All We Know Is Falling: Fall With Me: Volume One by Nicole Thorn Page A

the rest of the class. I was going to let Hale talk to me when he was ready to. Cuz there was no fucking way this was over. He’d broken through my wall enough to become real to me. And despite my hang ups, I cared enough to stick around until he was okay again. Then I could leave him to live his life.
    I went to Gym and changed into my prison uniform. Then I shoved my backpack in my gym locker. The little group of bitches were all giggling in a corner, so I got a break from the mockery for a day.
    I walked into the gym and the first thing I did was look for my broken friend. But he was nowhere to be seen.
    “Are you kidding me?” I huffed to myself.
    He’d ditched class. Of course. He must be done with my pestering. Cuz he can dish it out but he can’t take it.
    I firmly set my hands on my hips and went to pout on the benches.
    I had half a mind to track him. I bet I could. I knew him, so I could pick up on his aura distinctively if I really focused. His specific shade was clear in my mind. The light grey with blue and black trying to swallow him. But it would take so much out of me. Just having my powers on for a few minutes could wipe me out. Actually tracking? That might lay me out for a while. And what was the use of finding him if I was too tired to stay awake?
    “Jay?” I said when I saw my friend walk in. She looked up from her clipboard and her eyes were troubled. She blinked and started walking over to me. She sat down and crossed her legs. “What’s wrong?”
    She shook her head and sighed. “Sometimes I hate this job. Kids can be such assholes.”
    My eyes narrowed. “Did something happen to you? Tell me who did it and I’ll drag them to Hell for a minute or two. Then drop them in the woods.” My anger flared like a light switch getting turned on. Hurt someone I love and I’ll light that fucker up.
    “No,” she looked meaningfully at me. “Not me. But I’ve been hearing shit all day.”
    “About?”
    She hesitated. “Hale.”
    My eyes widened. She knew. She knew what I needed to know and Hale wouldn’t tell me himself. Because he didn’t want to watch me run. But I had no intention of running.
    “I don’t even have the power to go look at the files they stole,” she added.
    “What are you talking about?”
    She glared at the little group of girls that walked in through the heavy doors. “Well, all day long I’ve been hearing some…things, about Hale. It would seem that someone broke into the counselors office and stole his files.”
    My heart dropped. “What did they say?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t have access to those files. All I know is what he told me when he got his uniform. And that wasn’t much. But according to the kids, the files had his police records.”
    “Police records…”
    She nodded. “They said he’s been arrested a couple times since he’s turned eighteen. And before that…there were some incidences.”
    “Like?”
    “I’ve only heard the rumors. I have no clue what’s true or not. What I heard this morning is nothing like what I heard just before walking in here. And now,” she looked around, “that poor boy is gone. I can only imagine the Hell he’s going through.”
    It was nothing compared to the Hell that those dicks who stole his file would go though. “Who started this?”
    “I’m not sure. I heard so many people talking about it. There’s no telling who started it.”
    I thought for a minute. “But they stole a file?”
    “Yeah.”
    “How could someone not only break into the counselors office, but also break into her locked cabinet. They had to have access.”
    Jay looked down at her clipboard. “Maybe they got a key.”
    “How?”
    “If they know the counselor then maybe they did it when they were talking. If she left for a minute or two, then they could do it.”
    “But they’d still need a key. That’s the hard part. They had to have stolen it from her.”
    I was going to figure this out. I didn’t care what