The Hardest Fall

by Ella Maise

This book is for those of us who are a little shy with a little bit of weird mixed in (in the best possible way). I hope you have a Dylan in your life.

Hi Dylan, meet mortification in the flesh.

“Dog person. Cats…they kind of scare me, not the kittens or the cuddly ones, but I don’t like how some of them focus on you like they’re plotting ways to kill you. You know what I mean? It’s not all of them, but still. I’m a dog person all the way.

“This is the strangest thing, but I think you’re going to be my best friend, Zoe Clarke.”

“I looked for you,” I whispered over her. “To be honest, I didn’t ask around to try to find you, wouldn’t have even known where to start to do that, but I was hoping to see you again. So, I think without even realizing what I was doing, I was searching for you. I remember this time when a girl walked around a corner, holding her books to her chest just like you were doing when you saw me that second time. She was laughing with her friends, and I just stopped walking. Her face was turned so I couldn’t see her enough to recognize you, but she had the same hair color”—I tucked Zoe’s hair behind her ear—“same pale skin. She stopped me right in my tracks, Zoe, because I thought, There she is. There she is again. Then she turned around and she wasn’t you. I remember feeling so disappointed. It happened a few times, not to that extent, but I thought I saw you and you were never there.”

“Now…now I couldn’t possibly not recognize you. Now you’re everywhere, always on my mind. I close my eyes and I can see you, right there.”

“Now, I could never mistake you for someone else. Your shy little smile, your big happy smile, the shape of your eyes…you’re all I think about, Zoe. When I wake up, I can’t wait to work out because I know you’ll be up only minutes after me. I’ll hear your footsteps, you’ll come into the kitchen still half asleep and so beautiful, and then you’ll innocently perv on me while acting like you’re having breakfast.”

“My heart beats differently for you. It feels different somehow. I know this probably doesn’t make sense, but…it beats louder, wilder when I see you.”

“I’ll catch you when you land, Flash. Just don’t take too much time, because I’m already there, impatiently waiting for you.”

“You don’t know? The first time you saw me, you were grinning at my dick.” She snorted then groaned to cover it up. “I did not fall in love with your dick, Dylan.” “I think you did, but let’s go with your version. It’s a package deal anyway.”

Lol!!

“Do you believe in love at first sight?” “Not really,” she panted. “I didn’t either, but then why would my eyes look for you in a crowd when I didn’t even know your name? Why would my pulse jump whenever I saw someone I thought was you?”

“I love you so much,” she whispered. “I don’t know what to do with it all.” “I love you too, Flash. On and off the field, you’re my hardest fall. No one has ever compared, and no one ever will. It was always going to be you for me.”

Ever since the first day I met her, she’d never seen her own perfect, but that was okay. I wasn’t planning on going anywhere; I’d be right next to her to show her every day for the rest of our lives.

It’s hard to explain what draws you to a person, what it is about them that makes them so special that you give them your heart. I believe it’s all about who you are together, how you are together. It’s simple, what I feel for her—simple, and the most powerful thing in the world. We chose each other, and we’d keep choosing each other long after we took our last breaths on this earth. Zoe Clarke was my forever, the love of my life, and I was hers.