Silently Falling | √

•Chapter 34•

MY BIGGEST FEAR had come to life and I couldn't move or do anything about it. I was completely frozen on my spot.

"I'll leave you two to talk things out," Asher said and quickly walked out of the room.

Nick was stood by the door the whole time and didn't bother moving. "Why didn't you tell me?" he asked calmly but quietly.

"I-I," I began but I could not find the right words.

He picked up the books from the floor and walked towards the bed where he gently placed them and took a seat.

"I was worried about you when Asher told me you'd been hospitalised so I thought I could bring you your homework and spend some time with you," he said looking at me so intensely that I had to look away. "But then I find out this."

"I never knew you were only playing me for a fool and planned on leaving me just when I realised that I....." he abruptly stopped talking.

"That you what?" I pestered.

"That I'm a fool. Gosh this is why I promised myself I would never date again," he tugged at his hair. "I should have stuck to the promise I made to myself after Hayley passed away in my junior high," he answered instead. "But I made the mistake of trying to live life a little and now it's biting me back."

"I didn't mean for you to find out this way," I said quietly.

Nick began to pace back and forth in the room. "Were you ever going to tell me?"

I chewed the inside of my cheek and bit my bottom lip. "I...." I began.

"Thought as much," he spoke with a weird calmness as he sat back down.

I fiddled with my hands nervously because he was right. I never planned on telling him in person, I was going to write him a note or letter explaining everything instead. Weak, pathetic and stupid, I know.

"How did she die?" I asked referring to Hayley.

Nick was silent as he stared at the wall behind me and I slowly made my way to the bed and sat down next to him making sure to leave a significant amount of space between us.

"You remember those two girls in the portrait?" he asked and I nodded. "Hayley and Kayla snuck out one night to go to this new club that had just opened. I told them not to go alone and for them to wait for me or Kai, heck even Jake would have sufficed," he said as he tugged on his hair hard, "but they didn't listen, they never did anyway," he smiled remembering them.

"That night I waited for them to come home but they never did, instead I received a phone call from the hospital telling me that they were involved in a car accident and Kayla died on the spot while Hayley was in a critical condition," he choked on his words as a tear rolled down his cheek and he quickly wiped it away. "By the time I got there, she had already passed away."

"And the guy who did it was a drunk driver who-who happened to be my abusive bastard of a father."

Tears were now full on rolling down his cheeks and my heart tugged hard. I felt tears begin to well up in my eyes.

"He was arrested but the asshole only saved six months with community service because he was rich. But not once did he ever give us a dime," he sobbed, "that day I vowed to make sure that everyone got the justice they deserved and that's why I decided I was going to become a criminal lawyer in order to fight for people like my sister and Hayley who didn't get the justice they deserved."

Unconsciously, I placed my hand in his and intertwined our fingers together as he continued talking.

"The worst part was that he used to abuse us and my mom when we were young and even though we got a restraining order against him, he still kept on coming back. Then when Kai and Jake's parents were moving here they thought it would be a good idea for us all to move and start afresh," he said looking utterly broken and shattered. "I hate that man for what he took away from me, from my mom and Leah and from Hayley's parents." he finished and I pulled him into a hug as he cried on my shoulder.