Patrick
Twenty-four-years-old | November
Ididn’t let go of Chase’s hand until we were in the emergency room and the doctors and nurses were bustling around him. A woman wearing a hospital badge and black pants with a floral shirt came over to me.
“Hi, I’m Heather Lott, one of the crisis management counselors.”
“Hi.”
“Is Chase your brother?”
“Yes, but not by blood. His family adopted me when I was in high school.”
She smiled at me kindly. “I need to speak to Kristin or Charles. Do you mind sharing good contact numbers for them?” I provided her with all of the numbers I had and also gave her the numbers for Chase’s grandparents.
The doctor informed us that they would need to pump Chase’s stomach quickly, before the pills had time to absorb. He gagged a few times when they inserted the tube down his throat, and I felt bad for him having to endure this pain—the mental anguish that caused him to spiral.
Once the doctors and nurses had completed the procedure, I sat on the side of the bed closer to him. I remembered Hollis had done this for me, and it made a huge difference in my thoughts at that time. I only hoped I was making the same impact for Chase.
Chase rolled toward me and cried into my sweater, his voice raspy and hoarse from the tube. I leaned my back against the pillow and wrapped my arm over his head to try and calm him down. I rubbed his upper arm as he leaned against me, for comfort or support, I wasn’t sure which.
“They’re going to be disappointed.”
“They love you, Chase.”
“Hollis can’t find out, Patrick.”
“Chase, even if I don’t tell him, he’s going to find out.”
“He’s going to lose it. Hollis is going to kill him,” Chase murmured.
“Hollis isn’t going to kill anyone.”
“He can’t know. Promise me you won’t let him throw his career away for me.”
“Chase, what are you talking about?”
“He told me he’d wreck Hollis’ career if—
“If what? And who is he?”
“Perry.”
The guy the pills were prescribed to.
Chase buried his face against my side.
“I thought I had it handled.”
I hadn’t planned on pushing Chase to talk, especially under the current circumstances. He’d tried twice to kill himself, and I didn’t want to potentially make anything worse. But when he mentioned Hollis’ career, I was curious as to how all of this was laced together.
“What is going on, Chase? What has happened?”
“Perry. He said if I wanted a modeling career and for nothing bad to get out in the media that I needed to comply. He said Haley and I had the ‘it’ factor, and we could make a lot of money on the side by doing it.”
Doing it? Doing it as in…
“As in having sex?” I risked the question.
