Fall Forever (Fall For Me) by Melanie Marks Read Free Book Online

break the news to me that he and Ava were back
together … or whatever he was going to tell me. I mean, it hadn’t sounded at
all happy. In fact, it had sounded foreboding. So, I was half-way thinking maybe it was better to just not mess with it until I was less
emotional (like, next millennium).
    Being the chicken that I was,
instead of mentioning Ava, I said, “Sorry I missed most of your beauty
appointment. Really sorry. But it was Finn’s mom on the phone.”
    “Oh yeah?” Riley raised his
eyebrows, stopping at the door. He turned back to me. “What did she have to
say?”
    I shrugged, feeling caught in the
middle of a mess I didn’t want to be in. At all. I
just wanted to lick my wounds and be left alone. “She wants me to go see Finn.
Now. But before she was telling me not to. But now she
says that Finn begged her to talk to me—to get me to go see him.”
    Riley ran a hand over his face,
looking torn. Or guilty. Or … something. “You know,
you probably should.”
    I sighed. “I guess.”
    He looked away from me, as though
he wasn’t comfortable with the conversation. (Probably because he felt we were
responsible for his friend being in the mental ward.) Distractedly, he eyed the
box of stuff by the door. It was filled with things Finn had given me
throughout the years. Stuff I felt I should get rid of, but wasn’t quite sure I was ready to take that final step.
    He eyed my favorite green sweater
folded on the top. “You getting rid of that stuff?” He wet his bottom lip in
this way he has when he wants to say something but doesn’t know if he should.
    The gesture got my heart pounding
’cause it called attention to his soft, perfect lips (that were now all moist
and shiny). My eyes stalled on them, remembering how they had hungrily crashed
against mine. Mmm. He wet his lip again. “You’re going to throw away the
sweater?”
    I leaned against the wall and
sighed. “I’m not throwing it out—yet. Unfortunately. I love the sweater.
I can’t actually bear to part with it—yet. But it’s going up in the
attic—at least for a while. Then maybe—hopefully—I’ll toss
it.”
    His long lashes masked his eyes as
he stared at the sweater. He scrubbed a hand over his face. “But you like the
sweater?”
    I gave a little groan. “I do. I had
loved it. Dearly. It was actually one of the best gifts Finn had ever given me.
This sweater—it was like for once he “got” me, you know?” I held the soft
green sweater up to my face and rubbed it gently against my cheek. “This
sweater—it’s me.”
    “Zoey …” Riley gave me a weak grin.
“I gave you the sweater.”

 
 
 
    CHAPTER 12

 
 
    Riley—back
in Middle School
    “Dude, shopping? Really?”
    “It’s for my girlfriend . She’ll kiss me for it.” Finn had yanked on my arm,
dragging me along the crowded mall. “Come on, Summer said Zoey was looking at the sweaters at the front of the store.”
    When we got there, he grabbed the first
sweater he saw.
    “You’re getting that?”
    Finn looked at it, then at me.
“Yeah. Summer said—”
    “— the sweaters at the front of the store, I know. But don’t those look more like
Zoey?” I gestured to the sweaters further to the back. They looked soft … and pretty.
Like something Zoey would wear.
    Finn eyed the sweaters I was
pointing at, then back at the one in his hands. “This
one’s blue. Zoey looks good in blue.”
    Okay, Zoey looked good in anything,
so I kept my mouth shut. For a second. “Finn, her
favorite color’s green.”
    Indecisiveness flickered in his
eyes. “How do you know?”
    Because she looks hot in green is
what I was thinking. But that’s not what I said. Of course. Instead, I raised my eyebrows. “Because she wears it constantly?” When he still
looked skeptical I added, “Because her room’s plastered in it?”
    I went on, ‘cause I couldn’t shut
up, “And her sunglasses are green and her toenail polish is green and that
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