Fallen - Jordan Wadley (good book recommendations txt) 📗

a long time before he stopped driving and unbuckled me. Max pulled me into his arms and I risked a quick glance at my surroundings and nearly blew my cover when I almost gasped. We were in front of the most ginormous house I’d ever seen. Scratch that, I was definitely not at my aunt’s house. All the windows had a glow from the inside and the rose bushes dotted the landscape. It looked so cozy. I closed my eyes when he opened the door. I could still see the bright light with my eyes closed so I turned my head and buried it in his chest, simply loving the sweet smell of his masculine scent.

“Is this another pass?” A deep voice asked curiously.

I  heard the pattering of small footsteps and a feminine voice, “She’s so pretty! Can we keep her?”

The voice from before scolded her gently. “Kiki! We don’t keep people like pets, okay? But she’s welcome to stay for the night, it’s too dark for her to go home alone.”

Max breathed a sigh of relief. A woman squealed. “Max! Is this her?”

Her? Who’s her? I knew I wasn’t the one Max wanted.

He made a hushed sound. “Mom! She’s sleeping. Chill, okay? I’ll tell you later.”

Wait, mom? My god, he brought me to his house? And his family was right there looking me, supposedly passed out in his arms. Good grief.

“Oh! Okay hon, I’ll let you get to it then,” His mom said.

I tried to stifle the yawn but it came out anyway. Ugh, might as well meet them all now. I blinked and looked at Max first. He smiled and I couldn’t resist the smile that stretched across my face my instinct. I heard his mom make a cooing sound and out of the corner of my eye, I saw her nudge a larger man next to her as they smiled warmly at me. I must assume that was Max’ dad from the similar resemblance.

I felt a tug on a sleeve of Max’s jacket that i was still wearing and looked down to see an adorable little girl grinning up at me just as I smiled back. They all looked in a way similar to Max’ strong features. She had short blonde curls that seemed to dance around her angelic face, small dimples covered the corners of her bright smile but her green eyes were what caught me off guard. Max had bright grey/blue/green eyes while the little girl had complete emerald green glowing eyes. His sister.

I suddenly felt self-conscious; Max was still cradling me bridal style so I tapped his chest. “Put me down?” I asked.

“Oh yeah…” he set me on the ground and scratched the back of his neck sheepishly while his mom let out another giggle.

“Hi there,” I bent down so I was eye level with the girl. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Khione,” she told me, her voice like tinkling of silver bells in my ears; it was beautiful, just like her name. “What’s yours?”

“Hanna, you have a wonderful name Khione.”

“How old are you? How long are you staying here? Are you Max’ girlfriend?”

My mouth popped open in shock from the little girl’s last question just as Max choked on the air behind me. Needless to say, his parents certainly found our reactions funny. His mom was hiding her laughter behind a perfectly manicured hand while his dad grinned as if he’d just won the lottery.

“Umm…” I began uncomfortably.

“Alright Kiki, give the poor girl some space, let’s go get ready for dinner,” his dad said, ushering Kiki out into the hallways.

“I’ll let you show Hanna her room, meet us in three in the dining room when you’re done,” his mom followed her husband.

I turned to him. “That’s your family right?”

“Er...yeah, I’m sorry about Khione by the way…”

I laughed, “It’s alright, I liker her, she’s cute.”

Max grinned. “So how ‘bout I show you to your room my lady.” He mimicked in a terrible accent. Nonetheless I laughed and followed him down the hall.

The huge chandelier crystals three rainbows everywhere and I counted at least five floors in this monster of a house. There were hardwood floors throughout and the decor was simple but sophisticated, glass and wood. Max led me up a spiral staircase all the way to the third floor and pushed open a door.

“You can stay here,” he flicked the light switch and I gasped audibly.

A large, plush bed was against the far wall with purple sheets and the nightstands matched all the other furnishings. the french windows were slightly open and the sheer curtains floated in the breeze. The walls were painted a lavender color with white swirls connecting to each other. I was at a loss for words.

“We’ve got about an hour until dinner starts, do you want a tour?”

I nodded, “Your house is amazing!”

“Our family shares it with a bunch of other families so it doesn’t actually belong to us, I’ll explain later.” With that, he walked down the staircase.

I followed him to the living room where a young couple, not much older than us by a few years, watched two babies playing with toys on the rug. There was another child, a toddler, who came up to the couple and sat on the woman’s  lap and both of them shared a warm embrace. They were on happy family and a warm feeling Blossomed in my heart at the sight of them, only to be replaced with sadness. My childhood was anything by happy.

Chapter Six

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Anyway, it didn’t matter. As soon as I saved enough money, I was hightailing it out of my house, away from my parents. It’s not like they’d actually care; I once stayed at Kassia’s house for a week without asking their permission, and no, they didn’t even notice. I worked two jobs to pay for myself. My parents somehow had the money to pay the bills and pay for their stupid alcoholic ways, but me? I had to work to pay for my lunches at school, for school supplies, clothes, everything.

I worked as a singing instructor Saturday morning and I just went to my students’ houses to teach them there, not wanted them to go to my wreck of a house. The job paid a pretty decent amount; it was approximately forty five dollars per hour. At the local music store, they offer half hour lessons for thirty dollars so I suppose it made more sense to go to me. The rest of the time, I worked as a waitress at a small, homey diner after school from Tuesday to Thursday in order to do all my school work I came to school two hours before anyone else did, and I stayed after for an hour and  a half usually. Then I did what I could to finish it either at the library, where my parents wouldn’t bother me, or in the woods, where they also wouldn’t bother me. Hell, I’ve probably worked more in the past few years than my parents have in the whole of my life. The thought made my teeth grind together.

“Hann? Let’s go see more of the house before dinner starts,” Max said. “Unless you don’t want to..?”

“I’m coming,” I called. Tearing my eyes away from the family in front of me, I hurried after him.

I saw a game room, a theather, a fully furnished and heated basment, the massive kitchen, dining room one, the breakfast area, the deck, another living room, an office that belonged to Max’s dad, and a pool outside. He never told me he was rich, but then again...I’ve only known him for a day. It made me feel like I wasn’t good enough for him. I came from a family, if you could call it that, that had no interest in me whatsoever and left me to fend for myself. His family was obviously well off, and everyone here seemed so happy. My smile slowly started to slip.

Max seemed to know what I was thinking. “Don’t think that you’re not good enough because you are.”

Mind reader much? “But you guys are so-”Money doesn’t matter to me, hell, I wouldn’t care if you were some homeless lady living on the streets, as long as I got to see you and talk to you every day.”

By now, I was starting to come to the conclusion that Max was naturally sweet and stuff like that just came out of his mouth spontaneously. I wrapped him in a hug and whispered, “Thank you.” I wasn’t just thanking him for his words, I was thanking him for being there for me, for caring a heck of a lot more than my own parents would’ve, and for making me feel like I was wanted. His strong arms held me tight and I didn’t want to let him go. It felt like he was holding the pieces of me together.

A bell tolling interrupted us and the people that were just hanging around got up and began hurrying in random directions. He let go of me with a groan. “Okay, let’s get ready for dinner, we’ve got ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes? But...I haven’t got anything nice wear and’” I felt the top of my hair, or rather, bird’s nest. “I haven’t fixed my hair either.” I started to run up the stairs but Max swooped down on me and picked me up, running ot my room with somewhat unnatural speed, but I was too panicky to notice it too much.

After I finally untangled my hair, I asked, “Max, I don’t have any extra clothes with me.”

He took my hands and I couldn’t help flashing back to when he held it this afternoon. It felt nice. Dragging me in front of a walk-in closet, he said, “Pick whatever you want, I think this is pretty close to your size.”

I put my hand to my mouth. “Oh my…”

There were racks and racks of more clothes than I’d ever owned in my life. But it looked so new and clean, and besides, I didn’t know whose clothes these were.” Max, I-I can’t-”

He grabbed a deep purple dress off one of the racks that had sheer bell sleeves and went down past my knees. “I think you’d look great in this.”

“Max! I can’t just come into your home and wear random clothes that aren’t even mine, it makes me feel like I’m trespassing!”

He put the dress in my hands. “You’re always welcome in our home.”

Chapter Five:

Did he just say our? “But-”

“No buts, now, are you going to try it on? Dinner’s in…” He checked his non existent watch. “Four minutes.”

Letting out a sigh, I ran to the bathroom and  heard him chuckling. Not even thirty seconds later, I emerged wearing what he chose and I had to admit, the boy had style. It fit perfectly and almost by complete instinct I fell in love with the bright color.

“Hanna? You done?”

I stepped out and twirled one, the dress’ skirt floated around me with ease. “What do you think?”

I got a moment of satisfaction when he simply stared at me, a complete dumbfounded expression. His jaw lay slack against his normal joyous lips, I noticed the way his eyes trailed lazily up and down the dress as if addressing me