The Hardest Fall

Nothing.

It was either walk farther into the apartment and place the keys on the kitchen counter or just drop them and leave. I chose to go with the latter and simply let them drop on the hardwood floor. Not even the sharp sound the metal objects made caused him to flinch or look up.

I stepped outside without uttering a single word, and he did nothing to stop me. He was free at last, I supposed.

Still shell-shocked, I stood in front of the apartment door and tried to think. It was pretty late, but I could call an Uber and get to Jared’s place, or I could… It was stupid of me to hesitate—where else would I go?

After grabbing the handle of one of the suitcases, I was reaching for the other when Ms. Hilda opened her door. She was the last human being on earth I wanted to talk to. Well…let’s say she was second to last, right before Mark. I ignored her completely and started to move. At first she said nothing, but the silence didn’t last long. It never lasted when it came to her.

“Where are you going, Miss Clarke?”

“Ms. Hilda, this is not—”

“I heard everything.”

“Good for you. Have a nice life.”

I was just about to pass her to reach the stairs, but she stepped in front of me. Before I could dodge her, she got a surprisingly strong grip on my chin and started examining my cheek.

When I drew back, she harrumphed and let go of me.

“You could’ve told me you weren’t his mistress, you know.”

I pressed my lips together, and my grip on my bags tightened. “If you’ll get out of—”

“Oh, stop it. Get inside. I’m not gonna lose sleep because of you, wondering where you are.”

“Please!” I raised my voice. “Get out of my way.”

Her eyes narrowed at me and she stood straighter. “Do you want him to come out here? I didn’t think so. It’s midnight. Where will you go?”

“Ms. Hilda—”

“Oh for heaven’s sake, just call me Hilda.”

Exasperated and pretty much over my limit for how much crap I could take in one night, I tried again. “I just moved out, as you can see. I’m going to my friend’s place. If you could just—”

“You’re not doing anything of the sort.” Despite my protests, she yanked one of my suitcases from my hand and walked straight into her apartment.

“Ms. Hilda! What are you doing?”

She came back and took the other one. “I know I’m not the easiest neighbor to have, but if you think I’m going to let you leave looking like that, you’re wrong, Miss Clarke. Now you either keep standing there and wait for that monster to walk out and see you or you get inside and regroup.”

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I took a deep breath and exhaled. When I looked up, I saw her standing in the doorway, waiting for me.

“Just for tonight.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m certainly not offering for you to be my roommate.”

Grudgingly, I walked inside. The only reason I was accepting her offer was because I didn’t want to burden Kayla with all my drama by going back there in the middle of the night.

Ms. Hilda closed the door behind me.

“I’ll make some tea and get you some frozen peas to calm down that cheek of yours. Then we can sit down and have a nice talk and you can tell me what you’re planning to do now that you’re homeless. I couldn’t hear everything so you’re gonna have to go over some of it.” The look on my face must’ve said it all because she waved me off and headed toward her kitchen. “Oh, don’t worry, I heard most of it, I just have some questions. While I’m in the kitchen, why don’t you stop standing next to the door like a harassed broomstick and check the drapes for me?”

The next day couldn’t come soon enough, because I’d already figured out what I was going to do.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Zoe

Finals passed in a blur. I don’t think I’d be exaggerating if I told you it was the worst time of my life. Ms. Hilda was her usual overbearing, nosy self, but she’d opened up her home to me and I was grateful for that. Me staying at her apartment for two more days might have had something to do with lying in wait for Dylan so I could catch him when he came back to pick up his things, but I never got the chance because he never showed. After the two days passed, I moved my stuff to Jared’s. When Kayla had moved into a hotel with her parents, an air mattress had opened up and it had my name on it. It was temporary, just until I could find a new apartment, and maybe some roommates.

Kayla decided to stay for finals, and her parents never let her out of their sight. It was hard saying goodbye to her, and I’m not ashamed to admit that the three of us had a lengthy cry-fest, but knowing we’d see each other as soon as possible helped lessen the pain. I chose not to tell Kayla what had gone down with Mark, but Jared knew all about it. I was a complete mess, and he was my rock through it all. What hurt the most, though, was knowing it was all my own damn fault. If I had told Dylan everything from the beginning, or at least the moment I knew I wanted him to be mine, I could’ve avoided all the heartache I had gone through.

But, they always say nothing in life worth having comes easy, and Dylan Reed sure wasn’t going to make it easy on me.

It was the last day of finals and I was a bundle of nerves as I stood next to the black Challenger. The last time I’d checked the time on my phone, it’d said eight PM, and I refused to check it again since I knew only a minute or two had passed since then.

I was pacing the length of the car when I saw him coming. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, my heart going a mile a minute, and I was only seconds away from puking my guts out—not the first impression I wanted to make at all. I cleared my throat in preparation and cracked my knuckles.

This is it.

It was the moment I’d waited years for, and all I seemed to be capable of feeling was horror.

Christopher Wilson slowed his walk when he spotted me and stopped next to his car to give me a quick once-over. I couldn’t see his eyes because of the hat he had on, but I was pretty sure he wasn’t happy about finding me waiting around for him.

After giving me a long look, he just shook his head, opened his car door, and chucked his backpack inside. I stood frozen, waiting for him to say the first words so I’d know how to proceed, but he didn’t do that. He got into his car and was about to slam the door closed when I unfroze and grabbed it.

“I need to talk to you,” I said, my heart still thumping wildly in my chest.

He looked up at me, and then I saw his eyes—my mother’s eyes. “I don’t think I’m the one you should be talking to.” He pointedly looked at my hand, which was holding his door open. “Now, if you’d step away, I’d like to leave.”

His car was parked just outside campus. I’d done a little stalking and it had taken me a few days to find out where he usually parked it; there was no way I was going through all that again. This was the day I was going to tell him everything. No more delays.

I had no idea what Dylan had told Chris, but it seemed like he knew enough to be upset.

“No,” I said, finding my voice.

“Excuse me?”

“This has nothing to do with Dylan. I want to talk to you.”

“I swear to God, if this is you coming on to me right—”

“No,” I burst out. “God, no. Just ten minutes—I need to talk to you for ten minutes, that’s it. I promise I won’t bother you again, but I’m not gonna go away until you talk to me.”