All That We Could Be

Chapter Eighteen

As Christopher turned onto the main road, Fallon took this chance to find out more about him…and the car. “So, how long have you had this car?” She asked him. “About three years.” He told her. “And you’ve never raced it, not even once…not even a teeny tiny bit?” She probed. “Nope…” He told her, but there was a little smile coming on to his face. “Come on, you probably have…even I couldn’t be that good…unless I had some kind of electric shock for every time I thought of it…” She told him. She could tell he had. “Okay…maybe just once, but I haven’t done it recently.” He told her, sheepishly. “Ahah! I knew it, you couldn’t help it. So you killed her…and now you’re going to kill mine” She said with mock horror.

At this Christopher laughed. “I don’t think I could kill yours. You’ve done a pretty good job of doing that yourself.” He retorted. Fallon laughed. “At least mine wasn’t a gorgeous Mercedes, the queen of all cars past, present, and future.” Fallon told him dramatically. “So then what does that make your car. If my Mercedes is the queen and is beautiful, what’s yours?” He asked, indulging in this conversation. “Oh my Charger’s beautiful too, except she gets to be king.” Fallon said happily.

“I’m guessing I should stay away from your hierarchy of cars.” Christopher told Fallon. “You guessed right.” She agreed, since she knew what a long winded argument it could be over which car is above which.

“So Fallon, I’ve heard Craig talking about your album.” He told her, steering away from the topic. “Is it good or bad stuff that you’ve heard?” She asked him. “He won’t stop talking once you get him started. So it’s all good.” Christopher said. “Yea well, he deserves to be happy with my stuff for once.” She told him. There was silence for a moment. “So what do you do. Christopher?” Fallon asked quickly, hoping that she hadn’t made it too awkward. “I’m actually a computer engineer. I work with computers all day long.” He told her. “Sounds like fun.” She said. “It can be, but I’m not too fond of some programming languages though…shh…it’s a secret.” He told her. “I never really liked the programming part in high school.” Fallon agreed. “You took programming? Which languages did you do?” Christopher was intrigued. “I learned bits and pieces mainly. I had to learn Turing, java, c, and visual basics, oh and html. I hated java the most.” She told him, she shuddered at the thought. “Wow, I think Turing is the easiest, but it’s quite old.” He said, impressed. “How long ago was this?” He asked her. “I don’t know, years ago.” She replied. “How old are you Fallon?” Christopher asked. “Twenty, why?” She was curious. “How did you learn all of them?” He was curious. “I didn’t learn them properly, I still can’t do an array with out help. How old are you?” “Twenty six.” “And you already have a nice car?” She asked amazed. “This was a gift from my dad, he gave it to me when I graduated with my degree.” “Awesome! Maybe I’ll do something like that…” Christopher chuckled upon hearing this.

They finally got to the movie store. Christopher parked, and the two of them went inside. Fallon browsed through the selections on the walls. There wasn’t anything that was interesting her. “Which ones would you watch, Chris?” She asked Christopher. “I thought ‘Forbidden Kingdom’ was good. Jackie Chan, Jet Li, martial arts…always good.” Christopher answered as he picked out the movie. “Okay, sure. Anything else? Ooh…‘Mr. Bean’s Holiday’…I’ve got to watch that. Except Cheryl won’t like it…urgh.” But Fallon picked up the second movie anyway. “Okay, so what does your friend Cheryl like?” Christopher asked. “Apparently William.” Fallon muttered quietly under her breath. “I didn’t catch that.” Christopher said in confusion. “She likes romantic films.” Fallon said quickly. “Oh, so how about…” Christopher looked over the racks as he spoke. He found not one but a couple. “Okay so how about ‘The Notebook’, ‘A Walk To Remember’, ‘The Lake House’, or ‘Chasing Liberty’.” “It’s like you’re a machine. That was fast.” Fallon said, amazed.

“Okay so which one?” Christopher asked, his smile returning. “All of them…I’ll just hide them…and show them to her one at a time…so I don’t have to come looking again…or drag you to help me look.” She said, as she took the bunch from him.

Their next stop was the grocery store. The first thing Fallon did was stock up on chocolate. Exam time would be nearing and so she needed something to look forward too. Christopher wasn’t one to argue, Fallon found out that he had quite a sweet tooth, so she split the goods with him. Fallon got some ready made pizza crusts, along with the sauce and cheese. She also got some salad, and garlic bread. She grabbed a bag of chips for the movies, and some popcorn. She didn’t go for the soda, she had steered away from that since…she refused to think about it. She had always drunk pop occasionally, but now even occasionally was not about to happen. Instead she grabbed a few cans of frozen juice and left for the check out with Christopher in tow.

As Christopher drove her home, their conversation steered onto a new path. “If you could choose any career what would it be?” He asked her. “A doctor.” Fallon answered. “Why?” Christopher asked with curiosity. “I always wanted to be a doctor when I was four, to save lives, and just help other people…like the ones in Africa.” She told him, with a pause. “So why didn’t you?” He asked. “I can’t dissect humans. Animals, insects, I’m okay with…kind of…I know how to distance myself. Humans…no way, I can’t cut into some one who used to be alive and be like oh I think I cut his pulmonary vein by accident.” She told him. “I can take real blood, cuts, casts, fixing a joint, needles…maybe. But cutting into someone that’s dead is not something I can do.” She said. “So what would you be?” Fallon asked. “A fighter pilot.” Christopher answered thoughtfully. “Why?” Fallon questioned. “So I could fly, and because the army has some cool planes. Mostly because I could fly.”

As Christopher answered this, he parked into Fallon’s driveway. As Fallon gathered her things and got ready to say goodbye, Christopher stopped her. “Wait, Fallon. I need you’re car’s manual.” He told her. “Why? I thought you would ace tuning up my car.” She said. Christopher chuckled as though he had expected her to say something like that. “Yes well, I’d like to be sure that I don’t kill you’re car by accident. Not that you should judge my car expertise on such a request. I live and breathe cars.” He told her. “Sure.” Fallon said as she struggled to get all her things at once. “Do you need help?” Christopher asked, as he got out to help her. “No Chris, what would make you say that?” Fallon said sarcastically. “Actually yes I do.” She said, frantically. She handed Christopher some of the bags, and then grabbed her jacket. He closed the door of the car for her.

As Fallon walked up to her door, she tested the knob, hoping that it would be unlocked. Surprisingly it was. She walked inside. “Come inside. I’ll get you the book.” She said to Christopher, over her shoulder. Christopher trailed inside behind her.

As Fallon walked into the kitchen she saw that it was almost six thirty. She put the bags on the kitchen floor and was about to go blindly into her room when she stopped.

Sitting on the couches in front of her, were Cheryl and none other than William. They looked as surprised to see her as she was at seeing them. From the three of them, Fallon recovered first. “Hello Cheryl…William.” She said. Christopher came up behind her. Talk about awkward…-Fallon thought. William looked a little more surprised than Cheryl as they saw Christopher. “Okay…well Cheryl, William, this is Christopher. You can call him Chris. He says it’s okay. Chris…this is Cheryl, my roommate and best friend; and this is William.” Fallon said.

There was more silence after this. William seemed to try and measure up Christopher, while the other did the same.

“Chris, can I get you something to drink…or eat?” Fallon asked, trying to get out of the room. “Some water would be fine.” He told her. “Sure, you can join them on the couches if you want. I’ll get the book for you.” She told him. She hurried to get him water, and as soon as she had given it to him, she hurried off to find the car manual.

Once in her room, Fallon relaxed a little. Here nothing could go wrong…in this space of hers. Outside she could hear some chatter going on. She found the manual under a pile of papers in her drawers. She dusted it off, and went back into the living room.

“I found it.” She told Christopher, as she handed the book to him. He smiled, as he took the book and got up. “You can join us for dinner if you want.” Fallon told him. “Thanks, but I have to get back. I’m going to look over your car and tune it up, and then go through my dad’s.” He said. She didn’t blame him for leaving, at the moment she would have liked to go with him.

She walked him to her door. “You’ll come and get me tomorrow, right?” She asked. “Yup, bright and early. So be ready.” He told her, with a smile. “How early is early?” She continued to ask him. “Early is when I honk at your door…or ring the door bell several times. Which do you prefer?” He asked her. “The second one, but to be honest neither of them…except the first might get me in trouble with the neighbors.” She said. He laughed at her worry. “Okay, doorbell it is. So I’ll see you tomorrow.” He said, cheerfully. “Definitely.” She told him.

As Christopher started his car, and drove away, Fallon waved goodbye. Slowly, she turned to face what was waiting for her inside.

She walked back to the living room, finding that Cheryl and William were in a heated discussion…which halted as they saw her. “Don’t stop on my account.” Fallon told them, slightly amused at their behavior.

“So what brings you here, William?” She asked, not caring to be polite. “Can’t a guy come over to see his girlfriend?” William replied. Fallon cringed as he said those words. “I wasn’t home all day, well until now…at least.” She told him. “Where were you anyway?” He asked her, his eyes questioning her apparel. Before Cheryl could say anything, Fallon headed her off with a warning look. “I had some work to do. It was a bit messy.” She told him, sitting down next to Cheryl. “I see, I just came by to ask if you wanted to come for dinner tonight. Since you weren’t home I thought maybe Cheryl could tell you I left a message.” William said. “Well, I’m here now, but I can’t tonight. Cheryl and I were going to have dinner and watch a movie or two.” She told him, briskly. “Okay, well how about tomorrow?” He asked her. His voice had pushiness to the deep tone, Fallon was made uneasy by this. “Sure ok.” She agreed thinking that by tomorrow at least this one chapter of her life would close. The faster she stopped seeing William the better it would be for her.

William bade them all farewell, as Fallon accompanied him to the door. As he was about to leave, he leaned to give Fallon a kiss. Fallon wasn’t about to go through with it. At that moment, she gasped at a patch of dirt she found on her torn jeans, and bent down to brush it away. She hadn’t kissed William since they had gone out, and she wasn’t going to start anytime soon. William let out an exasperated sigh. He said goodbye, and walked to his car. Now Fallon understood why she hadn’t thought he was here. His car was parked on the side of the road, closer to her neighbor’s house. Her mind questioned why.

Fallon closed and locked the front door. She walked back in to the living room. It was high time that Cheryl explained what was going on. Fallon had decided that time had come.