All We Know Is Falling: Fall With Me: Volume One (40 page)

I rolled my eyes, opened the car door, and got in. He followed suit and drove us home, almost pouting the whole way. We lightly bickered all the way to my room, ignoring my laughing sister on the couch. Hale sat on my bed while I ordered us something to eat. Once I was done I switched on the show we decided to watch.

The food got to us quickly and we ate in bed. It was not a good decision to eat during the show that was on. It had a tendency to get a little…gross with the violence and the sex stuff.

“I don’t understand why he had to eat his own eyes after they popped out of his head so he could turn into a werewolf,” Hale commented.

I shrugged and took a bite of my General Chicken. “Maybe the writers just wanted to see if they could get away with it.” Writers can be really sick sometimes.

“Well they did, and it’s quite upsetting. Werewolves aren’t real, right?”

“Not in this dimension.”

“What?”

“Nothing,” I shoved food in my mouth and stopped talking. 

We were switching our food containers with each other between bites and trying not to rethink living as the show went on. More than a few times it made us wonder why we were watching. Then something amazing would happen and we’d remember.

I took a sip of soda and said, “I’m not sure if I love this show or if I’m disgusted with it.”

He took the glass and drank from it before setting it on the nightstand. “I think both are expectable and the only option.”

The show went on for hours and it was two a.m. before we knew it. We still had an episode to watch before it was over and we were both a little messed up from it. Hale had changed into his jammies during our break from the last episode we watched. He started keeping a few items of clothing here as of late, considering how often he stays over. I even bought him a toothbrush. It was like him leaving last night didn’t even happen. We were right where we were supposed to be.

He got into bed and snuggled up under the covers with me. Then I started the last episode. We watched it and I fought off sleepiness and nausea the whole time. Once it was over I was relieved and sad. I shut the TV off and Hale did the same with the lamp before he gave me a chaste kiss goodnight.

When we laid down and he said, “Did you set our alarm.”

“I did. Don’t forget that you’ve got to fill up on gas in the morning. And your check engine light came on.”

“Damn it. We can take the truck in this weekend after we have lunch with your mother.”

“Sounds good,” I yawned and pulled his arm around me as he was already moving it.

We were lying like spoons for about three minutes before Hale said out of nowhere, “Fuck.” I felt as he pressed his forehead against my shoulder blade.

“What’s wrong?” I said through my sleepiness. I turned my head back just enough to see him. His eyes were wide in the darkness and he looked like dawn just broke on his face.

Two words were all it took to change everything and nothing. Just two words and the realization behind them. A million things more were said when he uttered the words, “We’re dating.”

I held back my happy dance. Half because we were in bed and half because Hale was still coming to terms with the realization. He hadn’t said a word since he figured it out.

He was still lying on his side but I’d turned around so we could face each other.

“Are you okay?” I asked, keeping the amusement out of my voice.

He breathed out through his nose. “I’m not sure. It would seem that I’ve been wrong about a lot of things. But I’m so sure that I wouldn’t be good for you.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “I don’t want to destroy everything I love about you.”

“That won’t happen. I don’t care how long it takes, I’m going to make you realize that you’re a good person.”

“Only when I’m with you,” he kissed me tentatively. My hand went to the back of his head and I pulled him closer, trying to let him know that this was okay. When he relaxed, he separated my legs with one of his so he could lay his body on top of mine. I felt him smile against my mouth before his head dropped down to my neck.

I almost grumbled when he moved back. But his eyes went to the clock on my nightstand and he sighed. “We have a total of four and a half hours to sleep. I think we’ll need to resume this later.”

“Or,” I pulled at the drawstrings on his pants, “We can skip school tomorrow. The house would be empty…” I moved my body up to meet his and tried getting his attention off of the clock.

“Sorry, Lamb but I don’t think we should do that.”

“Why?” I tried not to sound whiny.

“Your eagerness is incredibly flattering and frankly, it’s making it quite difficult to say no to this, but I won’t budge. We’re not doing that until I’m sure you’re ready. It needs to be the right time.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m ready.”

He smiled and shook his head. “Not yet. There’s a difference in what your feeling and what someone should feel when doing that. I’ve never done it right. Please. This is going to be my last first time, can we do it right?”

I hadn’t considered that he wanted to wait because he wasn’t ready. I couldn’t push him if that was the case. It wasn’t right.

“Okay,” I said before I laid my lips flush against his.



“We’re already gonna be late. We might as well get breakfast,” I said as I was pulling my boots on. Not only did both of us sleep through my alarm, but once we did wake up we spent about a half hour saying good morning in the only way that I would ever accept from him again.

“I’m starting to think you don’t care about school,” he grinned at me from his spot at the wall.

“I’m immortal, school means nothing. In five hundred years I won’t need any of this stuff. My mom didn’t go to school and look how well she turned out,” I stood and grabbed my backpack.

“Five hundred,” he said to himself. “I’ll be long dead,” the words came out like he just now understood that.

“I don’t wanna talk about that, Hale,” I said, fighting though the sick feeling that just appeared in my stomach.

He rubbed his jaw. “Just…just an interesting thought.”

“It’s not. It’s horrible and I don’t know what the Hell I’m going to do with myself. My body will live for eternity but my soul had a ticking clock on it.”

He moved forward and put his hands on my arms. “We have a lot of time together.”

My eyes met his. “One lifetime in an endless one. A blink and this is all over.” I felt selfish for complaining about my lack of mortality. But it never felt like a blessing. If there were a way for me to become mortal, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

He pulled me into his chest. “We’ll live a long life together and when it’s over…you’ll be okay.”

“Why do you think that?”

I couldn’t see him since his hand was pressing my head to his chest. I wasn’t sure I wanted to see his face while he lied to me.

“Because you’re strong and you’re stubborn. You wouldn’t let anything destroy you, remember? You promised me that I wouldn’t ruin you. Don’t let me be right on this.”

I tilted my head up at him and he bent down to kiss me. It was the only thing that could give me a few moments of peace, so I let it go on for a while.

Then I figured, we were already late. So I pulled him from the wall and over to my bed. I forced him onto me but he took the reins from there. He hooked one of my legs around his waist and made use of the closeness we had. He started unbuttoning the front of my dress while his mouth touched every inch of skin he was revealing.

He eventually had the top of my dress pulled down to my hips—the same place the skirt was pushed up to. His fingernails bit into my hip under the fabric but I couldn’t notice the pain. It made me move my legs around him, urging him to move closer than actually possible.

He moved his mouth from my skin and sighed. “Don’t hate me, please.”

My head moved back and hit my pillow. “You need to stop?”

He answered by removing my legs from him and standing from the bed. I sat up and fixed my dress. “You totally owe me breakfast now.”

He grabbed my hands and stood me up. “I agree.”

After we filled up the truck with gas Hale took me to a diner for breakfast. We split a Grand Slam and talked about what we wanted to do this weekend. He voted for more Netflix while I picked a more graphic option. He said no.

“I was only kidding,” I said.

He eyed me like he knew I was lying. Because he probably did. “Sure you were.”

“It’s not my fault that you make me want to do ‘adult things’ all the time. I blame you.”

“Not surprising.”

My mind kept going back to the day Hale and/or I was almost shot and the conversation that followed. Every quiet and happy moment was tainted with worry. But I couldn’t be sure that the person with the gun was even after us. But all signs pointed to it. Hale thought it was just us being in the wrong place at the wrong time but I didn’t buy it.

“Lots of people in California own guns,” he said. “It’s not unbelievable that someone was out looking for trouble and we got caught in the middle.”

“It doesn’t change the fact that someone is after us.”

He looked deep in thought. “I don’t know what to do about this and I don’t know how we’re supposed to find out who it is. I don’t like being helpless,” he stared down at his hands on the table. “I’m not very good at saving myself, let alone the people in my life.”

“You know that’s not true. And it’s not your job to protect me. I’m the one who’s the target and I’m the one more qualified to take this bastard on. I’m much harder to kill than you.”

He looked at me with sad eyes. “But it’s not impossible.”

“I’ll be fine. I promise. I’ll never leave you. I’ll be by your side for your entire life.” Until the day we both end.



By the time we made it to school it was halfway through History. We decided that it would be more fun to make out in the car than to walk in late. I rather enjoy Hale no longer holding back from me. Mostly…

We heard the bell ring from the truck and we had to break apart and go. Since we’d just eaten, we decided that we should just sit there and wait for our next class. I suggested we go home but he didn’t want to. His attendance record was poor at best.

Once lunch started I expected to see Dottie round the corner like she always did but again, there was no sign of her.

“Why has Dottie been so scarce this week?” I asked even though Hale wouldn’t know.

He shrugged. “Ethan mentioned that she hadn’t been getting back to his calls. So he stopped calling. Too bad, he liked her.”

“Yeah…I bet he did.”

Hale’s eyebrow went up. “He wasn’t sleeping with her, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“I wasn’t,” I said defensively. “Of course she wouldn’t sleep with him when she wants you so damn bad.”

He laughed. “I do like seeing you jealous but I can promise you that she doesn’t want me. She was just a friend to me.”

“Yeah right. Then why is she so touchy feely with you?”

“I don’t know. She only did it when you were around.”

Something clicked in my head and I knew that I’d been right all along. She hated me. She should, I got her mom killed. Mine survived and hers was gone forever.

“That girl has it out for me,” I decided. “She just wants me to suffer.”

“You have so little faith in humanity.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “What’s there to have faith in? I can literally feel the evil in people. I know first hand how much bad there is in the world.”

He smiled softly. “It’s not all bad. You can’t hate the world because of a few bad things. If you let yourself, then you become who I used to be. You don’t want that.”

“Sorry but I’ve seen the inner workings of man. It’s ugly and vile and terrifying.”

He squeezed my hand and said, quietly, “Not all of it.” He kissed my cheek and let his lips linger on my skin.

“I know,” I smiled before I went into kiss him. I was half an inch from him when I spotted Dottie fast walking around the corner. I backed away and Hale acted like I robbed him of something.

“Bored already?” he asked.

“Shh! Look,” I turned his head towards Dottie. “She’s up to something.”

“Lamb,” he said, sounding worn out. “I know she makes you uncomfortable but the girl doesn’t have a cruel bone in her body. She’s probably working on a project or something.”