Fall from Love

was—”
    “Stop!” I scream. “Just stop!” I begin to back away from him, feeling the hot tears streaming down my face. “I asked you to stop! I don’t want to hear anymore!” My voice is shaking.
    “Holly, please—”
    “Just stop talking!” I yell at the top of my lungs. “I didn’t want to know all of that. I didn’t want to know!” I scream as though the louder my voice gets, the more the pain will flow out of me.
    His face twists. “I’m sorry, but I had to tell you. I couldn’t look at you anymore, knowing that you didn’t know the truth,” he says, taking a couple steps towards me.
    I take two back, wanting to keep the distance between us. “I can’t do this.” I shake my head. My mind is still swimming with the words he said. “I can’t do this,” I say again, taking a few more steps closer to the door. Without saying another word to him, I turn around, wanting to find Jenna and have her bring me home.
    Before I reach the door, though, it flies open and Josh is standing there, looking at me. “What the hell is going on out here?”
    Within a few seconds, Jenna is standing beside him and they’re both staring at me with a horrified expression.
    Jenna’s face turns to anger and her eyes fly over to Carter. “What did you do? You told her, didn’t you?! Why couldn’t you just leave it alone?” Jenna yells at him. “I told you all it would do was hurt her!”
    My head spins at what she just said. She knew? My heart hammers in my chest and then it all makes sense. Jenna has known all along; Travis and the words he said to me at the football game finally make sense. I feel like a complete fool. Everyone has known.
    “You knew?” I ask, looking directly at her.
    Her face falls as she looks back over at me. “Holly, I was just trying to protect you.”
    “By lying to me? By keeping something like this from me?” My voice rises with each word that escapes my lips.
    She takes a couple steps towards me and reaches out for me, but I move away. “I knew how badly you wanted to forget that night. I tried to tell you once, but then, after some time passed, I didn’t think you wanted to know the details. Holly, please, you have to understand.”
    I shake my head over and over, trying to drown out her voice.
    “You’re a liar!” I say, choking back the tears. “This whole time you’ve been lying to me. Even when I started to have feelings for him—real feelings—you didn’t think it was a good time to tell me then?” My voice sounds hoarse from yelling and it cracks on the last word. I wipe away my tears.
    Tears are streaming down her face, too, and there’s not one ounce of me that wants to console her. There is so much anger in me right now; I’m not sure what to do with it all.
    “Hey, let’s all calm down and come inside to talk this out,” Josh says, his voice is soft and quiet as he grabs Jenna’s shoulders, giving them a light squeeze.
    My eyes focus on Jenna and I squeeze my eyes tight, hoping to keep the next round of tears bottled up. “I’m tired of talking,” I say, opening my eyes and pushing past Jenna.
    “Holly, wait. Please don’t leave so upset.” She tries to reach out for me, but I move away and keep walking down the hall. “We can go home and talk this out, okay,” she says.
    Stopping abruptly, I whirl around to face her. She jerks to a stop and swallows hard. “Don’t follow me. Leave me alone. I. D on’t . Want. To. Talk. To. You,” I say, through gritted teeth.

 
     
    Chapter Twenty
     
    Love is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible - it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment, and offer you more joy than any material possession could.
    ~ Barbara de Angelis
     
    HOLLY
    It has been two days since my explosion over at Josh and Carter’s house. I haven’t heard from Carter and I’m pretty sure I won’t. The way I talked to him the other day, I’m not sure he’ll ever speak or look at me again. Truthfully, I’m not ready to face him just yet, anyway.
    That night, when I got home, I lied in bed and cried. I cried for Carter and the pain I saw in his eyes when he opened up to me and told me what he had been keeping bottled up for so long. I cried for Jenna and the friendship I feared I ruined forever. I cried for Adam. I cried for what we had together and what we would never have. I cried because, deep down, it felt like I was finally letting go of him. There would