Feeling like she’d been stabbed in the chest, she retreated back around the corner and stumbled clumsily up the stairs and into her hotel room. As she let herself in, the first tear rolled down Fallons cheek, and as soon as the first one rolled down, she knew there was more to come. As the sobs broke out, she collapsed face-first onto her luxury king sized bed and sobbed. As her tears started to subside, she felt the anger rise inside of her. Gareth knew! He was only being kind to her because he knew that Curtis had killed her brother! And riley… riley was going to marry the creep! Fallon leapt off the bed and stormed out of the door, not bothering to lock it.
“YOU CANT MARRY CURTIS!” she yelled as she approached her family and friends, “YOU CANT MARRY HIM!” she sobbed. She knelt down in the gentle sand and buried her head in her hands, “you can’t” she whispered over and over again. After a few minutes, when Fallon regained her breath and her voice, she looked up at Gareth and pointed at him, eyes narrowing. “And you!” she whispered angrily, “I thought you were my friend… in fact I loved you but now! Now I can’t bear to look at you, you were in on this the whole time… you knew everything! You knew about-” She broke off and sobbed, thumping the floor with her bared feet, in temper.
“What an earth is going on?”
“Fallon, are you alright?”
“What are you talking about Fallon? Come on, talk to us?”
The worried voices only angered Fallon more and as she sat upright, she looked around at everyone, at then at Gareth, his shocked face, full f false innocence annoyed her. “CURTIS KILLED DAMON! THAT’S WHATS WRONG! THAT JERK KILLED MY BROTHER! Okay, happy now?” The sudden outburst shocked everybody into silence. The only audible noise was the gentle washing of the sea against the rocks, and mild laughter coming from the hotel. Julie and Deborah helped Fallon up, and took her back to her room in the hotel to calm down. This left Gareth and Allanah looking confusedly at John, Riley and Robert, who just stared back, equally bemused. The first one to break the silence was Riley.
“I’m going to find Curtis. I’ll find out what the hell is going on here.” She said, and with that she walked away along the beach. As she left, Gareth jumped up and started pacing around, stunned at the accusations that had come his way. He was hurt and confused.
“I honestly don’t know what she’s going on about! I never knew anything about Damon, and you know that if I did I would have told you anyway” As he spoke he could feel the tears coming, so sat down to Allanah’s comforting arm.
******************
As Riley looked around for Curtis, she could feel her heart racing heavily in her chest. Her emotions were confused and lots of jumbled thoughts were running through her mind. As she peered around each corner that she passed, slightly cautious of the dark dingy alleyways, she tried to piece together everything that Fallon had said.
“Curtis killed Damon!”
“You can’t marry Curtis!”
“That jerk killed my brother!”
Why on earth did Fallon think that her fiancé had killed their brother? Nobody knew what happened to Damon, he was there one day and then the next he wasn’t. Before Riley turned the next corner, she stopped and listened.
“Yeah okay, Rob” The voice paused, “I think someone’s coming” he said, his voice quieter “see you when we get back mate…” Riley knew Rob. He was one of Curtis’ old friends, and he sure wasn’t in Riley’s good books.
******************
When Curtis and riley first started dating they were both fourteen, but when Curtis started to mix with Rob and the rest of his ‘crew’, he told Riley he didn’t want to see her anymore. This just left Riley heartbroken and she cried herself to sleep for a week. Curtis started to get into trouble, drinking and taking drugs and Riley was glad that he had turned her away. But a few weeks later when the news of a local boy being murdered outside his house, came around, Rob got sentenced to ten years in prison. Curtis come running back to Riley desperate for her to take him back, but she refused, not wanting to get involved. Curtis begged and insisted that he had changed and that he’d had nothing to do with the murder. Although Riley had her suspicions deep down, she still loved Curtis so accepted him back. It wasn’t until after this that she found out that it was Daniel Redwood, Gareth and Allanah’s older brother that had been murdered.
******************
Riley stepped out of the shadows and turned to face Curtis.
“There you are!” she said, not quite sure exactly what she wanted to ask him. “Yeah, here I am. Been looking for me?” Curtis replied.
“You were talking to Rob.” Riley started shakily. Curtis bit his lip. “You know how I feel about him Curtis! You know how I feel and yet here you are, four days before our wedding, on the phone to him!” She paused to wipe her eyes.
“Look, Riley… it wasn’t-” Riley cut him off mid sentence.
“Don’t try to make excuses, Curtis,” she cried, “just answer me this one question honestly, did you kill Damon? And please, please don’t lie to me, Curtis” Curtis chewed on his lip, as if debating his answer. Riley sighed and tapped her feet in frustration.
“…. Not directly...” was Curtis’ reply. Riley cried out.
“Not directly?!” she said, advancing on him. “That means yes, doesn’t it? All this time, you comforted me, telling me it would be okay and all because you killed him yourself?! You filled me with hope that maybe he had just left town for a few days and that he might come home. But all that time you knew he’d drowned in that river, because it was you that did it!” Tears rolled down Riley’s cheeks and she sank to the floor.
“Look, Riley, don’t jump to conclusions, okay? Please, at least let me explain?”
Riley looked up at him through smudged mascara…
“Go on then. Explain to me, how you could ‘not directly’” she said mocking Curtis’ words, “kill my brother. I’d love to hear your pathetic little story.”
Curtis could feel himself getting angry at her disbelief in him, so he took a deep breath to steady himself.
“Damon wasn’t… well, he wasn’t how you thought he was. He drunk lots and did drugs a lot. He would always pester me and rob if we were out, for some.” Seeing the horrified look on Riley’s face, he took another deep breath and carried on, risking his entire relationship. “I know you don’t like Rob, and I’m sorry I went behind your back, but when he got let out of prison early, I couldn’t refuse to see him, I couldn’t pretend like I’d never been friends with him, not knowing what his temper is like. But anyway, Rob gave in one night, said he was fed up of Damon asking us for things, so he gave him a little bag and shooed him away. I had no idea what was in that bag. So I just carried on and later that night... oh god... later that night, I found Damon’s body slumped in a corner. I checked, but there was no pulse. I pulled out my phone to call 999 but Rob crept up behind me, snatching my mobile and told me in his most threatening voice that if he ever found out that I’d ratted on him then he’d have no second thought s about doing to me the same as he’d done to Daniel Redwood and Damon. He told me to carry Damon’s body and dump it in a river so it looked like he’d drowned. And in my selfishness of not wanting to die, I did. So I left him in the river for the police to find.”
Riley’s crying brought back all the feelings he’d felt that night he carried Damon’s body; self hate, selfishness, anger at himself.
“What about Gareth? Fallon said that he knew about everything?” Riley managed through her tears. She looked up at Curtis and saw a single tear roll down his cheeks.
“Gareth” he said quietly as if processing the name, “well, oh god, I don’t know. Rob went round to the Redwoods house one day after he murdered Damon. He told him about what he’d done, and then he said that he had to be nice to Fallon. I don’t know why he told him that, he thought it would help. He told him that if he found out that he’d told anyone about it, then he’d do the same to him. That’s what he told me anyway, but I don’t know for sure that he did. I saw Gareth out that night, at the same time that Rob text me saying he’d done that.” Riley gulped.
“So Gareth doesn’t know anything? Oh god... the thing is… Fallon won’t even look at him now, she refuses to talk to him, and all because she thinks he knew the whole time. She hates the poor guy!” They just sat there in silence for a while and then Riley stood up.
“Come on then. You’re going to explain this to everyone.” As Riley went to gather everyone on the beach Curtis sat down and thought about leaving now. He thought that if he left and got the next flight home, then it would be better for everyone… but with the prospect of Riley possibly forgiving him, he didn’t want to give up on their relationship.
******************
After Curtis had repeated his story for the second time and answered everyone’s questions, nobody spoke. They all just sat there looking at him in silence. All except for Fallon who’d had to be dragged down to the beach to begin with. She just sat there watching the water, refusing to look at him. He went over and touched her shoulder.
“Fallon, I really am so, so sorry. I never would do this on purpose, but I love you and your sister too much to ruin everything, although I think I have now.” She looked up at him for a moment, nodded, and then walked away. Curtis turned around and feeling the tension he stood up, mumbled another ‘I’m so sorry’ and went back to the hotel.
******************
A few days later, Gareth was walking along the beach, unaware that Fallon was sat up at the pool, watching him. She felt bad about accusing him of knowing about Damon, but she wasn’t ready to talk to him yet. Up at the bar, Riley sat talking to Deborah and Julie.
“I just don’t know. I still love him and I know that he only kept it from us because he loved me too and he didn’t want to jeopardize things, but he still let my brother die, and he still talks to the guy who did it!” riley said. Deborah and Julie nodded in agreement.
“At the end of the day, it’s your decision. The date can always be changed until you’ve decided. It could be postponed for a couple of days…” Deborah suggested, showing her lawyer side. Riley knew what she wanted. She still wanted Curtis, but she didn’t want to upset Fallon. She decided that if she could talk to Fallon, then she wouldn’t feel so bad about going behind her back and marrying Curtis.
Back on the beach, Gareth was thinking the same thing. He wanted to see Fallon but she hadn’t spoken to anyone since Curtis told his story. He wanted to see her, and ask her if she meant what she said. The words kept playing in his head, like a broken CD.
I Loved You!
She’d said she loved him! He hoped that the ‘d’ on the end of ‘loved’ could be removed, but he didn’t think that was very likely to happen anymore. Although Curtis had told her that Gareth knew nothing about Damon’s death, Gareth thought that by the look on her face, she wasn’t entirely convinced. However, three days later Fallon had spoken to Gareth and things were better between them, but of course, Damon and Curtis were still on her mind. The next evening, Julie told Fallon to put on her best dress and meet everyone at the front of the hotel in half an hour. Fallon put on her dress and did her makeup, presuming they were just going out for a meal. As Fallon stood waiting at the front of the hotel, she suddenly realised what was actually going on. Riley was still going to marry Curtis. And although this should have triggered anger in Fallon, she felt strangely calm about it, considering her sister was going behind her back and marrying the person that could have stopped her brother dying, but didn’t. Feeling the presence of someone else, she turned around to face a sheepish looking, Riley.
“Hey, you look really nice” Riley started, “Okay, look Fallon. I’m really sorry and I know your upset about Damon, we all are, but Curtis didn’t do it on purpose there was nothing he could have done. He found him dead.” Riley wanted to say that he could have told us, but bit her lip and let Riley carry on. “So, I’m sorry, I feel like I’m deceiving you, but I still love Curtis, and I only hope you can forgive me sometime… and Curtis too.” Fallon considered everything and instead of saying anything and risking crying again, she just hugged Riley.
After the wedding ceremony, Fallon caught up with Gareth.
“Hey” she said as she slowed down and walked at the same pace as Gareth. She looked at him, and grabbed his arm, pulling him to a stop. “Do you, I don’t know, maybe… want to do something together tomorrow? Like, go swimming or something?” she asked, never taking her eyes off of Gareth’s face. He didn’t need to say anything; he just smiled at Fallon and took her hand. As they walked along the beach again, following everyone else, Fallon suddenly stopped. “Hey, er, seeing as everybody is being completely honest with each other, I feel I should tell you this. Your cat didn’t run away when we were seven, I took him to school for show and tell.” Gareth looked at Fallon and laughed.
“Okay then” he said, “I guess it’s my turn… I love you.”
******************
“Fallon, honey, come back up to the hotel, we have something for you” Fallons mother called from the hotel, disturbing Fallons memories. As she brushed the sand away, she walked back up to the hotel with a smile on her face, maybe this hadn’t been such a bad holiday.
******************
