Push Me Away : Book 2 of the Teeth Series

1

I'm so fucking mad at you but I can't stay away.

Fallon Harding had spent an hour simply staring at the text message when it appeared on her phone two days after what was supposed to have been a girl's night at Crystal and Michael's house. She had been hesitant to go in the first place. Honestly, she had been floored when those girls had stuck by her at all. It felt like the entire rest of the world had turned against her.

Most specifically, her sister Erin. She couldn't allow her thoughts to linger there for too long though, it just made her sad.

Seeing Calum that night had felt a bit like an out of body experience, he had seemed simultaneously furious and fascinated by the sight of her and then that kiss. His lips had felt like the rain after a months long drought, like coming home after a particularly grueling tour. It felt familiar and different all at the same time and then it ended as quickly as it had begun. Calum had stalked out of the house and she hadn't seen him since, but she had definitely heard from him.

Every day after that first message he sent something similar, showcasing his conflicting emotions and his seeming refusal to let her go. It was a nice change from the text messages she sent him that had undelivered in their text thread when he had her number blocked. At first she had been fearful that his communication efforts would be short lived. That he would realize after a few days that he didn't actually miss her. That he would remember what she had done and choose to truly be done with her forever. After a week of consistency she had caved, sending him a lengthy paragraph that detailed how sorry she was for everything and how she still held out hope that one day they would be able to resolve all of the issues between them.

The dialogue they had created through text was what led her to her current location, a lobby colored seven shades of beige where she sat on a surprisingly comfortable chaise tapping her foot in thinly veiled annoyance.

He was late.

*

"New text from Fallon Harding: Where the fuck are you, question mark." The robotic voice of Calum's car assistant said, softening the sound of the Radiohead song that blared through his speakers.

"Fuck." He grumbled as he glared at the stalled bumper-to-bumper traffic in front of him. He hated being late and today was important which made his tardiness even more annoying.

He scanned the view in front of him and sighed, there was nothing he could do. "Text Fallon Harding."

"Okay, what would you like to say?"

"One mile out. Traffic is a bitch. I'll be there ASAP. Send."

It took ten more minutes of frustration before he was finally able to pull into the therapy practice's office. He slammed his Range Rover into park and then raced towards the front door, flinging it open and hurriedly asking the secretary to point him in the right direction. Calum walked down a short hallway until he found the room number he had been given and then he knocked, breathless and frustrated that he hadn't gotten there on time. This had all been his idea and now it would appear that he was indifferent to things when he most definitely was not.

"You must be Calum." The woman who answered the door had shoulder length blonde hair and green eyes hidden behind a pair of what appeared to be vintage reading glasses. Her outfit consisted of a professional blouse and dress pants capped off with sensible shoes. She very much appeared the stereotypical definition of a therapist.

"I am and I apologize for being late. There's a car accident that's got the road blocked and the traffic backed up. I'm not typically tardy."

"It's quite alright. Fallon and I were just getting to know one another a bit. I'm Dr.Felicia Stevens. You can call me Felicia if you'd like."

"Nice to meet you, Felicia." Calum then allowed his brown eyes to drift over to the forest green couch where Fallon was seated. "Hey, Fal."

"Glad you could make it." If he had expected a bitterness in her tone he didn't get it. That didn't mean that she was overjoyed to see him though. No, her walls were up and she was on edge, clearly not one hundred percent comfortable with the idea. He had expected as much, but she was there and that was a start.

"What were you ladies talking about?"

"Music. Fallon told me that you're both musicians." Felicia answered and Calum turned his head to look at her.

"We are."

"Tell me a little about what led you to your current career."

"Do you want me or her to go first?"

"Either is fine."

Calum looked over to Fallon who shrugged.

"Um, well, okay. I reckon I was about fifteen. My mate Michael had started posting covers with a guy called Luke and I was always over at Michael's house and I just kind of invited myself into the band. I started out with guitar and then after we added our drummer Ashton I moved over to bass. The boys of One Direction saw our covers on youtube and we ended up touring with them. We toured for most of our teenage years, lived in London for a bit and then ended up in L.A."

"Wow, and you're how old now, Calum?"

"Just turned twenty four last week."

"So basically ten years of your life. Almost half of it you've been pursuing this career." He nodded. "Do you think that leaving your parents and home at such a young age has impacted you in your adulthood?"

"Um.." His initial reaction was to say no. But the whole point of therapy was to think about things and answer honestly, right? So he took a moment, letting himself ponder the question while his eyes darted around the room scanning the tchotchkes that lined the darkly stained wooden shelves. "I think it made it more independent for sure."

"And what do you mean by independent?"

Calum furrowed his brow and stared at her inquisitively. "Um...I'm not sure what you're asking."

"Independence could have a few different interpretations. Did it make you more independent in that you are more self-sufficient in, say, your tasks at home? Or independent in that you shut yourself off and try to deal with your challenges yourself without help from others?"

"Oh...um, well, maybe the second one."

"Okay. It's good to recognize those kinds of things in ourselves and how they might affect our partner in a relationship." she commented before turning to look at Fallon. "And what about you, Fallon? How did you come to be a musician?"

Fallon glanced around nervously before she began to talk, her usually confident voice coming out as quiet and shaky as Calum had ever heard it before. "Well my sister and I always loved music. For as long as I can remember if we were awake we were singing, or playing some kind of instrument. I guess we were probably pretty bad at it but we were persistent and so our parents put us in some lessons and it went from there. Erin and I could both sing a little bit and we started putting covers on youtube. We recruited Wesley our drummer and Chayse our lead guitarist and kept making covers, sending out demos until we landed a record deal."

"So are you close with your sister then? Erin?"

When Fallon didn't reply immediately Calum looked over at Fallon and felt his chest tighten. She looked ready to burst into tears and there were few things Calum hated more than to see her cry. His hand moved on instinct and without permission until it rested on top of hers. Her thumb brushed softly over the top of his knuckle before she took a shaky breath and looked up at Felicia. "We used to be. But she hasn't spoken to me since before Christmas, when everything happened."

An: so Falum is in therapy.

Will it help them?

Can they be saved?

Calum seems pretty well adjusted considering the circumstances....

What do we think?

Ily,
Sav 🖤