All That We Could Be

Chapter Thirty One

They had all been working on the big race for a week. Fallon still hadn’t figured out a name for the event. All her names were too long. One of her choices had been ‘Racing Towards A Common Goal’, she had scrapped it as soon as she thought of it. What a boring name…-Fallon thought in frustration.

Fallon had done all the work assigned to her. She had finished her treatment for her music video and had found a director, who had convinced Craig to listen to her. Fallon had laughed at how easily the director, named Troy, had convinced Craig. It usually took Fallon twice the amount of time and energy to get to that point.

Fallon had searched for the remainder of the week for a designer, she had sketched out her ideas just so that she could get her point across. She had finally found a girl named Ana, whose pieces matched Fallon’s ideas to a certain extent. With Craig and everything else going smoothly, Fallon was enjoying the work.

Today Fallon sat on the sofa with the television on, a sheet of paper in her hand, and a pencil in the other. Fallon was trying to think up of a name for the racing event. It was not going well. Fallon had no idea what to call the event. “Race for Hearts…racing to dream…is there any thing I can call this race that won’t sound hideous or stupid?” She muttered to herself. It was irritating her to a point where she couldn’t think of anything. Soon Fallon gave up. Putting the paper and pencil on to the coffee table, Fallon got up and paced the length of the room. Frustration was poring out of her. The name for this event had evaded her for the longest time. She turned off the television, it wasn’t like she was actually watching it.

Fallon left the sheet and went upstairs. In addition to Cheryl’s room and the guest room and bathroom, there was one more room on the upper level. It was the only room with windows along both walls. It had been treated as the storage room, Fallon had decided to change that last year. Fallon and Cheryl had repainted it and reorganized it, it was a more of a spare guestroom…Fallon had chosen it to be roomy so when her family came her siblings would have everything to be entertained and not complain. Here Fallon had put up her family’s pictures. Fallon sat on one of the sofa beds looking out the window. Although it she was still in the house, the change in scene sometimes helped her think. She was hoping it would help her again today.

It didn’t. After a few minutes Fallon gave up. If the name was going to evade her, then she would evade thinking about it. Fallon got up and left to go to the library, if she was going to do nothing else, she would go and read. Fallon picked out ‘Ink Exchange’ and sat down on the bean bag, reading.

It was a few days before Fallon decided to torture herself again, trying to think of a name was hard. There was only three days till the race. She still had to get the banner printed. It was Wednesday morning when Fallon finally caved in to one of the names on her list. The race would be called ‘Racing For Dreams’ since it was primarily benefiting Phil’s charity, and it was helping research on heart disease. Both were technically dreams that they all had.

It made more sense and sounded better than anything else she could think of. Fallon called the printers for the banner and gave them the details for the banner. The guys could care less about a name, all they cared about was racing.

Now all Fallon had to do was prepare for Friday and Saturday. On Friday Fallon would be releasing the name of her new single. She also had a special performance at Lively’s. This made her slightly uncomfortable. Since Manchester United had struck a deal with Lively’s; Fallon had become slightly apprehensive about performing there.

Anything she released had the possibility of being taken the wrong way. They would all think that…he…had influenced her choice. This one time they wouldn’t be wrong, Fallon thought. Not wrong at all…- Fallon thought to herself.

She also had to bring her car to the guys at Christopher’s house before the race on Saturday. For uniformity and to keep track of the racers, Lucas and Dallas had gotten the idea to put magnetic decals on the cars. Now that the printers had the name of the race, they would be printing that and numbers for each car, as well as some of the names of the sponsors. So Fallon would probably have to stop by the printer’s tomorrow, pick up the stuff, head to Christopher’s to get the cars ready. She also had to make sure her car was up to par for the race.

All that was left was figuring out what to wear for Friday’s performance. For Saturday they would have matching shirts…thankfully today she had given the printers the name for the race…had it been delayed any longer she would have a small catastrophe on her hands.

Fallon went to the back of her closet to pick out clothes. The clothes had to go with the song, but she didn’t want anything to fancy. Ultimately she had three choices. One was a knee length deep violet dress that had one shoulder strap, and fell in layers and was very delicately pleated. The second one was a deep pink/magenta strapless, slightly shorter than knee length dress, it had very eye catching embroidery. The third choice was a v-neck dress with short sleeves and it was cinched at the waist, no pleats, but it’s colours were lively, flowers of purple, blue, silver, white, pale pink, and black melted into each other, it was a like an abstract art piece.

Fallon chose the third one to wear. The weather outside had been lovely, and she wasn’t going to be staying very long at the club anyway. She would just sing her song and go home…or something. She got out a pair of shoes that would go along with the dress. It made no sense to have Cheryl worry over her. All she would need a little help with would be the make up.

Things had been going well with Cheryl. They had gotten past what had happened with William, and Cheryl had stopped fussing over her. At times Fallon thought maybe she had been a little harsh with her, but Fallon was glad that she was some what an equal to Cheryl. Phil’s demise had really put them back together. Cheryl had been there when Fallon had needed her the most. For that Fallon couldn’t begin to thank her.

It was at long last Friday. Fallon woke up early. Tonight everyone would know what song she had chosen. It was only morning and her heart was already pounding with a mixture of excitement, fear, and nausea. Fallon couldn’t eat anything during breakfast.

For the most part of the day Fallon spent her time in the library. She was reorganizing the shelves, dusting off her books, cleaning up the room. She had managed to put in another shelf the previous day. So Fallon brought out the books she had hid in her closet and the boxes of books that hadn’t fit before, and placed them all gently into the shelf.

By lunchtime Fallon still couldn’t eat, she didn’t think she could hold anything down. As hungry as she was she ate a little hoping that it wouldn’t make her sick. Her nerves had been getting the better of her all morning. She ate some yogurt and a little piece of a chicken sandwich, downed with some fruit juice.

It was at last time to change. The evening had arrived too quickly, Fallon thought apprehensively. She got out of her bathroom, dressed and had a little make up on. Cheryl had already left to go and prepare everything. The club was showcasing two other bands tonight. Fallon was glad that she only had to perform one song. She was first up though, unfortunately.

Fallon arrived at Lively’s with fifteen minutes to spare. She sat in the office watching Cheryl work out last minute problems and before she knew it was time.

Fallon stood on stage looking at the crowd of people who had gathered to have a good time that night. Fallon didn’t look for…him…she knew that the team was standing in the left corner of the room. It was the entire team. Fallon was slightly comforted knowing that Christopher had come, he had brought along the rest of the guys…as a treat before the race tomorrow.

“Hello everyone.” Fallon greeted them all. “Tonight I get the chance to give you all an exclusive performance of my new single. It will be released on June 26th. I hope you all like it.” Fallon paused. “The single will be my cover of ‘Crush’ originally by David Archuleta.” She told the crowd, they responded with much applause.

Fallon had always known that she would release this song as a single. She just hadn’t known when she would do it. It had been her one of her favorite songs, she could listen to it all day long, and still she wouldn’t get sick of it.

The music started. Tonight she had the privilege of performing with a live band. One of the showcasing bands had offered to go with her. This performance would be special not only for her but for the people there watching. She hoped it would get her point across to him…it was about time she stopped running and admitted what she truly felt.

“I hung up the phone tonight, something happened for the first time, deep inside, there’s a rush, what a rush, cause the possibility, that you would ever feel the same way, about me, it's just too much, just too much…”

Fallon sang, carefully not meeting the pair of eyes that were watching her.

“Do you ever think,when you're all alone, all that we could be, where this thing could go, am I crazy or falling in love, is it real or just another crush, do you catch a breath, When I look at you, are you holding back, like the way I do, cause I'm tryin, tryin to walk away, but I know this crush ain’t goin away…”

For Fallon, it had been the chorus that had got her attention. She could still remember a while back, when she had been listening to the radio one night, flipping through the stations on her cell phone. As soon as she had changed to her fourth station…she heard the chorus. The melody, the words, the voice…they had all caught her attention. She had wanted to share it with everyone.

“See it's a chance we've gotta take, cause I believe that we can make this into, something that will last, last forever, forever...”

She chanced a glance around the crowd. She could see where Christopher and the guys were. Her curiosity eventually got the best of her. She looked and found him watching her. Their eyes met, she could see his face had what looked like a small smile. Did he understand what the song meant to her?

She stopped looking at him. It would just fluster her if she kept it up.

“Why do I keep running from the truth, all I ever think about is you, you got me hypnotized, so mesmerized, and I just got to know…”

In truth, there were days when all Fallon did was think about him. Days that all she wanted was to hear him talk to her, or just hang out. Though she was one who didn’t want to admit it…there were those days when she missed…she didn’t want to admit it…she wouldn’t ever admit it…but she knew it was true…she missed everything about Daniel…from his voice, his warmth, the way he had treated her…and his kiss.

“Do you ever think,when you're all alone, all that we could be, where this thing could go, am I crazy or falling in love, is it real or just another crush, do you catch a breath, When I look at you, are you holding back, like the way I do, cause I'm tryin, tryin to walk away, but I know this crush ain’t goin away…”

As she sang the chorus she couldn’t help but look at him. She was tired of outrunning what she felt. She wanted to let it all out. For tonight this was enough.

“Do you ever think,when you're all alone, all that we could be, where this thing could go, am I crazy or falling in love, is it real or just another crush, do you catch a breath, When I look at you, are you holding back, like the way I do, cause I'm tryin, tryin to walk away, but I know this crush ain’t goin away…”

As the song ended, Fallon thanked everyone, and thanked the band. She introduced the next group, and exited the stage in haste.

Fallon joined the crowd for a while. She hadn’t brought any clothes to change into. So she was quite noticeable. Some people approached her telling her their opinions of her single choice. Some agreed with her choice, others didn’t.

Fallon neared Christopher. “Hey that was an awesome song.” He told her as she waved to the other guys. “You think so?” She asked innocently. “Yea, I completely get it. The emotions, the feelings. You make it so obvious.” Christopher told her with a grin. Fallon froze. “What do you mean?” She asked guardedly. Christopher couldn’t have known about Daniel. She had never told him that. “It’s quite obviously a song about unrequited love, and how conflicted the person is about admitting it or not. They obviously think it’ll affect the friendship and what not.” He told her with a smile.

Ahhh…he doesn’t know…crap…he might think it’s about him or one of the guys…-Fallon thought. “Chris…it’s just a song. I didn’t put any deep thought into it.” Fallon said, she didn’t want to hurt him but she didn’t want to have to explain who the song was about. They were close, but Fallon just loved him as a friend. “Alright, anyway do you want to go to the track? Check out the cars one last time. I’ll drive you home.” He said to her, leaving the subject.

“Sure.” Fallon replied. “Fallon that was a great song.” Came the voice of Alex. He had just gotten trough the crowd to them. “Thanks.” She told him. Behind him was Dallas. “So are we going or what?” He asked his little brother. “Let’s go.” Christopher replied.

The group of them left the club. As Fallon walked out she fought the urge to look back. This time she was going to face everything head on. She hoped she would be able to. Fallon walked with Christopher to the car. With one event down, there was only one more to go. Fallon could feel the excitement as soon as she thought about it. It was time to get ready for the race.