Silently Falling

One More Bonus Chapter

Author's Note:

Last year, I wrote a bonus series about the origin of Toby and Alyse's romance. This year, I am extremely excited to share the love story between Raine's parents as told through the diary of the late Janet Winter. While their story ends with some heartbreak, you don't want to miss reading the start of the Winter's love! In this chapter, you'll embark on a whole new perspective to the relationship that brought you Raine and Toby.

Read on for some nostalgia through cute moments between your favorite couple (West and Raine) as they find Mrs. Winter's high school diary filled with pages about her teenage crush: Marcus Winter.

Thank you to The Summer I Turned Pretty for the inspiration, and I encourage you all to go give it a read and add the second season to the hit Prime Video series to your summer watch-list!

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Dear Diary, Love Janet

-Raine POV-

I knew I'd miss my brother when he left for college. I knew I'd cry while hugging him goodbye after moving him into his dorm room. I knew I'd have to step out of the room when he and Alyse said their goodbye that turned much too passionate for his little sister/her best friend to witness...

What I didn't know is that he'd be calling in a panic less than twenty four hours after being moved into college to beg me to go looking for some old gaming console he stored in the attic and forgot to bring with him.

But, here West and I are, walking up to the dusty attic of my house to try and find the old GameCube Toby apparently needs in order to survive living in his dorm room.

"Perks of community college," West says as we both carefully ascend the rickety steps into the attic. He goes first, making sure the wooden steps won't randomly materialize beneath his weight. "No need for me to move a bunch of stuff in and out of a dorm room."

As we both fully ascend the stairs and reach the attic, the sweet scent of my house turns into heavy, musky air that makes me scrunch my nose in disgust. West pulls on the old chain for the lights and one singular bulb slowly flickers on. There's a low buzz that sounds in our ears as the bulb lights up.

"Doing this at night was not our brightest idea," I sigh, only for it to turn into a cough from the musty air. "Let's find the GameCube and get out of here."

West glances at me, a smirk barely visible in the dull light, illuminating his handsome features. "Scared, Sunshine?"

"With you? Never," I say shamelessly.

His smirk melts away into a softer grin. His arm winds around my waist as he pulls me into his side, kissing the top of my head. "And you'll never have to be. Unless there's a spider."

I laugh, poking his side. When we pull apart, I glance around the attic and a shiver of discomfort passes through me. "This room does kind of freak me out, though. So let's find that GameCube sooner rather than later, yeah?"

West chuckles and we split up to cover more ground considering the attic is filled with old boxes stacked on one another. Everything in here seems to have a massive layer of dust, and I keep sneezing because of it.

I maneuver around the boxes, trying to set my sights on the purple console Toby described (as if I hadn't grown up seeing him play on it). It shouldn't be too hard. This room is nothing but a sea of brown and gray- a pop of color should be simple to spot even in the low light.

In the far corner, using nothing but the flashlight on my phone, I locate a large stack of boxes with something small that actually looks void of any dust and vaguely purple sitting at the very top. Toby mentioned he put the GameCube up here around a year ago, so it would make sense for it to be the only thing without years of dust piled on top.