Authors: Toni Aleo
The day that basically ruined her life.
“You’re zoning out on me Fal,” Audrey said with a laugh. Fallon looked over at her.
“He broke me,” Fallon said simply as she closed her eyes. When she opened them, Audrey was looking at her with a worried look on her face. Fallon gave her a small smile before she slowly retold why they broke up.
It had been a long week since Fallon had seen Lucas. He had gone back on the road and she had gone home to see Audrey for a couple days. Fallon was beyond excited about finally seeing him tonight. Lucas said he was gonna meet her at the dorm and Fallon decided she couldn’t drive fast enough to get there.
Two years, it was still hard to believe. Fallon had never been with someone so long or hell, been in love so long. She knew she loved Lucas two months in, and hadn’t stopped yet. Yeah, he could make her so mad she wanted to rip his face off but within a minute, he had her laughing or on her back with him on top of her.
A slow smile went across Fallon’s face — she couldn’t wait to get home. She was ready to be with her man. When she saw his truck in the parking lot, she parked beside it and jumped out, heading up the walkway to the dorm. Once inside, she made her way upstairs praying that Allison was still in Houston visiting her family. If she wasn’t, oh well, she was about to see a show. Fallon giggled to herself as she ran up the many stairs to the hall that held her room. When she reached it, she threw the door open and stepped inside.
It was dark.
Fallon flipped on the lights and when her eyes adjusted, she couldn’t catch her breath.
Allison jumped up, throwing clothes on as Lucas just laid there.
Naked.
“
What the fuck?” Fallon said once she found her voice.
“
Oh God,” Allison whispered as she zipped her pants.
Lucas finally stirred, sitting up and looking around. When he looked at Fallon, his eyes went wide, and that was when Fallon’s heart broke. At that moment she knew he was going to try to hide this from her. That maybe he even planned it. Get some from Allison before she came home and then he would get it from her.
Fallon almost threw up.
“
Fallon?” Lucas looked at her, than over at Allison. “Oh, fuck.”
He got up quickly, throwing his clothes on. For the first time ever, she couldn’t even admire his beautiful body. She was disgusted and wanted to hit something…or someone. Allison left the room quickly, passing by Fallon without a glance.
Coward.
Fallon slowly ran her hand through her hair while Lucas dressed quickly. Why wasn’t she yelling? Why wasn’t she trying to hit him? Fallon just stood there, staring at him. He came over towards her, and Fallon saw the tears in his eyes but she had to look away. It was too hard to look at someone she had loved for so long who had just been found in bed with not only someone Fallon knew, but her best friend.
“
Baby…”
“
No, don’t call me that,” Fallon whispered. “You lost that privilege, what an hour ago? How long have you been going at it?”
Not that she really wanted to know, she just wanted the point to get across to him that what they had was over.
“
Fallon, please, it’s not what you think,” Lucas begged.
An empty laugh broke from Fallon’s lips as she walked past him, pulling the sheets off her bed. “Not only did you fuck my best friend, but you did it in my bed. Wow, way to go Luc.”
“
Fallon, please baby, look at me.”
Fallon felt him walk up behind her, so she whipped around, her fist clenched as she looked up at him. “Get out, and never come back,” she sneered as his face twisted with guilt.
“
Please, you don’t mean that.”
“
I do, go.”
“
Fallon, baby, please I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened, I was… I don’t know, baby please.”
Fallon turned back around as the tears rolled down her cheeks. She couldn’t believe it. She felt like her heart was just smashed into a billion pieces and all he could say what that he didn’t know what happen?
“
It's pretty cut and dry Lucas — you fucked my best friend.”
“
I didn’t mean to,” he pleaded.
Fallon turned, completely disgusted with him. “You didn’t mean to?”
“
Yeah.”
She waited for him to go on and when he didn’t, she turned around again because she was pretty sure she as gonna deck him in the throat. “Get out Lucas.”
“
No, not until you talk to me.”
“
I ain’t gonna talk to you, ever again. So leave. We’re through.”
“
No!” He turned her around with his large hands and she looked up at the desperation on his face, but she didn’t care. She pushed him away and he stumbled back into the wall.
“
Don’t touch me. Get out.”
They stood for what seemed like hours, staring each other down. Tears rolled down her cheeks as his eyes watered with tears she knew would never fall. Lucas didn’t cry, he always said that after his daddy died nothing would ever hurt him as bad.
“
I’m going to go, but I’ll be back. We’re not through,” he said before he started for the door, and just as he was about to shut it, Fallon said, “We are, and come back if you want, but I won’t be waiting. Ever again.”
Fallon couldn’t get through the whole story without crying. Audrey held Fallon’s hand as she went over the events of that day.
“What did he mean ‘he didn’t mean to’?” Audrey asked once Fallon had calmed down.
“I don’t know, and I really don’t care. The whole experience was so surreal. Like when we would talk about how if one of us would cheat, I would always say how I would kick his ass,” Fallon let out a soulless laugh, “then it happens, and all I did was change the sheets.”
“Fallon, you were in shock,” Audrey consoled.
“It just sucks, ‘cause... ‘cause I feel so guilty Audrey,” Fallon said as she started crying again. “I feel like I should have told him about Aiden when it happened, but I was so hurt, so upset that he hurt me so bad.”
Audrey wrapped her arms around Fallon, holding her closely to her chest. If that day never would have happened, she would still be with Lucas. They would be married; they would have Aiden, and probably more children. Aiden wasn’t planned, of course, but Lucas wanted kids. Another reason why telling him about Aiden was gonna be bad. He was gonna freak about not being in Aiden’s life for the past six years.
For the love of God, what the hell had Fallon done?
***************************************
Lucas looked left, then right, before passing to Welch. Welch only had the puck for a split second before he directed it right into the goal. Lucas threw his arms up in the air before the guys all wrapped up in a hug, tapping each other on the head. Thank God, Welch got that in because if he hadn’t the score would be 4-0. At least if the Assassins lost it wouldn’t be a shutout. Even with Lucas playing hard, trying hard to get shots on goal, it wasn’t their game, and they lost 4-1.
Lucas slowly walked down the hall behind his teammates, his head hung low. It was the first game he had lost as an Assassin, and he would be lying if he said he was okay with it. He didn’t come to the Assassins to be a loser, but to be a winner.
When he looked up, he saw that the coaches and Eleanor Adler stood lined up by the locker room, nodding and tapping each guy on the head as they walked into the locker room. It was crazy; he had never been on a team that was much more like a family than a team. When Lucas reached Elli, she gave him a small smile.
“Good game Brooks, great pass.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Adler,” he said with a nod.
She smiled sweetly at him, and he smile back. It was the first time he had ever smiled after a lost. Lucas decided then that he was going to love playing for the Assassins. They were a family, and he could always use one.
Later, Lucas didn’t know why he was thinking of the day he lost Fallon on the bus ride to Columbus, but he was. Maybe it was calling the office that morning, or maybe it was because the Assassins had lost in St Louis. Since he already felt like shit, he figured he might as well think of the worst day of his life.
All Lucas could remember was not only the cold, dead look in Fallon’s beautiful caramel eyes, but the way she was just plain disgusted with him. He still to that day didn’t remember getting into bed with Allison, and he
really
didn’t remember having sex with her. He was too drunk and high to remember anything from that night.
Lucas shook his head as he thought back to that night.
Lucas just wanted to see Fallon.
It had been a long week, and he needed his Fallon fix. She was like a drug and he was addicted. The week had been hard, he had gotten hurt during a game against the Devils and when the doctor prescribed him Lortabs, he should have known he was in trouble. He started popping the pain pills every chance he got, mixing them with his favorite drink. Lucas soon found that it took him to cloud nine and he loved the feeling.
Fallon had called that afternoon saying she was getting in at seven. When Lucas woke up at six, he rushed to get ready and headed towards
Palo Alto to be there when she got there. The choices he made that night were plain stupid. Not only did he drink and drive but he was high from the pills too. He could have gotten killed, or worst, killed someone else.
When he got to the dorm, he opened the door to Allison sitting on her bed in a little tee. She was supposed to be in Houston. What the hell was she doing home?
“
Oh, hey Lucas,” she purred as she stood up. Lucas should have known right then to leave. Allison was known as a ho in the locker room, she had been with Levi and a couple of the guys from the team. Lucas knew better, he knew better then to mess with anyone but Fallon. But Lucas was so drunk and so high that when Allison tipped toed over to him in that little bitty t-shirt and wrapped her arms around his neck for a ‘hug’, he couldn’t help but to hold her closer than needed.
When her lips touched his, he didn’t think, he just acted and it was the last thing he remembered.
Now Lucas was paying for it. Even with Fallon saying that she wouldn’t be there the next day when he showed up, he went back, and more than shit she was gone. He would forever hold that look she gave him right before he walked out as the last memory he had of her. He spent weeks trying to find her and then was told she went home. He figured there was no point in chasing after her, she didn’t want him.
So he turned to drugs and alcohol.
“Why do I feel like you’re thinking too hard?” Lucas looked over, seeing that Levi was staring at him, his Kindle in his lap.
“Because I am,” Lucas chuckled as he looked out towards the front of the bus. All the guys sat with their laptops, eReaders, and books, while Lucas just sat there. Sometimes he brought his DS but it was hard to play a game when sometimes he had to read what he needed to do. Lucas hated asking Levi to read his games to him, so mostly Lucas just people watched and looked out the window or slept on bus rides.
“Want to talk about it?”
Lucas shrugged his shoulders. He knew Levi was sick of hearing about Fallon, but he was the only one he could talk about Fallon to. Lucas’ mom still missed Fallon — she had been convinced that Fallon was going to be her daughter one day — and having to tell his mom why Fallon left him was probably the second hardest thing he had to do.
“I was an alcoholic turned pill popper all because I couldn’t cope with losing my dad or my condition. I then decide that instead of fixing the problem when Fallon left me that I was going to do more, and I almost lost everything.”
Levi nodded his head, shutting off his Kindle as he turned slightly to look at Lucas. “But look at you now, you’ve been sober for four years, you are in a good place in your life…”
Nothing was said as the two men looked each other in the eyes. Levi looked away first, shaking his head and biting down on his lip as he looked everywhere but at Lucas. “Dude, I don’t see it happening. Let it go.”
“Oh come on!” Levi yelled, causing a lot of the guys to turn and looked at them. Lucas rolled his eyes before leaning his head back into the chair. “You cannot still love her! You haven’t even seen her.”
“I do,” Lucas said. “Why don’t you want me with her?”
“It isn’t that I don’t want you with her, I just think it’s unrealistic. You…you fucked up dude. I don’t think she is over that.”
Lucas weighed his words for a minute before nodded his head. “She might not be, but I learned from my mistake and I would never do that again.”
“I don’t know dude, I think you’re grasping at something that isn’t there.”
Lucas nodded slowly. “We’ll see.”
The party Fallon was throwing was in the couple of weeks, and Lucas already had a suit picked out. He would go, he would see her, and he would get her back. The statement from earlier when he called was just her not knowing how to handle talking to him again. When they saw each other in person, everything would be fine. It had been so long, she still couldn’t be that mad.