Falling

CHAPTER FIVE

I step out of my car wearing washed up wide legged denim with a black crop top and my leather jacket as my boots clash satisfactorily on the gravel parking of my school. I grab my bag from the car’s backseat before I lock it up and lean against the curb, waiting for Chloe and Jared to arrive.

All I can think about is how I spent the last night in Luna’s arms and even though she told me that she will manage the situations at her place, I cannot help but worry. Her household does not seem so perfect anymore and her made up relationship with Nathaniel clearly wasn’t.

As if on cue with my thoughts, the blond headed varsity boy passes from in front of me as I eye him but something strange happens next; Nathaniel raises his eyes and meets my gaze, something he has never done before. He is looking at me as a predator stares at his pray before ripping it apart. Suddenly I feel stark naked in a sea full of sharks, but that’s the thing, Nathaniel was the shark.

The way he is still looking at me through his hooded eyes makes it seem like he knows something that I don’t and that makes uneasiness rise in my chest as my eyes follow him to see how long he would continue to stare.

However, I am unable to continue since I hear the monstrous whimper of Chloe’s rustic jeep as she parks in the spot beside mine before she and Jared jump out and join my side.

“Are you okay? You look like you saw a ghost,” Jared asks in his sweet timbre as Chloe looks at me questioningly, her amber eyes staring at me with concern whilst her ebony curls are sitting gracefully on top of her head in a neat yet coiled bun.

I shake my head, raising my fingers to lightly scratch my forehead before pushing my bangs aside, “I’m fine, just felt a little dizzy for a second.” The lie smoothly rolls off my tongue and I am amazed by how good I have gotten at it.

Three months ago, I would have been a stuttering mess when asked to lie and now it is a second nature to me. I guess all the sneaking around that I did with Luna over the summer did have its perks.

As we walk towards our building, I can sense the tension in the air as I roll my eyes and look at Chloe, “fine, ask whatever is on your mind,” I say, knowing that she is dying to find out more about my girlfriend.

An excited squeal escapes her lips as Jared fondly shakes his head at her but I can tell that he is just as curious. “So, where did you meet her?” Chloe shoots first as we walk in through the doors.

“Mocha Beans, during the summer break,” I tell her and her eyes widen comically.

“And you’ve kept her hidden from me since then?” She gasps placing a hand on her chest dramatically making me roll my eyes.

“I had to, she isn’t comfortable with being out yet and I have to respect that.”

“Nah, you’re right, we understand. Totally,” Jared says, suppressing whatever he originally planned to say as he leans by his locker while I am going through my own.

Chloe and Jared are having a mini conversation of their own when I suddenly feel a sharp gaze from the opposite side of the hall making me look up and I am met by the venomous glare of none other than Audrey.

Oh, God, not this again.

A groan almost escapes my lips before her lips turn into a malicious smile as her face morphs into the same look that was there on Nathaniel’s face a few minutes ago.

What the hell is happening? Why is everyone eyeing me like I’m their mortal enemy and they have finally found a way to bring me down?

I am shaken out of my reverie the moment Chloe shakes my hand as I look at her, obviously distracted. She has an impassive look on her face, “what, what happened?” I ask, clearing my throat, trying to sound more alert than I was.

Chloe looks at me blankly for a second before sighs, as if deciding to not say what was on her mind and right now, I am kind of grateful about that. I have plenty of unanswered questions in my head and I cannot add more mystery to them.

“Are you ever going to tell us her name?” She asks softly, lowering her voice, which I am thankful for. Jared too, is listening into our conversation intently.

I take a deep breath as I prepare to lie again but then I shake my head and decide against it. I have lied to my best friend enough and I should be grateful that she is still supporting my charades.

“Honestly, I don’t know when or if I will ever be able to tell you who she is.” I answer truthfully and I see the anticipating glint in their eyes fading. I know this isn’t fair to the people who have always stood by my side, supporting me in every decision I make, but this is what is needed to be done.

I cannot risk upsetting Luna and I just know that there is something about the way I feel for her that I would literally commit the most heinous crimes to keep her safe. For a second I am scared by my own thoughts, I have never been a person with violent tendencies but for Luna, I know I will do anything and that scares me. She has a leash on my soul that I have chosen to love.

Jared has an understanding smile on his face as he reaches out to squeeze my shoulder, “it’s okay, Lia, we’ll be here whenever you’re both comfortable to tell us.” He says softly and the warmth of his orbs makes me grin as I nod and give him a friendly hug.

Chloe is still looking at the floor between us as we watch her expectantly before she finally raises her head, “fine.” She breathes making me sigh in relief, “I understand that you cannot tell us right now but promise me that I’ll be the first to find out.” She warns me raising her index finger.

I give her a loopy grin as I raise my pinky finger in the space between us, “pinky swear?” I suggest and she chuckles interlocking her finger with mine.

Jared chuckles at the two of us and just as we are about to walk towards our respective classes, all three of our phones buzz in our pockets. We look at each other with furrowed brows, confused about the coincidence when suddenly all of the students in the hall stop in their actions when their phones begin to buzz and ring at the same time.

Okay, something is about to go terribly wrong –

I am deep in thought, my hand frozen with my phone still unopened when Chloe gasps at her screen before raising her eyes to look at me with a horrified glance. Jared too has a similar expression and soon, all heads begin to turn to me but none of them are looking at me with concern in the way that my best friends are, they have a variety of expressions on their faces, some are of envy, some are of disgust and most of them are of mockery.

“What the bloody hell is happening?” I whisper to myself as I swipe my finger on my screen to unlock it but Chloe shoves her phone in my face, showing me what everyone has been mumbling about.

I feel the floor slipping from beneath my feet as my body runs cold while my eyes are fixed on the image of a half-naked redhead sitting in my laps while our lips are joined together in a deep and passionate kiss in the middle of a wrecked room.

But more shocking than that was the source of that image.

It was my e-mail address.

Someone had used my e-mail address to send out an explicit image of Luna and I to the entire school and that explained the looks that I was getting.

“Homewrecker.”

“Pathetic.”

“Filthy whore.”

“Attention seeker.”

Those were some of the hushed whispers that I picked up on as I felt the stinging of a hot set of tears in my eyes as I looked up at Chloe and Jared.

“I d-didn’t…I w-wouldn’t…” my sentences collapse with each other, my words coming up short in my throat as it is becoming difficult for me to speak.

Chloe shakes her head, “we know you wouldn’t send out something like this, Lia. But this is Luna, I can’t believe that Luna is the girl you were with last night!” She scolds me and she is right to do so but she does not know Luna the way I do.

“You don’t know her Chloe, she…”

“Hey, Branson, how long have you been shacking up with Nate’s girlfriend?” I hear someone call out from behind me but my mind is too fuzzy to make out any of the voices or even register who said it. I hear Jared hurling some abuses at the person, protectively but I am too engrossed in my thoughts to think about any of that.

All I can think about is how Luna should not see these. I don’t know how she would react if her eyes fell on this but I know that whoever planned this out, must have included her into the equation.

At that exact moment, I hear the clanking of heels stalking up to me from behind before my body is being roughly jerked by my elbow as I turn around and am face to face with Luna. Her fierce eyes are glaring at me with hatred and what seems to be something between betrayal and anger and before I can even register her presence, her palm raises in the air and comes flat in contact with my cheek leaving a burning red pain on my skin.

I hear a few people howling in laughter and even the flashes of mobile phones as they take the whole scene down in a video but I am too numb to register any of that.

All my eyes can see is Luna. Her tear-filled eyes and her quivering lips as a pang of guilt shoots through my heart as I wonder how things came to this. Just yesterday she was opening up to me about her heart, her feelings and her pain and today, someone made it seem like I had betrayed her.

“Luna, listen…” A tear escaped my eyes as I tried to reach out to me but she stepped back once again. This time, it was with loathing rather than grief.

She raised her palm in the air to stop me from speaking, “I didn’t expect this from you.” She hissed. “Never show me your face again. Ever.” And that was the last thing I heard before she turned around, her hair slapping the air behind as she walked away from me in long and determined strides.

I saw one of her brothers standing at the entrance of our school as his eyes met mine and there was nothing but sheer hatred and disgust for me as Luna stepped out of the door and he walked away after her.

I don’t know how long I stood in my place but apparently the bell rung and that resulted in the corridor to empty out mostly. Chloe and Jared still stood beside me and when I turned around, I saw Nathaniel standing with Skylar and Audrey beside him, looking at me with victorious smirks.

“Aurelia?” Jared called out softly as Chloe reached down and took my hand in her own, “are you okay?” She asked me.

I wanted to scoff at that question. I wanted to scream at the world. I wanted to charge down the hall and punch that stupid grin off of Nathaniel’s face but I couldn’t do any of those things. All I needed at the moment was to find Luna and clear up the misunderstandings. She was all that mattered.

I jerk my head up and find Chloe and Jared looking at me with concerned expressions, “I am going after Luna.” I announce and before either of them can say anything, I break into a sprint towards the parking lot. I can hear their footsteps clamouring behind me but I am too engrossed in my thoughts to notice.

The stickly gravel is once again crushing under my boots as I unlock my car and buckle myself behind the wheel before putting in my keys to ignite it. Nothing happens aside from meekly squeaks from the engine.

I try again. Same sound.

Once more. The car still doesn’t start.

Exasperation runs wild through my veins as I smack my palms on the steering wheel in anger, “f**k!” I scream at how my luck had just decided that no matter what, I am not going to win back the girl I love.

And just when all hope seems lost, I hear a sharp knock on the window beside me. I look up. Chloe.

She gestures for me to get out of my car and I do so and just as I slam the door shut, she places the keys of her jeep on my palm.

“Here, take these,” she whispers with determination, “go win her back.”

Overwhelmed by the day’s events and now her gesture, no words are ready to escape my choked-up throat as I speed over to her jeep and jump in and giving them a last glance, I roll the vehicle out of school premises and make my way to Luna’s house.

As I speed through mostly empty roads, my thoughts go back to last night and the time that the two of us spent together. I remember feeling like someone else was in the room just before the two of us fell asleep. I remember ignoring that feeling.

I should have been more careful.

But if Nathaniel was behind this, how the hell did he even find out about me and Luna in the first place?

Similar unanswered questions are bouncing through my head as I stop the car a bit farther away from the regal metal gates of Luna’s home, hiding myself away from the cameras.

I know her brothers are inside and possibly her father too. I cannot take the direct entrance into the estate; they would never allow me.

I take my hair out of the ponytail on my head as I make sure that my hair can curtain both sides of my face, I adjust my bangs and take out a pair of shades from the inner pocket of my leather jacket before putting them on.

I look around to check if no one was around and realizing that I am free to go, I make my way towards her house.

But unlike all the other times, I walk in the right direction from the door before coming on to a sharp cut that has a pathway between two neighbouring estate. The wall on my right is the east boundary of Luna’s house, covered in vines and hidden away from the sight of anyone who might have been keeping an eye.

Walking all the way to the back of the pathway, I find a familiar bush in front of me, to someone who had no idea, it looked to be a wild plant just like the others but because Luna was the one who told me about this, I know that it is a secret entrance inside her house.

Making sure that I am not being watched, I gently move the bushes and the rocks aside before I come over a cement door that seems to have been placed in this position for years.

I turn a lever to the side and with a low rumble, the cement slab moves aside, opening a small entrance as I crawl in and close the door behind me.

I stand up before my eyes dart side to side, I’m in the secluded part of the garden and in front of me is Luna’s father’s study. I see someone entering that room as I quickly hide myself behind a statue. It’s Luna’s brother, Zeke, he was at the school with her today.

I groan before looking up. That was Luna’s balcony. If I climb all the way up then perhaps, I will find her.

I look around in hopes of finding something like a ladder but who am I kidding? Of course, there isn’t one here.

I roll my eyes before my gaze falls on the nooks carved out in the wall, leading all the way up to the balcony.

I have to put my gym class to use. This is a little risky but I have to do this. For Luna.

Taking a few steps back, I take a stance to sprint towards the wall and jump up. After two deep breaths, I rush forward and jump from a calculated distance as I grip the empty nooks in between my fingers and stick my feet in the grid like structure carved in marble.

Slowly, I start climbing up.

I can hear her crying as I stop for a second and scrunch my eyes shut, cussing myself. I shouldn’t have been the reason behind her tears. I never wanted this.

Taking a deep breath, I continue to climb up until the banister of her balcony is in reach and I wrap my hands around it before holstering my body up and skipping to the other side.

That is when I hear a sharp intake of breath and then her fresh blossom-like fragrance engulfs me when she rushes out to meet me. She looks more broken than she did last night.

Fucking Nathaniel.

“What the hell are you doing here?” She shrieks in anger as I look around alarmed before going to place my hand on her lips as I gesture for her to stay quiet.

“Are you crazy, you will get me caught!”

Her eyes harden and I can see her anger bubbling on the surface as I release her mouth and instead, raise my hands in surrender.

“Luna, I came here to talk, love. We need to sort this out.” I whisper in a much softer tone.

She shakes her head, her hair is a blob of mess in a bun on her head, “I have nothing to say to you. You broke my trust, Lia.” She says in a heavy voice.

“Do you really believe that I would set up cameras and get a picture of us before spreading it throughout school?” I ask her in a straight voice and it seems like she had been struggling with that question herself, “have you forgotten my hatred for recognition or have you forgotten how much I love you?”

Her head snaps up to meet my eyes at that. She is conflicted. Even though she wants to believe the fact that I did not betray her, she is unable to do so.

“I don’t know if I believe you,” she voices, looking away from me.

I take a few steps forward and place my hand on her cheek, she does not stop me. That is when my eyes dart down to the gold chain around her neck. My fingers pick it up, lightly grazing her skin in the process and making her hitch a breath before I bring the gold locket in front of her eyes, “do you believe this?” I ask her thoughtfully.

Neither of us say anything for the next few seconds, we just can’t. She knows how significant that locket is between us. She knows where it came from and why I gave it to her. She knows that it is the purest thing in our relationship.

Her eyes fill up with tears as her body begins to shake and I melt instantly at the sight of her looking so meek that I bring her in my arms with her cheek resting on my shoulder as she clutches onto my body and cries her heart out.

“I’m sorry for slapping you, I should have known that you would never do something like this.” She whispers heavily.

I chuckle, “you throw a mean right hand.” I say in an attempt to make her smile and I sigh in relief when she does.

“I love you, Lia.” She whispers before she pulls back and kisses me. Our lips move slowly against each other, without any urgency but a longing. Somehow this kiss feels like a goodbye and fear settles in my heart when she steps back with a steel look in her eyes.

“I love you more than I have loved anyone, Lia. But I am sorry,” She speaks and I shake my head, tears beginning to flow down my own cheek.

“Luna, no,” I beg desperately.

She nibbles on her lower lip as her face morphs into an expression of sheer agony, as if even speaking the words she is about to is hurting her.

“I cannot be with you.” She says and I feel the world crashing down on my shoulders. “My father got that image as well and he is not happy with my choices. He is taking me to Amsterdam with him and Nate is coming along. I cannot fight him on this. You have to go.”

I don’t understand why she is doing this. She shouldn’t have to put up with a family that does not allow her the freedom of loving the person she wants.

“Luna, don’t…” I whisper, my voice cracking towards the end as I look at her with moisture underneath my eyes. She reaches forward and kisses my head as I suppress a sob.

“Go away, Lia. It’s what I want.”

No. It’s what your father wants.

I want to say, I really do, but I know she is going through a lot as it is. She does not want me in her life and even if she does, she is not ready. With a heavy heart, I glance up at her once before walking away through the same path that I had used to come inside.

As I make my way back to Chloe’s car, I can feel someone’s gaze burning through the back of my head but I am too weak to look. I know that if I turn around, I won’t be able to accept what she is trying to do and forcing my love on her will only be hazardous in the long run.

I climb inside the vehicle and take my head in my hands as a few sobs escape my throat before I rest my head on the seat behind me and close my eyes for a few seconds.

This is it.

It was all over.

With one last glance at the house in front of me, I drive away from it, hoping terribly of seeing her again.

As I am driving through the eery roads covered by forests on both sides, all I can think about is Luna. The roads in front of me are empty and I am thankful for that because it is difficult to drive through the blur of my tears.

However, just as I am about to take a right turn to enter the bridge that connects the two parts of this town, I see an old man sitting in a corner with a bunch of antiquities placed neatly in front of him.

That is strange. I have barely ever seen anyone selling their products on roadsides in this town. Scratch that, I have never seen anyone selling their products on the roadside.

Without much thought, I stop the car a few steps away from him and step down before walking towards him.

“Hello,” I greet him with a soft smile as he looks up at me as if he is surprised to see me. Looking at him closely, I see a tilted scar running across her right cheek as the lines on his face make him look like he had seen centuries pass by and he had been gifted with immense knowledge.

He gives me a warm smile, “would you like to buy a trinket?” He asks excitedly. I force out a chuckle through all of the heartbreak that I am feeling as I nod before bending down to look at them.

“Why don’t you suggest something for me?” I ask him after not being able to focus for long. “These are all incredibly beautiful, did you make these?”

He nods with a bright glint in his kind eyes, “you seem like such a lovely little dove, I have just the right thing for you!” He tells me before scooping out a silver chain with a singular emerald charm hanging from it. It looks simpler than the ones he has on display but still gorgeous.

“Great, I’ll take it.” I say before clasping it around my neck before I feel like I saw it glow but then I wave that thought off as an illusion.

I take out a few hundred-dollar bills, knowing that he might be in need for the money before I hand it to him. He looks at me with wide eyes but accepts the amount making me smile before I walk back to the car and climb in after waving him goodbye.

As I start driving again, I make it onto the bridge. On my right side is the Dread Grove and on my left is the glistening river that runs through our town. All I can see is Luna’s face behind my eyes as I continue driving.

However, right as I am about to reach the edge of the bridge, a vehicle swerves right by me, making me jerk the steering violently towards the right as the wheels on the jeep begin to skid and the engine starts to squeak.

In front of me is a broken edge of the bridge and after it is fifty feet fall, straight into the most feared forests of this town.

My eyes widen with fear as I am unable to control Chloe’s vehicle, smoke erupts from the engine and the next thing I know is that I am toppling down the bridge and into the dense forest. My head hits the roof of the jeep and my vision goes blurry and the last thing I see is a bright green light, followed by a loud crash before I fade out of consciousness.