Free All Falls Down by Ayden K. Morgen Page B

so hard for. I know you all depend on each other, but you have to come first sometime, too. That's not selfish. It's realistic."
    Kit sighs. "I just feel bad for leaving now, you know? Lexi and Maddi need me, and you just got here."
    "Kit, you'll only be twenty minutes away." I want to assure her that we'll all be okay, but I can't seem to force the words out. I want to be okay. I'm trying to be okay. But most days I still struggle to really believe it. And I can't lie and tell her Maddi and Lexi will be just fine without her, either. The reality is that they probably aren't going to be just fine, not for a long time to come.
    "Being an adult sucks," she mutters into the silence.
    "Yeah, it does," I whisper. "Remember when we couldn't wait to grow up?"
    "We were naïve. I never thought I'd miss being a teenager."
    "Me either. But it was easier, wasn't it?" Even though my mom abandoned me and hers died suddenly, being a teenager wasn't nearly this hard. Or maybe we were just more optimistic, more hopeful that there was a reason, an explanation for all the bad and painful things we had to endure.
    God, that seems so long ago.
    My mom… Where is she? Does she ever think about me? Miss me?
    I quickly push the thought away. I don't want to think about her. Not now. Not ever. I was her throwaway child. I wish I could forget that as easily as she forgot me.
    "What do you think about Lexi and Jared?" Kit blurts out suddenly.
    I stare at her, unsure what she means.
    "There's something off about them."
    "What do you mean?"
    Kit frowns, thinking. "He's been living here for months, but they don't share a room. I haven't ever walked in on them kissing or cuddling. In fact, I don't think I've ever even seen them touch each other unless someone else is around or she's crying. Isn't that strange? I mean, he's gorgeous. If I was Lexi, I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off of him."
    "I'm sure it's just stress," I offer weakly, the thought of putting my hands all over Jared making my heart race.
    "Yeah, you're probably right."
    We both lapse into silence again.
    I try desperately not to think about what she just said. I don't need a reason to question what's going on between Jared and Lexi. If I start down that road… I'm not so sure I'll be able to pull myself off of it. And that won't end well for anyone.
    As we sit there lost in our own thoughts, the front door opens.
    "Jared, just drop it," Lexi hisses over the beep of the alarm. "I said no, and I don't want to talk about it anymore. I want to go to bed."
    Kit and I look at each other with matching surprised expressions.
    Lexi's heels click across the foyer toward the stairs. She glances in our direction, waves once, and storms up the stairs without another word, her face set in angry, stubborn lines.
    "Dammit, Lex." Jared shuts the front door. The alarm beeps again and he punches the code in before turning back to the stairs just in time to see Lexi disappearing at the top. "Fuck," he mutters and closes his eyes for a minute, obviously trying to rein in his temper.
    "Everything okay?" Kit asks him.
    "What?" He cracks his eyes open. "Oh… fine." He rakes a hand roughly through his hair, glances around the room at the girls' night paraphernalia scattered around, and then cocks a brow at us. His stiff stance doesn't waver. "Have fun?"
    "Yeah," Kit answers.
    I'm too busy trying not to stare at him and failing miserably to say anything. He's wearing a tuxedo, complete with a bowtie that matches the color of his eyes. His hair is all over the place, his jaw scruffy. Good grief, he's breathtaking.
    He looks at me, and for the first time in a week, our eyes connect. Warmth rushes through me, threatening to steal my breath.
    I jerk my gaze away to stare a hole in the floor at his feet.
    My heart pounds, and I know that no amount of talking to myself is going to stop this.
    Why him? Why now?
    God, why me ?
    And I know it's not just me. The way he stares at me… No, it's not just me caught in