This Is Falling(51)

“Seriously, they can’t tell anyone about this. And no more people,” I whisper to her in the elevator. Paige just winks at me and pulls her bag in against her body.

Nate and Ty are waiting for us downstairs, and we all start walking across the street. Just as I planned, Nate dials my phone from his pocket a few seconds into our walk, and I pretend it’s my parents calling.

“Yeah, I filled that out. No, I promise I did. Uhhhg, hold on,” I say, pretending I’m having a conversation about financial forms with my mother. Nate reaches into his pocket to end the call, but I keep the phone to my ear and hold up a finger to my friends.

“Hey, guys. I’ll just meet you there in like five minutes. I have to run up and check something for my mom,” I say, turning to jog back inside quickly. I hear Ty offer to wait for me, but Paige steps right in and throws her pretend tantrum—which is so accurate to her real tantrums—and explains that she can’t be standing around campus with a bag of alcohol. I look back once I make it to the lobby, and the group has all started moving again.

Cass got a different version of the story. I knew she would be working out tonight, so I told her I would just wait for her to come home, and she and I would walk together. And somehow, all of my dominos have lined up today, because she’s back to our room right on schedule.

Her shower is fast—another trait opposite of her sister—and we’re walking over to the field maybe twenty minutes behind everyone else. I text Nate to let him know we’re coming, and I feel my pocket buzz when we get to the outfield gate.





Ty is three shots in. You better hurry!





I manage to keep Cass distracted long enough for her and me to get deep into the outfield before she notices Ty, but she freezes as soon as she does.

“Oh f*ck no,” Ty says, tossing whatever was left in the cup in his hand into the grass.

“Rowe, did you know he was going to be here?” Cass looks heartbroken, and I feel sick. I shrug and start rethinking any good idea I ever thought I had. When Cass turns away and starts to leave, I grab her hand and I pull her close to me. I look Ty right in the eyes.

“No, Cass is my friend and I want her here,” I say, keeping my eyes on his—a staring contest I have no intention of losing. And I don’t.

“Fine, whatever,” Ty says, turning toward Nate to talk privately.

I’m pretty worried this isn’t going to work, but then Nate raises his arms over his head in a long stretch and yawns, and as Ty turns to look away, Nate holds both thumbs in the air and winks at me.

Drinking is the focus for the next hour. I’m careful, sipping slowly on my cup of rum and Coke that Nate mixed special for me. I’ve never been drunk. Just one more thing in that long line of rites of passage I missed during the homeschool years. The more the others do shots and play games though, the more I understand why Paige picked the sorority she did. The two girls she brought with her—I think their names are Lindsay and Angie?—could not be any more like her if they tried.

“Dude, are you sure these two aren’t your twins?” Ty asks, making a joke after we all endure a ten-minute long recap of their trip to the department store makeup counter.

“Uh, I’m pretty sure that would make them triplets, dumbass,” Nate says.

Everyone laughs—everyone, but Cass. I feel horrible, because she has sat with Nate and me for the last hour, just staring at Ty. I know she wants him to come talk to her, and when I tried to encourage her to go to him, she shot me that look that was more than a warning.

“Yeah, uh, this has been nice, but…I kinda think I’m gonna go. I have a test tomorrow…or something,” she says, brushing the small bits of grass from the back of her shorts while she stands and hands me her still-full cup.

“Oh, Cass. Please…stay?” I say, knowing she won’t.

“I…I can’t,” she says, looking over my shoulder to where Ty is busy entertaining Paige and her friends. I could kill Paige for bringing distractions.

Cass walks over to her sister and gives her a hug, and says something that makes them both laugh, and then she starts the long walk across the outfield grass.

“Well, crap,” I say to Nate, taking a bigger drink from my cup than I have all night. It makes my belly warm and burns my throat a little, like old cough medicine.

“Hold on, give it a minute,” he says, threading his fingers through mine, and pulling my body in closely against his. He nods in Ty’s direction, and I look up to see him following Cass with his eyes. Within seconds, he hands his cup back to Paige and looks over at his brother and me.

“Yo, dude. I’m taking off, too,” he says.

“Yeah you are,” Nate says, his knowing smirk taking up every bit of his face.

“Yeah, yeah,” Ty says, holding up both middle fingers.

“Holy damn. That worked!” I say, my heart speeding up with adrenaline to the point where I almost feel like running. And I might, except my head feels a little bit like it’s floating away from my body.

“Whoa, slow down there, slugger. I think you’ve had enough,” Nate says, taking the cup from my hands.

“Awe, I barely even finished one drink,” I say, seriously thirsty for more, and liking the small tingles firing away along my skin. I was buzzing for sure, but I think I was more affected by the way Nate was holding me, and the warmth of his leg and side and chest along the right half of my body.