Fall Forever (Fall For Me) (3 page)

So, now—suddenly without
them—I was … lost. Adrift.

I parked at this fast food place
near my house to grab a soda and try to stop shaking. But once inside the
building, as I stepped into the long ordering line, who should come up beside
me? Bianca.
Of course.
Just to make my nightmare
complete.

She shoved her shoulder hard
against mine as she passed me—only she didn’t really pass me. It was like
she was going to fake as though it was an “accident”—her simply violently
stumbling into me as she was heading to the bathroom or whatever. Only,
then—after she shoved me—it was like she decided to ditch the
charade and openly make clear she was a full-on witch.

“Why’d you make Finn quit?” she
growled.

I raised my eyebrows. Not only
surprised that Finn had done that—actually quit—but that she
sounded so hateful and accusing about it. I mean
,
I
was the girlfriend here. She was only the skanky troll he’d cheated with. She
had no right to be angry or make accusations. As far as I was concerned the
only thing she was allowed to say—or do—was apologize.

I smiled at her, like my world was
full of rainbows. “
I
didn’t
make Finn quit,” I chirped, sounding surprisingly carefree and tra-la-la. Like
Wow, life is awesome!
Then I added with
a dramatic shrug, “He did mention something though—about working with a
skank. I guess he got tired of it.”

Bianca grabbed my arm as I turned
to storm away. She clutched it tight, tight,
tight
like she had fantasies of breaking it off. That’s when I noticed her eyes and
nose were all drippy and red. She’d obviously been crying. (Ha!)

She narrowed her eyes at me into
tiny, hateful slits. “I know you made him quit, Zoey—and that you’re
forcing him to stop seeing me. But he won’t. He can’t. He
loves
me.” She spat, “And you can’t do anything about it.”

She gave me a smug, evil smile.
“He’ll be kissing me again before you can re-latch the chain you had him tied
to.”

“Really?” I stared at her trembling
hand that still desperately clutched my arm. “He’s at my house right now,
Bianca. He seems to be trying to re-lock the “chain” himself. Why don’t you let
go of my arm and go try to give him that kiss you were just talking about
?—
and take the knife you jabbed into my back with you.
It’s annoying.”

She snatched her hand away from me,
looking dismayed. “He’s at your house?”

Her two friends beside her made
I-told-you-so
noises. One said, “See,
Bianca, that’s why he’s not answering your texts.”

The pouty look on Bianca’s face
amazed me. How could she be so upset that he was at his
girlfriend’s
house? SKANK!!

“’Night!” I called to her over my
shoulder with a huge fake smile.

CHAPTER 5

I ended up spending the night at my
best friend,
Summer
’s house. Well,
technically
, she was my “best”
friend. Had definitely been in middle school. But we hadn’t spent much time
together for … well, years, actually.

So, I think she was shocked to find
me at her door. But I had nowhere else to go. Finn was still stalking my house.
And I just wasn’t ready for a showdown.

I drove around and around town with
nowhere to go. It was too cold for the beach and I wasn’t up for going
somewhere I’d be recognized—where I’d have to put on another fake smile.

Finally, I just ended up
there—at
Summer
’s.

But
Summer
had wrapped her arms around me and brought me into her house. Acted as though
all of those years of distance hadn’t happened between us. As though we were still
best friends.

She let me cry and tell her about
Finn. And Riley. And she got out a cot and let me sleep in her room—just
like middle school when we were best friends and would stay up all night
giggling. Though yeah, now the giggling was replaced with tears.

***

“Okay,”
Summer
said in the morning—well, technically afternoon. I had just put a pillow
over my head and planned to sleep the day away, but suddenly,
Summer
seemed to have other plans for me. She sat at the
foot of my cot and bit her lip. “Don’t be mad,” she said.

My stomach tightened.
Uh-oh.

Whenever
Summer
said that—“Don’t be mad”—well, it meant I was going to explode. I
squeezed the pillow tighter over my head, bracing myself for horrible,
horrendous news … and face it, after what I went through yesterday I couldn’t
handle much more “horrible” or “horrendous.” I was tapped out. So, I didn’t
breathe under the pillow. I just waited with chills crawling up my spine.

“What Summer?” I moaned when she
hesitated. Just needing her to spill. Rip off the news like a band-aid.

“I texted Riley,” she said. Then
she added quickly, “Just to let him know where you are, so he would stop
worrying.”

The knots in my stomach eased a
little and I let out my breath. I was glad she did that—sort of. I wasn’t
mad at Riley. Well, not
exactly
.
Okay, I was … sort of. But my emotions and thoughts were scrambled and all over
the place—about everything.
But especially Riley.

I was mad that he had known about
Finn’s cheating—of course—and that he didn’t tell me. And I was mad
that he had said I was his girlfriend,
then
took it
back almost immediately. But at the same time, I couldn’t help it. I understood
his dilemma. Finn was his best friend. Also, there was the annoying fact I had
the memory of his hot, passionate kisses lingering at the back of my brain
(well, not that far back).

And not only
that—(ugh!)—I had dreamed about him last night. Dreamed about our
mackin’. That tantalizing, hot passion still clung to the sleepy cobwebs in my
brain, making it so when I thought about him all I could do was dreamily sigh.
And pant.

“Here’s the thing,”
Summer
said hastily. “Riley just texted me back … and some
things went down last night.” She grimaced. “Some really bad things.”

My stomach tightened as she
emphasized, “Really, really bad things.”

CHAPTER 6

Okay,
breathe
.

Turns out last night when Finn
couldn’t get a hold of me, he went to Riley’s. They got in a huge fight.

When Finn found out that Riley and
I had kissed, he went crazy and took a swing at Riley. They got into a huge,
massive brawl. Apparently, as they were duking it out, they were both yelling
about how much they “love” me.

Summer gave me a guilty/excited
smile when she saw me blanch at that. I mean
,
I was
practically hyperventilating from the tragic, horrible story. But
Summer
is a romantic, so she wanted me to see the up-side to
the fight. I guess.

“Zoey, two hot guys were fighting
over you—clamoring about how much they love you.” She nudged me
playfully. “Girls live for stuff like that—
dream
about it.”

She raised her eyebrows. “The
fight’s
on the web.” She gave me a devilish smile. “Wanna to
see?”

I clutched my churning stomach and
groaned, “The web
??!!
No!!! Really
?!
”

A chill ran down my spine just
thinking about it—the two best friends in the entire world in a
fistfight.
Because of me.
And the whole, entire world
could witness it.

Groan, groan,
groan
!

Summer gave me a sympathetic smile,
but she also gave a little laugh. “Oh, yeah, Zoey.” She raised her eyebrows
matter-of-factly. “It’s all over the web—like everywhere.”

She laughed again. “They were
making such a scene—I mean, a
fist
fight!
In the Heights.
Over a girl.
Of course they drew a huge crowd, and of course it was recorded on everyone’s
cell phones and posted everywhere. Nina Martin sent it to the whole
school—you probably have a copy of it on your phone—if you’d turn
the stupid thing
on
.”

I wiped away a tear (they just kept
sneaking out every now and then).

“I didn’t want to hear from Finn,”
I explained, though of course I didn’t need to. Summer got it. She was a
beautiful cheerleader. She’d broken up with tons of guys.

Summer did a little shudder. “I get
why you don’t want to see Finn right now. In the video he’s a complete psycho
basket-case.”

She clicked on her phone. “I’m only
going to show you a tiny part of their fight—okay?
Because
it gets really violent and ugly.
And scary.
But
this part—aww!” She patted her heart. “This part will make you
melt—if you can ignore all the punching and kicking, I mean.”

She handed me her cell phone and
hit play.

As they were throwing punches, Finn
accused Riley of “coming between” us. And Riley accused Finn of not deserving
me. As he had Finn in a headlock he growled, “A free pass, man? Who does that?
Someone that has no idea what he’s got. But I
do
, Finn. I love Zoey. Man, I always have.”

Hearing his earnest, heart-warming
words, my stomach suddenly felt like it was full of butterflies. But at the
same time, it was full of grinding, churning rocks as well. Because seeing
that—those two fight—best friends—over me. It killed. I
swear, everything inside me died. There was no way I could live with that kind
of guilt. No way.

Summer quickly shut off the
recording. “It—uh, goes downhill really quick from there. But not about
you
, Zoey—you’re their
‘Angel’
all the way through it.”

She cringed.
“Just, you know, those two used-to-be-best friends clobbering each
other—it’s sad.”

No kidding. I wrapped my arms
around my stomach feeling sick.

Summer stretched out on the cot,
then
did another little grimace like she just thought of
something even more unpleasant than that fight. “You should probably let me
check through your phone messages before you look at your texts. There’s
probably some you just don’t want to see—ever. Like from Ava. I hear
she’s on a rampage ever since she viewed Riley and Finn’s fight. I mean, face
it, you know the girl would throw a fit knowing two boys were fighting over a
girl that wasn’t her—any boys. But this is
Riley
. Fighting over
you
.”

Summer bit her lip before she went
on, like giving me a chance to digest Ava is a vengeful witch, or maybe just
weighing her next words carefully. Not really sure cause I couldn’t really
concentrate on what she was telling me. Finn and Riley’s fight haunted my
brain. It was all I could see—that total nightmare fight. It would never
leave my brain. Ever.

Summer went on hesitantly, “Ava’s
saying stuff like you “lured” Riley away from her and had your “hooks” in him
since middle school.” Summer gave a little ironic laugh. “Which I guess you
did—whether you knew it or not. Apparently you’d had Riley
hook-line-and-sinker the moment he laid eyes on you.”

When I gave her a quizzical tilt of
my head, she gave a dramatic shrug—with a huge smile. “That’s totally
what it sounded like from his confession to Finn—while they were duking
it out, I mean. I didn’t show you that part—but it was
awwwwe
some.”

She totally emphasized the “awww”
in awesome—smiling huge about it. Like the memory made her giddy and
excited. (Did I mention
Summer
is a total romantic?)

I put the pillow back over my face,
so
Summer
couldn’t see the tiny smile that I couldn’t
hide. I mean, of course the whole thing was morbidly horrible. Tragic.
Of course.
It had my stomach aching and twisting in knots.
But her remarks about Riley—and what he said to Finn—that he
“loved” me—well, I couldn’t help it. It made me happy. Ecstatic even.
Because I felt the same way about him.
I just … did. I
couldn’t help it. Even through this horrible mess with Finn, I still loved
Riley.

I could hear the laughter in
Summer
’s voice, “Okay, Zoey,” she said. “I know you’re
smiling under there. And I don’t blame you—having the
school’s
most awesome, sought-after hottie say he loves you and confess he’s secretly
felt that way forever. But unfortunately, there’s more to the story. A
LOT
more.”

I threw the pillow off my face and
sat up with a jolt, the smile completely wiped off my mouth. I could tell
Summer
was warning me. Suddenly, my insides were quaking.

She gave me a sympathetic look.
“I’m not going to tell you the rest right now. Don’t check your phone. I mean
it, Zoey—resist. Go take a shower—enjoy a moment of happiness.
Riley loves you. Just let that sink in and be happy for a minute, okay?”

I swallowed. “Because you’re going
to tell me something awful?”

She nodded.

CHAPTER 7

No matter how much I pleaded,
Summer
wouldn’t tell me her awful news until after I
showered. Then she sat me down at the kitchen table with a spoon and a full
carton of ice cream.

She plopped down beside me, a spoon
of her own in hand, taking a scoop of Triple-Chocolate-Fudge before she cleared
her throat, hesitant-style, like she didn’t really want to have to go on with
the story, but knew I wasn’t going to breathe until she finally did.