Push Me Away : Book 2 of the Teeth Series

5

Unlike the last time that Fallon had attended couples therapy with Calum, this time she was not the first to arrive. Her knock on the door was quickly answered and his chocolate eyes focused on her, singeing her skin with his gaze as she dropped into one of the two armchairs opposite the one where Dr. Stevens was currently seated.

Neither she nor Calum had reached out to each other since almost a week before, when she had drunk dialed him trying to seduce him only to get her feelings hurt.

She understood what he had said to her, she really did. When she had made the decision to keep her secret from him she had gone in knowing that were he to ever find out things would be ruined. She hadn't really ever expected things to get as far as they had nor had she accounted for all the twists and turns that life would throw them along the way. And none of that made hearing what Calum had to say any less painful.

A year and a half ago she had considered the man sitting less than six feet away from her the very best friend she had ever had, her other half. Now it sometimes felt like she didn't know him at all and the weight of knowing that their relationship had disintegrated because of her actions was an awful heavy load for just one person to bear.

"Hi Fallon, I'm so glad you could join us." Dr. Stevens greeted her and she mustered a small smile onto her face though the effort it took was copious.

"Sorry to keep you guys waiting."

"Non-sense, Calum just arrived as well."

The urge to turn her head just a smidge to the left to look at him was there but she fought it off, keeping her focus on the therapist as she settled herself, taking out a notebook and pen before looking up at the pair.

"So, last week we talked about the two of you a bit, how you got to your current careers and Fallon you touched on your relationship with your sister. Did you have a chance to reach out to her this week?"

Shades of red seared her cheeks as Fallon glanced down to her fingers and picked at the skin around her thumbnail. "I tried—really I did–but she wouldn't pick up the phone."

"How did that make you feel?"

Fallon averted her eyes, looking towards the ceiling as her throat closed up and she found it hard to swallow. "I felt...abandoned, I guess."

'Why?"

"Erin's always been there for me. Even when it was hard for her, even when I wasn't making smart decisions, even when she didn't agree. But this is different. It's like she's just gone. I don't know how to cope when the person who had always helped me figure things like this out is just absent from my life."

Dr. Stevens gave her a minute to process and then continued "So, without your sister what has your support system been like throughout the last few months?"

A very un-ladylike snort emerged from Fallon. "Support system? What's that?" She said laughing humorlessly. "I guess truly I have Chayse and Wes, the two other members of my band but they have their own things going on. The girls who date the members of Calum's band invited me over once but as much as I love their company I could tell that things were different. They asked me back but I felt like I would be intruding so I've just kind of been doing me."

"What about other family members? Your parents?"

"There's nothing wrong with my parents, they're kind and they didn't give me any trauma or anything when I was younger. It's just, I'm not particularly close with either of them. They're divorced now but that happened after Erin and I moved out so it's not like it really affected my daily life all that much. I talk to them both occasionally but I don't confide in them or anything. They've only ever met Cal a few times."