Page 42 of Falling Like Leaves (Bramble Falls #1)
The sun is bright, but the air is cold the next day as Sloane and I walk to the Caffeinated Cat.
“We should have driven. It’s freezing out here,” Sloane whines.
“This is nothing. You should come visit me in New York. Try trekking a few blocks in the city.” The temperatures might compare, but something about the city makes it feel colder.
“I’d love to come visit you,” she says. “Maybe over winter break.”
“Excellent. Then you can really experience a true New York City winter.”
“Can we go ice skating at Rockefeller Center? And spend New Year’s in Times Square?” she asks, growing excited. “Gah, please! That’d be so fun.”
“Uh, that’s quite touristy of you, but okay,” I say.
“Well, I am a tourist. I’ve never been to the city. We should probably go see the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, too.”
I laugh. “We can if you want to.”
“And Central Park.”
“Okay, you make a list, and we’ll visit as many as we can when you come,” I tell her.
We’ve just passed the bookstore when Dorothy walks out of the florist. “Oh, Sloane, Ellis. I just heard the good news!” My cousin and I look at each other. Sloane shrugs. “About your mom putting an offer in on the house on Apple Blossom Lane,” Dorothy adds.
“ My mom?” I ask, my eyebrows drawn together. I shake my head and laugh. “Sorry, but that one’s just a fake rumor. Probably shouldn’t spread it.”
“Well, I heard it directly from Joe Mercer,” Dorothy says.
“I have no idea who that is, but he’s mistaken,” I tell her. I glance at Sloane, who’s grown unusually quiet. Her eyes are wide with confusion.
“He owns Bramble Falls Realty…,” she mutters quietly.
“What?” I exhale.
Someone is wrong. Wires got crossed somewhere. Mom wouldn’t buy a house in Bramble Falls. We’re supposed to be home by Thanksgiving.
Still, my throat tightens.
“I have to go,” I think I say.
I sprint home with Sloane on my tail. “Ellis, chill. We don’t know what’s true!”
Adrenaline carries me the two blocks home. I swing the door open and stomp into the kitchen, breathless. Mom looks up from her coffee and the art magazine she’s reading.
“What’s wrong?” she says, setting her mug on the table, concern carved into her face.
“Are you buying a house in Bramble Falls?” I ask.
Mom goes pale. She stands slowly, like she’s approaching a skittish animal. “I was going to talk to you about it tomorrow. I just wanted you to enjoy your prom tonight.”
“Talk to me about what , exactly, Mom?”
“I put in an offer. That doesn’t mean we’re getting the house.”
“What the hell? Why would you put an offer in on a house here ? We’re going home soon.” The whooshing blood in my ears crescendoes as panic suffocates me. “Are you… are you and Dad getting divorced?”
Mom looks at the floor. “I can’t go back to him, Ellis.”
My jaw falls open. “What are you talking about? This was supposed to be temporary.”
“I know, honey. It was. But we’re happy here, aren’t we?” Her question is laced with hope. It infuriates me.
“No, Mom!” This is my fault—I made her think I could be happy here permanently.
I blink back the tears threatening to flood this room.
“I want to go home. Yes, Bramble Falls has been fine. It’s not as awful as I expected it to be.
I had fun. But I need to get back to my school and my internship.
And to Dad ! God, I’ve barely talked to him in two months. I miss him. Don’t you get that?”
“I’d never stop you from visiting your dad, Ellis,” she says.
“I don’t want to visit him. I want to go home, where we live . Where I’m going to college next year!”
I can barely breathe.
“Moving here wouldn’t mean you won’t get into Columbia,” she says.
I shake my head. She doesn’t seem to understand what moving here means for me.
It means my parents will inevitably get a divorce.
It means I won’t have access to the same opportunities I’d have in New York—opportunities I need in order to have the best shot at getting into Columbia.
It means I’ll never see Dad because he’s always w orking.
It means his new intern will move up in the company while I’m forgotten—by both Dad and Mr. Street.
It means the loss of my life as I knew it.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if it means Mom asking me not to go to school in the city next.
This was probably her plan all along.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this to me,” I say, my voice breaking.
“I’m not trying to do anything to you, sweetie,” she says, stepping closer.
“You are so selfish.”
“What?”
“You’re moving me away from home—away from my goals—so that you can sit in your room and paint . You’re punishing me because you hate Dad. And God forbid I want to be like him instead of you.” I grit my teeth and take a step backward. “Do what you want, Mom. But I’m not moving here. I won’t.”
I turn around, where Sloane is staring at me, shocked. I brush past her.
As soon as the door closes behind me, I let my tears fall. And they don’t let up the whole way to the Caffeinated Cat.
When I walk in, Cooper’s face lights up. Until he realizes I’m crying.
Betty Lynn takes over at the register, and he follows me outside.
“What’s wrong? What happened?” he asks, pulling me into a hug. But having his arms around me only makes me cry harder.
My dad would be so disappointed. Stop being so emotional, Ellis.
I wipe my face, clear my throat, and step back. “I’m leaving.”
“To go where?”
“Home.”
His face falls. “When?”
“Now,” I tell him.
“Your mom didn’t give you any warning? No notice? You’re just… going?” he asks, like he can’t wrap his head around it.
“My mom put in an offer on a house in Bramble Falls.”
A whirlwind of questions passes over Cooper’s face. “I’m so confused. She put in an offer here, but you guys are going back to the city?”
“She’s staying. I’m going,” I say.
“Are you coming back, then?”
“I don’t know.” I shrug. “I’ll at least have to come back to get my stuff.
But I’m going to try to talk some sense into my dad.
I need him to fix whatever’s happening between him and my mom.
Worst case, I need him to talk my mom into letting me stay in the city with him, since she seems to suddenly think this is a permanent thing. ”
Cooper bites his lip. “Well, would that really be so bad? Finishing senior year here? With me?”
“Coop, I don’t belong here.”
“What are you talking about?” he asks. “People know and love you here. You do belong here. And we can figure out what comes next together.” He takes my hand in his. “Don’t go. Please.”
“I have to. Everything is wrong. I mean, I got a C, and—”
He groans. “What are you talking about? Tell me this isn’t about the C. It was one lousy C, Ellis!”
“It’s not about the C. It’s about what the C represents. I’ve gotten too comfortable here.”
“So what ? You’ve been happy. You’ve been letting yourself have fun for a change. How is that a bad thing?”
“Cooper, I feel like my whole future is slipping away.”
“And what about us? What about our future?”
“We can still make this work. It was always the plan, right? I was always going back to the city.”
“When you had to, sure. But you don’t now. You have a choice,” he says. “Your print is on this place. If you don’t belong here, then I sure as hell don’t belong in your life in New York.”
“What do you mean? You’ll be there for school next year.”
“Yeah, and I’ll be like an extra puzzle piece that doesn’t have a place. How do I fit into your plans for your future?” He shakes his head. “I don’t.”
“You can’t possibly be asking me to choose you over my future. To change all my plans for you.”
“No. I’m asking you to change your plans for you , Ellis,” he says, exasperated. “What we have is good. So fucking good. But maybe it’s not good enough for you.”
“Coop, come on.”
“Don’t go.”
My eyes burn. “I have to. And if I’m going to catch the next bus, I have to go now.”
He looks at the ground, but not before I see his eyes glassing over. He nods to himself, like he’s weighing his words. “Then I guess this is goodbye.” He holds my gaze as he drops my hand. “And it’s the last one I’m going to say to you, Ellis.”
“Cooper,” I breathe.
“Have a nice life,” he says as he turns and walks back into the café.
Forty-five minutes later, I’m on the back of the bus with nothing more than my phone and wallet, sobbing as Bramble Falls fades into the distance.