Love and Skate (31 page)

My soul screamed before the sound tore through the soft tissues of my esophagus and exploded from my lips. Time screeched to a halt. Everything froze, except the loud cracking of my heart, and the bike doing a nosedive over the lip and crashing.

“No!”

“Fallon!” Only when my mother’s blunt nails peeled the skin on my arm did I realize she’d stopped me from throwing myself out the door.

I kept screaming. My insanity raged against reality. The world spun and dipped,
andflashed
crimson. Everything roared, swallowing the animal-like howls tearing through my lungs. I felt deranged, completely unhinged, like someone losing something so utterly precious to them that the very idea of living was unbearable. It was inconceivable. I wanted to die. I wanted to throw myself out of the car and dive into the ditch and… and what? What was wrong with me?

“Fallon? Fallon, calm down.” Although soothing, my mom’s tone did nothing to calm the hysteria eating me up inside.

“Don’t leave him!” I pleaded, only just then realizing I was sobbing like my heart would cease beating if I stopped. “Don’t leave him! Please!”

“We have to go,” she said, still holding on to me as she used her free hand to maneuver the Impala back onto the road.

“No!” I shrieked, renewing my thrashing, throwing myself against the door. “Don’t leave him!”

But she didn’t stop and I was taken away; away from the other half of me.