by Toni Aleo
Fallon stopped abruptly, and started to pat the side of her rain coat for her phone. She sent him an apologetic look before looking at the screen, “It’s my mom. She has Aiden. ‘Hey Mom.’”
Lucas probably should have put her down, but he didn’t. He held her against the wall, resting his hand beside her head to keep from touching her. “Okay, yeah I’ll be there in a few. Okay, that’s fine. Alright, bye.”
Fallon bit her lip as she looked up at him with a disappointed look on her face, “I’ve got to go. Aiden’s arm is hurting, and Mom doesn’t have his meds.”
Lucas let out a loud groan before slowly lowering her to the ground. He ran his hand across his face, taking in deep breaths to calm himself. “I’m sorry,” she said sadly. Lucas shook his head, an intimate smile on his face.
“Don’t be. I’m just really turned on.”
Fallon giggled as she nodded. “Who you telling?”
Lucas laughed as she started to close up her jacket. Watching her do it actually caused him pain, so he had to look away. When she was done, she smiled up at him and he returned it, moving his hands into her hair before pulling her to him for a long intoxicating kiss. Her hands came to rest against his hard, hot chest, as she continued to kiss the hell out of him. When they parted, his hands came to her cheeks, cupping them softly as he gazed into her eyes.
“When you going to tell me you love me?”
She gave him a quirky smile, her eyes bright with excitement and lust. “When I want to.”
“That is so like you.”
“Basically,” she giggled as she shrugged her shoulders.
Lucas smiled as his heart filled with the intense love he had for her. “I love you, Fallon, so much.”
She blinked up at him, smiling as she moved her hand down his strong jaw. She shook her head and went up on her tippy toes, kissing his lips softly before breaking apart from him arms. “Can me and Aiden come back here?”
Lucas rolled his eyes. “You can’t say it?”
Fallon laughed. “I told you I’d say it when you don’t expect it! Leave me be!” she said reaching for the door handle.
“You better come back,” he said as she put her hood up on her head. She glanced back at him with the most radiant smile on her face. When he returned it, he watched as her smile fell and her eyes went wide. She wasn’t looking at him, but over his shoulder, and when he turned, he saw why.
Lucas quickly looked back at Fallon, his heart banging against his chest. She looked over at him and asked, “Why is my sister standing on your stairs in a pair of panties?”
Chapter 37
Fallon couldn’t breathe.
The first thing she thought was that Lucas was fucking her sister, but then she knew that couldn’t be right. She knew that Lucas wouldn’t do that. So then why was Audrey standing in a pair of bright yellow lace panties on his stairs? Dread filled Fallon as she watched Levi come down the stairs behind Audrey, wearing nothing but a pair of black boxers. When he wrapped his arms around Audrey’s middle and Audrey let out a little giggle, Fallon swore she only saw red.
“Now Fallon,” Lucas started but she wasn’t listening. She pushed past him and he tried to stop her but she slapped his hands away. She was on a mission.
She was going to kill Levi Moss.
Audrey and Levi looked up at the same time as Lucas tried to call her back. Audrey’s eyes went wide as she put her hands out in front of her, saying something but Fallon couldn’t hear her past the pounding of her heart in her ears. Fallon pushed her out of the way and swung her arm back before slamming it into Levi’s face.
Levi’s head whipped back and before Fallon could do anything else, she was in the air, being pulled away. “You crazy bitch!” Levi screamed.
“Let me fucking go!” she screamed, kicking her legs.
“Calm down!” Lucas yelled, holding her close to his chest. “Watch it Levi!”
“She fucking hit me!” he yelled. Levi looked up, holding his nose as Audrey went to his side. Fallon noticed that she was crying and Levi’s face was red, but she didn’t care. As soon as Lucas let her go, she was going to kill him.
“God Fallon! Really?” Audrey yelled back at her. “You could have broken his nose!”
“I’m gonna break his whole damn body as soon as Lucas lets me go!”
“No you are not, calm down,” Lucas said, still holding her tight.
No one moved or said anything as Levi held his nose, breathing out of his mouth. Fallon’s chest rose and fell as she stayed locked in Lucas’ arms, not believing what was happening. Audrey was sleeping with Levi. He was the one that had been hurting her emotionally and physically. She couldn’t believe it, but that wasn’t what had tears rushing to her eyes.
Lucas had known, and he didn’t tell her.
“Let me go,” she said quietly. Audrey and Levi looked up at Lucas and Fallon took in a deep breath. “Let me go right now Lucas, I got to go.”
Lucas turned his whole body, walking with her in his arms towards the door. When they reached the door, he let her go and she turned to look past him to Audrey. “Get dressed, and meet me at the house.”
Audrey looked down at Levi and then back up at her, nodding her head. “Okay.”
She looked up at Lucas and shook her head. “I can’t believe you kept this from me.”
“Fallon, she told me she was going to tell you.”
Fallon shook her head. “You promised you’d never lie to me.”
“I didn’t lie to you,” he insisted, his hands in tight fists beside his waist.
“Um, yeah you did!” she yelled. “You knew I was worried about my sister and you knew who was hurting her! How dare you! How dare you keep this from me! That’s my baby sister!”
“I know Fallon, but I was trying to give her a chance! Don’t fucking get mad at me because your sister made a bad decision.”
“Whatever,” she snapped before opening the door and going out into the rain.
“Don’t walk away from me! We aren’t done!” Lucas yelled as she ran down the steps. When he grabbed her hand, she jerked it from him before glaring up at him. The rain was ice cold and felt like little shards of glass biting into Fallon’s skin as she looked up at the man that had betrayed her — again.
“Yes we are done! I can’t believe this. I was finally trusting you, and this is what you do to me?!”
“I didn’t do anything to you. I tried to give your sister a chance to come clean!” he stressed, fear filling his eyes. “Don’t do this, don’t blame me.”
Fallon shook her head. “The funny thing was that I when I saw her come down the stairs, I was like oh my God, he is sleeping with my sister, but then I knew that wasn’t true. It was in that instant I knew that you would never cheat on me,” she said. The rain started to fall faster and even with the rain beating against her skin, she didn’t feel it. All she could feel was her heart breaking apart inside. “Just when I started to trust you again, just when I was about to tell you I loved you, you fuck us up! Again!”
Lucas ran his hands over his face, letting out a frustrated yell before looking down at her. “I did nothing wrong here. Maybe I should have told you, but damn it Fallon, I love Audrey. I wanted to give her the chance to tell you! I wanted you and her to work it out!”
“You should have warned me, or made her tell me as soon as you found out! It’s obvious that you’ve known for a while,” she yelled. Rain was running into her eyes and mouth making it hard for her to yell. She was too upset to care.
“I’ve known for a week at the most! I don’t know what you want from me. I try so hard to please you, I do everything to make you see that I love you and only you, but you twist everything I do and make it bad. It’s like you want us to fail, that you’ve strung me along to make me think this was going to work when really you were just waiting for me to fuck up!”
Fallon shook her head. “I wanted us to work Lucas, but I can’t be with someone that keeps things from me, especially when i
t comes to Audrey. What’s next? Are you going to start keeping things about Aiden from me?!”
“I would never do that!”
“But Lucas, you knew how upset and scared I was!”
“Whatever Fallon, there is nothing I can say to make this right. I feel like I’ve been fighting for something that was never going to be mine. I wished for you to love me again so I could marry you and make babies with you, but it doesn’t matter. You are throwing us away, and for what? Because I didn’t tell you something that your sister should have told you?” he asked. His hands were in the middle of his chest as he looked down at her with the saddest eyes.
“You betrayed me,” she simply said as the tears rolled down her cheeks, mixing with the ice cold rain.
“I did not. I’ve only loved you. If anyone is betraying anyone, you are betraying me.”
Fallon looked at him like he was crazy, her nose flaring as she took in a deep breath. “And how is that?!”
“You said you would try, that you would give me a second chance, but you didn’t. You don’t believe me when I tell you that I have done absolutely nothing wrong here.”
“That’s what you feel, but I feel different,” Fallon said with a shrug of her shoulder.
Lucas shook his head, “Don’t walk away Fallon. Don’t do this.”
“I have to get my son,” she said before taking in a staggered breath. “I gotta go.”
Fallon turned and started for her car as her hot tears ran faster down her cheeks. As she reached for the car handle, Lucas said, “So it’s safe to say you won’t be back?”
Fallon couldn’t look at him as she shook her head. She heard him let out an empty laugh as she opened her car door and got in. As she pulled out, she watched as he stood in the rain, looking down at the ground. He looked so defeated and so hurt but Fallon refused to be hurt by him. Not again. He supposedly loved her more this time.
What a crock of shit.
Lucas stood in the rain until he couldn’t take the cold anymore. As he slowly walked to the house, he now knew he would never be with Fallon and his heart slowly broke. He felt like his chest was ripping open and his heart was falling out as he climbed the steps to the front door. Lucas had never felt such intense pain. Why did it hurt so badly? It hadn’t felt like this when she left the first time, so why was he hurting so badly now? Was it the fact that he knew she was truly done with him? Or maybe because he knew he would never see her but to get their son? That he would never feel her sweet lips against his, that he would never feel her skin touch his, never be able to hear her beautiful lips whisper his name. Was that why he was hurting so bad? Or was it because he was sober this time around?
Why would she do this to him? Did she really not love him? Didn’t she know that he didn’t lie, that he had stayed true? That above all, he loved her more now than he did when they were younger. Why would she blatantly ignore what he was saying? Did he really just waste a lifetime waiting for someone that was never going to be his?
There were so many questions and no answers.
Lucas entered the house and found Levi and Audrey in the kitchen, still caring for Levi’s nose. He walked past them to the laundry room to grab a towel. He wrapped the towel around his neck, and then turned to see that Audrey and Levi were staring at him.
“Go home Audrey. Levi, pack your shit and get the fuck out of my house,” he said. Shock went over both their faces as Lucas stood there staring at them. “Now!”
Audrey jumped in surprise, letting out a small cry before leaving the kitchen. Levi looked over at Lucas, shaking his head. “You are going to let some girl come between us, for real dude?”
Lucas shook his head. As much as he wanted to blame Levi for all of this, it wasn’t his fault. Lucas should have told Fallon, but he felt that it was something that Audrey needed to tell her. There was no one to blame but Fallon. She threw them away. She had given up what they had over something so juvenile, so small and petty. It made Lucas want to scream. He was so mad, so hurt, and so broken that he couldn’t even form words to say to Levi.
When Levi walked out of the room in a huff, Lucas fell into the chair, looking down at the ground. When he looked up, he was staring at himself in the mirror that hung by the doorway. He looked sad, and he hated that he looked that way. He got up, moving around the kitchen, looking through the cabinets. When he opened the top one above the microwave, he reached for the bottle of vodka that he had seen Levi stash up there. The bottle burned in his hand as he made his way to the island before opening the top.
The strong smell of the liquor burned Lucas’ nose as he looked down at the opening of the bottle. His hand shook as he brought it to the base of the bottle and squeezed the cool glass in his hand. As he brought it up to his lips, his eyes filled with tears. Was he really about to do this? Was he about to throw away years of sobriety because the girl he loved threw him away like the trash he was about to come once that bottle touched his lips? What was he doing?
Lucas let the bottle fall back onto the counter and then took a deep breath in as he moved away from it. He couldn’t do this; he couldn’t resort to his old ways just because he was miserable. He still had Aiden, and that thought alone gave him the strength to dump the bottle in the sink. As he watched the liquid spill down the drain, he shook his head. He may have lost Fallon but he would never lose Aiden. No matter what, that little boy would be his for the rest of his life. Lucas closed his eyes, leaning his head against the sink as he took in deep breaths.
Fallon had all of him. He loved her with every cell in his body and probably always would, but maybe it was time to just let her go.
No matter how bad it hurt.
Fallon and Aiden ran through the rain into the house before she slammed the door behind her. Audrey sat at the kitchen table, her arms crossed across her chest and a distressed look on her face. Fallon moved her hand over her face, wiping the tears and rain off her face. She removed her shoes and went to the kitchen to get Aiden’s medicine. When she turned from the counter, she found Aiden wrapped up in Audrey’s arms. He was in so much pain and Fallon felt horrible for forgetting to give Nora his medicine. She brought the pill and a box of Hi-C over to Aiden. He took it eagerly and drank the juice quickly before handing the box back to the Fallon.
“Go on upstairs and lay down, honey,” Fallon said. Aiden nodded before running up the stairs and when she heard the door shut, she looked down at the back of Audrey’s head. “I am beyond mad at you.”
Audrey whipped her head around. “For what?”
“For keeping something so horrific from me! How dare you!”
“What I do is my business, not yours!”
“It is my business when the asshole is hurting you, and all along it was Levi!? Have you gone to the doctor? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure that douche has herpes or at least the clap. No telling what you have.”
“Oh shut up, he doesn’t have anything, he’s clean. I’m clean.”
“He’s the nastiest person I know and you’ve been fucking him!? Are you crazy?”
Audrey stood up, glaring as she put her hands on her chest. “At least I’m trying Fallon! At least I am going for my happily ever after! You’re just standing there, hoping your prince comes, but you’re so blind and too stubborn to see that you have the most amazing man ever standing in front of you!”
“You know nothing about me and Lucas, so you shut up!” she said pointing her finger in Audrey’s face. Audrey laughed as she slapped Fallon’s hand away.
“Ha! You know nothing about me and Levi. Maybe he won’t change. Maybe I am supposed to go through all these frogs to get to my prince but at least I’m trying.”
“Audrey, you’re stuck in a damn Disney fairy tale! Levi will not change, he is a douche and always will be, and damn it I tried with Lucas! I gave it my all but he fucking lied to me! Again!”
“He didn’t lie Fallon, he kept my secret,” she stressed, pressing her hands into her chest again. “Doesn’t that mean anything t
o you? He loves your baby sister enough to keep something like that for me? I asked him not to tell you, that I would tell you. Don’t blame him for me being too scared to tell you. He did right by me.”
Fallon shrugged her shoulders. “And while he did right to you, he did me wrong. He knew how worried I was about you and for him to keep that…”
“He did it for me,” Audrey said cutting her off. “I asked him to.”
“I don’t care,” Fallon said bluntly. “I am not going to let him hurt me anymore.”
“Fallon, you are unbelievable! You say you tried but I think you just went through the motions, because if you had tried you wouldn’t be letting this break y’all up. Stop being such a selfish bitch and be the woman that Aiden and Lucas deserve.”
Fallon glared as she took a step towards Audrey. “I am the best Mom ever to Aiden.”
Audrey’s shoulders fell. “I know you are, but Fallon you aren’t being right to Lucas. He loves you so much. He is the king to your queen, the cheese to your macaroni, the prince to your princess. Y’all are meant for each other.”
Fallon shook her head as the tears threatened to fall. “If he was then he wouldn’t have lied.”
Audrey shook her head and looked down at the ground. When she glanced back up at Fallon, not only were tears falling down her beautiful round cheeks but she had such anger in her eyes that it took Fallon’s breath away. “You are going to grow old, bitter, and lonely. You are letting the one person that matters get away, all because you think he lied to you when he didn’t. You make me sick Fallon, and I have never been so disgusted with you in my life.”
Fallon swallowed loudly, looking away. Why was everyone so disgusted with her? Tears gathered in her eyes as she said, “Join the club Audrey. I don’t care if you are disgusted with me because I am being sensible and smart. I’m not going to let some man hurt me again. I’m not you.” Audrey glared up as her as she made fists at her sides, “And while I’m old and bitter, and lonely, at least I know I did what was best for me and my child. You on the other hand will probably be beaten to a pulp by a piece of shit man since you never see the bad in anyone and you think all men are princes. Grow up cupcake, men are dogs.”