All We Know Is Falling: Fall With Me: Volume One (9 page)

I arched an eyebrow. “I’m not much of a runner.”

“Aren’t you? You’ve been running from me since the second I sat beside you.”

He had a point. But I wouldn’t be detoured so easily. “I’ll find out ya know.”

The expression in his eyes broke my heart. “I know.”

We remained locked in a stare until the bell rang and the students started coming into the room. They all took their seats and the conversation was over.

I had dueling thoughts in my mind. One, was to just leave it alone. Not pursue the information that I wanted. Hale was convinced that it would send me running. I wasn’t. Mostly. There was some part of me that was scared to know what it was.

The other side, the slightly stronger side, said that I was right. That I wouldn’t be scared simply because I wasn’t the type to be scared. And I really wanted to know what he was hiding. Not because I cared what he did. But because I cared about what was upsetting him.

And that won.

“Miss Flynn?” I heard as Mrs. Lore approached me.

“Yeah?”

She looked worried as she knit her fingers together. “Well…I seemed to have lost your painting from last week. That one you did of the desert.”

“Hell.” I smiled. “It was Hell.”

“Yes,” her nose crinkled. “Hell…”

“How did you lose it?”

She broke eye contact. “A man came by the other day…he said he was from the board. He told me that I needed to get him copies of all of your grades. I left to get the print outs and when I came back, he and the painting were gone.”

Weird. “Just mine?”

“Just yours.”

Hale leaned over. “You let a man walk away with that masterpiece? How could you?” I thought he was making fun of me, but he sounded sincere enough.

“He…was…” she smiled. “Distracting…”

She was a married woman, so I wasn’t sure why she was so easily swayed. He couldn’t have been that charming.

“Super,” I sighed. “Whatever. Hope whoever decided they needed to steal that thing enjoys it.”

She was still smiling. “Maybe he’ll come back for more. You should get to work now,” she pointed to a paper in front of me and walked away.

All I could do was roll my eyes and start working. I stayed quiet for the rest of the class. I was going to let Hale talk to me when he was ready to. Cuz there was no fucking way this was over. He’d broken through my wall enough to become real to me. And despite my hang ups, I cared enough to stick around until he was okay again. Then I could leave him to live his life.

I went to Gym and changed into my prison uniform. Then I shoved my backpack in my gym locker. The little group of bitches were all giggling in a corner, so I got a break from the mockery for a day.

I walked into the gym and the first thing I did was look for my broken friend. But he was nowhere to be seen.

“Are you kidding me?” I huffed to myself.

He’d ditched class. Of course. He must be done with my pestering. Cuz he can dish it out but he can’t take it.

I firmly set my hands on my hips and went to pout on the benches.

I had half a mind to track him. I bet I could. I knew him, so I could pick up on his aura distinctively if I really focused. His specific shade was clear in my mind. The light grey with blue and black trying to swallow him. But it would take so much out of me. Just having my powers on for a few minutes could wipe me out. Actually tracking? That might lay me out for a while. And what was the use of finding him if I was too tired to stay awake?

“Jay?” I said when I saw my friend walk in. She looked up from her clipboard and her eyes were troubled. She blinked and started walking over to me. She sat down and crossed her legs. “What’s wrong?”

She shook her head and sighed. “Sometimes I hate this job. Kids can be such assholes.”

My eyes narrowed. “Did something happen to you? Tell me who did it and I’ll drag them to Hell for a minute or two. Then drop them in the woods.” My anger flared like a light switch getting turned on. Hurt someone I love and I’ll light that fucker up.

“No,” she looked meaningfully at me. “Not me. But I’ve been hearing shit all day.”

“About?”

She hesitated. “Hale.”

My eyes widened. She knew. She knew what I needed to know and Hale wouldn’t tell me himself. Because he didn’t want to watch me run. But I had no intention of running.

“I don’t even have the power to go look at the files they stole,” she added.

“What are you talking about?”

She glared at the little group of girls that walked in through the heavy doors. “Well, all day long I’ve been hearing some…things, about Hale. It would seem that someone broke into the counselors office and stole his files.”

My heart dropped. “What did they say?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t have access to those files. All I know is what he told me when he got his uniform. And that wasn’t much. But according to the kids, the files had his police records.”

“Police records…”

She nodded. “They said he’s been arrested a couple times since he’s turned eighteen. And before that…there were some incidences.”

“Like?”

“I’ve only heard the rumors. I have no clue what’s true or not. What I heard this morning is nothing like what I heard just before walking in here. And now,” she looked around, “that poor boy is gone. I can only imagine the Hell he’s going through.”

It was nothing compared to the Hell that those dicks who stole his file would go though. “Who started this?”

“I’m not sure. I heard so many people talking about it. There’s no telling who started it.”

I thought for a minute. “But they stole a file?”

“Yeah.”

“How could someone not only break into the counselors office, but also break into her locked cabinet. They had to have access.”

Jay looked down at her clipboard. “Maybe they got a key.”

“How?”

“If they know the counselor then maybe they did it when they were talking. If she left for a minute or two, then they could do it.”

“But they’d still need a key. That’s the hard part. They had to have stolen it from her.”

I was going to figure this out. I didn’t care what I had to do. Despite the fact that I was technically evil, that didn’t mean I’d just sit back and watch evil in the world hurt the people I care about. And, Lucifer help me, but I cared about Hale. This was wrong and I needed to fix it.

I closed my eyes and started listening to the chattering of the students all around me. I needed to try and pick up on something. I needed a hint so that I could start fixing this.

Most of what I heard was useless. Talking about what they did over the weekend. Where they were going after school. What they wanted for dinner.

“…But he’s so hot,” I heard a girl say. Hot? Sounded like Hale, so I focused on her voice. “I can’t believe he’d do stuff like that. I was gonna ask him out. Thank God I didn’t.”

“Shut up,” I heard from a familiar voice. Kenna. “He’s a dick. That’s obvious.”

“I don’t need a guy to be nice to me to get what I want from him,” the girl said. “And you’re just pissed because of what he said to you.”

“What’d he say?” another girl, Melanie said.

Kenna sighed. “I was being nice enough to point out to him that he was wasting his time with Freakshow. And he flipped his psycho switch and started screaming at me. He called me a bunch of names and said I was ugly.”

That lying bitch. I should set her on fire for telling people that Hale was doing anything but defending me.

“Wow,” Melanie said. “He does sound mean.”

“Yeah,” Kenna said like the girl was stupid for ever thinking anything else. “He’s a psycho. I already said that.”

“But,” Melanie said, “I don’t even know what he did. I keep hearing shit but I don’t know what the real thing is.”

I opened my eyes and stared at Kenna and her Cheshire Cat grin. “Why don’t I tell you?”

“Go ahead.”

Her smile grew and I wanted to throttle her.

“He killed someone.”

No. I didn’t believe it. It was just a stupid rumor that Kenna was spreading to get back at Hale.

“Did you hear something?” Jay asked me.

I stopped listening to the girls and looked over at my friend. I told her what I heard and she didn’t look surprised.

“Is that what you heard too?” I asked.

She nodded. “That he killed someone. That he killed a bunch of people. That he robbed a store. That he beats people up for looking at him too long. That he was busted for drugs.”

I felt fury rise in my veins. “It sounds like an awful lot of bullshit to me.”

“Me too. But they got those files. Something they saw triggered this.”

“No. A pissed off bitch triggered this. And maybe they didn’t find anything in the file and so they just made all of this up. How do you even know they got the file? Did you see it?”

She shook her head. “Mrs. Deetz said it was missing when she went into her office this morning. The only one missing. The thing was left open.”

I breathed out. “Of course the thief is a dumbass. But that’s alright,” I stood up. “Because I’m going to show them just how big a mistake they made.”

Jay looked up at me with clear worry and certainty. “What are you going to do when you find them?”

“I’m going to do what’s in my nature.”

She swallowed hard. “Aurora, don’t let your temper make you do something that’ll get you in more trouble than you can get out of.”

“I’ll do whatever I need to do. They hurt someone I care about.”

She almost smiled. “Sweetie, I’m so glad that you care about someone. But I know you. I know what you do when someone fucks with someone that you care for. I don’t want you taking this too far.”

“Like as far as stealing a file and spreading rumors so that a new kid has a miserable last year of school?”

“You know what I mean. Don’t put anyone in the hospital. I love that you care, I really do. It means so much more than you can even fathom, but be careful.”

“I will be.”



The next day was spent trying to find out the real source of the rumor. I didn’t talk to anyone, but I listened to everyone. I heard even more, insane rumors. None of which I believed.

Hale didn’t show for lunch that day. I waited and waited but he hid again. And it made me angry that he was so upset that he didn’t feel like he could be here.

He didn’t even talk to me in class. He just sat there looking angry at the world. I wanted to make him feel better. I wanted to tell him I was going to fix it, but even I knew that was a lie. You couldn’t erase rumors. Once they were out there, they’d linger forever. There had been damage done that I could never fix for him. But that wouldn’t stop me from getting revenge for him.

By the time History rolled around the day after, I was going crazy. I didn’t want another day without him talking to me. I needed to make sure that he was at least functioning.

I tapped on his shoulder when class started. His posture had been hostile. Almost terrifyingly so. His jaw was clenched and he was staring straight down at the table.

The second I touched him, everything melted away. All of the anger in his body softened and he looked at me like I was the one that made it go away.

“Need something, Lamb?” He asked quietly.

Yes. I need you to be okay so that I can be okay and stop caring if you’re okay or not. “I just wanted to talk to you.”

He somehow softened more. “About?”

I shrugged. “I don’t care. Just something.”

“Like what you heard about me?” he asked with heartbreaking fear. His eyes wouldn’t stay on one thing. They darted around like they were looking for an exit.

I shook my head and he smiled. “We can talk about whatever you want.”

He looked off while he thought of a subject for us. “Why don’t we talk about our date?”

My eyebrows went up. “Date?”

He looked back to me. “Yes. You’re mildly insane, am I wrong?”

I eyed him. “Yes.”