Falling Under by Gwen Hayes Page A

and he looked earnestly at his feet.
    Even though I’d promised myself I wouldn’t fall for his head games, he sounded so convincing. Everything inside me wanted to believe him. And as the water rolled past us on the sunny riverbank, part of his veneer faded. His body language changed—he seemed reticent and suddenly unsure of himself.
    “So ask,” I prodded, a little in awe that somehow, despite all logic, the power dynamic of this relationship was suddenly in my favor.
    “What is your favorite food?”
    “Ice cream.”
    “What flavor?”
    I shook my head. “Tsk-tsk, Haden. It’s not your turn.”
    “Have pity on a poor bastard, Theia.” There again was the smile. The one that filled me to near bursting with a sudden joy.
    “All right, strawberry. My turn.” Giddiness fizzed like root beer in my stomach and spread from there until I felt effervescent. “When we’re at school, in the other world …” I was tempted to say “real world,” but the lines were so murky. “Do you remember this place and what happens here with me? Do both these worlds collide for you like they do for me?”
    The reticence ate him up, and his good humor vanished. “I’m not sure this was such a wise game after all.”
    The wind kicked up from nowhere, sending a bitter chill down my gown. And then it was gone just as suddenly as it gusted.
    “Is that what this is? A game?” I asked.
    “You’ve already asked your question.”
    “You didn’t answer.”
    “No, this isn’t a game.” He loosened his cravat.
    Oh, but it was. The game frustrated me. Questions I needed answers for and answers that begged for a question hammered at me from inside my head, but I had to wait. Wait my turn.
    The silence lingered like an aftertaste for too long. Restlessness built the agitation in me until it was a living thing—a third person in this conversation.
    Finally, he asked, “Are you afraid of me?”
    “Absolutely not, and yes, with everything in my heart and soul,” I blurted without thought.
    He chuckled, and looked directly at me for the first time in several minutes. “I’m not sure that qualifies as an answer—it’s more like a contradiction.”
    “Up is down, remember? Besides, everything about you is a contradiction.” Pondering my word choice a little more carefully, I added, “You won’t hurt me. How I know that, I can’t say. But the ways you make me feel, Haden—that’s what frightens me. I know you’ll be my undoing.”
    The air grew more still than naturally possible, as if it were expecting something. “Oddly, that is exactly what I would say about you.” He caressed my face with his gaze. Adoring me, memorizing me. He stopped on my lips, remaining too long.
    My turn again. “Why don’t you ever touch me?”
    A wall went up, an invisible shield that locked him away from me. Not to be seen, but surely felt. “It’s not a good idea.”
    “Why?” I stepped towards him but he stepped back.
    “It’s my turn. Who was your first kiss?”
    Heat rushed into my face. I flattered myself by thinking maybe he wanted to kiss me. I wished he wanted to kiss me. I hadn’t expected the question, and I’m sure he knew the answer. “I haven’t …” Squeezing my eyes closed, I began again. “I haven’t been kissed. Yet.”
    “Why?” Haden stepped out of his invisible shielded zone before he remembered himself, like he’d wanted to reach for me. “Why ever not?” he asked, but then remembered his own rules.
    Encouraged by his bewilderment, I asked, “Why is it a bad idea to touch me?”
    “You obviously know I’m not like other boys. It’s not meant for our worlds to mix this way.”
    “Yet here we are.”
    “You forgot to answer me. Why haven’t you been kissed?”
    I rolled my eyes at his innocence. “You obviously know I’m not like other girls. I’m shy and I don’t spend time with boys. My father is strict and—”
    “That’s not why.”
    He thought he knew me so well. “Fine. You tell me