is no but,” Chancey insisted. “Ives and I are over.”
“Then why are you still using their nickname?” I asked.
Chancey fell quiet for a few beats.
I sighed. “Look, if you want to have a future with Ivy, you’re going to have to do some deep soul-searching, because what you did was really fucked up. You really hurt Ivy.”
Ivy wasn’t the only one on my shit list. Chancey was one of my best friends, but what he’d done was fucked, too.
“You’re on Ivy’s side then?” he accused.
“Hell no,” I said. “I’m not taking sides.”
“Then you’ve got to understand,” Chancey pleaded. “You and me, we’re cut from the same cloth. I grew up around that shit, drugs everywhere. I’ve seen more friends die from overdoses than killed on the streets. Too many of them corked off right in front of me. I sure thought I’d had enough of it, but clearly I didn’t have my fill, because I got tied up with Ivy.”
"You can't say it was nothing," I argued. "It's definitely messed up, but you still care. You've cared about Ivy since before you guys got together."
“Yeah, well, I knew better. That’s what you get for falling in love with a prostitute.”
“Don’t be like that,” I said scathingly. “How could you sleep with Scarlet? Seriously, what were you thinking?”
“I just lost it when I found out Ives was stealing pills,” Chancey confessed. “The nightshade… yeah, I knew about it for a while, but I’ve had my fair share of it, too, and I figured I could get Ives off it eventually. But then I saw Ives take those pills, and I thought about Ava… how she was, all hooked up to those machines and dying… we had a real big argument, but Ives made it pretty clear that the pills were more important than us. Than me.”
His hands shook beside me. “And I got so mad, thinking about Ivy stealing those pills from her. So I wanted to hurt Ivy like Ava had been hurt… likeI’dbeen hurt. That was the only way I could figure how to do it. So I set it all up and made sure Ives walked in. I couldn’t give a shit about Scarlet… she was just a tool. IwantedIves to see.”
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I asked in disgust. Ava and I had our problems, but these two were completely insane. Toxic didn’t even come close to describing how fucked up they were.
“I wasn’t brave enough to break up to their face,” Chancey admitted. “This was easier.”
“You could’ve broken up without going the abusive route.” Yeah, I knew what I said, but Chancey needed some tough love.
He sighed, like he knew he’d fucked up. “I didn’t know how. I love them too much.”
“That’s not good enough,” I growled. “In fact, that makes it worse.”
“I can’t watch them die, Charlie. I’ll never get over it. So don’t ask me to give Ives another chance, because you’d never get over Ava, either. I know— I saw it. And I don’teverwanna be in a situation like you were in. Because if that was Ivy, and I fucking found them…”
Chancey cut off. It sounded like he’d wiped his face on his sleeve. He cleared his throat and said, “Anyway. I ain’t talking about this no more.”
"I won't say anything else about it. But nothing's right unless Ava and I are okay. I think it's like that for you and Ivy, too."
I heard him sink in his chair. "No way. I'm done."
Professor Jobe cleared his throat at the front of the room, and it was obvious the conversation was done. I felt bad for Chancey, but I didn’t bother talking to him about it further.
