Fallon Mansion Excerpt

 

Chapter 1

 

“Hey, you coming to the party later Megan?” Lydia asked me as we made our way through the school hallways.

I shrugged. “Depends how my Mum is I guess.”

She frowned and begged. “Please, please you have to get out more.”

I shrugged again.

It wasn’t like it was my fault that my Mum got so drunk every night that she didn’t even know her own name by the time I helped her to bed or the couch, which was always more convenient than getting her upstairs. She had always liked her alcohol, but ever since my identical twin, Mason had left to join the army, which still confused me considering he wasn’t even eighteen yet, she had upped her intake of alcohol to absurd levels and smoked like a chimney not seeming to care that we were so short of money at the moment that we had been missing a lot of meals.

I could understand her desire to want to escape the real world though, Mason and I had been inseparable and we had done everything together. He had wanted to join the army for as long as I could remember and a few days after our seventeenth birthday almost six months ago he had done exactly that. When he had left a piece of my heart had gone with him, that day I had lost my best friend, my brother and a part of myself.

No one could have predicted how badly my Mum had taken it and now I had to pick up the pieces. Anyone who knew us well was very aware of the fact that she had always seemed closer to Mason despite him trying to convince me that I was wrong. My relationship with my Mum had always been rocky at the best of times, but now it was like two enemies had been forced to live together. She yelled at me about anything and everything when she was sober enough to do so and our arguments only got worse, but she was still my mother and I felt that I owed it to Mason to look after her when he wasn’t here to do it, so I did. Every night I found her in a sobbing heap I would help her no matter how many insults she threw at me at that particular time.

“Carl will be there.” Lydia said as if the mention of my boyfriend would magically make me do anything in my power to be there.

She wouldn’t be using his name to bribe me if she knew how much Carl and I had been spending apart.

We had been together for five months and Carl kept pushing me to go further, but I just didn’t feel anything for him no matter how hard I tried or how many times we made out. I had told Carl this, but he seemed insistent to get me to like him, but I was pretty sure it was hopeless when Mason had left nothing seemed to matter anymore, our bond as twins had always been a strong one, but I had never realised how strong until it had shattered my heart with his departure.

“Hello!” Lydia shouted snapping her fingers in my face.

I shook my head and looked at her questioningly.

“I said that Carl will be there.” She said again sounding frustrated.

I just shrugged in response.

She pouted and put her hands on her hips. She always used this stance when she was annoyed with me and her golden eyes would flash angrily at me. She was just as short as me, but had a slim figure that my body didn’t seem able to match even though I was barely eating. Her white blonde hair finished off her appearance and most guys would practically drool over her.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with you, it’s like you don’t even care about anything since Mason left!” She said to me with a stamp of her foot.

Mason had always found her annoying and his presence had usually kept me away from her, but when he had left she was the only friend I had.

I shrugged again pretty much confirming her theory about not caring.

She scrunched her face up at me as if she was trying to figure me out.

“Fine, if your boyfriend isn’t enough to convince you to go, I’m going to have to pull out the big guns and tell you about the eye candy. The Fallon brothers will be there.”

I couldn’t help, but roll my eyes at her.

The Fallon brothers were practically celebrities in this town. This school was even named after them plus the private school they went to and not to mention the huge “Fallon Mansion” they lived in.

I mean don’t get me wrong the brothers were gorgeous and extremely sexy, but I could never understand the way the girls drooled over them and fell over each other just to get them to notice them first. It was difficult not to laugh at how pathetic it was when it was seen in action. Mason and I had often collapsed into fits of laughter at parties when it happened only to achieve scowls from the two brothers, but now when I saw it, it just made me feel sick.

“How can you be immune to how amazingly handsome they are?” She asked, her voice gaining a dream like quality when she spoke about how “totally awesome” they were just like it always did.

“I’m not immune to how attractive they are, I just don’t worship the ground they walk on like everyone else seems to.” I said dryly.

The absence of Masons’ chuckle that would have usually followed a sentence like that just made me feel more depressed.

Lydia just glared at me as we stopped outside the school gates, her house was the opposite side of the school from mine so this was where we split.

“Please, you have to come.” She whined in one last desperate attempt to get me to go.

I groaned. “If I can get my Mum to bed early I’ll come.” I said giving up.

She grinned and clapped her hands together before spinning on one foot. “Yay!” She shouted.

Damn, if this is what she acted like when I said maybe, I was sure glad I hadn’t just said yes, she would have probably had me jumping around with her like we were two Jack in the Box’s.

I groaned inwardly at myself. When had I become so boring and grumpy? Oh yeah, when Mason had left I answered my own question.

We said our goodbyes and I headed home. Our house was a small two bedroom, we had downgraded our house three times since Mason had left and Mum had lost her job after repeated absences and a couple of alcohol induced coma’s occurring from her on the premises, despite our tiny house we were still struggling to live on the few savings we had. They would have lasted a lot longer if she hadn’t been smoking and drinking away most of them.

I unlocked the front door and made my way to the kitchen, to my relief she had already passed out going by the loud snores erupting from her throat as she half sat in her chair and half lay across the table. She had a frame similar to my own and I was so used to this by now that I easily pulled one of her arms over my shoulders and pretty much dragged her to the ugly couch with the stuffing coming out in the small lounge and lay her down on it before pulling and blanket over her.

Sighing I ran my fingers through my hair and tossed the empty alcohol bottles from the table into the trash.

I gulped down two glasses of water one after the other before looking through the empty cupboards. I was starved, but my stomach was beginning to get used to the lack of meals and only having the occasional meal if I was lucky enough when my Mum topped up on her alcohol.

Rubbing my empty stomach I ran upstairs to change into jogging bottoms and a t-shirt. I retrieved my ipod from under a hidden floorboard. I kept it hidden there when my Mum had begun to ransack the house for items to sell in order to buy more alcohol and cigarettes. Mason had bought it for me on our last birthday, it was the last thing he had given me and there was no way I was losing it so I kept it out of sight from my Mum.

After running back down the stairs and out of the front door I stuffed my ear buds into my ears, turned my ipod on and began to run. I know that it probably wasn’t a good idea to go running with next to no nourishment in my body, but if I didn’t I felt like the stress would rip me apart from the inside out. Most people had those little balls they squeezed to relieve their stress, but I had to run. Mason and I had often gone running after school and maybe it was connected with that, but everyday since he had been gone I had been running at least once, sometimes more on a bad day. I ran for different lengths of time, it just depended on how long it took for my aching muscles to get more painful than my aching heart. When he had first left I had been able to run for hours, but the less food I consumed the quicker I could return home. My time limit was now down to about an hour so when I returned back to my house I knew that I would have time to change before the party that I really wasn’t looking forward to going to.

I half hoped that my Mum would have woken up when I walked through the door, but to my disappointment she was still snoring away.

Now that was something I never expected to be disappointed about I thought as I climbed the stairs, hid my ipod, went into the bathroom and stripped my clothes off my numb body before climbing into the shower.

The shower never stayed hot for long here so I had mastered the ability to have a quick shower and still be able to wash my hair, shave and wash everywhere else.

Now came the job of deciding what to wear, if I wore black like I had been wearing lately to reflect my mood I had a feeling Lydia would have a head fit so I reluctantly browsed through my clothes. To my surprise they all seemed to be present. I hadn’t really cared enough to look lately and I didn’t want to argue again so I had just been grabbing the first black clothes before slamming the wardrobe door shut.

The first time I had found my Mum snooping in my room for things to sell it had been one of our bigger arguments and I had told her to never step in here again.

Of course, I had expected her to ignore me hence the hidden ipod, but there didn’t appear to be anything missing.

Shaking my head still feeling surprised I grabbed some black leggings and my low cut long green sparkly top that matched my eyes and clung to all of my curves in the right places although I wasn’t quite as curvy as I had been due to my eating habits or more my lack of them. It wasn’t as clingy as it used to be, but I still thought it looked good when I pulled it on over my leggings. I put on some boots to finish off my outfit before blow drying my long auburn curls and completing the look with a little make up.

My skin seemed to be getting paler by the day and I began to think that I might become translucent if it carried on. A little foundation covered most of the bags under my eyes and added a little colour to my face, but even then I could still see how exhausted I looked in my pain filled eyes.

Making sure I had my cell phone I took a deep breath and left the house. Even if I didn’t have a good time I could at least raid the food table if they had one and I damn well hoped they did.

 

“Don’t look so miserable, you’re seventeen, we should have fun.” Lydia whined when I reached the house as if my sadness was somehow offending her.

I had realised I didn’t know where the party was and after a few exchanged texts between Lydia and I she had promised to meet me outside the house of the party that I now knew the location of.

“Sorry, but you’re the one who dragged me here.” I muttered as she led me through the door and we navigated our way through the house packed out with people.

She ignored my comment and instead said. “Well, you look good so stop complaining about being here and have fun.”

I bit my tongue to stop myself from continuing to do just that and instead said. “Thanks, is there a food table anywhere here?”

“God, you’re always hungry.” She groaned in an exasperated voice.

“Tell me about it.” I muttered low enough that she couldn’t hear me.

She seemed reluctant, but led me to the food table when I kept asking. She only waited a few minutes; I only managed to eat a few Doritos and a couple of those mini sausage rolls before she dragged me away by my arm. My stomach still grumbled and I groaned feeling like I had just been food teased.

“No one eats at parties, they just drink.” Lydia said as if it was some kind of unwritten rule.

I didn’t care if it was.

“It’s not attractive to eat in front of guys.” She continued.

I really didn’t care one bit.

“And you were stuffing your face, you looked very unladylike.” She finished.

I really, really couldn’t have cared about anything less.

I really wanted food, but I tried to ignore it to prevent myself from looking like some kind of psycho by running to the food table and shoving the items down my throat. Too busy looking back at the food table longingly I didn’t realise where she was leading me until it was too late.

I felt cold and unfamiliar arms wrap around my waist despite the fact they had been wrapped around me many times they still made me shiver all over and not in a good way.

“You look super hot tonight.” Carl whispered in my ear.

“Thanks.” I murmured resisting the temptation to pull away from his grip.

I looked up to see Lydia abandoning me to flirt with some random guys. Carl began to grope my arse and run his hands over my body making me feel like something disgusting was crawling over my skin.

“How about we find a free bedroom upstairs?” He suggested.

“How about we don’t?” I replied unable to stand being in his arms any longer and pulling away.

“Oh, come on Meg, it’s been five months. I think I kind of have the right now.”

I turned and glared at him. “Being my boyfriend doesn’t give you the right to do what you want with me.”

He shrugged. “Whatever babe, I’ll go get my fun from someone else.”

He had just basically admitted that he was going to cheat on me and despite not having any real feelings for him I can’t deny that it stung a little. If he wanted someone else the fine, but he could have at least dumped me first.

I shrugged. “Fine, get another girlfriend.”

He grabbed my shoulder when I turned away. “I didn’t mean it babe, I want you.”

I sighed still not caring before turning to him and shrugging. “Fine.” As if it made any difference anyway.

“So, what do you want to do?” He asked, his grin wide.

On closer inspection I saw his eyes were a little crazy and his smile looked kind of manic, he had clearly been drinking, but wasn’t quite drunk yet and I didn’t really want to be around to see it.

I had barely been here an hour and I was ready to leave so I shrugged before saying. “I’m pretty tired Carl, I’m going to head home. Can you tell Lydia I went home?”

He shrugged and still had that stupid grin on his face when he said. “Sure babe, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I nodded and he leaned down to kiss my lips, I didn’t return the kiss, but he seemed happy enough to do all the work not caring that I wasn’t enjoying it at all.

When he pulled away my green eyes met grey ones across the room. If I hadn’t known he was Tyler Fallon by sight I would have known it was one of the Fallon brothers by the girls stumbling around him trying to get his attention. He usually had a scowl on his face when he looked at me due to my usual amusement at the silly girls surrounding him, but my lack of entertainment that I used to get out of his situation had in turn erased his scowl and turned it into a frown.

I sighed and broke our gaze by turning away and heading away from the party and back home.

Wow, I was so glad Lydia had made me go to that I thought thinking that Lydia wouldn’t really like my sarcasm even in my head. It had been a complete waste of time and the highlight of the night had been the few minutes that I had, had to devour as much as I could from the food table. In my opinion I didn’t think that I had eaten nearly enough and my stomach agreed with me, but it was too late to go back now.

When I walked into the house I checked to make sure that my Mum was still sleeping before walking up the stairs slowly and into my bedroom. After pulling off my party outfit and leaving it on the floor I pulled the too big t-shirt over my head and fell on my bed without even cleaning off my make up uncaring of the fact that it would be smudged all over my face in the morning.

It didn’t take long for me to fall into a fitful sleep as I dreamt of Mason, seeing him behind my eyelids as he put his life in danger. He was shooting at people, people were shooting at him and the injuries I saw were almost unbearable to look at, but I couldn’t turn away. There was so much agony around me and I was stuck there suffering right along with them.

 

 

 

Chapter 2

 

I woke up panting and covered in sweat, the images had continued to haunt my sleep right up until I had been jolted awake by my alarm clock. Feeling worse than I would have if I had stayed awake the whole night I rolled out of bed and headed to the bathroom. Mascara was smudged around my eyes giving me the appearance of a panda and I quickly cleaned the make up off of my face.

I rubbed my sore eyes as I returned to my bedroom and replaced my t-shirt for black skinny jeans, black vest top and the same black boots I had worn last night. Most of my clothes were loose on me now and these were no exception. After brushing out my hair I looked at my face seeing how unhealthy I looked at the moment, I gave it up as a hopeless job before I even started to attempt an improvement. Taking my jacket off of the back of the bedroom door, and yes that was black too, I ran down the stairs to find my Mum hung over and sitting at the kitchen table with some coffee, at least she waited until I left for school before pulling out the drink.

“Hi Mum.” I said plonking down on the chair opposite here.

She looked up at me with a fake smile on her lips before nodding in response.

My stomach protested loudly despite my little snack that I had managed to grab the night before. It was probably around time I had a meal and after a few minutes of begging my Mum reluctantly handed over a little cash for some lunch. By the time I had managed it I knew that I would be late for school so I picked up a little speed and jogged there still only just managing to reach my classroom door before the teacher arrived.

Classes were slow and I struggled to stay awake throughout them, Lydia had told me I looked like I was on deaths doorstep just to make me feel better because she was just so kind and all. A few of the teachers even asked me if I was feeling ok or had to see the nurse, which I declined of course. There wasn’t anything a nurse could do for exhaustion and I was pretty sure that they didn’t have all day buffets laid out in there so I sucked it up and waited for lunch.

When it was finally lunch time I walked to the cafeteria quickly and despite only being able to order the cheapest meal on the menu I ate every last bit. It had tasted disgusting, but at least it filled my stomach for a little while. Lydia had looked like she wasn’t sure she wanted to sit with me anymore when she saw what I had, but for all I cared she could leave if she wanted to. She didn’t.

When it was finally the end of school I was thankful that it was Friday and I planned on spending most of the weekend in bed. Lydia actually suggested that I go to the Doctor, but I knew what the problem was so I didn’t either deny or confirm that I would be going to the Doctor since I didn’t have the energy to argue with her, instead we just said our goodbyes and I made my way home hoping that my Mum was already passed out so that I could just crawl into bed.

When I unlocked the front door, my first reaction was to think that we had been burgled, but there were a few boxes lying around, which just confused me. After another survey of the hall I found my Mum sitting on the stairs, bottle of alcohol in one hand, cigarette in the other alternating between using both. She had tears streaming down her face as she looked up at me. I looked around at the boxes again before asking.

“Mum, what’s going on?”

She sighed. “We lost the house Megan.”

“What?” I exclaimed. “How?”

 She shook her head helplessly. “Rent was due last week, we don’t have enough money and the landlord said we need to be out by the end of today.”

I ran my hands through my hair in frustration. Great, we were now officially homeless. This was just too much for me to handle and without warning I kicked the wall before letting out a scream from between clenched teeth.

“No need to get like that.” My Mum muttered calmly.

“What the hell are you talking about Mum, don’t you care that we now have nowhere to live?” I growled at her.

“Oh, nonsense.” She slurred. “Ceaser has offered us residence in his house.”

“Oh really Mum and just who is Ceaser?” I asked in agitation, I was used to her drunken ramblings by now.

“Ceaser Fallon.” She said confidently.

I let out a humourless laugh. “Of course Mum because I mean why wouldn’t he let us stay?”

“Why do you always have to be so sarcastic?” She whined.

“Because this is serious Mum, we have nowhere to go!” I exclaimed at her trying to make her understand through her alcohol fogged brain.

So much for coming home and spending most of the weekend sleeping I thought. I grabbed a few empty boxes and manoeuvred around my Mum to climb up the stairs. I might as well start packing since we had to leave anyway, I just wasn’t sure where to yet.

I pulled my hair into a ponytail and started throwing my clothes and things into boxes. Luckily I didn’t have a lot anymore after having to sell so many things so it didn’t take long for me to pack everything. When everything was packed I picked up my ipod from under the floor board and lifted it up before tracing my finger over the engraved words on the back.

Best Sister Ever

Happy Birthday

I Love You

xoxo

“I wish you were here.” I murmured out loud struggling to hold tears back before I shoved it in my pocket so that it wouldn’t get lost in a box and made my way back down the stairs.

Luckily we didn’t have to pack Mason’s things since we had left them in boxes after we had moved the second time, which meant that everything was packed. Now the hard part was getting somewhere to stay. Feeling completely drained I climbed down a couple of stairs before sitting down and closing my eyes to help prevent the headache that I could feel coming on between my eyes as I tried to figure out what to do.

“You look pale dear.”

I sighed. “Since when do you call me dear, Mum?” I asked opening my eyes slowly.

I did a double take when I saw a tall handsome man who must have been about my Mum’s age. He had shoulder length dark blonde hair and chocolate brown eyes, he looked like a movie star. I wasn’t usually rude, but frankly I had, had enough for one day so I just blurted.

“Who the hell are you?”

“Megan, be polite.” My Mum scolded, well at least this was one of her better drunken moods.

I groaned before looking at her and seeing that her gaze was fixed on Mr Handsome. “Mum, I have a lot on my shoulders right now ok? I don’t have time to be pleasant.”

She didn’t respond so I looked back at the stranger and said. “If you’re the landlord, don’t worry we’ll be out by the end of the day.”

He raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Where are you headed?” He asked in a deep voice that didn’t give any room for disobedience, he would have made a good leader in the army I thought thinking of Mason.

I shook my head and stood up. “I don’t really know yet, but we’ll find somewhere so don’t worry we’ll be out of your house.”

“This is Ceaser Fallon.” My Mum said proudly.

I groaned running my hands through my tied hair before reaching the bottom of the stairs and grabbing the bottle of alcohol out of her hands. “Please Mum, this isn’t the time for this, just please go and pack something ok?”

She pouted like a child. “But there is nothing left to pack.”

I almost screamed in frustration, but barely managed to hold on to my control. “Mum, please go into the lounge.”

She shook her head as she still pouted like a child. My headache was becoming considerably worse and I stumbled when my vision blurred for a second. I felt a cold hand on my shoulder to steady me and I glanced up into brown eyes.

“Are you feeling alright?” The stranger/ maybe landlord/ Mum’s imaginary Ceaser asked with concern in his eyes.

I nodded before saying. “I’m fine thanks, just the stress of moving.”

He gave a warm smile. “Well, as difficult as it is to believe your Mother at the moment, I am in fact Ceaser Fallon and you are invited to my house as guests.”

I stared at him for a full two minutes, my first thought was how the hell could he call that mansion a house? Before I shook my head and asked. “Why would you do that?”

That slight smile stayed present on his lips as he said. “Your Mother and I are old friends and it is the least I can do to help you both out until you can get back on your feet.”

“I’m very happy about the fact we aren’t going to be sleeping on benches tonight and all that, but how do you know my Mum?”

That ever present smile was still glued to his face. “That my child, is a story for another time.”

I was still in shock about how narrowly we had missed having to live on the street so I nodded numbly and sat down on the bottom step heavily knowing that my pounding head was working against my efforts to stand up.

“I told you it was Ceaser!” My Mum said happily having watched the whole exchange between us.

I sighed and nodded. “I know Mum.”

“I have a truck outside, is it ok to start putting the boxes on?” Ceaser asked.

I gave a slight nod in response.

“Ok Dudes, let’s get us some boxes on that vehicle!” A loud and happy sounding voice exclaimed.

I missed being that happy I thought before looking up to find Shane, the younger Fallon brother rubbing his hands together and seeming to be deciding which boxes to pick up first. His haircut was very close to his head and it was a dark brown, but his brown eyes were identical to his fathers I realised as I saw them standing side by side. I wasn’t sure since he went to private school, but I thought that he was my age and roomers had it that his older brother had almost two years on him.

“Loading boxes is not that fun.” Said a deep, sexy voice before appearing in the doorway and slapping Shane over the head.

I had never realised until then that I hadn’t heard him talk before now and boy had I been missing out? His hair was the same colour as Shane’s, but it was longer and styled messily. The same grey eyes I had seen last night landed on me and seemed to take me in. At one point I would have been worried about what a mess I looked, but right now it was the last thing on my mind. I tried to hold it back, but I couldn’t stop the yawn that escaped my throat before asking Ceaser.

“Are you sure about this?” I glanced at my drunk Mother nervously. “Do you know what you’re letting yourself in for?”

“Of course, everything will be fine.” He assured me.

Too tired to argue I nodded and stood up to grab a box, but before I could three pairs of eyes glared at me. Feeling uncomfortable I looked behind me thinking maybe something behind me had caused them to look like that.

Shane snorted. “Yeah, this look is totally directed at you.”

I frowned in confusion. “What did I do?”

“Try to pick up a box, the boxes are ours!” He growled playfully before ending with an evil laugh.

I groaned not really sorry that I wouldn’t have to use the last of my energy to carry boxes around and sat back on the bottom stair.

“Oh, isn’t this exciting.” My Mum exclaimed drunkenly clapping her hands before hiccupping.

I rubbed at the ache in my head and sighed. “Yes Mother, being thrown out of our house is a thrilling experience, I wish we had thought of it sooner.”

Shane snorted and I could have sworn I saw Tyler’s mouth tilt up at the corner slightly, but they didn’t say anything. Ceaser’s lips just stayed in that small smile and I started to wonder if his mouth was just stuck like that.

My Mum didn’t answer back, she just swayed happily as the guys began carrying boxes out to the truck and piling them on not seeming to struggle with any box no matter what the weight. After a few minutes I excused myself to the bathroom and ran upstairs to splash cold water on my face hoping to help with the headache and sleepiness that I was struggling to fight off.

Realising the towels were all packed I wiped my face off with some tissue before walking out of the bathroom only to walk straight into a chest, and a very nice chest I might add. At least from what I could tell through his t-shirt.

My shoulders were caught before I stumbled backwards and fell over. Slowly I looked up into grey eyes.

“Sorry.” I mumbled moving back from him a little.

I hadn’t realised that they had started on the boxes upstairs already so I hadn’t been prepared to walk straight into one of them.

His lips tilted up into a half smile before he moved around me and headed into my room, I couldn’t help but stare after him before I shook my head to clear it as best I could and headed downstairs. My Mum was sat on the couch dozing and I had no idea how I was going to wake her up, it was always hell, but I was thankful that she hadn’t been in one of her angry drunk moods, no one wanted to see those.

I sat on the arm of the couch purposely making myself uncomfortable enough that I wouldn’t fall asleep as I watched the guys carry boxes down and out of the front door.

In a surprisingly short time Shane called down from the top of the stairs. “All clear dudes!”

I ran my hands through my tied up hair in frustration before kneeling on the floor in front of Mum and gently shaking her to wake her up.

“Mason?” She mumbled as her eyes fluttered.

“No Mum, it’s Megan. Come on, you have to wake up please.”

After a few more minutes with no success I sighed and muttered. “Damn alcohol shit.” Before leaning down and pulling her arm over my shoulders.

Her weight wasn’t even completely on me before she was pulled away from me and scooped up into Ceaser’s arms like she weighed nothing.

“Thank you.” I murmured with a yawn before grabbing the car keys on the kitchen side. The car was rarely used, but we had it just in case. “Can you just get her in my car please? Then I can follow your truck.”

He didn’t say a word as we all followed him out of the house before I locked the door up and hid the key under the plant pot next to the door for the land lord to find remembering that he had left it there for us. After unlocking the car and opening the passenger door for Ceaser he slid my Mum into the seat easily. I was heading for the driver side when suddenly he appeared before me and snatched the keys out of my hand. It happened so fast that my brain had trouble catching up and I looked from my empty hands to the car keys now in his hands several times before shaking my head and asking.

“What are you doing?”

“Well, I think I’ll drive my dear, I have a feeling that you’re going to fall asleep at the wheel if I let you drive.” Ceaser stated.

I yawned and nodded not even bothering to deny it, he was probably right anyway.

“Yeah, you can ride in the truck with us awesome dudes.” Shane said with a grin.

“Oh, joy.” I said dryly knowing my headache would be worse if I had to listen to his ridiculously good mood all the way.

“Well, don’t sound so cheerful about it, we might think you want to come with us.” Shane chuckled.

Tyler hit him over the head again. “Leave her alone man, she’s clearly tired.”

Shane shoved him, but to my relief Tyler’s only retaliation was an evil glare similar to the ones he had directed my way before.

Shane hopped into the truck to drive, I clambered up into it on the other side before sitting in the middle of the bench seat closely followed by Tyler. Shane started the truck up and pulled away from the curb as I tried to keep my head up every time my chin seemed to be pulled towards my chest with some kind of magnetic force, the same magnetic force that was trying to force my eyelids closed.

Shane had turned the heater up filling my body with a warmth that I hadn’t felt since my Mum had quit paying the heating bills a few months ago. It felt so good that I just wanted to curl up and sleep.

“You can take a nap ya know.” Tyler said suddenly making me jump.

“I’m fine.” I insisted stubbornly, but stubborn as I was nothing could fight the exhaustion that was weighing down on me at that moment.

My eyes closed before my head fell sideways, part of me was saying to wake the hell up and lift my head from his shoulder, but the other part, the part that secretly loved the way his grey eyes had fixed on me twice before wanted me to stay exactly where I was. Of course I didn’t have a chance to decide to lift my head since sleep sucked me under.

 

The sudden absence of the low hum of the truck engine woke me up and for a minute I was a little disoriented.

“Where am I?” I murmured in between a yawn.

I still felt exhausted, but I didn’t feel like it was impossible to stay awake.

“Fallon Mansion.” Said a deep voice from beside me.

I tensed as I remembered everything that had happened and I suddenly realised that my head was still on Tyler’s shoulder. Jolting away from him suddenly as I felt my face heat up I mumbled.

“Sorry.”

Shane chuckled from my other side. “Dude, she actually got some colour in her cheeks for a second then.”

I groaned and rubbed my hands over my face as Shane climbed out of the truck.

“Sorry about that I kind of used you as a pillow.” I said not meeting eye contact with him still feeling embarrassed about it.

“No problem.” Tyler said. “I’ll show you to your room and you can get some sleep.”

Usually I would have insisted I was fine, but I really did need to sleep so it would have been stupid to deny myself it.

“Thanks.” I said.

He climbed out of the truck and I followed him before looking up at the mansion house my Mum and I would be staying in for now. It was a beautiful house, but I really was too tired to admire it like it should have been so I looked at my feet.

“Come on.” Tyler said.

I followed him over to the house, through the huge double front doors, into a foyer bigger than the whole of our last house and then up some stairs into a long hallway. He lead me to the third door on the left and opened it for me, I walked in before turning back and asking.

“What about my Mum?”

“My Dad will put her in bed.” He assured me.

I nodded. “Thanks.”

He nodded once before closing the door and I turned to look around my new room. It was huge with antique looking furniture and this single room was probably worth more than all the houses we had lived in combined. Since all of my clothes were in boxes I simply walked over to the huge bed that must have been bigger than a king size and fell on top of it before kicking my shoes off and pulling my hair tie out. My stress level was high at the moment and I really wanted to run, but I just didn’t have the energy to do that. I was cold and wanted to get under the duvet, but all I managed was to roll over before I was engulfed by darkness.

 

I dreamt of Mason in the army again, but I also kept dreaming of grey eyes. When a loud smash woke me up I wasn’t as well rested as I had wanted to be, but when I heard my Mum yell and another smash I didn’t have much choice, but to get up and find out what was going on so I reluctantly climbed off of the comfiest mattress I had ever been on and made my way towards the door. My Mum was probably drunk yet again and Ceaser would probably throw us out if she wasn’t careful. I just hoped that he hadn’t already decided to. Glancing in a mirror on the way out of the room I saw that my auburn curls were all over the place and then I almost fell over something. When I steadied myself I realised it was a box and after a look around the room I saw that the boxes from my room were all in here.

Looking back at the clock on the bedside table I saw that it was well past midnight. I groaned, my Mum had probably woken everyone up with her yelling and smashing. Shaking my head I walked out of my bedroom door, it wasn’t difficult to locate her with all the noise she was making. When I found her she was in the kitchen with alcohol in one hand and a glass held up in the other as if she was about to throw it at the wall. Ceaser and his sons were looking at her as if they were at a loss as to what to do with her. The first few times she had done it I had been the same, but I was used to her by now so I walked straight up to her and ripped the glass out of her hand that was in danger of being broken before putting it on the kitchen table and returning my gaze to her.

“Mum, you don’t behave like this at someone’s house, just go to bed.” I told her.

“Mason.” She cried with tears running down her face.

Great this was a bad drunken mood, as if the smashing glasses hadn’t given it away, but I had still hoped.

“Mum, Mason isn’t here, now you need to go to bed and sleep this off.”

“And why isn’t he here?” She hissed at me taking another swig of alcohol.

Great, here came the blame I thought before snatching the alcohol out of her hand. She launched towards me to grab the bottle, but I was pretty much an expert at this by now so I dodged out of the way and she went flying past me.

“It’s your fault he isn’t here.” She yelled at me.

“Of course it is Mum. I clearly made him join the army.” I said before slamming the bottle of alcohol on the table a little harder than I meant to.

Feeling embarrassed and not really wanting the others to see this argument that was about to take place I turned to Ceaser and asked.

“I know this is your house and I completely understand if you want to kick us out, but can you give us a minute please?”

The normal smile he had was actually missing, it was the first time I had seen him without it. “I’m not kicking you out, but yes we will give you a minute with your Mum.”

I thanked him and they headed towards the kitchen door.

“If you need anything just yell, we’ll be in the lounge.” Ceaser said.

I nodded not that I knew where the lounge was and then he closed the door behind him so I turned to my Mum with a sigh not really feeling up to the coming argument.

“Mum, I’m really not in the mood for this, can’t you just go to bed?”

“You would say that wouldn’t you? You just don’t care that your brother is gone.” She slurred at me.

“Dammit Mum, of course I care! I don’t know how many times we have to go through this!” I growled already losing my temper with her and her stupid words.

“You drove him away.” She sobbed.

I glared at her. “I did not, you have no idea how hard it was not to beg him not to leave, but I knew he wanted to go so I let him!”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about Meg, you didn’t love him as much as I did.”

“He was my twin brother!” I yelled at her. “You have no idea how strong a connection we have!”

“You’re an evil bitch!” She hissed at me.

“Thanks Mum, you’re real nice. It’s obvious that I put up with all your shit because I’m evil.”

“You horrible child, I’ve treated you too well. Let you get away with too much!” She yelled and before I saw it coming she slapped me across the side of the face so hard that I actually stumbled backwards and tears stung my eyes.

It stung and I clutched the side of my face before hissing back. “If you hit me again I’m not going to hesitate to hit you back. As for treating me too well, that is bullshit and you know it! I have barely eaten since Mason has bloody left because you spend so much damn money on your stinking fags and alcohol and you wouldn’t know what the hell I get away with since you are either so drunk you barely know who you are most of the time or you’re asleep!”

“How dare you speak to me like that!” She screamed. “You little slut, you probably sleep with half the people in town!”

“Oh shit you found me out.” I yelled feeling tears run down my face, she had never been this mean before. “Like I’d have the damn time to sleep with anyone, I spend most of my free time taking care of you, not that you deserve it!”

“You ungrateful brat, I raised you it’s the least you can do!”

I gave a humourless laugh. “Raised me? That’s a joke Mum, I raised myself with Mason’s help, you barely gave me the time of day and frankly I preferred being ignored by you than being treated like this!”

“I never wanted a daughter, you were always a disappointment!” She returned before slapping me again.

It felt like what was left of my heart had just been ripped out of my chest, I didn’t even bother to hit her back like I had promised. I was hurting too much and I couldn’t stop the tears from running down my face, I felt like she had just broken me. She had really pushed me to my limit and I didn’t want anything to do with her again, if she hated me that much then fine.

It was difficult to talk, but I managed to say. “You don’t want me, then fine. You can take care of yourself.” I turned away from her towards the back door in the kitchen and as I walked out of the door I hissed back at her. “Screw you Mum.”

She didn’t even try to stop me and I hadn’t really expected her to, like she had said she didn’t want me. Having taken my shoes off upstairs I only had my socks on, but I didn’t care I needed to run now so I pulled the ipod out that was still in my pocket and put the ear plugs in. After putting my hair up with the hair tie still on my wrist I turned it on.

I ran until my body was so numb that I couldn’t even feel it, my feet were killing me from the abuse they had suffered of repeatedly hitting the pavement and I was pretty sure they had blisters, but I didn’t pause to check, if I stopped running I was afraid my heart would start hurting again. 

Eventually I slowed to a walk when I felt like my legs were really going to give out. The sun was just peeking over the horizon so I must have been running for hours and I was glad that I could no longer feel anything. My empty stomach rumbled, but it didn’t matter, my parched throat stung and that didn’t matter, my eyelids were drooping, but I ignored it since that didn’t matter either and made my feet keep moving. Having nowhere else to go I had no choice, but to go back to Fallon Mansion. When I reached the front door I stumbled through barely standing up, the moment I stepped through warmth hit my cheek lessening the numbing that the cold had inflicted on my face. For a minute I couldn’t figure out why agony sliced through my face, but then I remembered that my Mum had hit me there twice so it was kind of understandable.

“Man, what happened to your face?” I heard Shane’s voice before I looked up at him.

“Mum.” I said simply before heading towards the stairs.

“Ouch, well where have you been? Dad and Tyler have been looking for you.”

I stopped then and turned back to look at him with a frown. “Why?

He looked at me like I was insane. “Well, you ran off last night, we got kind of concerned when you didn’t turn up after we got your Mum to bed and a few hours went by.”

They were concerned? I hadn’t really expected them to be, I wasn’t used to anyone being concerned about me except from Mason and maybe Lydia on occasion. I was used to being able to go out when I wanted since Mason had gone, when he had been here he went with me everywhere, but now I was alone.

Before I could apologise the sound of the door opening in the foyer could be heard before Tyler shouted out.

“Shane, is Dad home? I couldn’t find her anywhere; she’s a sneaky little –.” He cut off when he saw us. “Oh, you’re here.”

I nodded. “Sorry, I didn’t think you guys would go looking.”

Tyler’s eyebrows drew together. “Just because we’ve only just met you it doesn’t mean we are ok with you disappearing.”

“No, I didn’t mean that.” I shook my head. “Just no one has ever bothered to look for me before.” I shrugged. “So I didn’t think about it.”

Shane rose an eyebrow. “Not even Mason?”

I frowned. “How do you kn-?”

“Was kind of hard not to hear your argument.” Tyler cut me off.

“Oh.” I murmured my cheeks growing warm. “Well, no. Mason was always with me so it wasn’t really something he had to do.” They didn’t say anything and then I realised I was soaked with sweat and probably stunk so I murmured. “Is it ok if I take a shower and get some sleep?”

“Yeah, sure.” Shane said with a grin.

“Thanks.” I murmured before forcing my tired body up the stairs and into my room.

The bathroom joined to my room was amazing and under different circumstances I would have been really happy about it and spent ages in the shower, which seemed to have a much better supply of hot water than the last house, but that wasn’t the case so after staying in there for long enough to take my time washing my hair and washing off all the sweat I stumbled out, dried myself off with one of the many fluffy white towels and pulled on some pyjamas after finding them in one of the boxes. The carpet was thick and fluffy and felt good beneath my sore feet as I walked across the room and slid under the duvet before letting myself fall into a dreamless sleep.