by J. L. Wyer
All in all, things have been quiet, and I'm finally feeling comfortable with my new life. I'm happy. I'm in love with a great guy who loves me back, and I have some really awesome friends. Life is good.
“Hey, babe?” Ryder calls to me from the kitchen.
“Yeah?”
“Fallon just texted. He wants me to come over to look at a new car he bought. Want to come with?” He walks into the living room. My heartbeat flutters wildly like it always does when I see him.
“I need to study for a history test tomorrow. Rain check?”
Ryder sits down beside me. I naturally gravitate toward him. I lean into his side and he wraps those strong arms around me, placing a kiss on my shoulder.
“I’m meeting him at the Fields. I’ll text you when we're done. Shouldn’t be later than eight,” he says, his voice muffled against my skin.
“Would you mind picking up those vegan tacos I like so much?”
“I can do that.” He gets up from the couch and kisses me one last time. “I promise I won’t be gone long.”
“While you're out having fun, my face is going to be shoved in this history textbook for the next couple of hours.”
“I love you!” he calls out, opening the front door.
“I love you too!” I holler back as the front door closes.
Grabbing my phone, I see that there’s a text from Jayson. I really should change his screen name.
ScaryGuy: Place is too quiet. What r u doing?
Julien is playing an away game in Charlotte this evening, but Jayson couldn't go with his parents to watch because he had swim practice after school today. Their fall season is starting up.
Me: About to start studying.
ScaryGuy: Want some company? Fam won't be back until much later.
Me: Can I text u when I’m done?
ScaryGuy: NP. I’ll be here.
I grab my bag from the floor. As I pull out my textbook, another origami star falls out. Jayson must have somehow put it in there at school. I always read his notes. I know I shouldn’t. What I should do is tell Jayson to stop giving them to me. I unfold the paper.
“If love was like time, mine would be eternity.”
I sigh and get up. Holding the delicate piece of paper in my hand, I walk into my bedroom and open my closet door to retrieve the jar. My eyes alight on a banker's box that I've never noticed before. Taking it out, I place it in on the bedroom floor and sit down cross-legged next to it. Lifting the lid, I peer inside and see a treasure trove of my past. Did Daniel box this up from my old room? There are pictures, hand-written papers, tiny trinkets, and sheets of music. I look at the pictures first. Most of them I recognize as pictures the boys have already shown me. I take out a few of me and Ryder so I can create a memory board with them.
There are several binders and scrapbooks. I pick one up and open it. It’s filled with hand-written poetry. I notice the name Hailey scribbled at the top of each. There are dozens of hand-written sheets. Some written in a childish penmanship, others in elegant cursive. The first one is titled: “Elizabeth and Her Princes.” I read it. I read them all. I don’t realize I’m crying until I see tear marks on the last poem I’m holding. The ink on the paper runs as my tears dissolve the words.
I pick up another binder. This one is a scrapbook. There are drawings and love hearts all over it. The front says “All Our Next Times” in big, bold lettering. I open the cover. The pages are filled with photographs, doodles, dried flowers, wrinkled pieces of paper, butterfly cut-outs, seashells, a bag of black sand, and snippets of ribbon. The scrapbook chronicles my love story with Jayson. From the night he first kissed me and told me he loved me, to our first date, to the night we made love for the first time, and every time in between.
I find another photo and flip it over. It’s another one of me and Ryder. We’re standing together in what looks like a field. We’re in front of a dirt bike and Ryder is holding a helmet under one arm, his dark hair sticking up at the top. Our pinkies are linked. I smile as I touch the photograph. My gorgeous, handsome boyfriend. I place the photo with the others of him and me.
I find a photo of me and Jayson. Jayson's kneeling down in front of me at a cardboard replica of the Eiffel Tower. Wait, I dreamed that before, didn’t I? My breath comes out in strained puffs and I feel like I can’t get any oxygen in. Flashes of twinkling lights flicker across my line of sight and my vision tunnels, my bedroom and everything around me fading to black.
Wave after wave of memories overtake me. It's like I'm drowning in them. A stabbing pain shoots behind my eyes and my head throbs painfully. I call out to Ryder, but no sound leaves my throat. As my mind starts to go under, pulling me down in its relentless grip, I try to think of Ryder. But it’s not Ryder who appears before I succumb to the darkness.
It's Jayson.
Chapter 36
I'm Sorry
Jayson
I'm bored. I check my phone. Still no text from Liz about when she wants me to come over. I hate the stillness of the house. When things are quiet and I'm alone, I think of Liz. I think of Liz with Ryder. I think of how he's now living the life that is supposed to be mine. And it hurts. It hurts so much. Is this how Ryder felt when I ran to Elizabeth right after he told me and Jules his plan to tell Liz he loved her? Did it hurt him this much to watch every time I kissed Liz? Every time I touched her? Every laugh and smile she gave me and not him?
Walking over to gaze out the back patio sliding glass doors, I recall how Liz and I used to sit out there and watch the rain fall. She loved thunderstorms the best. She said they reminded her of the fireworks from that Fourth of July when we snuck behind the dunes and kissed each other as the fireworks exploded above our heads. My mind keeps playing back all of those first times. All of those next times. Ryder is me now, and I am him, and it sucks.
I can't take it any longer. Deciding to head to Liz’s place, I grab my keys. If she wants me to leave after I get there, I will. I shove on my shoes and grab my wallet. Opening the front door, I come to a dead stop.
Liz is standing there, trembling. Her long hair is plastered to her face with sweat. Her chest moves in and out as if she ran all the way here from her house. But it’s her eyes that stop me cold. I have never seen Liz’s eyes glow so vibrantly green before. It’s unnerving. She looks like a fairy goddess come to slay the dragon. And those green eyes are locked on me.
“Liz? What are you doing here? What’s wrong?” Even though my concern for her consumes me, I’m afraid to touch her. I’ve seen with my own eyes what one of her memory blackouts looks like, but this is different.
“Baby, you’re scaring me. Please tell me what’s wrong. Why are you standing out here in the dark?”
Those bright verdant green eyes flash.
“Everything,” she says, her voice sounding as fierce as the look in her eyes.
“What?”
“Everything!” she yells at me, her fists clenched tight at her sides. I’m officially freaked out now. I reach out to grab her arms so I can pull her inside the house.
“I remember everything!”
My body jerks. The hands that were reaching for her freeze. My eyes snap to hers when understanding kicks in. I never see her slap coming. Her hand connects with my cheek in a loud crack.
“I remember everything, Jayson!” She hits me again and again, her face filled with fury and pain. “You threw me out! You hurt me! You broke my heart!” She hits me and pounds on my chest. I stand there and let her, too shocked to do anything.
“I. Remember. Everything!” she screams.
It’s as if time slows down then speeds back up, like one of those movies where the character watches as bullets fly past him in slow motion and then everything returns to normal. I don’t know who moves first. I think we both do. She slams her mouth to mine and I kiss her back, so starved for her that I may never have the strength to stop. We come together in the most brutal, desperate, and ugly way. Liz shoves me back inside the house, but I forcefully
grab her, spinning us around until we are crashing against the entryway wall. Thankful that Julien and my parents are not here to witness our chaotic, destructive frenzy, we kiss until our lips are sore. And it’s not enough. It will never be enough.
I lift her in my arms and carry her upstairs to my bedroom, locking the door behind me.
“I love you, Jayson,” she says as we tumble onto my bed.
“I love you, too, princess.”
∞∞∞
I’m suddenly wakened by the buzz of the doorbell. After Liz and I made love, we must have fallen asleep. I had my girl back and having her cuddled in my arms was the most wonderous feeling in the world.
I look over at my bedside clock and it reads eleven-thirty. Julien and my parents should be getting home soon. Their last text before Liz showed up said they would be arriving around midnight. Julien’s game was in Charlotte which is a couple of hours from here.
I roll over to grab Liz, but she’s not in the bed. I look around the room frantically when I hear Ryder’s voice call my and Julien’s names from downstairs. Where’s Liz?
“Jules, Jay,” Ryder calls out again. He has a key so must have let himself in. I pick up my phone and notice that Ryder and Daniel have tried to call me several times.
My bedroom door is cracked open, and I panic. Liz must be somewhere in the house. I rush to pull on some sweatpants and a shirt.
“Jay? Jules?” The sound of Ryder’s voice is closer as he walks up the stairs and down the hallway.
I open my door. “What?”
“Jesus, you scared the crap out of me,” he says.
“Being woken by someone unexpectantly coming into your house close to midnight isn’t much better,” I reply.
“Sorry. All the lights are on downstairs, so I assumed you guys were still up. I let myself in. Have you heard from Elizabeth?”
I peek down the hallway, half expecting to see her. I step out and close the door to my bedroom.
“Why?”
“I dropped by her house. Daniel said he thought she was in her room. She wasn't. We've tried calling her. She’s not answering her phone. I've called Fallon, Meredith, Celeste and the rest of the gang. No one's heard from her. Julien, Elijah, and your parents aren't answering their phones.”
“They were at Julien's game, remember? There must not have cell service if they're not answering.”
“I totally forgot about the game,” he says. “Jay, where could she be?”
We go downstairs and I walk around the house, looking for Liz. Ryder follows me, wondering what I’m doing. Where is she? Did she sneak out?
“Jay, I’m worried. Daniel is freaking out. It's not like her to disappear without telling someone where she's going.”
“Ry, she’s fine,” I assure him.
I don’t exactly remember the time when she arrived on my doorstep, but it couldn’t have been much later than ten o’clock. Liz was here with me until about an hour ago. Well, I think she was. I have no clue when she left. Why would she just leave without waking me up first?
“How can you be so sure? Weren’t you the one who pointed out what could happen to her if she had another memory blackout? She could be hurt!” he argues at me. “Her location tracking is turned off. Why would she turn it off? She promised to keep it on so Daniel could find her in an emergency.”
That’s a good question. Where the hell are you, Liz? It’s then that I see a piece of paper with my name on it sitting on top of the counter island. The paper is folded like a tent, and my name is written in large block letters. Ryder sees the note at the same time I do but he gets to it first.
His face morphs into furious anger. I rip the paper from his hand.
“Jayson, I’m sorry. What we did should never have happened. – Elizabeth”
“What did you do, Jay?” Ry’s voice is hard and threatening. I think he already knows.
“Liz’s memory returned,” is all I get to say before Ryder punches me in the face.
Epilogue 1
Elizabeth
I don’t know why I’m here. What am I thinking? It’s because you’re not thinking, I tell myself. You messed up, Elizabeth. You just destroyed everything good in your life. You deserve every ounce of pain you’re feeling right now.
I raise my hand and knock on the dark oak door. It smells like wood cleaner. Who polishes their front door with wood cleaner?
An older guy I’ve never seen before opens the door and looks at me quizzically. My hair is a tangled mess and I’m wearing Jayson’s clothes which hang on my smaller body. I must look like a crazy person.
“Can I help you?”
The door swings open wider and the person I came to see steps out. Relief pours through me.
“Kitten?”
“I need you, Fallon.”
Epilogue 2
Hailey
“You have reached the voice mail of Julie Parson. Please leave a message.”
Who the heck is Julie Parson? I hang up and add more coins to the bus station pay phone. I doublecheck to make sure that I dial the right number, pressing each button carefully.
“You have reached the voice mail of Julie Parson. Please leave a message.”
Did Lizzie change her number? I add more coins, using four of my last eight quarters to dial home. I can always hang up if anyone but Lizzie answers.
“We’re sorry. You have a reached a number that has been disconnected…”
I slam the phone down on its holder and take a deep breath. Okay, Hailey, stick to the plan. There has to be a reasonable explanation for my family’s phone numbers not working.
Going inside the bus terminal, I head to the ticket window. An older woman who looks like she’s seen better days greets me.
I give her my best fake smile. “How much for a one-way ticket to Fallen Brook, North Carolina?”
Hailey is back. Old Elizabeth is back. Are you ready? Their story continues in Fallon (Fallen Brook High School YA series, Book 3), available for pre-order now on Amazon.
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Also by the Author
Under Jennilynn Wyer (New Adult & College, Contemporary romance)
The Fallen Brook Series
#1 All Our Next Times
#2 Paper Stars Rewritten
#3 Broken Butterfly (Available for Pre-order and releasing May 18, 2021)
Fallen Brook: The Montgomerys Standalone Novels
#4 That Girl [Aurora’s story] (Available for Pre-order and releasing October 11, 2021)
# 5 Wanderlost [Harper’s story] – Coming 2022
Fallen Brook M/M Duet Series
#1 Julien (Available for Pre-order and releasing September 21, 2021)
#2 Elijah – Coming 2022
Under J.L. Wyer (High School & Young Adult)
The Fallen Brook High School Young Adult Series
#1 Jayson
#2 Ryder
#3 Fallon (Available for Pre-order and releasing August 10, 2021)
#4 Elizabeth (Available for Pre-order and releasing January 25, 2022)
#5 Hailey - Coming 2022
About the Author
J.L. Wyer is the pen name for romance author Jennilynn Wyer, an author of mature High School & Young Adult, New Adult & College, and Contemporary romantic fiction. She lives with her family in the Gulf States, is married to a Brit, and you can usually find her in her favorite reading spot, e-reader in hand, with the latest romance novel. Her Teen & Young Adult books are written under the pen name of J.L. Wyer. She is an active educator, researcher, and environmental scientist who enjoys lecturing, teaching, and sharing her love of science with students and the public.
She is the author of the adult Fallen Brook series that has been described as "The ultimate combination of romance, complex relationships and a thriller all rolled into one story," and "In t
his fast-paced, well-written page turner, Jennilynn Wyer has perfectly captured the joy, anguish, and turmoil of high school while also creating a story and characters that adult readers will find relatable and tantalizing. She offers the perfect balance of lovable, heroic, despicable, and villainous characters and plenty of action, both in the plot and her steamy scenes, to keep the reader entertained and intrigued."
Her Fallen Brook High School YA Series under the pen name, J.L. Wyer, is a reimagining of the Fallen Brook series, and has been edited and the content rewritten to be suitable for a YA audience ages 15+.
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