How He Fell has made it to the second stage of voting for the Readers Choice Awards 2020. Please please please go vote for the book in the Teen Fiction Category and show some love! I beg you!
Song of the chapter: Waves by Dean Lewis
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MADDOX jumped slightly as his mother's voice filled the quiet void.
"Hey darling."
Glancing to his left, a smile appeared on his face seeing his mom. He gently hugged her before planting a kiss on her cheek.
"How are you? How was your day?" she asked.
Shrugging, he started walking to the kitchen. "Meh. It was boring as usual."
His mom rushed to catch up, but her frail body refused to help her out.
"Why don't you rest mom?"
"What a nice suggestion! Why didn't I think of that," she commented rolling her eyes.
He scoffed before helping her into the wheelchair beside them.
"Then why didn't you?" he questioned.
"I wanted to see my son before going to bed. Is that so wrong," she playfully scolded.
He sheepishly smiled.
"So," she started, "Why were you so late? It's 1:00 a.m."
"Diner," he mumbled.
"Well that can't be all Maddox. I can smell the perfume on your clothes," she said wrinkling her nose. "I won't say anything, but please just warn me if you might accidentally provide me a grandchild at this age."
"Mom," he groaned.
She threw her head back laughing. "What? I still haven't had the 'keyhole and doorknob' talk with you yet, but I should before you take it to the extreme."
"Don't worry," he bitterly muttered, "I know everything I needed to know when I saw what he did to you."
She froze.
"We don't talk about that," she snapped.
The playful banter had diminished to becoming a serious silence.
He combed his hands through his hair, clearly frustrated. "Of course. I forgot."
His mom nodded before sighing.
"So who was the girl?"
"There was no sex," he said trying to clarify her accusations.
"Don't worry I believe you."
"I went to the diner after my fight and talked with someone until they eventually fell asleep," he said.
"Ooooohhh," his mom replied wiggling her eyebrows. "Sounds boring," she said turning serious but the smile on her face suggested differently.
He shook his head laughing softly, "Not really. It was relaxing I guess."
"Who was it?"
He looked away inhaling sharply, "Evelyn Moreau."
Silence followed the statement.
"Hmm," his mom replied. Her voice was strained, as if suddenly not able to breathe. "Is she nice?"
Thinking back to all their encounters, there was no doubt Evelyn had to have been the nicest person he'd ever met.
"The kindest soul," he simply stated.
His mom looked at him before smiling, clearly happy with his response.
"Good good. People say such awful things about her and treat her terribly for something not even in her hands, you'd think she'd be a bitter bitch," she wondered aloud.
His mother was always such a vocal spirit. Never down, always trying to see the good. Her words were anything but mild. She had the soul of a rebellious teen. How she managed to keep a company worth billions was beyond him.
How she managed to not shatter was a question he wanted the answer to.
After what happened to her, he expected her to go into decline. Downhill.
In many ways, Evelyn reminded him of his mother.
Broken, but somehow manages to stand still enough for the shattered pieces to not give out. But he knew the day would come where they'd accidentally move and officially crash. Knowing how long his mom had been doing this, he felt that maybe she'd been letting him glue her back.
"Goodnight mom," he softly said.
"Goodnight darling," she replied with a gentle smile on her face.
Walking up the stairs, he paused as his mom said his name.
"Yes?"
"Don't leave Maddox," she said. Her words held a deeper meaning. He turned around to see her eyes filled with unshed tears, but they went away as she blinked.
"Never in a million years," he responded.
She looked so happy as she went off to bed while he stood frozen with humiliation. Lying to his mother wasn't his favorite pass time. Walking into his room, he got ready to sleep. Laying his head down on the pillow, he thought back to the first day he made his suicide plan.
Loneliness was a fickle thing, but it was fading.
He made the bet with Loneliness though and if Loneliness left...
Would the bet still be on?
~•~
Waking up to clear skies and a silent morning was nice.
Breathing in, he let a smile grace his features as he got ready to go to the warehouse.
Walking down the quiet streets, he appreciated that the people of the town preferred a night-filled fun rather than a bustling morning.
Though he stopped at the entrance of the warehouse seeing Evelyn already resting on the bench beside his punching bag.
"I'm sorry, did I drop you off here last night?" he said with a roll of eyes.
She jumped at the sudden sound of a voice before relaxing as she saw it was him.
Sighing she replied, "I came in the morning."
"Why?"
Sitting down next to her stretched out body, he started wrapping his hands and knuckles. She watched as he skillfully winded the long cloth around his hands, intrigued.
"I prefer not to be home during weekends," she shrugged before continuing to pay attention to his actions.
Nodding, he took his shirt off before putting gloves on and getting in front of the punching bag.
Watching him punch was a wondrous sight to her. The muscles on his back flexed as he threw a hook towards the upper side of the punching bag.
"How long have you been boxing?"
He stiffened remembering she was here. Boxing was a dear hobby to him, being so focused caused him to forget of the girl sitting behind him.
"Since I was twelve, but I've been taking part in matches since fifteen," he replied breathlessly.
She nodded seeing how much of an expert he truly was.
Enamored. Captivated. Mesmerized.
"Can you teach me?" she blurted without thinking.
Stopping his punches, he turned around to look at the girl who all the sudden had her eyes on anything but him.
"I mean..."
She struggled to find words, obviously shocked with her own statement. "It seems interesting," she murmured playing with a strand of hair.
Looking up, his eyes were hard and his expression serious. But as he raised an eyebrow, she realized he was trying not to smirk.
"You freaking gorilla," she grumbled under her breath.
Letting out a small laugh, he grabbed her by the hand before pulling her up.
Flashing an arrogant smirk, he responded. "Thanks."
"It wasn't a compliment."
"It was to me," he shrugged, "Are you sure you want to learn?"
Shrugging she put her hair in a ponytail.
"How hard could it be?"
He shook his head walking over to a shelf to get gloves that were her hand size.
"You're underestimating this."
"And you're underestimating me," she confidently stated.
Glancing over at her, he smiled a little.
"Touché Evelyn Moreau, touché."
She felt giddy knowing she could freely talk to him now. Never did she think she'd have a conversation with Maddox Lohan. He was a man of few words, but he sure spoke often in response to her, for which she was thankful.
"So," she started, getting in front of the punching bag before tightening her high ponytail. "What do I do?"
Scoffing, he directed her away from the punching bag before motioning for her to sit on the matted floor.
"A child doesn't start school by taking AP classes," he said giving her a pointed look.
She crossed her arms, huffing in impatience.
"But I want to hit the bag."
"You can't. Not yet."
She shook his arm to grab his full attention. "But I really want to," she said emphasizing on 'really'.
He patted her head before taking her hand in his causing her to look into his eyes.
Leaning in close, he whispered.
"Good for you." Then, he pulled back to put distance between them. "But not yet."
She groaned, frustrated that she couldn't hit the punching bag.
"Stretch," he said.
"What? Why?"
"Stretch," he said. The authority was clear in his voice. "You can't start without loosening your muscles. You might pull one."
Nodding at his reasoning, she spread her legs to start stretching.
After about ten minutes or so, she spoke.
"Okay, I'm done. Let's hit the bag."
Right when she was about to get up, he yanked her back down to the ground. "I may have underestimated your eagerness, but certainly not your impatience. Sit your ass back down."
"Fine," she snapped.
"We have much more to do before you can punch that bag."
"I think we did enough," she innocently said.
The smirk made its way back to his face, "Just getting started."
She gave him a look of annoyance.
"You're cocky," she whined.
"And your delusional if you think I'm going to let you throw a punch without basic training."
"Fine," she said folding her arms. "What else do we do?"
~•~
Why did she ask that?
He knew that's what she was wondering.
Looking up at the clock every so often, it's as if she hoped the time wasn't reading 1:06 p.m.
Signally that they'd been here for about a little over four hours.
Kicking the air one last time, she collapsed onto the floor.
"Water," she said hoarsely.
He threw her a water bottle which she chug down in a matter of seconds.
He rolled his eyes.
"Oh don't be so dramatic. It was barely anything."
"Barely anything my ass," she groaned.
"Well you're right about that," he casually said.
She threw her glove at him laughing. She hadn't experienced so much contentment in her life before. She felt as though she smiled and laughed more than most people in a lifetime.
And she's only been doing this for over four hours.
"Seriously though. You forced me to do a bazillion squats and crunches. Not to forget lunges and russian twists. There were the planks, the wall sit and the kicks. And you made me attempt to do push ups," she exclaimed.
He shrugged.
"Oh don't you shrug me," she huffed. "It took so much time and effort."
"It was one push up Evelyn."
"Like I said, time and effort."
A laugh escaped him. She was of another planet. A weird little alien that had graced his dull world.
"Well, we're done so congratulations."
She shot up. She couldn't keep her excitement down at that beautiful sentence.
"Can I punch the bag now?"
The restlessness in her voice was prominent. She was fidgeting.
"Why do you want to punch it so badly?"
She dismissed his response, "No reason."
"Evelyn."
"Yeah," she replied.
"Why?"
She put her gloves away before walking back to sit back down across from him.
"You punched like you were getting rid of all your frustrations. It's not hard to notice that you're fighting a battle behind your eyes. All that raw emotion just went into punching the bag. Your outlet," she sighed. "I wanted to see what it was like."
"See what was like?" he asked frowning.
She laid down on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. The cracking of the dry wall, the water damage.
"What is was like to let out your emotions."
He inhaled sharply before laying down beside her.
"You will," he whispered.
"When," she softly asked.
"One day," he murmured. "Maybe not today, but one day. Just trust me."
To each their own, but that had been his answer to all her struggles. Who will love her? Someone. When will she be happy? Some day. She inhaled deeply before replying, "Okay."
"So are you going anywhere fun during winter break?" she asked.
"My mom wants me to go to the town fair and win her something."
Her eyes widened at the mention of the fair.
"The town fair?"
"Yeah," he said slowly nodding.
"Is it fun," she asked obviously interested to know.
He turned his head to look at her hopeful gaze, expecting a great response.
"It's not that bad actually. I don't really mind it that much. I used to go with my mom all the time so it brings back those memories."
Silence followed. A calming, comfortable silence.
"Shouldn't those memories be sad?"
She was confused. If he used to go with his mom before, shouldn't he be sad that he can't experience that with her anymore?
"You would think so," he said. "But it's one of the only events in my life that lets me hold onto the happiness my mom had before."
It wasn't surprising he was being so open about his mom. Everyone knew of her diagnosis. ALS disease. Known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. It was an illness that caused the weakening of muscles. It couldn't be cured. Mara Lohan had Maddox young. A woman starting out successful though. It was one of the reasons she was so respected.
But her death was inevitable.
So yes, it wasn't even close to surprisingly he was open about his mom. What was surprising though, was how open he was with his feelings. She felt lucky to be his support. If she could call herself that.
"That's a nice way to turn it into something positive," she said smiling softly.
"Yeah," he whispered.
They were okay. They were fine.
"Have you never been to the fair before?" he asked.
"Nope."
Confusion clouded his features. "Why?"
"My family didn't want my presence to ruin any or everyone's fun," she said it casually, as if normal, but he knew it was her trying to justify the situation to herself.
"Your family's a bitch."
Laughing softly, she agreed. "Suppose so."
"Do you want to go?"
"I would've gone every year had I the option."
"You can come with me," he shrugged. "It's always better with someone."
"Really?"
Her voice was one of disbelief.
"Didn't I say we were friends?" he murmured looking towards her shocked expression.
She opened her mouth to speak before closing it and staring at him. Once again, she repeated the process of opening and closing her mouth.
"Thank you," she gently said. "But my family would reject the idea of me goin—."
He shook his head interrupting her sentence.
Throwing a conceited smirk her way, he laughed.
"Not to sound self-centered, but I'm Maddox Lohan. This town bows down to my last name. Your parents would have to approve."
"They wouldn't believe me if I said I was attending with you."
"I'll tell them myself," he said dismissing the seriousness in her voice.
"Thank you, Maddox," she said before smiling.
"No problem."
"I've never had a friend quite like you," she mumbled.
"I'm one of a kind."
"Rather I've never had a friend."
"Well, then you're yet to know what I mean when I said I'm one of a kind."
She laughed. "Egotistical dumbass."
"Thanks. I try."
A laugh escaped once more from her mouth and he was glad.
Someone, as neglected as her most likely, hasn't smiled much.
But he was going to make sure she'd smile often.
Before leaving, he'd make sure Evelyn Moreau was healed.
☙❦❧
So....this is one of the first chapters I'd written for this book. I knew exactly what I wanted and I didn't want this particular chapter so soon so I had to build up to it. I think it's my longest chapter yet and I think you guys deserve it considering how inconsistent I've been lately (for which I am terribly sorry).
Hope you love it as much as me! Feel free to comment and even hit that star in the bottom left corner! If you're feeling extra then no need to shy away from a follow either...
Love you all. Xx.
~ Shay