“Fallon!” Eve calls, banging on my front door for the third time. “I know you’re in there!”

With a sigh, I tuck Tyson into his crib and head down the hallway. There’s no way he’s going to be able to sleep if Eve doesn’t decide to give up. To be honest, I like Eve, but right now, I’m not exactly ready to see her, especially after I yelled at her to get out of my hospital room. Why would anyone want to see me after that?

“Fallon,” Eve sighs when I open the door. She covers her heart with her hand, breathing relief. “You had me worried.”

Shrugging, I lean against the doorframe, not wanting to wake Tyson with the sound of our voices. Lately, I’ve been extra good to him, especially if he’s crying. He’s at the age where he needs to be dependent on himself for that, but I just can’t seem to let him sob. Especially considering his toddler life is about to be flipped upside-down by Kelsey.

“Can we talk for a minute?”

“Sure,” I respond, avoiding her eyes. I walk alongside the railing until I get to the set of metal steps. Pulling out a cigarette, I light it in my mouth and inhale as I sit down. “What do you want to talk about?” I ask, exhaling as she sits down beside me.

“I think you know,” she murmurs, staring at her feet. She fidgets with her hands in her lap, trying to appear busy.

“I’m trying to put that behind me,” I respond, staring out across the parking lot. “I’m trying to forget.”

“Well I can’t forget, Fallon!” She snaps, throwing her hands up in the air in front of her. She looks at me, her eyes serious but threatening to spill tears. “Even though I don’t know you that well, I care about you. You weren’t just hurting yourself, you were hurting others.”

“Eve,” I sigh, leaning my head against one of the railing’s posts. “I’m sorry, there’s just a lot that you don’t know.”

“Then tell me,” she whispers, her doe eyes gleaming in the bright sun. “Then tell me what I need to know to help you.”

“Really, I’m fine.”

“Fallon!” She yells, frustrated with my ‘everything is perfect’ attitude. Without warning, she grabs my sleeves of my red plaid shirt and pulls them up to my elbows. Gripping them tightly, she shakes them in front of me so I can. “Do you think that this is fine, Fallon?”

I stare at the two, gruesome looking pink lines. From my wrists to my elbows, they look absolutely awful and all that I’ve done is pretend that they’re not there. Wearing sweaters, long sleeved shirts, anything to cover them up, to pretend that the past never happened.

“Stop, Eve,” I mutter, wrenching my arms out of her grasps. I can see the tension on her face as she leans forward, her mouth hanging open in disbelief that I can just blow something like this off. Throwing my finished cigarette on the ground far below us, I turn to her, my eyes narrowed.

“Why? Why should I stop trying to help you?” She says, her voice growing angry. “You can’t do this on your own!”

“Yes, I can,” I grumble, watching my fists clench and unclench in my lap. The scars twist with the movement, disgusting me. “I quit drugs on my own, Eve. I think I can handle this.”

“Those are two completely different things!”

“I’m fine.”

“Stop saying that!” She screams, tears spilling over her eyes. She stands up and glares down at me, frustrated and angry at the same time. Throwing her hands out, she gestures around us. “You tried to kill yourself, Fallon! You are the farthest thing from fine!”

“Will you stop saying that?” I scream at the top of my lungs. I jump to my feet, my bottled-up anger coming out in one giant heap. “You think I don’t fucking know that? The only girl I’ve ever loved is addicted to one of the worst drugs and she tried to kill herself because of it! What do you want me to do, Eve? Fucking act like nothing’s happened?”

Taken by surprise, Eve cowers back towards the wall of doors. Fresh tears start streaming down her cheeks as she stares at me in shock, having no idea what to respond to my outburst.

“Fallon…” She whispers, and I realize what just happened.

Unable to face myself, I quickly push past her, heading towards my apartment. My screaming probably woke up Tyson and he can be crying for me right now. Inside, I make sure to close the door behind me quietly, but I’m stopped halfway by Eve.

“I’m so sorry,” she cries quietly, covering her face with her hands. “I just don’t know how to react.”

Silently, I shut the door behind her, happy that Tyson seems to be asleep in his room. Standing in front of her, I take a deep breath and rub my forehead.

“It’s fine,” I mumble back. “I wasn’t exactly the world’s best friend either.”

“Can we maybe…start over?” She asks, wiping away her tears. Giving me a hopeful smile, she looks up at me, and I know I can’t say no to those brown eyes.

“Of course,” I smile back, whispering. I brush her hair away that’s stuck to her cheek. “I’m just going to check on Tyson.” She nods and I head down the hall and through the open door. In the night, the quietest noises can wake him, like the fridge creaking or the crickets outside. But when there’s a soap opera going on outside, apparently he can sleep right through it.

I trail my fingers along his face and pull the blanket up higher. Kissing his forehead, I start to retreat out of the room. As I shut the door as quietly as possible, I don’t see Eve standing there to my right. She has a small, sad smile on her lips, and I give her one back.

“Fallon, there’s something I want you to know,” she whispers, taking a step towards me.

“What is it?” I ask, just as she comes to a stop in front of me.

She smiles, rising onto her the tops of her toes to make herself taller. Her eyes slowly close as she leans forward, and before I know it, her lips are touching mine.

“Aren’t they pretty?” I roll my head to the left to look at Kelsey, who’s lying in the bottom curve of the double slide. It’s surprisingly comfortable, and they give you a great place to lie and look up at the stars. I only wish that there isn’t a divider between us, separating out bodies.

“Yes,” she murmurs, wrapping her small hand in mine on the red divider. “They’re so pretty when they sparkle.”

“I told you that the small things can be fun when you’re sober,” I reply, feeling Kelsey’s hand become tense in mine.

“Yeah, but it’s only because we just slept off two days’ worth of meth,” she laughs, but there’s no humour in it. Instead, it’s full of want.

For a while, we just lay here in silence, neither of us daring to speak as we stare up at the night sky. Occasionally, we’ll point out satellites and planes, but so far, we’re not lucky enough to see shooting stars.

“How did you figure this out?” I ask, gesturing to the slides with my free hand.

Kelsey smiles at me before turning her eyes back towards the sky. “When I was little I always went looking for shooting stars, but lying in the grass isn’t as comfortable so I started doing this,” she laughs quietly. “My mom would always have to wash sand out of my hair.”

“You would do something like this,” I murmur, laughing. Slowly, I bring out hands towards my face and place my lips on hers. “I bet you were adorable when you were little.”

Kelsey giggles. “Yeah, if you called Barbie everything and having no two front teeth cute,” she mutters, and I squeeze her hand.

“I think it is,” I tell her, dropping her hand. “You’ll have to show me a picture some time.” In one swift movement, I roll out of my slide and place my hands on either sides of hers, holding myself safely above her.

“Fallon!” She giggles, playfully shoving me away. “What are you doing?”

I give her a thoughtful look. “Trying to imagine what you looked like.”

“You’re being silly.”

“You know what’s really silly?”

“What?” She raises her eyebrows, curious.

“The fact that I’m hopelessly in love with you.”

Kelsey gasps, covering her mouth with her hand. “Fallon,” she whispers, looking at me in surprise. “You’re in love with me?”

I roll my eyes and lean down to give her a gentle kiss. Pulling back slightly, I grin.

“Hopelessly.”