What it Takes to Fall

by Ellis, C. R.

  What it Takes to Fall

  C.R. Ellis

  Copyright © 2019 by C.R. Ellis

  This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and other elements are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, is entirely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Editor: Jennifer Archer @ Archer Editing & Writing Services

  Proofreading: All Encompassing Books

  Cover designer: Hang Le, ByHangLe

  HarLex Publishing

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-7323131-4-9

  Paperback ISBN: 978-1-7323131-5-6

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Bryce

  2. Elliot

  3. Elliot

  4. Elliot

  5. Bryce

  6. Elliot

  7. Elliot

  8. Bryce

  9. Elliot

  10. Elliot

  11. Bryce

  12. Elliot

  13. Elliot

  14. Elliot

  15. Bryce

  16. Bryce

  17. Elliot

  18. Elliot

  19. Elliot

  20. Bryce

  21. Bryce

  22. Elliot

  23. Elliot

  24. Elliot

  25. Bryce

  26. Bryce

  Epilogue

  Next…

  Love this book?

  Want to read more of the FMK series?

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Bryce

  THEN

  Bryce - 8, Elliot - 5

  “Mom, do I have to go? I won’t eat any junk food if I stay,” I promised.

  I really wanted the leftover Easter candy hidden in my closet, but I wanted to stay home more. Going with my parents to visit our neighbors, the Kincaids, was bor-ing. They were older than Mom and Dad and had no kids. Or they used to, but they didn’t anymore. I couldn’t remember which.

  Mom pulled a pie out of the oven and set it down before turning toward me. “Honey, come here. We need to talk.” I walked toward the island stools and plopped down. “Do you remember the time you asked me about the girl in the photo at the Kincaids’ house, and I told you she was their daughter, but she didn’t live with them anymore?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, she had two daughters of her own, and now both girls are going to live with Mr. and Mrs. Kincaid. It’s a scary time for them as they adjust to their new life, so having you around might help them feel more comfortable. Plus, now you’ll have friends within walking distance.”

  That could be fun, even if they were girls.

  “How come they had to move in with their grandparents? Did their mom move in too?”

  “No, she didn’t. Their mom is having a tough time, so she brought the girls to live with their grandparents while she gets better.”

  “Oh. Okay. Do you think they’ll want to swim? I could take my diving rings. I guess I could bring other toys too.”

  Mom leaned over and cupped my chin. “Don’t ever let life harden your sweet heart, Bryce. The world needs more kind souls like you.”

  “Mom,” I groaned, making a face and squirming out of her grasp. She was always saying stuff like that to me.

  She sighed and held up her hands. “Okay, okay. As far as swimming goes, I’m not sure, honey. I think they’re both a bit younger than you, so they might not be able to swim yet. Tell you what, I’ll finish with the pie while you get some toys together, then we’ll get your dad and head over to the Kincaids’ house. Deal?”

  “Deal.”

  Thirty minutes later, I sat on the Kincaids’ couch, but had only seen the younger sister. Elliot, the older sister, had run up the stairs as soon as we got here.

  “I’m sorry, Bryce. Elliot’s very shy. This is all still new for her,” Mrs. Kincaid explained. Sophia, the younger one, hid behind Mrs. Kincaid’s legs, but kept peeking her head out to look at me.

  “That’s okay. I have a friend at school who’s like that.” I pulled my backpack off and set it down. I wasn’t sure what they liked, so I brought a little bit of everything—pool toys, Pokémon cards, Uno, Let’s Go Fishin’, Sorry, a Bop It, a Lego set, and my Superman figure.

  I opened the bag, and that made Sophia come over to me. Her eyes were bugged out, like she couldn't wait to see what toys I had. I grabbed Superman and held it out to her. “Here. You wanna play with him?” She took him, and she was holding on so tight I just knew she wasn’t going to give him back. “Um, how about we play Let’s Go Fishin’ instead?”

  “That’s a great idea, Bryce. Why don’t you guys go play in the den? That way you can spread your toys out.”

  I was glad that when I set up the game, Sophia decided she didn't care about Superman anymore. She was too young for the other games, but I figured, how hard can it be to hold a pole out for snapping fish? She watched while I showed her what to do, and then played along. Pretty soon she started squealing because she was having so much fun, and I saw her sister's blonde hair before her head disappeared around the corner of the doorway.

  “Sophia, do you like M&M’s?” I asked, pulling out a fun-size bag. “I sure do. I guess we’ll just have to share them between the two of us.”

  That did the trick. Elliot slowly walked into the room, but I didn’t look at her straight on until she sat down across from me. She was a lot smaller than me, probably a kindergartener I’d guess, with blonde hair and eyes that matched the sky. She was real shy, like the deer that were always crossing through our yard.

  “You’re Elliot, right? I’m Bryce. Want some M&M’s?” I held out a couple toward her, and she nodded, but didn’t say anything. “I’ve also got Starbursts, but maybe we should save those for after dinner.” She shrugged, and I wondered if she knew how to talk. “You know…Uno’s my favorite game. Have you ever played?” She shook her head. “Want me to teach you?” Another nod.

  I explained the rules, but frowned when I got to what to do with a wild card. “How about you point to the color you want?” Nod. “Hmm. You’re supposed to say, ‘Uno’ when you only have one card left, but you can just hold it up,” I said. I showed her by shaking my hand around in the air, then I put my whole body into it, wiggling like a worm.

  Elliot started laughing, and I knew I must’ve looked crazy. But it made her happy, and that was what I wanted.

  After a few minutes, I was down to two cards. Elliot played a yellow four, and I threw down my blue four and quickly called out, “Uno!” before she had a chance to see I only had one card. I almost felt bad for beating her, but I hated to lose more than anything.

  She slowly put her next card down, and the second it landed, she smiled and yelled, “UNO!”

  I jumped at the sound, then looked down and confirmed she only had one card left. And—worse—she played a draw four wild card. I groaned and drew the cards.

  “Yellow,” she said.

  I played my only yellow card.

  She dropped her last card on top of mine, and immediately broke into a big smile before copying the silly dance I’d done. “I win!”

  I still hated losing, but maybe…just this once, it wasn’t so bad.

  * * *

  Bryce - 11, Elliot - 8

  “I win!” I yelled, touching our home-base tree a good two seconds before Elliot caught up to me. She almost took me out when she did catch up, though; that’s how fast she was barreling down on the tree and me. We’d run from her grandparents’ house all the way across their property to reach this tre
e. It separated their property from the vineyard my parents owned.

  “Ugh!” she whined. “You cheated, Bryce. I want a rematch!”

  I just laughed. It was what we always said whenever we lost. Elliot was probably the only person on earth who hated to lose as much as I did, which meant we were always finding new ways to compete against each other. I was bigger and (usually) faster than her, but she never used that as an excuse for losing. Instead, she usually just found something else for us to do—swimming, board games, video games, tic-tac-toe, foot races, bike races, who could clean their room faster…there was always some competition we'd come up with.

  “You wish I'd cheated. I’m just faster,” I said, catching my breath and shaking my head before holding my hand out. “Hand over the candy, Uno. A deal’s a deal.”

  We both sank down to the ground, putting our backs against the tree as we caught our breath, and Elliot pulled out the Starburst packet from her pocket. She handed it to me, and I ripped it open, separating out the candies by color. We both liked the pink ones the best, so that’s what we were racing for—winner take all. I handed her the oranges (her second favorite) and kept the reds (my second favorite), and neither of us made a move for the yellows.

  She glared at the pink Starbursts like it was their fault she lost, and I sighed, handing her one of the four. We both loved winning, but we weren’t mean about it.

  “You staying over for dinner?” I asked eventually.

  She nodded and stood up, turning back to offer me her hand. “Yep. I love your mom’s enchiladas.” Before I reached her hand, she yanked it back and took off. “Last one there has to set the table!”

  “Now who’s the cheater?!” I shouted before scrambling up and racing after her.

  * * *

  Bryce - 17, Elliot - 14

  “Bryce, hi. How are you?” Mrs. Kincaid asked, pulling the door open and ushering me in.

  “I’m good, Mrs. Kincaid. Is El here?”

  “She’s in the game room.”

  “Thanks,” I said, heading toward the stairs.

  The closer I got to the game room the louder the sound of a ball rolling across a table became. I stopped at the doorway and held in a laugh when I saw Elliot playing foosball by herself.

  My friends thought it was weird that I still hung out with Elliot outside of the occasional get-togethers my parents and her grandparents had. I understood why they thought that, but they didn’t know the whole story about my friendship with her, that I was basically the first person she ever spoke to after she came to live with her grandparents.

  “Doesn’t matter how much you practice, Uno. You’ll never beat me at foosball.”

  She didn’t even miss a beat, just kept playing without looking up. “Am I supposed to be intimidated because you finally got a car? You wish.”

  “Nah. I think my winning record speaks for itself.” I was bullshitting; we never kept track of our victories, but I definitely won more than she did.

  “Whatever, loser. You here to talk or play?” she asked, finally looking up. When her eyes landed on my bag of Starbursts, she released her grip on the table handles.

  “Both. Let’s talk first. There’s something I gotta tell you.”

  “Okay.”

  We sat on the couch, and I dumped the Starbursts on the cushion between us. We both reached for the pink ones. There was comfort in the routine, in the familiarity of hanging out with Elliot.

  Too bad that was about to change.

  “Listen, there’s no way to make this suck less, so I’m just gonna say it. My parents are assholes, and they’re sending me to some prep school in Washington. I leave in a few weeks.”

  She was quiet for so long I worried she’d choked on a Starburst or something.

  “El?”

  No response.

  Without a word, she bolted off the couch and stormed down the stairs and out the door.

  I let her go, knowing where I'd find her. By the time I got to our tree, she’d lost the battle against tears. I hadn’t seen her cry in years, and the sight made me uncomfortable.

  “It’s not the end of the world.”

  “Yes it is. You’re going to leave and forget all about me. Just like…” She stopped herself from finishing that thought, but we both knew what she'd meant to say.

  Just like her mom did.

  “No. That will never happen, Elliot. I’ll come back for breaks.” I turned and nudged her with my shoulder, giving her a handful of Starbursts. “And think of it this way, now you won’t have to share the pink ones.”

  That earned me a small smile, and it reminded me of the day we met.

  “Promise?”

  “Promise. This isn’t forever, Uno. I’ll be back, dominating you in foosball and Mario Kart before you know it.”

  Chapter 1

  Bryce

  Then

  Bryce - 22, Elliot - 19

  I don’t even know why I thought coming home was a good idea.

  I trekked through the vineyard, wandering aimlessly, and watched the sun flirt with the horizon, painting the sky with a display of vibrant purples and oranges. If I’d been in a better mood, I could’ve appreciated the beauty.

  I had four weeks left until graduation and about four years’ worth of shit to get done before then. But when my mom called and begged me to fly home for the weekend to attend the winery’s anniversary party, I caved. “It’s important for you to start learning the ropes around here. You’ll be taking over before you know it.”

  It wasn’t the assumption that I was taking over that pissed me off. I was used to that. It was the fact that she and my dad just assumed my life could be put on hold, that it wasn’t asking much for me to drop everything and come running just because they asked.

  If I was being honest, what pissed me off even more was that, as much as my parents said they loved and supported me, I knew that was only half true. If they really supported me, talking to them about what I wanted for my future wouldn’t feel like torture. They’d never expressed interest in seeing my designs. It was like they thought if they just pretended my love of architecture didn’t exist, it would eventually go away. They treated it as a fad, like I’d lose interest in it the same way I had lost interest in my Tamagotchi and my pet rock.

  Architecture was my passion. Winemaking was my obligation.

  My parents would never understand. The fact that I was about to graduate with a double major in architecture and business—an accomplishment I was immensely proud of and that most would find admirable—was another point of contention between us. As a compromise, I’d taken classes in viticulture during the summers, while also working my ass off to secure an internship at the top architectural firm in Seattle.

  And it paid off; my boss, Mr. Martin, offered me a full-time job after I graduated. The salary was outrageous, the benefits were unbeatable, and the job was everything I’d ever wanted. It was basically a dream come true.

  But accepting the job would mean destroying my already strained relationship with my parents.

  Turning it down would be like throwing away my one chance to be truly happy.

  Taking one last look at the sun before it disappeared for the night, I lifted my half-empty bottle of sauvignon blanc and drank straight from it. I hadn’t even realized I was walking toward it until I looked over and saw the ‘B + E’ tree in the distance. As in Bryce + Elliot. This tree was our designated meeting place as kids.

  Elliot Kincaid.

  After I moved away, we texted some, but eventually the days between responses dragged out until we just fell out of touch completely. It didn’t help that I never came home.

  I paused, immediately overcome with the desire to call her. To see her. It had been years since we’d seen each other, but I had a feeling if anyone could break me out of this shitty mood, it was El.

  The closer I got to the tree, the more apparent it became that calling her wouldn’t be necessary.

  She was there. Sitting against the
trunk.

  I practically sprinted toward her, only slowing down when I got close enough to take in her entire frame. Long blonde hair draped over her shoulders. Toned, tanned legs for days. Same slender build she’d always had. Except…this Elliot was all grown up.

  “By now you should know I’ll always beat you here, Bryce,” she said, looking up from her phone with a smile tugging at her lips.

  One sentence. That’s all it took for Elliot to brighten my mood.

  My lips split into a smile that matched hers. “Can it really be considered a win if the other person doesn’t know you’re racing? Plus, we both know you always cheated your way to victory.”

  “You wish. But I guess I can understand your need to justify losing all the time.” She sat a little straighter and tugged down the hem of her blue and white dress, eyeing me slowly. After dragging her eyes over the length of my body, she settled back on my face. “I’ve never seen you in a tux before. You look…different,” she finally offered.

  I arched a brow and ran a hand along my jaw, fighting a smile. “Different?”

  Her eyes swept over me again before meeting my gaze. “I mean…good different. But yeah, different.”

  I couldn’t be sure if it was the dim evening light playing tricks on my eyes or if she really did have a light blush staining her cheeks.