All That We Could Be

Chapter Forty Four

It was a little while before she left for home. She spent her time talking to some of the guys. They had already started to plan the charity race for next year. There would be one more new comer. William. He had joined in. That mean the qualifying races would need to be held a little differently. Fallon wouldn’t be in the qualifying races this time, along with Dallas and Adrian. They had been the top three, so in the knock out round before the final, they would verse the winners from the heats. Fallon secretly hoped that Adrian would be knocked out. There should be a little upset to make things interesting…-She thought. It wasn’t only that…she wanted to win.

Fallon had just gotten home when the phone rang. Knowing that Cheryl was still at work, Fallon rushed to pick it up. “Hello?” Came the voice from the other end. “Hello.” Fallon answered. “Fallon, is that you?” Said the voice. Fallon sighed. It was her cousin Maria. “No Ria…it’s not Fallon.” She told her older cousin. “You’re so funny…not!” Maria said snidely. “Yea, I’m a ball of laughter. So what’s up?” Fallon asked, with a little laugh. “Not much. I was bored so I decided to call.” Maria told her. “Yea, right! You don’t call unless there is something important. Otherwise you usually text me, write on my Facebook wall, or send me an email. So what’s going on?” Fallon asked, she couldn’t help but laugh. “You know me so well.” Maria said, still stalling. “You’re dying to tell me something so say it already!” Fallon exclaimed. “Alright…alright. Fallon… the big news is…” Maria trailed off. “You’re killing me here! The suspense is killing me!” Fallon said with another laugh. “Okay! Okay! Fallon, I got engaged!” Maria spoke with speed.

That did it for Fallon. She couldn’t help but laugh. When Fallon had gone to visit Maria and her family a few months ago; Fallon, Sophia, and Maria had been talking to Ava on the phone. They had decided to place a bet on who would get engaged next. Fallon had right away bet on Maria as her first choice, and Sophia as her second. Both Maria and Sophia had bet on Sophia, Fallon, and then Maria. Ava had bet on Sophia and Fallon being first, and then Maria. The prize had been that the loser would buy the rest of them a box each of ‘Lindt’ chocolate truffles.

For Fallon this victory over Maria was sweet. When they had been younger Fallon had usually lost bets to Maria. Maria at the time had been a pretty sore winner. Beating Maria this once was worth losing those other bets.

“So when do I get my chocolate?” Fallon asked, after she congratulated Maria. “I was hoping you would forget. I’ll have them ready for you when you come for the winter break.” Maria said, she didn’t sound put out by losing. “So who’s the lucky guy?” Fallon asked. Maria was quiet before answering. It was one of Fallon and their cousin Alex’s old school friends, Nicholas. Fallon congratulated Maria again, telling her truthfully how much she missed not being able to share in the special occasion. “Don’t worry! You’ll be here for the wedding. Or else!” Maria told her with finality. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Fallon told her genuinely. She would miss whatever obligation she had just to attend her cousin’s wedding. For Fallon, it was important for her to be there for her family. They spoke a while longer before hanging up.

When Friday came, Fallon was very excited. The week had gone smoothly, her course work had not piled up, and everything was going as planned. She managed to get to the GM:TV studio early. She would be unveiling her single this morning.

“Fallon, I think it is time to lift the curtain and reveal your new single. Don’t you?” Steven said to her. Fallon nodded. She went to the easel that held a blown up cover of her single; it was draped with a blue cloth. Fallon lifted the cloth to reveal the cover. Her new single was called ‘Rain’. She had written it a few years back, but hadn’t recorded it then. At the time she had felt as though something was missing. In September she had decided to go through some of her work and see what she could release for the new album. This had come to mind. She had fixed it up until she was happy with it, and gone to record it. Both Craig and Fallon were happy about the sound and the way it had turned out.

“Can you explain to us what it’s about? Why did you choose the title to be ‘Rain’?” Emma asked her, as Fallon sat back down. “It’s actually about a girl trying to forget a guy, and she feels like the rain just washes the pain and the hurt away. You know, how rain is so ‘pure’ and it’s about getting over the guy whose hurt you, and just wiping your heart clean of the pain.” Fallon told them. “Is it a song about something you’ve experienced, or is it just about break ups and getting over them in general?” asked Emma. She watched Fallon intently. Fallon tried not to squirm; instead she let out a nervous laugh. “Well I guess break ups in general…I mean the summer is over and you know those summer romances are fizzling out…along those lines…” Fallon said skirting the question.

Fallon breathed a sigh of relief when she got out of the studio. She had been lucky that Emma hadn’t taken that line of questioning any further. Fallon wasn’t prepared to be answering those questions.

The weekend brought more good news. Fallon’s single had been climbing the charts to get into the top ten spot. Cheryl also had exciting news. “Fallon, we’re having a masquerade ball at Lively!” Cheryl had told her. “That sounds awesome!” Fallon said truly interested for once. “Yea, it’s going to be on Halloween. So you are going to come with me, and we’re going to have fun!” Cheryl said excitedly. “Okay, as long as I don’t have too much homework.” Fallon told her. “Fallon, for once you are going to come without me having to drag you. You can get your homework done during the weekend. Halloween is on a Friday this year. You could always finish it before Friday too.” Cheryl told her, she wouldn’t hear of any dissent from Fallon. Fallon decided to comply with Cheryl’s wishes without being difficult for once.

The new week began without anything out of the ordinary. The bouquets had continued, but Fallon was used to them now. It was disconcerting for her that she didn’t know who was sending them.

Wednesday brought luck for Fallon. Fallon had found out the night before that her class had been canceled. This year Wednesday had been her lightest day. She only had a three hour lecture for Thermodynamics. Apparently her professor had gotten too ill to teach, which allowed Fallon to stay home.

It was around noon when things started to take an odd turn. The doorbell rang. Fallon went to answer it. It was Christopher. “Shouldn’t you be at work?” Fallon said, slightly baffled. She led him to the living room. “Yea I was, until Craig called me. He spoke to my supervisor. I had to go meet him.” Christopher looked a little bit worried. “Okay…Why did he need to see you?” Fallon asked. “He wanted to ask me about how my father would have felt if…” Christopher was interrupted. Cheryl had just stepped in the door.

Cheryl looked equally confused and worried as both Fallon and Christopher. “Fallon have you been outside? What’s with all the commotion? Why are they all saying that…” She too was interrupted.

The phone was ringing. Fallon got up to answer it. “Hello?” Fallon said as she answered the phone. “Hello Fallon.” It was Craig. “Hi.” Fallon replied. “Fallon, I’m sorry about doing this over the phone.” He told her. “Sorry about what?” It wasn’t making any sense to Fallon. “Fallon the board of directors came to a decision…and there wasn’t very much I could do.” He said to her. The words the he said next seemed to slow down as they reached Fallon. “Fallon, I’m really sorry, but you’ve been dropped.”