FALTER

CHAPTER 10: Why is it all coming back?

Falter put the book aside again as he watched the girl fold up her prayer mat and put it in the closet before turning around and sitting next to him. Looking up expectantly, she once again smiled at him.

Her face seemed fuller than the day Falter had first met her, and her eyes were blazing with a passion that had been absent before. Clearly her fashion sense had changed considerably too, as she had gone from wearing pretty unremarkable clothes to a shiny bottle green jacket, the type that's really puffy, fitting jeans which were rounded out by a not-new-but-still-pretty-slick pair of sneakers. Imti wondered where she had gotten them.

"Soooooo," Rachel enunciated all the Os.

Falter looked down to avoid looking at her shining eyes as he started his monologue."Rachel... I talked to your parents." The room suddenly became oddly still, as if the very molecules of air were afraid to move. "They... they want you back."

Imti hated every inch of the skin on his body at the moment, but he continued on."I'm sorry to say this, I'm really sorry, but-" He had never scrutinized the floor so deeply in his life. "You have to go back, Rachel. Back home."

Silence loomed over the two of them, until-

"I know. I'll go." Falter raised his eyes to look at her again and caught Rachel's expression changing. Her nose lost its wrinkles and she looked back at him with as lively a smile as ever. "I've actually been packing already." She gestured behind them to the same gap where she was praying. There was a duffle bag there.

Imti felt a lump form in his throat and lost his composure.

"Look, I don't- I'm not sending you away. You can stay here as long as you want, if you want, and I'll do my best to cover you. It's just that, well, I can't.... make that decision for you." The words felt like poison leaving his mouth, but Rachel just chuckled.

"Thanks. I know, and you don't have to worry." She placed a hand on his shoulder pad, carefully situating her fingers between the two towering spikes. "I... I miss them too, my mom and dad. This was fun but, um, I don't know. It all got a little too much, heh."

Falter still couldn't form any coherent thoughts, but he tried. "I'm sorry the concert was a disaster."

"Are you kidding? That was the best memory of my life. I finally, finally got to see my favourite band of all time, and on top of all that, my idol was in there acting like the coolest person ever? If that's your standard for a disaster, then you're messed up." Her smile was so wide that it caused her eyes to almost close, but Imti could still see the cheerful twinkle in them.

Yeah... she was going to be fine.

"You know I'm not abandoning you, right?" Falter regained some of the strength in his voice as a little ball of pride fluttered in his chest. "My number- you can call it anytime and I'll be there."Rachel nodded, but Falter pulled out his phone. "Not Falter's number. Mine."

The teen raised her eyebrow. "I don't even know who you are."