Page 112 of Can't Help Falling

“If you have any questions?”

“It’s not exactly rocket science. I know what it means for two people to be together. I’m gonna finish my homework and check in with Mary about my schedule for the rest of the week. Thanks for dinner.”

She rose up, leaving Fin and Ty in her dust. She cleared her plate and was gone. There was nothing left on the table to even show she’d been sitting there. It was like Tyler and Fin had been alone at the meal. All he could feel was the gaping cavity where she’d just been.

“Shit.” He dragged a hand over his face.

“Yeah. Shit.” Fin stared down the hallway, her hand finding its way into Tyler’s.

“Was that as bad as I think it was?”

“I haven’t seen her this closed off since Thanksgiving.”

“I don’t get it,” Tyler mumbled, picking up Fin’s hand and pressing it flat against his cheek, barely registering that he was seeking the feeling he got when their energies mixed. “I kind of thought she’d be excited. She’s made comments here and there about us getting together.”

“To me too. But I’m sure the reality of it is way different than the dream of it.”

“I’m gonna try again.”

“You want me to—”

“No.” He shook his head with certainty. “I think it needs to just be me and her.”

Tyler stood up, took a deep breath and strode to Kylie’s closed door. “Ky?” he called, knocking twice and swinging her door open.

He froze, all the blood leaving his face when he saw her sitting halfway on her bed, clutching something in her hand.

“What the hell is that?” he asked, his voice hoarse. It was a ridiculous question considering he’d already easily identified the thing in her hand as an obscenely large wad of cash. His eyes wide, his throat closing, he tried a different question. “Where the hell did you get that?”

“I—” Her mouth opened but no words came out. The money was halfway shoved back into the little fabric envelope, like her body was rejecting the idea of having it out in the wide open.

On some sort of autopilot, he strode forward, holding out his hand.

He didn’t even have to tell her to hand it over. With a look half terrified and half irate, she slid it gingerly into his grip.

“You can’t just come into my room,” she said, but her vehemence was undermined by the childish wobble of emotion in her voice. She was still frozen on the edge of the bed, like she didn’t want to move and make herself even more visible.

Tyler felt the blood pinprick down out of his arms and legs as he ruffled through the cash. “There has to be—Jesus—three thousand dollars here. Kylie...”

“I didn’t steal it.”

“Well, I know that Mary isn’t paying you in cash, so you better explain, fast, what the hell you’re doing with thousands of dollars hidden in your room.”

“Mom gave it to me.”

Tyler instantly felt sick, his heartbeat banging all the way down to his toes, pumping nausea and adrenaline to the four corners of his earth.

Her mother gave it to her? When? Had Kylie had it the whole time? Brought it from Columbus? Or, God, had Lorraine been contacting her secretly? Mailing her money...for what? To run away?

“She left it for me, I mean,” Kylie said, her shoulders caving. The only thing keeping Tyler’s heart from squeezing down into a raisin at that moment was the fact that Kylie looked perfectly miserable. Like there was a chance, a chance, that she understood just how screwed up this whole thing was.

“When she left earlier this year,” Tyler said slowly, scrabbling for clarification. “She left you a bunch of cash.”

“Spending money. So that I could order food. That’s what...” Kylie folded forward and looked even more miserable. “That’s what she always did. When she’d leave for a weekend or something, I’d come home and there’d be two hundred bucks on the counter and I’d know I was on my own for a bit.”

“This is not two hundred bucks.”

“It was six thousand when she first left. So, I knew she was going to be gone for a long time. I was careful with it. I didn’t order in. I got cheap stuff from the grocery store so I wouldn’t run through the money.”

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