Silently Falling

Chapter Thirteen (NEW as of 9/27/2020)

Yes, this is a brand new chapter. I was going to add it to the original Chap. 13, but it ended up being wayyyy too long. I figured it was easiest just to make this its own chapter :)

So, nearly 5 years after I first wrote this book, here is a brand new chapter. 

Silently Falling: Chapter Thirteen

West and I finished our lesson right around six, and once he left I went to the kitchen to start cooking for Toby and myself. It may not be Tuesday, but tacos are calling my name and they are extremely simple to make. And a short thirty minutes later, I have the meat cooked, the tortillas warmed, and the salsa, cheese, and sour cream out on the counter for Toby and I to spoon onto our tacos as we please. As if on queue, Toby comes back from wherever he was just as I turn off the stovetop.

"It smells absolutely delicious in this house, and I am absolutely starving," he calls out from the entrance.

I hear as he struggles to take off his shoes, small grunts echoing down the hallway as he no doubt tries to squeeze them off without untying the laces. As I hear one loudly hit the wall, I picture him accidentally shooting it off of his feet and launching it forward, and it makes me silently chuckle.

"Taco Tuesd- wait, it's Monday, sis. Tacos on a Monday?"

I turn towards him, noting that his styled hair is definitely no longer styled, and shrug as I carefully set down our plates next to the homemade taco bar.

"There's no rulebook that says we can't."

He grins at me, running over and messing up my hair before loading half of the meat onto his single tortilla that he puts way too much faith in to hold up the burrito he's about to create.

"You are correct. We don't have any parents here to tell us what we can and can't cook."

Reaching for my plate, I begin making my own burrito and ignore the pit that forms in my stomach from his comment. We don't have any parents here, and that's not right. We lost our mother, but we still have a father who should be here for us.

"Thank you for making dinner, Raine. I appreciate it," Toby says as he goes towards the island, pulling out a barstool with one hand while carefully balancing the plate with his overstuffed burrito on the other.

As we eat, we are both caught off guard by Toby's phone beginning to buzz on the granite countertop. With taco sauce all over his hands, and sour cream dotting his chin, he glances at me to answer his phone. I quirk a brow.

"If that's not a FaceTime call, I can't exactly answer it."

He reads my hands and quickly chews his last few bites, swallowing hard before licking the sauce off of his fingers and wiping his chin with the back of his hand, then transferring that filth to his shirt. Reaching over, he snags his phone before the call can end and flips the screen to face him. His body freezes as he reads the contact, brows furrowing before breaking into a smile.

"It's dad!"

My heart skips a beat, and instead of relief and excitement, I feel anxious and almost...angry. He hasn't called in nearly a week, but one random call should make us happy?

"Dad!" Toby says as the connection strengthens and our dad pops up on his phone screen.

Our dad looks more like Toby than me, but only in facial features. His hair is nothing like Toby's, since it is silver color, his blonde hair slowly morphing into gray. Not to mention his hair is long enough to flow down to the base of his neck, and he has a styled beard to complete the look. If you didn't notice their identical noses and smile, you wouldn't know he was Toby's dad.