The author behind the story ;)

9/14/2020 - I completely rewrote this chapter. So, for you RR's, I hope you enjoy getting pretty much a new chapter! Get those inline comments back up :)

Silently Falling: Chapter Eleven

The next day, as I walk through the hallway, I can feel my exhaustion catching up to me. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night, my dreams were consumed with memories of Warren. Every time his icy blue eyes crossed my mind I would shoot up in a cold sweat. I doubt I got more than two or three hours. I know it's because of Toby's slip-up in our argument, but I'm not angry with him. He feels guilty enough for what he said, and he ended up staying instead of heading to Tina's for their "project."

After I told him to give West a chance, the pizza he ordered conveniently showed up and saved him from a response. He didn't let me revisit the subject during dinner, but that may be a good thing. It could have sparked another argument that I don't think I had the mental capacity to deal with.

Now I'm headed to my second class of the day. Toby couldn't meet me at his locker because his first block teacher asked him to stay after and go over a quiz he didn't do too well on, and Alyse had to leave Music early to go and meet with our counselor about her schedule next year. I walk past some freshmen glued to their phones, AirPods in and heads softly bobbing to whatever beat their listening to.

I head to the stairwell to bring me upstairs to class, already running slightly late. There aren't many people in the halls anymore, since we only have a few minutes before class. I'm the only one in the stairwell.

"Raine."

At least I thought I was.

My skin jumps and then turns ice cold when I round the staircase and run into Warren standing at the top, a chilling grin on his face. I can feel my heart rate start to accelerate to dangerous speeds; so fast I can hear it and worry he can see it through my chest.

I start backing down the steps, but Warren swiftly walks closer to me and I stop out of fear.

"Ah, ah, ah. You aren't going anywhere."

I want to move. I want to run back down the steps. I want to get out of here. But my feet are frozen under his chilling gaze.

"You seem to be getting rather close to West," he says, eyes narrowing. "Teaching him sign language, really?"

My breath starts to get shaky the closer he gets to me. My mind starts begging Toby, Tyler, or Gray to appear and help me.

"I sure hope you aren't getting close enough to expose our little secret," he says lowly, threateningly.

He's so close I can smell his vile cologne. The same cologne he wore when he was friends with Toby. When he attacked me.

"You tell him and I can promise you'll regret it."

His eyes travel down my body, and I can see the hunger taking him over. He's next to me on the stairs, and I'm backed against the wall. We're face to face, only he towers over me. Memories start to resurface, flashing across my eyes so that Warren and I aren't at school anymore. We're in that room. He's shoving me back towards the bed. I'm about to cry out for help, only to have him on top of me with his hand covering my mouth to muffle my screams.

"Raine!"

I barely register Tyler's voice and footsteps racing down the steps. It sounds like an echo in my brain and I can't stop seeing the scene from that night. Tears spring to my eyes, and I feel a few slip down my cheeks. Warren's laugh does nothing to help.

"Warren, get the hell away from her!"

A hand on my arm pulling me behind a protective body finally snaps me back to the present, and I see Tyler's back as he stands in front of me; effectively blocking Warren. I see his muscles through his shirt. His body is nearly shaking from anger.

"What the hell were you doing?" Tyler seethes.

"I was just leaving," Warren says, his voice like nails on a chalkboard to my ears.

"You are such a coward. All big and mighty with Raine but now you run?"

"I'm not running, pretty boy." Warren says. "Raine and I were just having a little...chat."

He walks around Tyler, who's back is stiff and fists clenched by his sides. Warren catches my wide, scared eyes, and smirks.

"Don't forget my advice, Raine." He says before exiting the stairwell.

Once he's out of sight, Tyler spins to face me and gently places his hands on my shoulders to get me to look at him. Only now do I realize that I'm having a panic attack. I feel like I can't get enough air no matter how hard I breathe. My heart is pounding out of my chest, so hard that it's incredibly painful, and my head is starting to feel dizzy.

"Raine," Tyler says frantically. "Raine it's okay, he's gone."

But it's not working. Somehow, I think I'm getting worse. Why doesn't he want me to tell West anything? Why does he assume I would want anyone to know the horrible thing that happened to me?

"What's going on?" I hear a deep voice say, and I glance over to see West walking towards us. "I saw Warren walk out of here and heard you, Tyler."

West catches my eye and jogs the last few steps to us, brows pulled together in concern.

"Sunshine, are you okay?"

The concern in his voice puts some air back in my chest, helping me to escape the vicious memories dancing around my head, but I'm still struggling to control this panic attack.

"She's having a panic attack, go find Toby. He should be in room 703," Tyler rushes out. And when West keeps looking at me, he adds a frantic "Now!"

West looks at him and then back in the direction Warren went, hands clenching into fists for a few seconds before he rushes in the opposite direction and towards the classroom.

"Hey, Raine, it's okay. Warren is gone," Tyler says softly. "Try and take some deep breaths for me, okay?"

I try and do what he says, able to at least stop the tears. After a minute or two of him gently coaching me through deep breaths, I begin to calm down. I hear three sets of feet come running down the steps and then Gray, Toby, and West appear.

"Sis," Toby breathes, rushing to me. "What happened?"

"Is she okay?" Gray asks.

"I don't know. I got here and Warren was talking to her," Tyler says, backing up so that Toby can hug me.

Toby mutters a string of curse words under his breath and pulls me to him, resting his chin on top of my head. I continue to calm myself down and regulate my breathing, drinking in his familiar scent to rid the lingering smell of Warren's cologne.

"You're okay now," he says softly.

I nod against his chest and we pull apart.

"I'm okay," I sign to reassure both him and myself. "Thank you, Tyler."

Tyler nods at me, a small, reassuring smile lifting his lips. "When I got to class and didn't see you there I wondered where you were. You're usually pretty punctual."

I let out a deep sigh and my gaze diverts to the tiled floor.

"West, thanks man. For going and getting Toby," Tyler says to him.

When I catch West's gaze, my body jumps. But not nearly in the way it had with Warren. I don't start panicking. West is watching me with calculating eyes, and it seems as though he's caught up in his own thoughts. His emotions change from worried, to confused, and then to anger before he shields them from me.

He finally lets my gaze go when he shifts to Tyler. "Don't worry about it. I should probably head to class, y'all should too. Sunshine, you're okay?"

I nod at him, offering a weak smile as some sort of assurance.

He nods and then starts on his way all the way down the stairs, stopping before he reaches the door.

"Real quick, what type of car does Warren drive?"

The boys all glance at one another, and then Toby smirks slightly when he looks back at West.

"A black Audi. License plate says 'BALLER'."

West snorts, muttering "of course." He nods his thank you and then the door closes behind him with a satisfying click that echoes through the stairwell.

OoO

By the end of the day, I've fully calmed down. I texted Alyse to let her know what happened and during lunch she makes her greatest attempt to take my mind off of it. West never showed up at lunch. Now, the rest of us are hanging out by Toby's truck in the parking lot discussing weekend plans since the school day has ended.

"I think I may just stay in tonight," Toby admits. "You could all come over, we could just chill and watch a movie or something."

"I actually think I'm headed to my sister's college for the weekend," Gray says.

"I'm down," Tyler says, glancing my way. "As long as Raine agrees to watch a horror movie."

I narrow my eyes at him, "You know I hate horror movies."

He chuckles, "Yeah but it's always a treat to watch you cower behind me or Toby."

"My vote is for-"

"A Hunger Games marathon?" Toby smirks, cutting Alyse off.

"I was going to say Divergent, actually." She huffs, crossing her arms.

Toby grins and rolls his eyes at her, "No you weren't."

"Raine, what do you want to watch?" Alyse asks, blushing and trying to divert the conversation off of her because she knows Toby was right.

"I'm down for anything, other than horror."

Tyler lifts a hand to his chest, feigning hurt.

They start having an argument over what to watch tonight, and my eyes begin to wander around the parking lot. I watch as the car-line begins to build up since our crossing guard completely sucks when it comes to school rush hour. Horns have started to blare as some students cut others off trying to get further up in the standstill line.

Then I catch sight of a familiar leather jacket a few cars over, headed this way. West's eyes meet mine the closer he gets, and his lips lift up in the beginnings of a crooked smile.

"Hey, Sunshine." He signs as he reaches us.

"That is not going to I M P R E S S me. It's not my name."

"I think you secretly love the nickname." He hums with a smirk, looking away from me and walking to the others.

I think you're secretly an idiot.

"West, hey man." Gray says, giving him a 'sup' nod.

Tyler does the same, but all my brother offers him is a curt nod. I look at him and he meets my eyes. He sighs deeply, giving me a look; silently agreeing to be civil with West today- to give him a chance.

"So, West, what are you plans for the weekend?" Alyse asks.

He shrugs, "Things."

"How detailed." I sign, and I know West understood from the small smirk that lights his lips.

"Illegal things?" Tyler asks, gulping slightly.

West raises a brow at him and shakes his head. "No. I'd rather not go back to juvie." He says. "What about y'all?"

"Well considering I've never been to juvie, I'd rather stay away." Tyler says.

I roll my eyes at him. "He meant what are we doing this weekend."

"Oh," Tyler says with a sheepish smile towards me.

I notice West eye him for a second or two.

"Gray here decided to go to his sisters college and do the dirty with all her friends." Alyse says, patting Gray on the back.

West nods, but seems distracted as he glances around the parking lot. "Sounds...fun."

Then, a loud scream pulls all of our attention across the lot. I jump and shift closer to Toby who reaches out a protective arm around my shoulders as we pinpoint who the sound came from.

Warren.

He glares at all of us, and even from this far away I feel my skin start to crawl under his stare. I look at his car behind him, and my eyes widen when I notice all of his tires completely flat. West has a concealed smirk as he watches Warren begin to storm towards us, face red with anger.

"Which one of you did it?" He seethes when he reaches us.

We glance at one another, and I see the boys barely able to hold back their laughter but they all seem just as confused at me.

"Answer me!" Warren yells, causing me to jump and cower into Toby's side.

"Did what?" West asks casually.

Warren's fuming eyes turn to him, but he doesn't flinch despite being faced with such anger.

"You!"

West raises a brow, "Care to elaborate?"

"Three of my tires were slashed!" He hollers.

Despite the situation being rather serious, I can tell the others are trying to keep from laughing.

"Damn, you must have really pissed someone off then," West says, narrowing his eyes as his voice drops.

Warren is breathing heavy from how angry he is, and then he suddenly looks between me and West. My heart drops when I put together what he's thinking; he thinks I spilled and told West what he did to me. That could warrant someone slashing his tires.

Warren takes a step towards me, but West blocks him.

"Why don't you just walk away, Warren." He says, voice sounding dangerous.

"Walk away?" Warren scoffs, shifting his attention right back to West. "You've been out of juvie, what? Two weeks? I hope you enjoyed your time because your about to go right back!"

"You threatening me?" West replies, meeting the challenge head on. His arms are crossed, his eyes narrowed, and his head cocked menacingly.

Warren falters slightly, fear slipping into his gaze.

"So what if I am?" He says, but his voice doesn't come out as intimidating as I know he's going for.

"I'm not a guy you want to piss off." West spits.

I wouldn't want to mess with him. If I saw him glaring this way at me, I would high tail it outta here and buy myself a ticket to Mars.

Next to West...Warren looks scrawny.

"Neither am I," Warren replies. "The school has cameras."

West smirks, "On this end of the parking lot."

Warren's posture falls and he quickly turns to look at the school. West is right. The only cameras in the parking lot point out here, right in front of the office. Warren's Audi was parked off to the side.

"Y-you weren't at lunch!" Warren yells, sputtering to try and find some way to pin this on West. "No one can account for where you were."

"I can."

Our heads shoot to Toby who steps up next to West, matching his height as they both stare Warren down.

"He needed my help, his locker got jammed. Took us all of lunch to fix it."

Warren glances between the two of them, seeming to weigh his options. Does he keep this fight going verbally? What else can he try and say?

"Nice try. I saw you at lunch," Warren spits to Toby.

Tyler and Gray instantly step up as well, crossing their arms over their muscled chests.

"I didn't. I heard he was with West." Gray says.

"Me either, heard the locker was really jammed," Tyler adds lowly.

Warren takes a small step back, clearly intimidated and running out of options. My heart pounds harder and faster at the situation, amazed at what's happening in front of me. Toby blatantly lied to protect West, not knowing if he really slashed Warren's tires or not.

"You better watch your back, West," Warren seethes before turning and storming away.

The guys stay in their stiff stances until he gets far enough away, and then everyone can relax. They all turn back towards me and Alyse, who is, for once, speechless. That part isn't so rare for me.

"Holy shit, West I can't believe you slashed his tires," Tyler laughs, friendly slapping West's back.

"Who says I did?"

Tyler's laughter gets cut short and his eyes widen as he glances back towards Warren's car, sputtering around for a response.

"I-I just sort of assumed since he was so adamant you did, a-and you weren't actually at your locker and you asked what kind of car Warren drove and-"

"I don't remember him asking that." I sign, lightly smacking Tyler's chest first to cut him off.

West is able to keep up with my signs and smiles at me when he comprehends. I smile back but have to look away when a random blush threatens my cheeks.

"Whoever did, we owe them a thanks," Toby says. "Seeing him so pissed...that was awesome."

Everyone begins to chuckle, allowing the stress from that situation to slowly melt away.

"The vein on his forehead even popped out," I sign.

"Oh yeah, I thought it was going to burst!" Alyse laughs.

"West, man, when you called him out about the cameras I thought he was going to shit his pants!" Gray says.

West chuckles and shrugs, "Any ex-con learns where cameras are, just in case they get blamed for something like this."

In awe, I watch as Toby smiles at West.

"The rest of us, minus Gray, are going to hang tonight at our place. You in?"

West seems slightly shocked from the forward invitation from Toby.

"Count me in."

Alyse and Toby start to load into his truck, and Tyler and Gray head to their own cars, but West hangs back and I walk closer to him, trying to be out of a perfect view for Toby or Alyse to eavesdrop.

"Thank you."

West cocks his head, a gentle smirk reaching his eyes. "So adamant I did it, huh?"

I shrug, not knowing what to say. Whether he did it or not, he handled Warren just then.

"Even if you didn't, thank you for D E A L I N G with him." I sign, still needing to spell certain words since our lesson was cut short yesterday.

"Don't think I did that for you, Sunshine." He winks, his lazy smirk back in place.

I roll my eyes at him.

West chuckles, "Raine." He says, and I look back up at him. "You're welcome."

I crack a small smile.

"I'd say I'm really getting the hang of this whole sign language thing. I should become an interpreter." He decides.

I raise a brow and smirk. Someone is getting ahead of himself.

"Really? An interpreter? I heard they actually don't make much money, I wanted to be one for a while. But then I looked up the annual salary and cringed. Not for me, but hey maybe the delinquent can be the interpreter for some jail somewhere!"

I sign it all even quicker than what my friends would be able to read, and I can't contain my laughter at West's reaction.

He's staring at my hands as if he's a deer and they are headlights. His lips begin to form the word 'what?' but then they go back to a straight line as his brows furrow together. Then he shakes his head and stares at them some more, only this time his lips lift into a smirk.

"Imagine what else you could do with those hands." He suggests, his eyes lifting to meet mine.

I gape at him, but he only laughs and heads on his way to his Jeep.

"I'll see you tonight, Sunshine."

---

9/14/2020 - Okay, man I really rewrote this entire chapter haha. I have a small idea of how I want to "alter" a small part of the plot later on, so I changed this to help the idea of that. I hope you guys liked this edit! I think it helped with Toby's approval of West and the mystery of how he seems to maybe have some sort of past with Warren....