Fall Guy (A Youngblood Book), Reinhardt, Liz [best free ebook reader for pc .TXT] 📗

words come out shaky and sad. "What chance do we really have? Tell me the truth, Winch. Because I love you so much. I do. But is this just you dragging out the inevitable? Because if you know we won't last anyway, tell me and we'll end it now."

She looks back at Ithaca and Andre, twisted around each other, kissing like it's the last time they'll ever see each other.

And I choke on that thought. Because I realize that my sister knows me. And she probably realizes, somewhere deep down, that this is the last time she'll see this guy she thinks she loves so completely.

"Evan, you're overreacting. You and me--"

"Is there?" she interrupts. "I thought there was. I think there is. And then there's not. This entire time, you and me, we've always just been a pipedream, haven't we, Winch? Tell me." Her voice is thick and her eyes are full of tears.

"No." I hold her at the shoulders hard. "We're not. We're different."

She shakes her head. "Impossible." She points back at my sister and her boyfriend. "Tell me. Tell me your super sensible plan for those kids."

I swallow hard, ashamed again about what being me entails. About the decisions I have to make.

But I have to. I have to make these decisions, and they’re not easy, and I don’t always like to do any of it, but I have to.

"I'll offer him a couple thousand, enough to make life easy on him for a while, and then tell him that he's banned from seeing her again. He won't want the money, cause he's a good kid, but I'll make him take it for his mom or grandma or whoever he cares about. He'll feel guilty. He'll be scared. If he comes around again, I'll scare him off. He'll leave her alone, and my parents will find someone who will make her happy in the long run."

She's shaking her head, her eyes squeezed shut.

I reach out to her, but she smacks my hand away.

"I know,” I plead, begging her to understand. “It seems harsh. It seems mean. It's what's best, Evan. It's how my family does things."

"It's the most disgusting thing I've ever heard," Evan says quietly, her head bowed, her arms crossed tight over her chest. "You've lived around it for so long, it's the way you think now. You don't even question it. But you justify an awful lot for them. There's no way..." She looks up at me, her eyes brimming with tears that spear at my heart. "There's no way you actually believe this is a good thing. Are you that brainwashed?"

I hate that Evan is quietly crying. I hate that my sister is looking across the field, her hand pressed to her mouth. I hate that Andre is walking towards me like a gladiator about to enter the arena, and I'm the monster he's got to fight.

I hate that I have to do what I have to do.

I hate that they can't see the situation for what it is. That they're all blaming me for doing what's expected of me, the job no one else will take. I hate that my family put me in this position.

We get into the car, Evan silent with fury, Andre silent with resignation, me silent with frustration. Evan speaks first.

"I understand that you're going to do what you think is right, Winch. But I have to, too. Drop me at my grandparents' house. I can't be around you right now."

Evan 13

"Believe it or not, it wound up being too much drama for even Evan Lennox."

I force myself to sigh dramatically, mostly to drown out the sound of Brenna's gasp of frustration. We're well into hour three of our Evan and Winch Relationship Dissection Marathon, and we're both grossly worn out.

"I just...I just don't believe you," she cries, her voice pitched high in preparation for a full-blown reality protest. "You guys had so many obstacles to get through, but you were getting through them. Giving up now just feels--" She breaks off and lets out an aggravated moan.

"It was too much, Bren. It was too much! It never even got started, and then it would get messed up. We'd take a step forward and fifteen backward. Every amazing day would end with a crazy, stupid night. Every magical night would spin out with some weird, panic-filled day. Even I'm not this dramatic, and I can't watch him self-destruct. I'm not going to do it. I'm just going to get through my last few weeks of community service with him, and that's it. Winchester Youngblood and I are from two very different worlds. We won't even have to try to avoid each other."

I squeeze the tears out of my voice and focus on the college applications I'm filing neatly in color-coordinated folders. "You were against me and Winch being together, remember? You said that you had a bad feeling. That he wasn't good enough. Why aren't you ever on my side when I need you to be?" I plead, plopping down in my rolling chair.

Bren tsks like she's my overworked governess. "Because once in a rare while, I'm actually wrong. And because I know how miserable you are. I can hear it. It's breaking my heart."

I smile at her tendency to hyperbolize when things get bad. In the background, the chime of the doorbell echoes into my room and my grandmother's voice calls my name.

"Someone's here." My heart constricts and sings one steady, happy, hopeful song: Winch, Winch, Winch.

Brenna squeals with delight. "I knew he'd come! Call me later!"

I take a second to smooth my hair before I sprint down the hall and run at ankle-breaking speeds down the stairs to...

No one.

Gramma is holding an enormous bouquet in all buttery yellows and golds and creams.

"Who in the world sent these, honey? Someone who knows flowers, that’s for sure. Are these from Eastmann's? They are absolutely gorgeous! Do you have a secret admirer, Evan? Is it Margurite Holinger's