Free The Falling of Love by Marisa Oldham Page A

hell is he? There are only fifteen minutes left of lunch.
    Anxiously she glances around the campus and Ian is nowhere in sight.
    “Where’s your loser boyfriend?” says Chad, the captain of the football team, or “captain asshole,” as Michelle refers to him.
    “I wouldn’t know, Chad, because I don’t have a loser boyfriend.”
    Chad sits next to her and Grace scoots away from him giving him a dirty look.
    “You know what everyone says about you, Grace? Do you know what they think of you because you’re with that loser freak?” he asks, as he leans in near her.
    “No, Chad , and I don’t care,” she says, as she glares at him with a scowl on her face.
    “They say he’s bringing you down. They say you’re not doing your job as cheer captain anymore because you’re so wrapped up in that loser.”
    “Well, you can all go fuck yourselves,” she says, keeping her composure.
    This is not a normal reaction from Grace. She is usually very passive and does not let people get under her skin. When it comes to Ian, she will fight tooth and nail to protect his honor. Chad gets up from his seat on the grass, shakes his head, and walks away.
    There is some truth to what people say about her. She has missed the last three cheer practices and has lost all interest in being a cheerleader. She is doing well at keeping her grades up, and she helps Ian with his. As always, she excels in her art and history classes, but cheerleading just takes time away from her and Ian. She decides in that moment that she is done with this extra-curricular activity.
    Ian never shows up for lunch, and Grace is extremely worried about him. He has PE for sixth period, I’ll find him there .

 
 
 
    It seems to take hours for sixth period to finally arrive. Grace hurriedly walks into the gym on the short break she has in between classes and she searches frantically for Ian. He is nowhere to be found. However, she does spot Brandon and rushes over to him.
    “Where’s your brother?” she asks him as she runs up to him.
    “My dad came to get him before lunch. Not sure why,”
    “Oh, okay.” Grace says, with a sigh of relief.
    “You okay?”
    “Yeah, I was just worried when he didn’t show up for class and lunch. Can you tell him to call me? I should be home from school around three-thirty.”
    “Sure thing, Grace!” Brandon says.
    As she walks home alone for the first time in a few weeks, she cannot understand why Ian did not let her know that he was leaving school early that day. She wonders what was so urgent that Ian’s father had to come and get him out of school. I hope nothing serious has happened .
    Losing her parents at such a young age has made Grace suspicious of anything out of the ordinary. She always expects the worst outcomes from the unknown. If everything does not go exactly as planned, she always worries that there is some type of emergency.
    “Hey, sister,” Michelle says, as Grace walks in the front door of her home. Michelle is spread out on the couch with a jar of peanut butter and a packet of crackers lying on her stomach.
    “You’re going to ruin your dinner,” says Grace in an unusually somber voice.
    “Okay, mom,” Michelle says, in the voice of a ten year old, dragging it out so that she can no doubt emphasize her annoyance with Grace. “Hey, where’s Ian?” Michelle asks, surprised.
    “Not sure,” says Grace as she sets her backpack down and walks away.
    Grace can hear Michelle get up from the couch and follow her to the kitchen.
    “Why are you home so late?”
    Grace grabs a glass from the dish rack, opens the refrigerator, and grabs the milk carton.
    “I quit cheer.”
    “Why?” Michelle asks, with a mouth full of peanut butter, little bits of cracker flying from her lips.
    “It’s just not my thing anymore,” Grace says, as she takes small sips of milk from her glass.
    “Yeah, because Ian is your thing,” Michelle teases.
    Grace rolls her eyes. “I can’t really argue with that,