Page 48 of Only When We Fall

Zara walks back like she didn’t just rip open a piece of her chest in front of strangers. Seb wraps an arm around her as she sits and mutters something into her hair. She goes red but doesn’t stop smiling.

“That was,” Emmie says, turning to her. “You’re incredible.”

Zara shrugs, suddenly shy. “Thanks. I think I might throw up now.”

I laugh. “Totally worth it. Well done.”

Zara’s still glowing when the host calls the next name. There’s a pause. A murmur.

“Landon Price?”

My blood ices. Emmie stiffens beside me, her fingers tightening around her cup.

“No way,” Seb mutters.

Then he appears, limping slightly, his jaw swollen, one eye an angry mess of purple and yellow. Even from here, I can see dried blood from a cut at the edge of his mouth.

I stand up halfway, instinctively. I don’t even know what for. He ignores the gasps, the murmurs, the complete disbelief rippling through the room, and takes the mic with a slight wince.

“I wrote something,” he says, his voice rasped and raw. “Something real.”

No one moves. No one speaks. I look at Emmie, she’s gone pale, her body rigid. She won’t look at me. Or him.

Then Landon begins, “It’s called,Fake.”And his eyes connect with mine.

I pretend to be something I’m not.

I hide behind popularity.

It’s my superhero costume,

protecting me from failure.

All my life I’ve been told I’m nothing.

Not important.

Not clever.

Not loved.

My dad did a real number on me.

Mum leaving, that was where it all went wrong.

It’s the first time I saw Dad truly lose it.

He didn’t leave his room for days,

except for whiskey.

He was bitter and loud

and the only role model I had.

I became like him without meaning to.

What kind of mother leaves her kid like that?

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