How I Fall

by Anne Eliot

  Apparently Cam’s parents bought this convertible furniture just for Cam’s sleep overs or extra visitors who come through. Cam’s set it up into this huge sleeping square that looks like flat couch. It’s so big it could actually sleep like eight people side by side without anyone feeling crowded or uncomfortable. Like everything in this whole house, it’s beautifully designed but without Cam in the room lending me his confidence and warmth, it feels cold and very much like I don’t belong here.

  Laura and I have made a camp in the exact center of the monstrous thing, and even though Cam turned on this really pretty gas fireplace so we’d have extra heat and a nice warm glow covering both of us down here, we can’t seem to sleep at all. I’m obsessed with the sounds of the storm. Every time I hear the wind spike, I’m imagining and hoping the ice is layering on just how I want. I can’t stop thinking how everything we’ve worked for hinges on tomorrow—that plus the fact that I’m in Camden Campbell’s house and I guess he’s my boyfriend now—I’m feeling anxious.

  Extra, sleepless and completely anxious!

  The way Laura’s got her sleeping bag pulled up to her neck and her eyes are all round and shiny, I think she must feel anxious, too.

  But for other reasons.

  She whispers, “It’s so hard not to think about Casper.” She pulls out her smartphone. “I wonder if I should Skype him. It’s morning over in Ireland right now.”

  “No.” I take her phone from her. “You said last time Casper wouldn’t even pick up to talk. Do not be the one who keeps trying to talk if he’s the one who broke up by typing it on Facebook. It’s seems so hungry, and…no…you deserve better, okay? Believe it.”

  “Yeah. Okay.” Her voice is so sad. “But, I keep wondering how there can be anything better when he was the best, you know?”

  “Apparently you and I have different quality tastes.” I’ve kept my voice strong and firm, even though I want to cry with her. I want to shout: Who dares break my Laura London’s heart? “I’m only going to say this once, but from how that guy treated you during this break-up, I’ve got to mention that Patrick in his sleep would be better than your Casper wide awake.”

  “Hmm. Patrick is a better kisser. But kissing isn’t everything, is it,” she mutters under her breath, rolling over, snuggling closer to me. Her eyes get all serious. “Holy-mother. What if kissing is everything? What do you think?”

  “I’m only a beginner in that area so...I’ll need to research that more.”

  “Aww. Cam was your first kiss?”

  I nod.

  “We shall revisit the topic when you have more to contribute, then.” She laughs. “Does this house feel like a hotel lobby to you like it does to me?”

  “Good way to describe it.” I track the long shadows made from the fancy art frames lining the walls. “I don’t know how Cam lives here.”

  “Right? It’s so not him. Everything’s just too perfect and shiny and I guess where it doesn’t work is that everything seems so forced, and so…tense. Including Cam’s mom. What do you think? I get this feeling that the woman’s got everything, but she’s not happy at all. Did you pick up on that?”

  “Mostly I was too nervous and trying not to have CP moments in front of her to notice her happiness levels.” I sigh. “I don’t know if she liked me. Do you think she liked me?”

  My phone buzzes under my pillow so I grab it and read: My mom likes you. I swear. And she is sad. She’s married to an ass. Trapped here, just like me. But only for the short term. And it took that woman forever to fall asleep. Patrick and I are in the stairwell at the edge of the room. We can hear everything you are saying but we didn’t want you to scream if we just popped out. Can you warn Laura we want to hang out more? I don’t need her making one of her scenes.

  I text back: K. Hold.

  “What’s it say?” Laura leans up on her elbow, squinting at the text.

  I pull the phone away and, unable to resist, I gasp and look into the dark corners of the room like I’m scared. “It says we’re not supposed to scream.” I blink at her.

  She whispers, “Don’t joke. Okay? For serious.”

  I blink again and glance at the phone. “It says they can hear everything we are saying.”

  Laura sits up and scrambles as close to me as possible and clutches onto my arm. “Oh-my-gosh, Ellen, I knew we should have closed the curtains on all of them huge windows. Whenever there are sleep overs set in a dark house on a lake, things go badly. Everyone knows that. Do you see anything we can use for a weapon?”

  I shake my head, biting my lip hard so I don’t laugh.

  The storm sends pellets of rain onto the windows just then. So much so that every window starts rattling. Laura reaches past me so she can grab a whole lamp off a table! She yanks at it until the cord comes out of the wall, then hauls the thing up next to her chest. Books and other table knickknacks land on the carpet with thuds.

  I cringe and bite back another laugh.

  “Where do you think they’ll enter the room?”

  “Shh.” A giggle almost escapes. I work my way out of her grip while simultaneously trying to stay away from the swinging lamp. “The stairs is my guess?”

  “Oh, you wish it could be that obvious. I bet they’ll show up straight out of that fire!” Her eyes are circles of fear in her pale-white face. “This is just like that Scream-Demons movie. For that matter this is just like that other movie, THE Paranormal. Did you see it?”

  “No,” I choke out.

  “Well, I did and I know what to do.” She ducks low, making me do the same as she whispers extra quiet, shoving the top of the lamp toward my face. “Unscrew the light bulb fast, Ellen. Shatter it right-directly into any eyes—human or not—that come close. Use the metal and glassy edges of what’s left and go crazy, hear me? Distract and divert and draw blood until I can beat the devils out of them with the base of this lamp. We can peel the plastic off this cord and electrocute them or maybe tie them up with it or…something.” She holds up the plug. “It’s our only chance. Unless you’ve got a pocket knife in your pajama pockets. Please say you’ve got something.”

  “No. Laura, I’ve been joking.” I can’t hold back anymore and I’m laughing so hard I can hardly breathe. “The boys are requesting permission to enter the room and hang out with us more. They’re worried you’d make some sort of huge noise or actually scream if they did it without warning.”

  “Why you little...” Laura shakes her head.

  “Based on your response,” I laugh more, “they were correct to text first.”

  “Put down the lamp, Laura. We’re the good guys. I swear.” Patrick comes around the corner first.

  Cam’s right behind him. “And you called me violent the day you met me? Strangling and death by electric lamp? Wow. Just wow.” Cam peels the lamp from Laura’s hands.

  “Only for supernatural creatures.”

  We all laugh.

  “What?” Laura’s face is so priceless, I start giggling even more which seems to make Cam crack up double as well.

  Patrick’s grinning like he’s more gone on Laura than ever. “Don’t discourage her. I love a girl who knows how to fight demons. Will you go out with me yet?”

  “I said if you asked me again, I’d punch you but good, and so I will.” Laura flings herself at Patrick and also starts pummeling Cam’s chest with tiny, lightly landing fists. “You bloody bastards gave me such a heart attack. I bet when I wake up I’m going to have a pure white stripe in my hair from the sheer terror you put inside my head.”

  “And it will be beautiful. It will give me another excuse to ask you out because I love girls with alternative hair.” Patrick’s smiling down at her like she could punch him in both eyes and he’d love her for it.

  “I’ll still say no, so you can stop.” She pretend punches
him one last time and plunks back down on the giant square couch.

  He sits next to her, stretching his long legs out in front of him and leans back on his elbows. “You’re the one who keeps jumping at me, sweetness. I’m not the one doing that.”

  “Sweetness?” she huffs out. “Don’t call me strange, Canadian endearments. That one makes me feel like cotton candy or something useless and it sounds so—ridiculous.”

  “Cotton candy is the most beautiful candy ever invented.”

  “You guys want to watch a movie?” Cam asks, dragging sleeping bags for him and Patrick out of a closet.

  “Sure,” I say.

  Cam comes over and motions to the huge square couch. “Is it okay if Patrick and I sit with you two on this? We could move the furniture back or sit on the floor, but…it’s more comfortable.”

  “You wee-little Don Juan players. I thought this deal was supposed to be chaperoned. You set this all up knowing you meant to come back down,” Laura teases, scooting over.

  Cam grins. “Yeah, we did.”

  “Considering Laura and I are wearing sweats and hoodies, and that you and Patrick are dressed the same, I feel safe enough. How about you, Laura?” I ask, trying to hide a quick rush of nerves.

  Laura shakes her head. “It’s like the wolves leading the lambs to slaughter, if you ask me.”

  Patrick laughs. “How about Laura and I work very hard not to kiss each other again?”

  “Which will be extra easy, since that was a one-time thing!” Laura protests, pulling a face at him.

  Patrick goes on, “She and I will watch over you two—actually dating—people as chaperones. I don’t really think I can handle you two kissing in front of me so can you please try to keep that at a minimum.” He glares at Cam. “Deal?”

  “Patrick, please shut up,” I protest.

  Cam’s grinning now. “I promise. None of that. In case my mom wakes up and comes down here—and she probably won’t because she always takes huge sleeping pills every night—I’m going to have to be between both of the girls to be safe. Is that cool?”

  Patrick rolls his eyes. “As long as you don’t take selfies and tell lies about how lucky you are, I’ll agree to this madness.”

  “Patrick, would you relax? I don’t want to sneak-hold-hands with your Laura.”

  “I’m nobody’s Laura!”

  “Fine.” Cam sighs. “Let’s settle in and do this movie thing because all night long, my own girlfriend has been at my house and I have hardly been able to touch her.” He grins at me. “Ellen, this is the first and last time that ever happens.”

  I laugh. “I agree. It’s been a strange and terrible torture not to even have held your hand yet.”

  “Barfing in my mouth over here,” Patrick adds.

  Cam clambers in between me and Laura.

  “You’re just jealous because they’re going to hold hands.” Laura sighs, watching Cam take my hand.

  Patrick’s staring also while pouting slightly. “Yep. Very. My hand is really cold. The only way it could ever be warm again is if someone from Ireland held it.”

  For once, Laura has no comeback, so she flops down and arranges herself into her sleeping bag. I do the same.

  Patrick stacks up a bunch of pillows behind all of us and then unzips his sleeping bag so he can get in to it. Cam scoots into his own bag, then grabs the remote controls while Laura and I, now comfortable, share a little smile. Cam switches on the monster-sized flat screen and says, “We’ve got all paid channels as well as Amazon TV. What movie should we watch? Name one.”

  “How about…Ladyhawke?” Patrick asks. “It’s been such a long time. You guys in?”

  “Heck, yes!” I say.

  Laura’s eyes get all huge and she smiles dreamily at Patrick. “You know the Ladyhawke movie? Did you sneak into my house and read my dairies or something?”

  “No.” Patrick shakes his head and settles into his pillow. “It’s like I’ve said all along. Like you’ve said all along. It’s fate.”

  “Stop using my words against me.” Laura grimaces.

  Cam laughs. “Laura London—she can dish out the fate, but she can’t seem to take it. Will someone tell me what this Ladyhawke movie is all about? The title is questionable?” He flips to his side so he can look at all of us.

  “I love that title. Says it all.” Patrick laughs, reaching to steal a pillow from Laura, then before she can protest, he moves her whole sleeping bag until his shoulder becomes her pillow. Acting like he hasn’t noticed Laura’s cheeks have turned bright red, he says, “You’ve never seen it? Matthew Broderick from when he was around fifteen? Crazy, synth sounding sound track?”

  “Nope.”

  Laura leans up on one elbow. “It’s only the best, most-romantic, most-perfect movie ever made. Star-crossed lovers.” She wiggles her eyes all big, making all of us smile. “A beautiful woman who’s got a curse that forces her to shape shift into this gorgeous hunting hawk during daylight hours. She sits on the hero’s shoulder, flying over and crying that wee-tragic-little hawk sound.” Laura scrunches up her face and breathes in.

  I laugh. “Please don’t try to make the hawk sound. You’ll wake up Mrs. Campbell.”

  Laura relaxes her face back to normal. “You know me all, too well.”

  “So…the lady is the hawk? What’s the big deal?” Cam asks.

  Laura goes on, “Well…of course the hawk doesn’t know the warrior at all. Not really. And the guy—the sexy warrior guy—I should add.” She sighs, clutching her chest and falling back on to Patrick. “He’s devastatingly handsome and he’s got a spell on him, too. He’s this giant, dangerous black wolf—of course only at night. He watches over the woman, keeping her safe. But like the hawk, he’s only a wolf right? So he’s wild and they can’t be together or recognize each other—because before the curse they were very much in love. So,” Laura breathes in dramatically, “at the very rise of the sun and the very instant of twilight they can see but not touch each other before they change.”

  I grin. “Laura, it sounds so good when it’s told with your accent.”

  “I second that. Trigonometry would sound like fun if you called out the equations,” agrees Patrick, tugging at the edges of Laura’s curling hair which makes Laura blush again.

  Cam blinks at all of us like we’re mental. “This movie sounds so bad I’m going to die from holding back buckets of vomit. As for you, Patrick? Dude. Really?”

  I giggle when Patrick shrugs, releases Laura’s hair, and says, “What? It’s not really about the love story. It’s about this thief. Matthew Broderick at his best. I swear.”

  Laura goes on, “Cam, you’ll love it. There’s this wicked-gorgeous war horse, and sword fights, and crumbling castles and sweeping landscapes. And the boy-thief that Patrick talked about gets caught in the middle of it all and winds up watching over and speaking for both of them—even though he only wants to escape and be free—he gets caught in the love story as well. You’ll see. It’s great.”

  “Don’t make me,” Cam groans, meeting my gaze.

  “It’s a perfect movie. I swear.”

  “Okay. Okay. I’m only doing this so I can hold your hand, though.”

  He holds up the Amazon remote and says, “Ladyhawke.” The voice activated search feature brings up the film right away and he hits ‘play’.

  Patrick picks up Laura’s hand and holds it high so we can all see it. “If Cam doesn’t have to hide while he’s holding Ellen’s hand, then I’d like to state my intention is to hold this pretty little hand during the film. With permission?” Patrick asks, lacing his fingers into Laura’s without waiting for an answer. She shakes her head ‘no’ but doesn’t pull her hand away.

  This makes Patrick grin over at us and wink, pulling Laura’s hand close to his hea
rt.

  As the movie music starts, Cam pulls me next to him and we are cuddling as close as possible! Possibly closer which is simply awesome!

  I’m thankful for the darkened room because no one can see just how much I’m blushing. Cam’s got my hands in his, and it’s the middle of the night, and the whole world has suddenly become a mixture of castles, and heartbeats, and pounding horse hooves, and music and soft pillows and this sensation of tingling elation that is the four of us being best friends.

  It’s so cool how despite the fact that he and I came from different worlds only days ago, that we are so easy around each other. Like we’ve been close friends for a very long time. For example, I’ve never been snuggled up on a couch with anyone like this in my life! Ever. But it suddenly feels like I’ve already done this thousands of times, and I can’t wait to do it thousands more times.

  I’m beginning to believe what Cam always says to me about us.

  Maybe this—he and I— are simply meant to be.

  He whispers in my ear, raining caramel-scented goose bumps against my temple and down the back of my neck. “Please tell me this crazy-sounding movie has a happy ending at least?”

  I sigh, loving how his arms wrap me so safely under his chin and next to his heart.

  “It has a very happy ending.”

  cam