Other Side Of Forever (Other Side Of Forever Series Book 1)

by Shannon Eckrich

  I followed him down a narrow hallway painted sky blue, scuffing my feet on the shiny, mahogany floor until the hallway opened up into a large, brightly lit area—brightly lit from a huge crystal chandelier that hung from the cathedral ceiling.

  “Wow, that’s awesome,” I said, not able to take my eyes off the fixture.

  Prism teardrops dangled above me, changing from pink to blue to green as the light shot through them.

  “It was my mother’s. Just one of the few things I was able to scavenge from my past.” Ethan stopped in front of a white staircase, which twisted its way up to the second story.

  I saw a place like this on cable once, on a special about ghosts. There was a plantation in South Carolina that was haunted by a woman in white and her three children. I wondered what kind of ghosts Ethan had hidden in his closets.

  He lifted his hand and gestured to the second floor. “You can pick from any of the rooms upstairs.”

  “Um, okay,” I gulped, still engrossed in the sparkly array of lights over my head, thinking it would take me my entire lifetime to navigate myself around his house without getting lost.

  “The living room, the den, the kitchen, and the dining room are through there.” He pointed to a doorway on my left. “You won’t get lost if you keep moving forward. It’s like one big circle,” he said, chuckling. I guess he could read my mind now.

  He walked through the doorway and I quickly followed him into the living room. The room smelled sweet and smoky, like hickory, or the pipe my grandpa used to puff on before he died. Inside the room was a large, stone fireplace situated in the corner. But the fire had been extinguished a while ago. The off-white walls were empty, picture-less, unlike the walls in my mother’s house. I guess if you no longer had any family, there wouldn’t be a need for portraits wrapping the walls. Or maybe the memories were too painful.

  Ethan dropped my bags next to a modern beige-colored sofa and scooped up a remote off a glass coffee table. “Anything in particular you want to watch?” he asked, flipping on the TV.

  “No, not really.” I sank into his sofa, exhausted from my eventful day. The sofa was softer than my mom’s. My body felt as though it were sinking to the floor.

  He left the channel on some reality show and placed the remote beside me. “Well, feel free to put on whatever you want.”

  “Where are you going?” I asked, not quite ready to be alone yet.

  “Someone has to cook dinner, right?” He raised an eyebrow.

  “You eat?”

  “Of course I eat. Why wouldn’t I?” He looked confused.

  “I thought that since you were immortal and all, you wouldn’t have to eat.”

  “Allie, I’m not like one of the fictional characters you read about in a book or watch on TV. I don’t age. That’s it. That’s the only difference between you and me. I still have to eat and sleep. I don’t need blood or venom or some magic elixir to keep me from turning into a heaping pile of dust. My life revolves around energy.” He laughed.

  I’m glad he’d found my lack of knowledge about immortals amusing. I glared at him. “Look, I just asked a question. You didn’t have to laugh at me. I’m just saying, it’s not every day I run into an immortal. How am I supposed to know you eat? You never ate in school.”

  “I’m sorry. I wasn’t laughing at you; I was laughing because your question took me by surprise. Now, can we stop fighting so I can start dinner?”

  “Who’s fighting?” I crossed my arms over my chest and purposely directed my eyes at the television.

  He turned and disappeared through a doorway, still laughing.

  If I hadn’t been too tired to move, I would’ve followed him into the other room. Instead, I closed my eyes and drifted away to the annoying squeals from the girls on the television. I felt safe in my dreams. There was no Becca or Aaron here to harm me. I had no past and no fear of love. Ethan and I were the only ones in this place. And we were the same. There was no such thing as mortal or immortal.

  We weren’t fighting to keep each other away. We were two souls running through a golden field, hand in hand, not caring where we would end up. We were just happy to be together.

  “Allie.” I heard Ethan whisper my name.

  “Yes,” I answered, wondering why we’d stopped running through the golden field.

  “Allie, wake up.”

  My eyes flashed open to see Ethan standing in front of me, holding two plates. “I’m so sorry,” I apologized, the heat rushing into my cheeks. I quickly sat up and took a plate from his hand.

  “It’s all right. You’ve had a rough day. If you didn’t need to eat, I would have let you sleep.” He sat down beside me.

  Ethan was a good cook. And I had to admit, his grilled chicken, sautéed zucchini, and baked potatoes tasted a heck of a lot better than the TV dinners I’d been consuming.

  After we ate, I followed him into the kitchen to help him clean up. I wanted to help since he’d insisted I stay with him. I scraped the leftovers into the trash and decided to load the dishes into the dishwasher while he scrubbed the frying pans in the sink.

  “I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but how did you manage to survive on your own after your mother left?” he asked, not bothering to look up from the sink full of bubbles.

  “I don’t think you’re being rude.” I smiled. “It’s more like being curious.” I lined the dinner plates gently on the rack. “My friend Jeremy helped me.”

  “Jeremy?” He kept his voice low. I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined it, but I thought I’d sensed a tad bit of jealousy in his question.

  “Yes, Jeremy. He’s my best friend,” I answered, trying to make it clear to him that Jeremy was just a friend. And that he had nothing to worry about. “He lives in Alabama.”

  “How did he help you?” he pressed on.

  “He transferred money into my bank account. You know, enough to pay for the things I needed. At least, until he’s able to make his way down here.” I closed the door on the dishwasher and started it.

  Ethan pulled the plug out of the sink and dried his hands with a dishtowel. “If your friend was so worried about you, why didn’t he come as soon as he found out you needed help?”

  Okay, now his questions were beginning to annoy me. “Because, it’s,”—I spun around to face him—“complicated. Jeremy lives with his mom. He goes to school and has other things to do besides bail me out all the time.”

  “He must be very important to you.”

  “Yes, he is. But if anyone should be asking questions around here, it should be me.”

  “You? Why?” he questioned me as he headed into the living room. He did a horrible job at trying to hide the surprise in his voice.

  “You’re the one who’s the senior citizen around here. I’m sure your life has been a little more exciting than mine.”

  “If you say so.” He chuckled.

  I followed him over to the sofa and sat down beside him. He flipped through the channels on the TV, seemingly uninterested, while I secretly watched his face in awe. How could someone be so perfect…so beautiful? And why would that someone be attracted to me?

  “Allie.” His lips parted as he spoke.

  “Yeah,” I answered, not realizing that he was now staring at me.

  “Where’s your dad?”

  “What?” His question shocked me. Took me by surprise. And, more, it was enough to make me turn away.

  “Where’s your dad?” he repeated, his voice still soft. “I’ve never heard you mention him once.”

  “What are you talking about?” I snapped. I didn’t want to be mean to him. I didn’t. But if I told him about my father, he would feel sorry for me. And I didn’t want that.

  “Allie, what is it?” Ethan cupped his hand around mine and squeezed. “Why are you always trying to push the world away—push me away?”

  I knew I had to tell him. No matter how much it hurt, I had to tell him. “Because I’m scared, Ethan. I’m really, really scared,” I confe
ssed, hoping he didn’t notice that my voice was starting to crack.

  “Scared of what? Your father?” He sounded confused.

  I didn’t blame him one bit. One moment I’m at his door telling him how I can’t stop thinking about him and about how he makes me feel, then the next moment I’m throwing him in a ditch.

  “No, not of my father.” I shook my head and lowered my gaze to the floor. “I’m terrified of getting hurt.”

  “I’m not going to hurt you, Allie. I promise.” He squeezed my hand harder, trying to reassure me that I was safe with him.

  “I know you won’t mean to, Ethan. But in the long run, you’ll have to leave.” I picked my head up and looked into his eyes. “Don’t you see? That’s how it works. When two people care for each other, one of them always leaves. I’ve seen it happen.”

  “Your father left.”

  “Yes.” The tears welled up in my eyes and I quickly turned away. “My dad bailed when I was ten.” I shook my head and placed my hands over my face. “My parents always seemed so happy. They were always together. Then he started coming home later and later from the office, and some nights he wouldn’t come home at all. The more Mom attempted to reach out to him and show affection, the more he would pull away. Then one night he walked out the door. Mom said he wasn’t coming back for either of us.” I sniffed. “She said that he had run off with some whore he met on a chat website while he was at work. He left us with no money and no food, but he was gracious enough to leave my mother with a cabinet full of booze. She hasn’t stopped drinking since.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Ethan shook his head and rubbed my hand with his thumb.

  “I watched my mother’s life deteriorate right in front of my eyes. She replaced her tears with alcohol. Always hoping, always praying, that he would come back. She refused to pick up the pieces of her broken heart and move on. She crumpled her life up into a tight wad and simply tossed it away. And it was all because of love, Ethan. Love did that to her!” I tried to fight back the tears, but it was useless.

  He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me into his chest. “And then she started leaving you?” he whispered.

  “Yes. At first she’d take off often, but then months would go by and she’d stay at home. But soon that pattern happened over and over again, and the time between her leaving and staying at home grew shorter. And now she’s gone for good. She left me. How could she leave her own daughter? Why would she do something like that?”

  “I’m not sure, Allie. But I am sure that I’ll never leave you.” His lips were soft against my ear. His words were the words I’d always wanted to hear.

  I lifted my head and searched through my curtain of tears until I found him. He was already there, waiting. His moist lips moved slowly toward mine. His breath, the scent as sweet as a single carnation, gently blew across my face. My lips trembled with anticipation as the heat radiating off his skin drew near. And then we connected. Fiercely. Powerfully. I had no time to think. I didn’t want to think.

  The power and the energy were way more than I’d expected. I twisted my body, brought up my hands, and ran my fingers through his dark hair. The adrenaline ripped through my veins as he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer. It wasn’t close enough. My fingers tightened in his hair, squeezing and pulling in an attempt to bring him closer.

  Suddenly, Ethan pulled away. No, no, I wanted to scream as I reached out to bring him back to me. With his dark eyes burning with desire, he brought his mouth back to mine, but only for a moment.

  “I would give anything to take away your pain,” he told me as his fingers glided down the length of my arms and over the plane of my stomach. Suddenly, his fingers froze.

  I opened my eyes to see what happened. Why had he stopped? The same indecision plagued his eyes as it had when he left my house that Sunday night. I couldn’t lose him again. I wouldn’t.

  “It’s okay,” I whispered. “We belong together.” I now knew what I was saying was true. Between his pain and my pain, the battle was over. And I could feel the pull, the magnet that had succeeded in bringing us together. “I’m not going to fight you anymore.”

  His deep, dark eyes refused to stray from mine as the strength of his body pushed me back on the sofa. Our hearts, perfectly aligned, danced in a rhythm I’d never thought possible, like hundreds of butterflies had been released into the air. Our breaths came in short, shallow gasps as he explored my neck with the softness of his lips.

  Ethan brought his hands up, intertwining his fingers into mine. The warmth of our bodies connecting turned into a scorching heat, a burning desire that I didn’t understand.

  He lifted his head, searching for my eyes. Once he found them, he locked on, refusing to blink as he drew me in. In an instant, it reminded me of the night we met. The way he’d seemed to peer into the depth of my soul. Except I wasn’t confused this time. Instead of fighting, instead of pushing him away like I did that night, I surrendered.

  A current of warm, intense energy suddenly shot through my body. An energy that was so pure, so invigorating…so intoxicating, that it nearly took my breath away. Every muscle, every nerve, and every cell became infused with this energy as it consumed my insides.

  Ethan slipped off me and onto his side, gently pulling my head to his chest. I closed my eyes to savor the warmth, the security of our energies joined as one. He brought his lips down, kissing the top of my head just as I drifted away. Away to the very same place that I had resisted going for far too long.

  Chapter 11

  My phone was ringing. Well, not really ringing, but more like conducting an orchestra of cheesy techno music because I was too cheap to buy and download any songs. I didn’t want to open my eyes. I was finally happy, alive, for the first time in my life. The warmth of Ethan’s body, molded around mine, gave me all the proof I needed to know that last night wasn’t a dream. The kiss we’d shared wasn’t only intense and heated with magic, it was also real. And so were the emotions attached to it. Not only had I opened up to him, which was extremely hard for me to do, but he also had given me a taste of the pain he had been hiding. It felt good knowing I wasn’t alone anymore.

  I squeezed my eyelids tighter, wishing the phone would just blow up or something. Explode into a gazillion pieces. But that didn’t happen. It continued to beep beep bop, beep beep bop, like someone had pushed the demo button on a cheap keyboard. It had to stop.

  I opened my eyes and gently eased myself from underneath the blanket and off the sofa, making as little movement as possible so I wouldn’t disturb Ethan. The wooden floorboards were cold beneath my feet. Shards of glass were scattered all over the floor. I didn’t have time to figure out where they had come from. I had to locate my phone. I stepped carefully over the maze of pointy triangles and sharp misshapen teeth until I made it to my bag on the floor. Scooping up my phone, I tiptoed into the kitchen.

  “Hello.” The phone seesawed between my shoulder and my ear.

  “Allie!” Erica’s voice was muffled through the receiver. “Where the hell are you?”

  “Why, what’s wrong?” I asked, straightening my top.

  “Jeez, I don’t know. It’s two in the afternoon, you’re not in school, and your car’s still in the parking lot. Oh, and did I forget to mention you never called me back last night?”

  “Sorry. I was kinda busy,” I whispered, trying to keep my volume as low as possible.

  “Busy? What could be more important than calling your best friend to tell her you were okay? I mean, you did leave with a boy you barely know. He could have been a serial killer or something.”

  Her words made me want to laugh, but I held it in, fearing my outburst would wake Ethan. “I was just busy,” I explained as I walked through the kitchen, scouting for the back door.

  Erica sighed. “Allie, come on. You’ve always told me everything. What’s going on?” Her words made me feel bad, guilty even, because I had never been able to tell her anything about my life. She wouldn’t under
stand. Her life was always so perfect and mine…well, it never felt perfect until last night.

  I found the back door, and when I opened it, my breath caught in my throat.

  “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Erica shouted into the phone.

  “Yeah…I’m fine,” I answered, surprised I could find my voice. My eyes swept across the landscape. A cobblestone walkway meandered between pink, blue, and yellow wildflowers that rolled out over Ethan’s backyard like a carpet before a fairly large, oval-shaped pond swallowed it all up. The sunshine reached down through the trees. The beams reflecting off the water in between the rows of cattails danced across the surface, while mallards met and mingled in the center of the basin.

  Warm arms slid around my waist. “Do you like it?” Ethan whispered in my ear.

  “Hey, Erica, I gotta go.” My voice trembled as Ethan ran his lips across the back of my neck.

  “Allie, is someone else with you? Where are you?” Her questions came out with urgency, one big exhale of air.

  “Yes. And I will explain everything to you later. But I really have to go.”

  “Okay, but you better call me later. If you don’t, I will come and find you,” she threatened.

  “Bye,” I said, flipping the phone shut before she could say another word.

  “Yes, it’s beautiful,” I whispered, unable to remove my eyes from the water. “Has this always been here?”

  “Yes, except for the walkway. I built that myself,” he breathed. “But the view will never be as beautiful as you.”

  “Oh, stop.” I turned around to face him, ignoring the heat rushing through my cheeks. “Just because you’re some hundred-and-sixty-years-old dude doesn’t mean you can use your old-timer’s talk on me.”

  He pulled me closer and smiled. “You are an intriguing individual.”

  “I try not to be. I just try to be honest.” I smiled back playfully.

  “What did Erica want?” he asked, switching the subject.