Falling (26 page)

“I’m going to go back to sleep.” I threaten, “and I’ll be in here for hours.”

“Calm down, I’ll stop at the next gas station. It won’t be long.”

“You’re right it won’t.” I say. And I push out, landing in my seat, quickly doing up my seat belt. She corrects her steering after veering off to the side of the road.

“You could have given me some warning. I almost had a heart attack.” She yells.

I smile happily. “You didn’t want me to talk any more, it was distracting you.”

“That was the strangest thing ever.” She laughs. “I didn’t feel anything. Oh my goodness, it was so funny seeing you just appear out of nowhere, and then you were in your seat.” She giggles watching the road.

“Glad you found it so funny.” I say wryly. I didn’t expect to be having this conversation today. I’m not sure if I feel relieved having someone else know, or if I’m waiting for her to realise what just happened and freak out.

“You just came out of the side of me. Like pop.” She pops her fingers out from her shoulder, making exploding sounds.

“It didn’t freak you out. You just saw all that and it didn’t make you think, that’s disgusting?” I ask curious.

“I was thinking about it while you were in there, about what it would be like to see you come out, but it was like I just bumped into you. It would probably have been gross if I had felt it, but it was like I’d just bumped into you.”

“Thanks.” I say, it’s nice to hear what someone actually thinks about it. “And you’re not going to freak out on me tonight? And randomly wake up at four in the morning screaming about something breaking out of your chest?”

“I’ll wake you up if I do.”

“I look forward to it.” I smile.

We both drop into silence, thinking about what just happened.

I watch the road stretch out behind us in the side mirror for an hour before Sara bursts out laughing. “That policeman thought I was drunk!”

“Sorry. That was my fault.” I laugh remembering the sound of her voice.

“Before you said anything, I was going to say that I lost my cat. But then I thought he might offer to look for it, and a candy bar was the next thing that popped into my head.”

“Cat to candy bar. I can see why you made that connection.” I roll my eyes.

“So now that you are sure that I’m not going to flip out, are you okay?”

“Kind of.”

“Let’s have something to eat, I need gas.” She squeals, slowing down for the exit. “I need gas, because I have a car.” She says as we pull into the station.

I impatiently wait in the car, I don’t want anything to eat, I want to get back to school to see what was so urgent she couldn’t wait another five hours for me to get back to school by myself.

“Let’s go.” Says Sara excitedly, launching herself back into the driver’s seat.

We are one measly street away from school, “come on, surely you can tell me now. We are basically there.”

“Nope. Just wait. You whine a lot, did you know that?”

“I’ll keep it in mind.” She infuriatingly says nothing, and smirks away to herself. Calm down, I tell myself. This is Sara, she wouldn’t have come all the way to get me if it was something bad.

It helps a little, and I’m able to look back at her without wanting to shake her into telling me why we're back so early.

Instead of stopping in front of school, she keeps going down the road, pulling into the car park near the dorms. “Can you tell me yet?” I ask in a really nice voice.

“No.” She sweetly matches my tone. “Grab one of my bags will you?” She takes the biggest one out of the back seat and I take the other, holding back my frustration I follow her across the carpark kicking at loose stones.

“So what happened at the airport?” She asks making me want to kick the stone at her.

“It got closed.”

“Yeah I know that. Why?”

“I don’t know, why do they close airports.” I smirk at her when she looks back at me.

“Where’s your bag and stuff. Did you leave it all behind?”

“Yip, I left it all behind.”

“You’re not telling me something.”

“So are you.” I remind her. She rolls her eyes.

“Hurry up then.” She says and I kick one last stone in her direction, but walk faster to catch up to her. The sooner we get rid of her bags we can go see what she bought me back for, I tell myself.

“Charlotte seems real nice.” She starts with the small talk again.

“Yeah she’s great.” I say keeping my positive attitude.

“Go on then.” She sighs, I look up at Sara.

“Huh?” She takes her other bag out of my hand.

“I’ll see you later.” She walks across the lawn smiling back at me, she shakes her head and walks in the building through the closest door. I slowly follow the way she walked then stop.

“Reid, Hi.” Keller says, jumping to his feet, standing in the centre of the lawn in front of the main building.

“Hi.” I say stunned. A tiny white box is sitting right behind him.

“Reid I am so sorry. I wasn’t calling you.” He walks toward me, but stops a few feet away. “I was calling Hayden. I’m so sorry I said those things to you. But it wasn’t at you. I cannot say how sorry I am. I’ve been trying to find you all weekend.”

“Oh.” I don’t know how to make better words come out.

He rubs his face before he keeps going. It looks like he’s been here for a while. “I thought I had called Hayden, so when I dialled your number to tell you how sorry I am for being such a baby you didn’t pick up, I called Sara and you know what happened. She called me back to say that I had already called you, and that you didn’t sound good.” He rubs at his face again.

“I didn’t realise at first what I’d done. I just thought she had it wrong. I checked to see who I called and when I saw your name there I came straight here to see you, but school was finished and everyone was gone.”

“We had a half day.” I whisper.

“I’m so sorry.” He says again. “I have sat here since last night just in case you came back early.”

“You slept on the lawn?”

“No, the security guards made me leave at eleven last night. So I sat in my car down the road, then came back when they left in the morning. Sara called last night and asked if I’d talked to you because you weren’t answering anything. I told her what happened and she said she’d come straight back.” I look toward the building. I can’t believe she did this for me.

“Reid.” He says again. “Please don’t hate me. What I did was so awful, I was pathetic.” He stops. “Does Sara know?”

“She does now.”

“Okay.” He says questioning my disapproving tone.

“I didn’t tell her.” He says quickly.

“I know. My arm kind of fell into her when we were driving back. She thought it had fallen off.” I smile, watching his face. But he just grins at me for watching him.

“I don’t care about it Reid, and I’m sorry that for a couple of days I did.” I don’t know what to say.

“And Hayden?”

“Long gone. I called her as soon as I realised what I’d done. I told her to go almost every time she showed up somewhere I was. She even went to work once when I wasn’t there. That was the day you came.” He looks up at the sky and shouts, rubbing at his face frustrated. “I didn’t see dad until the next day, as soon as he told me I called her, well I called you, but I meant to call her.” He sighs, shaking his head.

“I don’t know why she was here, why she came back. Why she didn’t leave. I was really mean to her, but she kept coming back. And then that crazy Megan girl showed up at work yesterday and asked me out on a date. Are you the only normal person that goes here?”

“And Sara, she’s not crazy.” He smiles.

“Will you forgive me? Do you need time to think about it, because I deserve it if you do.”

“I don’t know how to make it stop Keller.” I blurt out. “I want to, I want it to go away, I want it to leave me alone, but I don’t know how to.” My fingers are tingling, my palms sweeting. All I want to do is reach out and touch him, confirm that he really is here, telling me everything that happened was a mistake that he never meant to tell me to never come near him again.

“I don’t care. I really don’t. After I thought about it, I actually think it’s kind of cool. It was just the shock. Sara probably took like one second to start laughing right?” I look away. “See, it took me two days, but it doesn’t matter. I just want you. Any way that you come, I want it. You are the most amazing person I have ever got to be around, and I am so stupid for letting you falling into me think for a second that you are anything less than the most beautiful, kind, loving person that I have ever met.”

“You need to meet more people.” I mumble at my shoes, my face flaming red.

“No thanks.” The little box makes a sound, but Keller draws my attention as he steps slowly and deliberately toward me. “I only like people called Reid.”

“Are you sure it doesn’t bother you?”

“Not for a second.”

“It might happen again.”

“I hope so.” He says, taking another step toward me grinning.

“I was at your house when Hayden was there.” I say quickly.

“And at the pizza store?” He laughs.

“Yeah. I guess I should be sorry for that one.”

“Don’t be. I was staring at dad wondering. I didn’t know if there was some way for me to ask if you were, so I just looked trying to see if I could see it if you moved. But then he went outside.”

“I told him to. I didn’t want to see Hayden touch your arm.” My face screws up and he reaches out and smooths it out with his fingers.

“Are you all right now that you’ve got everything out? No more little jumping secrets you need to tell me about?”

“Not right now, but I might think of some more later.” I grin back at him.

“I’ve really missed you,” he announces. I close my eyes letting it sink in to every corner of me. “I really have Reid.”

The box makes a loud cheep.

“What’s wrong with your box?” I ask.

He runs up the lawn and scoops it up carefully, holding it out to me. “It’s for you.”

I take it gently from him and open the top. My head snaps to him.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” He asks. I can’t speak. “I knew it couldn’t have been Hayden, but I didn’t know you then.” He touches my face and looks into my eyes. I pull the tiny silver chick out of the box, identical to the one I saw the first day at the mall with Hayden and Keller. I look back at him.

“I just want to be with you,” he says. “I don’t care what you can do. I hope you can forgive me for being such a loser.” He moves closer again.

“I forgive you.”

“You sure?”

“Actually, on second thought…” I smile and he laughs, moving his face closer.

“As long as you’re sure.” Moving closer again until there is only two inches between us.

“Okay.” I say, one inch.

“That’s good.” Half an inch. He smiles, no inches. I’m melting.

“Reid, we’ve gotta go.” Sara bangs on the door to our room.

“Yip.” I call back but I don’t move from in front of the mirror. I look just like my mum, I found a photo of her in the album I keep under my bed wearing this dress, so I did my hair exactly the same. I can’t move, it’s like seeing her again. All I want to do is touch my reflection.

“Reid. Come on, I can hear the music already.” Sara whines.

“Don’t wait for me. Just go down.”

“Is everything all right?”

“I’m fine. I just need a minute.” I touch my face, it’s been so long since I’ve seen a person that looks this close to her. Aunt Kelly looks similar, but not like this. I always thought I looked more like my dad, but not tonight. I hold the photo up and look at my reflection side by side.

I move to the side, making the green satin shimmer in the light. My long earrings catching the light at the same time as my hair moves. I really miss her, on nights like this, I wish she was here with me, making sure my hair was right and that my mascara wasn’t smudged. To tell me that I look beautiful and to have fun, to take a photo of Keller and I as we walk out for the night.

“Reid, are you okay.” Keller’s soft voice floats through the closed door.

“I’m fine.”

“Can I come in?” He asks concerned.

“If you want to.” I turn to face the door, straightening my earrings and hair so they frame my face. The door slowly opens.

“Wow.” He stops in the door way. Sara’s eyes are wide watching over his shoulder and her date standing behind her.

“Thanks. It’s my mum’s.” I fight back the urge to cry.

“You look amazing. Really, the green makes your eyes so blue. You look beautiful Reid.” He slips his arm around my waist and I catch a glimpse of us in the mirror before he pulls me toward the door. “I was starting to worry that you were going to leave me down there by myself.”

“I was looking at a picture of my mum. She loved this dress.” He kisses the top of my head without saying anything.

Sara’s date pushes the front door of school open, letting the sound flood in. Every year we have a holiday-weekend ball, it’s always the first Friday we get back. They put two connected dance floors on the front lawn of school, and frame them with fairy lights. It’s like dancing under a thousand stars.

“Would you like to dance?” Keller asks standing on the side of the first dance floor, they are playing a slow song. Sara and her date, Ben, are already swaying softly to the beat.

“I would thank you.” He grabs my hand and pulls me into him.

“Guess what?” He asks when the song finishes.

“What?”

“I sent my application letter to Rhode Island today.” My head snaps up.

“I sent mine yesterday.”

“I know.” He holds his hand against my back firmly holding me to him. “I love you Reid.”

L C Smith graduated from Massey University in New Zealand with a degree in Communications, where she still lives with her family.

FALLING is her debut novel, and is excited to be able to write Young Adult fiction, having spent her teenage years reading everything she could get her hands on.