Fallen Crest Forever

“Maybe I can ask for a quickie?” I said. I pressed back against him, my ache deepening.

He breathed out, “I thought you’d never ask.”

He grabbed my ass and hoisted me up. My legs went around his waist, and he carried me back through the party to our bedroom. We remained there for the rest of the night.

The house was empty when I woke around four in the morning. That had been my normal time to get up for a run, and my body hadn’t adjusted to cross-country season yet. I didn’t want to wake Mason, so I slipped out into the hallway to use the bathroom there. Hearing talking from the kitchen when I finished, I grabbed a robe from under the counter and tiptoed the rest of the way. It wasn’t that I was hoping to be sneaky, I was just tired.

“Are you sure?” I heard Taylor ask as I came around the doorway.

Logan leaned against the counter in sweats. His arms were crossed over his chest, and Taylor rested against his side.

“Do they know what happened?” she said into the phone.

I mouthed to Logan, “Who is that?”

He mouthed back, “Her dad.”

I sat down on a chair that was already pulled out from the table and slid my hands under my legs to keep them warm. Then I waited.

Taylor nodded as she listened. After a few minutes, she sighed into the phone. “Okay. Thanks for letting me know. Yeah. I love you, Dad.”

She hung up and didn’t say anything at first. Her shoulders slumped forward as she continued to hold the phone in her hand.

She sighed again. “That was my dad.”

Logan frowned.

I frowned. My heart beat faster, and I wet my lips. This wasn’t going to be good.

She still didn’t look at either of us. “He wanted me to know there had been a car accident. Someone from campus called him.”

I expected her to say her friend Jason’s name, or one of her other friends. Maybe even one of her relatives.

Then she looked at me. “Raelynn’s in the hospital. A drunk driver hit her car.”

Faith wasn’t at Monday’s practice.

Courtney told me the girls from the team had gone to visit Raelynn on Saturday. Taylor and I hadn’t been invited, but I didn’t know what we would’ve done if we had been. Taylor still had PTSD every time she visited hospitals, since she saw her mom gunned down in one. I completely understood that, but I still felt I needed to show up. So instead of Taylor, Logan went with me on Monday afternoon. Mason was at football. I wouldn’t see him till that evening anyways.

“Is this wrong?” Logan was almost bouncing next to me as we walked down the hallway. Our shoes scraped against the floor, and the stench of bleach and chemicals was thick in the air. “I’m a little excited to see if she’s really hurt or if she’s just faking. My bet’s on faking. This whole thing is a scam. They want to pin it on you somehow.”

I stopped and stared at him. “Are you joking? Please tell me you’re joking. You think this is a huge ploy?”

He frowned. “Uh, yeah. That bitch is crazy. I wouldn’t put it past her to ask her friend to sit in her car, then pay a drunk homeless guy to ram a truck into her. I bet she didn’t tell the homeless guy her friend was in there either.”

“That’s horrible.”

“Have we not met before?” He held out his hand, much like he had when we were going to the career counselor. “I’m Logan. I’m a jaded son of a bitch. I can’t technically call my mom a bitch, but I know Helen is one.” He wiggled his fingers. “And you are?”

I knocked his hand aside. “This isn’t funny, and stop introducing yourself to me. That joke’s getting old.”

He twisted around, looking up and down the hallway. “Who’s laughing? Not me.” He stared down at me, long and hard. “People have done worse shit to us. Fuck. If she did orchestrate this, at least it wasn’t your car. Remember Nate?”

Budd Broudou had once cut Nate’s brake lines, thinking they were Mason’s. Nate pulled out of the school parking lot and was T-boned by an oncoming truck. His recovery took weeks.

I didn’t know if Faith or Raelynn had orchestrated this, but I didn’t want to walk into Raelynn’s hospital room with that suspicion in mind. Too late, though. Logan said it, and now it was in my head. I pushed it to the back. I had a feeling she wasn’t going to be ecstatic to see me anyway, but I still wanted her to know I felt badly. I was just being a decent human being.

“You’ve got to be kidding?”

The contorted, half-gasped statement came from behind us. We turned to see Faith in the middle of the hallway. She had a Styrofoam cup in her hand, and the blood drained from her face. She had bags under her eyes and looked like she hadn’t slept in days.

“Get out.” A mangled growl erupted from the back of her throat. Her eyes blazed, and she moved toward us. “Out! Now!”

I frowned. “Why are you reacting like this?”

She took another step toward us. The liquid in her cup spilled out over her hand, but she didn’t seem to notice. She could only glare at me.

“Because for all I know, you paid someone to hit her. Did you have someone follow us home and then get her as she pulled out of my driveway? Was that how it went down?”

This was ridiculous. I held my hands up, shaking my head. “Has it occurred to you that maybe someone hit her by accident? That it really was a horrible, horrible accident?”

“All I know is you joined the team and ever since then, my life has genuinely sucked.”

Logan snorted. “That sounds more like a case of bad karma than Sam’s agenda. I’m sure she saw you on the team one day, and thought to herself, ‘Hmmm. That girl looks evil. I should join the team after a chance meeting with my track coach where he insists I join, and yes, by golly, I’ll take that girl down.’” He rolled his eyes. “Hell yes. Samantha Strattan, my stepsister mastermind extraordinaire. That’s her, all right.”

Faith sucked in her breath. “You don’t have to make fun of me. The damage is done. My best friend is in the hospital, and the doctors say she may never run again.”

“Bullshit.”

“Excuse me?!” She glowered at Logan, perhaps wishing he’d never run again.

“Yeah.” Logan’s head inclined toward her. “I call bullshit. I’ve been in enough situations to know the chances of having an epic verbal smackdown at a party with someone and hours later, one of the people gets hit and is ‘never going to run again’ is highly unlikely. It seems to me like you’re the one with the agenda. I’m calling your bluff.”

She gritted her teeth and spoke through them. “What are you saying?”

“Call the cops. Tell them you think Sam was behind it. That is what you’re implying, right?”

Her neck grew red. The color crept up to her cheeks. “Are you—”

“I’m not joking.” His tone was dead serious. His eyes were calm. “Make the claim. Make it official. Don’t think you can play in our league just by saying you’re in our league. Actually do it, then sit back and see how we handle you.”

“Is that a threat?” It came out as a whisper.

“Not a threat. A fact. Do it.”

“You’re insane.”

I was tired of this. She was going to sputter and hiss like a broken record. Logan was going to continue to call her bluff. I had come to do one thing, and I turned around to do it.

“Where are you going?” Logan called after me.

“I’m going to see how Raelynn is,” I threw over my shoulder.

I hoped Logan would keep Faith distracted. I tensed, waiting for her to hurry after me with more threats, but I didn’t hear any yells or footsteps. I got to Raelynn’s door and looked back. Logan seemed to be still talking to Faith. I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to leave them alone, but he knew what he was doing. He wouldn’t give her any ammunition.

I knocked softly and looked into the room.

Raelynn was curled up in the bed, turned away from me. A sheet completely covered her shoulder, but I saw some bruising on her neck. I moved around the bed, seeing the steady rise and fall of deep breathing, and guessed she was sleeping. When I got to the other side and could see her face, I almost gasped out loud. My mouth fell open, but I covered it and stifled the sound. ns class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">