Free Falling Behind (Falling Series) by Dee Avila Page B

some quality time. He wanted to— he didn’t want to be around a bunch of people at a party.”
    Well, that totally sounded like a cover up. What was she hiding? “I don’t know what that means, but you can’t blame yourself. You did the right thing by telling your mom. Whether you were at the party or not, you were still planning on telling about her, right?”
    “I know ; but Ty, she wouldn’t be grounded right now and her parents wouldn’t have found out that she was at Alex’s.”
    “They needed to find out , Reese. She needed to be caught. Trust me, please, this will all blow over.” I waited several seconds for Reese to agree or argue more about how this was all her fault. After a short time of nothing, I asked, “Reese, you still there?”
    “Yeah, I gotta go. I’ll talk to you, later.” She whimpered into the phone, again.
    I blew out a huge sigh “Yeah, alright, ‘bye.” I dropped my phone on the bed beside me and closed my eyes. How were both my best friends in such screwed up relationships? I didn’t know what exactly was going on with Reese and Josh but something was up. I’d heard rumors that he was using coke with a few of the other football players. Now I wondered if it was more than just the normal rumor mill. There seemed to be some truth to it. When he had shown up at Reese’s, he looked spun—eyes wide, pupils dilated and grinding his teeth. I needed to keep an eye on all of them; a task that just got harder since the girls weren’t talking.
     
    Mom’s singing filtered through the house and through my closed door. Waking up, I stretched before rolling out of bed and making my way to the bathroom. Mom said that she needed my help, today. I’m sure it was about mowing the lawn or pulling weeds or something like that. Thank God I don’t drink. Saturday, housework day, would be much worse if I did. I quickly brushed my teeth and combed my hair before throwing on a ball cap and rushing to find mom before she had to come get me.
    “Morning , Mom.”
    She was standing in the dining r oom cleaning the ceiling fan blades. I was wrong; it was going to be a detail-the-house day. Maybe I won’t have to pull weeds, after all. Then again, I’m not sure which is worse.
    “Morning , Sweetie. Can you work inside with me, today? Next weekend we’ll get the yard work done.”
    “Sure , what do I need to do?”
    She motioned over toward the breakfast bar that separated the kitchen and dining room. “Grab the polish and start cleaning the hutch and then , when I finish the fan, you can dust the table.”
    I grabbed the polish and cloth she ’d pointed to and moved over to the hutch, removing all the pictures, knick-knacks and china. “I talked to Reese, last night. Well, actually, I was at her house and Josh came by.”
    “Titus, I thought I told you to let her be. You need to pull away and let her relationship run its course , Honey.” She let out a long frustrated sigh and looked down at me.
    “Mom, I know but she called me and asked me to stop by.” She started to interrupt me. I put a hand up to stop her. “Let me explain. Candice’s boyfriend is abusive. Reese and I both have noticed bruises on her. Reese gave her two weeks to deal with it and she hadn’t; so, Reese was going to tell her mom about it and see if she could help Candice. Reece was going to try and get Candice to spend the night last night, only Candice left the dance with Alex and went to stay at his house.
    “Reese told her mom and Diane called Candice’s parents. George showed up at Reese’s and had her take him to get Candice at Alex’s. Reese was worried that she did the wrong thing by telling her mom. So, she asked me to come by so she could tell me her side of the story.” I took a deep breath and Mom rushed a question at me.
    “What do you mean he’s ‘abusive’?”
    “I don’t know how bad it is. But it’s bad enough for Reese to need to tell her mom. Reese was freaked out about it and said she was