Page 3 of Falling Again

“You!” Anni points at me. “You traitor!” she says, and I leap out of my chair and hide behind Tyler.

“Hey, easy there, tiger,” Reid says. I peek out from the side of Tyler and see Reid gently lowering Annika’s pointed finger. “I came in here demanding your whereabouts.”

“I heard you fell to your knees, begging,” Tyler quips.

Annika turns around to Reid, her eyebrows raised. “Begging? You were that desperate to find me?”

“Hey, hey, whoa,” Reid says, pointing at Tyler, who puts his hands up defensively. “First of all, I didn’t drop to my knees. Second, I would have if I felt it was necessary. Third, why are you dressed like a minion, Chloe?” he asks as I stand to reveal my hiding spot.

I look down at my outfit, realizing the error of my outfit choice. “Unintentional,” I say. “Tyler made breakfast. Please grab some plates and tell us everything.”

“I’m not sure you want to hear everything,” Reid says, raising his eyebrows at Annika, who swats his chest. Tyler lets out a cough, followed by a laugh, and I return to my seat next to him.

We spend the rest of the morning gathered around our thrifted dining table while Reid and Annika take turns telling us about the past twenty-four hours. Reid steals a glance at Anni as she describes arriving at the beach and contemplating moving back to Ojai, until she heard Reid calling her in the distance. She fiddles with a pendant around her neck and says that Reid has been holding on to it since college. Reid pulls out a black velvet drawstring bag from his pocket and throws it on the table.

“Finally, this isn’t haunting me anymore. It’s now with the proper owner,” Reid says, sitting back and draping his arm behind Annika’s chair.

“You’ve held on to that since college?” Tyler asks.

“Yep, told ya I was crazy about this one.” Reid and Annika share a quiet moment.

Tyler turns to me and says while pointing at the new couple. “See, passion, that’s what I want.”

Yeah, me too, I think longingly.

But it feels too soon, and I just can’t risk making the same mistakes. Tyler will have to stay in the friend zone. Yep, good luck with that, Chlo.

TWO

CHLOE

THEN

Yesterday was my birthday, though it doesn’t feel like it. I sit in my closet instead of spending time with friends or family. It’s the farthest room in the house from the living room, where my parents are arguing.

They argue a lot. I don’t think I have ever seen them speak to each other at a normal volume. Each interaction always ends with one of them raising their voice at the other and, eventually, the other storming away.

My dad has been storming away recently, not returning for a few days. One time, I didn’t see him for almost two weeks.

My closet is quiet. I feel safe in here. I put pictures of me and Anni on the wall, and I have a big, soft beanbag in the corner that I’ll curl up on, reading books for hours. No one ever comes to check on me. I sometimes think my parents forget I exist. Only when Anni calls my house and my mom comes into my room to give me the phone is she reminded that she has a daughter. But this year, I got a cell phone for my birthday. So now I can talk to Annika without leaving my room, and I see my mom less and less. My dad is rarely at home anyways. Always traveling for work.

My closet only muffles the arguing. Sometimes, when my parents scream, I hear the argument clearly past the sliding mirrored doors.

“I’m done, Heather.”

“What do you mean you’re done?”

“I mean, I’m not coming back. I’m gone. You did this.”

“Fuck you, Steve. You did this to yourself.”

I hear shuffling and reemerge from my closet and leave my room. I tiptoe until I’m through the hall and can see around the corner, where my parents are in the living room. There’s luggage by the front door. My mom is on her knees on the floor, crying.

“Stop crying. Pick yourself up and take care of your daughter.”

“She’s your daughter, too!” my mom yells back at him.

“She was never one I wanted, that was all you,” my dad says, and I feel like I’ve been kicked. Are they talking about me? Why wouldn’t Dad want me?