All We Know Is Falling: Fall With Me: Volume One (25 page)

The bell rang a few minutes later and the hall flooded with students. I felt surrounded. I quickly made my way out of the halls and headed for the lunch room.

Thankfully my wallet wasn’t in my backpack, so I could get lunch. It was pizza day again and I felt like I had a new reason for living. And as if The Powers That Be were on my side, there was also cake. I took three pieces and paid for my food. The lunch lady judged me with her eyes over the cake but I ignored her and took two milks.

I sat at my table and set my phone next to my tray, fully prepared to play games through the class. As my game was loading, I heard a tray hit the table. And another.

I looked up and wanted to run. Dottie and Hale were sitting down.

“What are you doing?” I asked Hale.

Dottie answered, “You sit here all alone every day and I thought that maybe you’d like company.”

“I’m fine.”

She smiled and patted my arm. “It’s okay. You don’t have to lie. You’re allowed to feel lonely.”

“Thanks,” I said in a flat voice. “But I’m not lonely. I like being alone.” Less people hurt you that way.

“Let’s go then,” Hale said, grabbing his tray.

Dottie put her hand on his and I wanted to cut it off. “Sweetie, we talked about this.”

He eyed her but settled down.

The tension in my stomach grew when I saw her hand hesitate to leave his. She lingered with familiarity that I didn’t want to see. I thought Kenna was just messing with me earlier, but it was clear that she wasn’t. Hale moved on. Quickly. And with someone he knew I had issues with.

“Oh my gosh,” Dottie caught sight of my leg. “What happened to you? That cut looks deep.”

“I just fell. It’s not that bad.”

She took it upon herself to pull the bandage back after she pushed my skirt up. “You need stitches.”

“No I don’t,” I yanked my dress back down. I didn’t need to give these kids a free show.

“But it’ll never heal right if you don’t take care of it.”

“I heal quick, Dottie.”

She smiled a little. “Me too. But someone like you should go get that taken care of. I’d bring you myself, but I’m leaving early today.”

“Thanks,” I opened my chocolate milk. “But really, I’m fine.”

I ate and hoped that she would stop talking to me all together. I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but I regret it. I didn’t want to sit with Hale and his new girlfriend.

“How are your mom and sister doing?” Dottie asked with that award winning smile.

“There’s that word again. Sister,” Hale said. “Why does everyone think Hadley is your sister?”

Dottie laughed. “Of course Hadley is her sister. Sort of. She’s adopted.” Thanks so much…

“Sort of?” I tried to hold my anger back. As if being adopted would make her less family than she was.

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah,” I stabbed at my food. “I guess I do.”

“She’s your sister?”

I looked at Hale. “It’s none of your business. Why would you even care?”

I couldn’t place the look on his face. “I don’t care. I was just curious.”

“Well in that case why don’t I just tell you everything?” I said with animosity. “I mean, why not? You’ve had your share of confessions. What do you think? Should I take a turn?”

He sat back in his chair and didn’t say a word.

Dottie acted like she didn’t hear a word. Her face was blank and confused. “I guess I could see how people wouldn’t know she was your sister. She looks like she’s your mom’s age.” She laughed. “And your mom only looks a little older than you. She never seems to change.”

“Good skin cream,” I shoved a piece of cake in my mouth.

She continued. “And you don’t even look like her.”

“I look like my father.” Accept the eyes. I must have gotten those from my biological mother.

“Oh! I forgot, your dad wasn’t your dad. Have you seen your real one around lately?”

I took a deep breath and decided not to hit her for saying Franklin wasn’t my real dad. “Not for a while.” Not since he took me and my other siblings to Kansas.

“That’s too bad.”

“Not really.”

She looked away awkwardly and started back on her food. I went back to the cake and tried to remember that one day this wouldn’t matter. I’d be okay. Jenna was right. I wouldn’t remember this day. These people. They would be dust and I wouldn’t even remember them. Hale.

I looked at him while he wasn’t paying attention. I thought about how this was just a dot on my timeline. Jenna meant for the words to comfort me. But the idea of me not remembering this boy—as much as he hurt me—was agony. I wouldn’t miss who he was now. But I would miss the boy that took me on my first date. Who gave me his chocolate milk. The first boy to ever want me, even with everything that was wrong with me.

Lunch ended and I almost cried with relief. I said goodbye to Dottie and almost ran to Art.

The class passed quickly. It was a free day and I managed to finish up my figures for the project. All I needed to do now was the ship. Then I was totally free.

When the bell rang I counted the minutes to the end of the day. I planned on eating a whole pint of ice cream and taking a nap. All I had was Friday to get through and I was in the clear. Plus, it was parent day. So I didn’t have regular classes.

I followed behind a group of girls that were headed into the locker room. They were chattering about the upcoming weekend and some carnival in town for Halloween. I wasn’t interested.

When I turned the corner, I spotted my backpack sitting on the floor by my locker. Someone must have found it and knew it was mine. I was the only senior who chose to rock a Zelda backpack.

I picked it up and opened it to get my clothes for class. The book I found inside threw me off. I thought for a second that it wasn’t my backpack, but my name was written on the inside with marker. Right where my dad put it.

I pulled the scrapbook out and froze when I opened it. The first page had a collage of my mother. There were a dozen or so pictures of her pasted onto construction paper. There were pictures of her out at the store, some in the house with her cooking. They looked like they were taken through a window. But the ones of her sleeping…they looked like they were taken inside of her room.

I was terrified, but I kept looking through the book. The next page was Hadley, much the same. There was one of her being put in the back of a police car the night before I had to get her from the holding cell.

Each page was more frightening than the next. There were pages of pictures, schedules for all of us, things we threw away. I couldn’t understand why someone would do this.

Then I got to the rest of the book. More than half of it was just me. There were sketches, photos. I found a piece of one of my shirts glues inside. Who ever did this was in my bedroom. They took things from me and gave them back to scare me. I didn’t even make it to the last page.

I was dizzy as I took the book into the gym. I needed help and I didn’t know where to get it. So I went to the closest source I could find. Jenna.

I went into the gym and I heard her voice. “I think you’re going about this the worst way you possibly can. I get what you’re doing. But you’re causing more harm than good. For the both of you.”

My eyes went around the room until I spotted her. She was standing with Hale by the bleachers. I didn’t want to be near him, but I didn’t have a choice.

I walked over to Jenna and handed her the scrapbook. She smiled. “A present?” Her smile turned to a look of fear. “Aurora, why are you shaking?”

I blinked a few times and looked at my hands. “I didn’t know I was shaking.”

She sat me down and I looked up to see a terrified face, and Hale’s emotionless one.

“Someone left that in my backpack,” I pointed to book. “I lost it and someone left it in the locker room. Open it.”

She did. “Oh my god.” She flipped through the book and I watched her face. And Hale’s. “How did someone get all of these pictures?”

“How do you think?” Hale said, taking the book from her. “They were in her house.” He sounded angry.

“I think so,” my voice was distant.

He kept flipping and Jenna yelped. “I’m in there too!” I though she might burn a hole in the book given how hard she was staring at the pages in it.

My attention went to her. “What?”

Hale gave me the book. The pictures of Jenna weren’t as bad. A few of her at school and one or two of her on the couch at her house with her boyfriend.

“I’m so sorry, Jay. I don’t know why someone’s doing this to me. And I’m sorry that you’re getting dragged into this.”

“Don’t be. This isn’t your fault. But this means that someone wants to do more harm than just leaving you a dead animal. They broke into your house. They’re trying to threaten the people you love.”

I turned the page. On the very last sheet of paper was Hale. There were around thirty pictures of him. I was in a few. There was one of us sitting outside of the movie theater sharing a box of candy.

There were little broken hearts scratched into my eyes in every picture I appeared in.

I held the book out to show Hale. Slowly, his eyes went all over the page. He looked more furious than I’ve ever seen him. He must hate me even more than he used to. Now I was putting him in danger.

“What am I supposed to do?” I asked Jenna. “They can get into my house. They were following us all.”

Hale slammed the book and dropped it onto the bench beside me. “They were. But we know now.”

“What good does that do?”

“You can keep an eye out,” he said like this was all no big deal.

I stood up. “I know you’re mad that you got dragged into this, but if you don’t care, then can you be apathetic somewhere else? There’s a good chance my life is in danger. You’re safe, especially now that we’re not friends. So you can calm down now.”

He crossed his arms. “I’m not concerned about my safety. However, you are a target now.”

“I’m aware.”

“Good. Then I highly suggest you find out why.”

Find out…like I would try and do anything else.

“That’s the plan,” I said.

Jenna took a few breaths. “Okay. Well I have a class to teach. And I think I should get to it otherwise it might bring unwanted attention to this situation.”

“Yeah. I think it would be better if you let me handle this one,” I decided. I wasn’t sure how much this person knew about me and my family. But if they knew what I was, I couldn’t have the police get involved.”

“Excuse me?” Hale snapped. “Why are you allowing Rory to do this on her own? She’s a seventeen-year-old girl with a predator after her. She knows nothing about that kind of evil.”

I snorted and Jenna said, “I’m not abandoning her with this. I’m just trying to figure out the best way to handle this. There are things that you don’t understand. Maybe you would if you didn’t blow your chance to.” She left to go and address the students.

I shoved the scrapbook in my backpack and zipped it up. There wasn’t a chance in Hell that I was changing into my Gym clothes and acting like everything was okay.

Hale sat next to me. “Nothing is going to harm you, Rory.” He went to put his hand on mine but I pulled it away.

“No. You can’t do that. You can’t say what you said, do what you did, and then just act like I matter to you. It’s not fair.”

“I know it’s not fair. But I—”

“Please don’t. I don’t need to hear you saying more of what you told me. I know that I was too clingy for you.” I didn’t comment on how ironic that was. “I know that you didn’t really like me. You were probably just lonely. Bored.” That was the word he used before. “You got bored and that was the only reason you paid any attention to me at all. And that’s fine. But it’s over now and you need to leave me alone.”

“Can we just talk?”

I didn’t think my heart could take it. “I don’t want to.”

He nodded. “That’s fair. But I’m going to say what I need to say. I’ll leave you be for now. You’ve been through enough.” He moved to stand in front of me.

“I don’t think I want to hear anything else you have to say to me.” Was that too much to ask? Not to hear more words that would break what I had left of a heart.

He gave me one last look before he went to join the class.

I watched him while he apathetically stood around as the rest of the students played basketball. The ball rolled over to him a few times and he kicked it away.

The class ended and Hale set his sights on me. When he started walking over, I took off. I was too scared to hear what he had to say. I heard his words echoing in my head. I don’t want you.

I started walking down the hall as I made my way to the parking lot. The crowd was already thinning and I spotted Ethan talking on his phone.

“But I don’t have a ride. Why are you being such an ass today, Hale?” I couldn’t hear Hale on the other side of the phone but judging by Ethan’s face, he wasn’t being kind. “Fine. Leave me stranded. But Mason and Mollie aren’t going to put up with this for much longer. They’re already sick of this from you.” He hung up the phone and I walked over to him.