Risking It

Chapter 23: "I have no choice."

Enjoy!!

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Drew's POV

As I tried to wrap my head around this whole thing, I couldn't help but feel like this was all my fault. I thought that maybe if I had known earlier, I could have handled things differently. Differently enough that maybe Cassie would still have hope for a relationship.

But if she wanted to move on, then I have to also. Can I? She wanted me to forget about her and I don't see myself doing that anytime soon. How can she want to forget about us? I felt mad and angered, I had the feeling of hatred, like I wanted someone to pay.

What's weird is that I wasn't upset about my relationship with Cassie, but about something she told me. She was raped by her foster brother. I didn't even know one thing about him nor what he looked like, but I knew I wanted him to pay for the damage he did to Cassie. How could some animal take advantage of such a sweet innocent girl? I remember when she told me out of secrecy, how scared and violated she was. I've never seen her look that vulnerable before, she always knew how to handle a situation, but to see her talk about her rape was like seeing a whole different person you'd be shocked to find out was actually Cassie.

My fists might have clenched, but I was too upset to do anything about it.

"Drew." I heard a familiar voice call my name, so I decided to walk towards the person. It turned out to be the person I expected. "Can you take those into the kitchen?" Derek asked, without no word, I just took the bag of food into the kitchen.

"Why'd you buy more food?" I asked since we had a lot of food.

"I have friends coming over later." Derek answered casually as he reached into the bag to put groceries away.

"Friends?" I said questionably.

"I have friends." Derek said, apparently he didn't get the fact that I was expecting him to be more specific.

"Why are they coming here?" I asked as I wondered if it was a stupid question or not when I grabbed the milk from Derek.

Derek took the bag of chips and stuffed it into the pantry along with our stash of junk food, "we have important things to discuss." Derek generalized.

Clearly he didn't want to tell me so I decided to stop trying. Ever since Cassie found out the truth, Derek has been acting mysterious and not himself lately, it's like I don't even know him anymore.

"I'm going to my room." I told Derek once we finished with the groceries. He just nodded.

As I walked towards my bed, my foot caught on the leg of the desk which caused me to trip. As I hit the ground, something happened, a flashback occurred.

"You two behave." My mom told us while she walked down the stairs as I ran around the living room from Derek.

"Boys stop running around the house." Dad ordered as he fixed the collar of his polo shirt.

"Derek stop." I laughed uncontrollably as he lifted me off the ground and carried me over his shoulder.

"Ding Dong." I mocked the doorbell when it rang.

"They're here." Mom said as she headed towards the door.

"Derek put him down." Dad told him and Derek dropped me down on the couch.

"Ready to go?" Mrs. Ricci smiled to my parents, just when Cassie ran into the room.

"Hey Cassandra." My mom greeted, but she was too excited to play to acknowledge her.