Page 83 of The Fall

“Shut up.” We both chuckled. I held my new pillow close, enjoying the comfort.

“This has got to be the most comfortable pillow ever,” she remarked.

“Switch,” I said, snatching hers from underneath her. She groaned as her head hit the mattress, then sat up.

“If Grant were to leave me for any reason, I would fly back to him the day he returned.”

“I really hate your cheesy logic right now.”

“Okay, all things considered, you’ve admitted that the problem is you. You want to be in control.”

“I don’t want to be that needy, emotional mess ever again.” Admitting that was embarrassing—even in front of my sister. She faced me on her pillow, and I couldn’t help but smile at the recollection of similar memories of when we were younger and the subject matter was way less dramatic.

“I keyed his car,” Rose said quickly. “I begged him back and harassed him on the phone. I even showed up at his wedding and ate a piece of cake.”

“Oh shit!” I exclaimed. “Damn, sis, did you boil his pet rabbit on the stove?”

“What?”

“Ancient movie, but I would say you were close, pun intended.”

“You’ve lost me.”

“Fatal Attraction? Never mind.” I laughed hysterically at my own joke.

“Funny, really…I dated him for five years, and he got engaged right after. I had a right to be a little crazy.”

“Yeah…he was a douche.”

“I thought it was love, but it wasn’t. It was a need to be the right girl for him. I just couldn’t understand why I wasn’t good enough—or how he could marry her.”

“I can totally relate to that.”

After a long minute and what I thought was the end of our conversation, Rose spoke up again.

“He emailed me,” Rose said quietly.

“Who, David?”

“Dean.”

I sat up, turning on the light. Adjusting my eyes to the harsh bulb, I found her guilty eyes and glared at her.

“Before you flip your shit, you should know that I had NO IDEA what was going on. It started your sophomore year of high school. At first, he would just ask simple stuff about us. Then he started asking me about you.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me this!” Throwing the covers off my legs, I stood tapping my foot.

“I didn’t know you weren’t talking to him, too!”

“What the hell did you email about?”

“Like I said, he just asked me about you. It wasn’t all the time, once a month or every couple of months.”

“So, you were the one reporting back to him? Great! I’m sure he got a kick out of that.”

“That’s not all.” Fear covered her features as dread coursed through my body.

“What is it, Rose?”

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