Falling into Forever (Falling into You) - By Lauren Abrams Page 0,11
The fact that the writing is dynamite, better than we could have ever hoped for, is really just a bonus.”
The stony look that I give him is enough to send him scrambling for the door, and he pauses only long enough to give my obliterated office a quick look. “I’ll send someone in after you leave to clean this shit up.”
I bury my head in my hands and try to will my brain into working again.
I can’t come up with a plan to steal her away from Ben Ellison, because he’s already been taken.
I need to see it for myself. I type in “hero teacher” into the search bar on my computer. There are millions and millions of hits. I click on images first, because photographic evidence will give me what I need the fastest.
Each one is, in its own way, devastating.
The first one, the one that’s repeated in a thousand different crops and angles, shows Ben pulling a bloodied kid from the rubble as flames start to lick at the bus.
The next is an abstract image of the gaping hole in the earth after it exploded.
However, the ones that I linger on the longest are the thousand fractured images of Hallie’s face staring up at me.
Most of them show her leaving the hospital, and she’s angry and sad and some other emotion that I can’t quite read, probably because her flawless skin is covered in gauze bandages and red-streaked scars that curl angrily at the edges.
I keep clicking through the pages, unable to tear my eyes away. As I get further down, the pictures are less sensational, but no less painful. She and Ben look happy and beautiful on a beach, at a football game, from a school dance. In the last few, Hallie’s wearing a long white dress and staring up at Ben and the two of them look disgustingly elated.
I pass over those last ones quickly.
The last image I see, on the twentieth page of results, seems vaguely familiar, and when I click on it, I realize it’s a video clip.
I know instantly that I absolutely do not want to see this, and that it holds its own kind of pain. My finger hovers over the little red x, but every impulse towards self-destruction takes over instead.
Free from the constraints of time, a much-younger Hallie moves towards the camera, shaking her fist and grinning.
“Tell me, oh mysterious lady, what are your plans, now that you’ve captured the hearts of millions of lovers of art who’ve looked upon your beautiful face?”
She pulls her little black mask onto her forehead, revealing wide blue eyes under exaggerated black eyebrows. Of course. It was Sam’s annual masquerade, the summer after Hallie and I had met. She had insisted on da Vinci and Mona Lisa.
She gestures wildly at Sam, and he lets out a low chuckle.
“Tell me, Sam. What are your plans, other than becoming a New York bum who occasionally goes to clubs to show off your dancing talents? Cheater. You didn’t even wear a costume to your own party.”
“Baby, who needs a costume when you’ve got a face like this?”
Hallie leans back her head and releases long peals of laughter. The camera shakes as Sam takes another step towards her. Her eyes are full of mischief as she opens her mouth, but Sam shushes her.
“Mona Lisa, right now, my plan is to take our little show on the road. You know, we’ll find some sort of dance contest in each city and we’ll just make our way from coast to coast. No responsibilities, no obligations. Whenever you realize that Jensen is a total clown, I’ll be here.”
Before she can offer a quick retort, another voice cuts in. It’s a younger, happier version of my own.
“In your dreams, asshat.”
I breathe a sigh of relief when I see myself step into the frame. At least I’m wearing a black mask that obscures my face. Thank god for small mercies. Otherwise, the press would have found this one a long time ago. But even though my face isn’t visible, there’s no disguising the fact that we belong to each other.
I watch as the other version of myself moves quickly to her side and lifts her off her feet after casually throwing a middle finger in Sam’s direction. Despite the bulk of our costumes, Hallie and I are entwined together, dancing and staring into each other’s eyes. Sam mutters something about the shot being ruined by my presence, but he keeps the camera zoomed