Good news: This story has reached #914 in teen fiction!!! I cannot begin to express how excited I am!

12/8/2020 - Crazy to see how elated I was back when I reached #914 in teen fiction! That was back when Wattpad still had a top 1000 stories of each genre instead of on each hashtag.

I apologize for being MIA for over a month...truth is, on top of college and finals, I was reading through all of your theories and started to worry that what I had originally planned wasn't good enough. I realized that I set the book up for an even bigger plot addition than I thought. It took me this long to figure out what more was needed, and for someone who is a planner, trying to decide so late in the story was intimidating and turned me away from editing for a while. But, I think I figured out a perfect plot for the remainder of the book :)

Silently Falling: Chapter Twenty Seven

Raine POV

I wake up to the booming sound of thunder but keep my eyes closed to protest waking up. The dull patter of rain hitting my roof pleas for my case and makes me curl further into my warm, inviting bed. The further I snuggle into my pillow, however, the more I realize how solid it is. While it's still somehow soft and warm, something about it is firm and...muscular?

My eyes shoot open as realization dawns on me. I'm not snuggled against a pillow. I'm snuggled against West. I shoot up in shock, but West doesn't wake up. The events of last night come tumbling down on my mind as another roar of thunder nearly shakes the house. The gentle rain outside has suddenly turned into a torrential downpour, slamming relentlessly onto the roof and invading my ears so that it's all I can focus on as memories from last night rush back.

Going to the party. Playing pong with Alyse and laughing with everyone, genuinely enjoying myself. Kyle pursuing a dance with me. West forcing him to back off. West taking me to the kitchen for water. Gray stopping me, Warren is in there.

Warren.

Warren trapping me in the office. Warren pinning me against the wall. Warren not allowing me to escape when I put up a fight. Warren smacking me. Warren ripping my dress. Warren being torn away from me and thrown across the room. West saving me from reliving my worst nightmare.

West.

West pinning Warren against the desk. West seconds away from punching Warren, from being sent back to juvie. West's name being yelled out...by me. West stopping. West looking at me, running to me, comforting me.

"Sunshine?"

Somewhere behind the drumming rain and bellowing thunder, I faintly hear my name being uttered worriedly. But I can't move. I'm stuck reliving last night behind my eyes.

"Sunshine, it's okay."

The voice is a bit louder this time, more concerned, more scared. Another crack of thunder.

"Raine, hey it's okay, look at me."

It rises above the noise of the storm outside, becoming clearer and slowly dragging my mind out of the hell it's enduring. But it's still not quite enough and I'm frozen in place. Suddenly, I feel warmth on my leg, just above my knee. A hand. It gently squeezes as my name is said a few more times, more urgently.

My body flinches on its own. I cringe away from the hand on my leg, my heartrate spiking and not in the good way, and my breathing suddenly matches. Warren's face is still flashing across my mind despite how hard I try to pull myself out of my trance. The hand instantly lets go.

"Sunshine, breathe. It's all okay, you're safe. You're home, he can't get you." The voice repeats.

It starts off panicked and then turns calm as the rain outside begins to ease, no more cracks of thunder either. Slowly, my racing heart and erratic breathing calm down and my eyes no longer feel far away. I focus on the sight in front of me and meet West's worried eyes.

"You're okay, I promise. He can't get to you. You're safe," he continues to say. "Come back to me, Sunshine. Please." 

Blinking a few times, I keep my eyes locked on his and begin to nod and work on regulating my breathing the best I can. The fear hidden poorly in West's gaze dissipates when he realizes that I've finally come back to him.

"Are you okay?" He asks, about to reach out and caress my face before hesitating and placing his hand back by his side, most likely due to my earlier action of flinching away from his hand on my leg.

I take another deep breath. I've finally calmed down from my panic attack. I nod at him and he visibly relaxes. Missing the warmth his body provided through the night and regretting my reaction to his comforting hand on my knee, I place my hand on top of his. Instantly, he flips his hand over and gently catches mine, interlacing our fingers. We don't look away from one another, and my heartrate stays steady when I don't see burning curiosity in his gaze in regards to last nights events.

I don't know if I'm ready for that confession; for West to find out why none of our friends were shocked. For him to discover that last night wasn't the first time something like this has happened to me. I've gotten close with West and he has come to mean more to me than I ever anticipated, but my past with Warren is a secret I never planned to tell again.

"What's going on in that brain of yours?"

I focus my attention back on his eyes and recall the words he and Warren exchanged during their scuffle.

I don't give a damn what you know; you punch me and you're going back to juvie and everyone will know why you went in the first place!

How does Warren know the reason West went to juvie? Why do they seem to have some sort of history? What does West know? Why am I afraid of finding the answer?

Lightly shaking my head to rid my thoughts, I pull my hand from his to respond.

"I'm thinking about how hungry I am." I lie, unable to deal with everything going on in my mind.

Something tells me that questioning West isn't going to bode well. We both have secrets, there's no doubt, and I fear that our secrets are big enough to ruin whatever feelings are sparking between us. And the second I question him is the second he turns it around and questions me.

West doesn't seem fully convinced, slightly narrowing his eyes, but doesn't say anything about my excuse.

"Alright, lets get you some breakfast."

He gets up from the bed and stretches his arms high above his head, groaning slightly as a few of his joints pop. He yawns and glances down at his shirt, eyes zeroing in on one spot before his lips lift into a tiny smirk.

"Did you know that you drool, Sunshine?" He asks, lifting his twinkling eyes to me.

My face turns violently red when I note the small stain on his chest, right where I had been laying. I choose to play dumb and shake my head.

"No idea what you're talking about."

West raises a playful brow but doesn't say anything else. We both start to walk out of my room, but I stop when I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror hanging on my closet door. I gasp as I step back into view, horror written in my expression as I look at the purple bruise planted on my right cheekbone, just below my eye. I hesitantly lift my hand to it, flinching when I touch the raw skin.

West stands behind me, watching my movements through guarded eyes. But it would be impossible not to see the anger he's trying to hide, and I know it's not directed at me, but rather the one who inflicted this bruise and all of the trauma I've endured in the last three years.

I drop my hand to my side and clench my jaw as I stare back at myself. Tears pile up behind my eyes. Why do I always have to be so weak? I couldn't fend for myself for one night?

Then my view of myself is gone and West is standing in front of me. He catches my eye and softly shakes his head.

"Don't do that to yourself, Raine. Last night wasn't your fault."

His voice is so powerful that I find myself believing him, even if only for a second.

I smile slightly, "How'd you know what I was thinking?"

"Because I know you better than you think I do."

Something about the way he's looking at me and the tone of his voice makes me think those words go a lot deeper than just this conversation. And that scares me. His eyes feel like they are practically looking straight through me with a clear view of every secret I've kept from him. I feel incredibly vulnerable under his gaze, and the feeling is both relieving and terrifying.

I'm the first to drop our stare and when I do, I'm finally able to catch my breath.

"Lets go get breakfast."

We walk down the steps and into the kitchen where we run into Toby. He has his back to us as he stands by the coffee maker, but as soon as he hears footsteps, he whirls around. Almost instantly he rushes to me and pulls me close for a hug. I revel in the warmth and familiarity of his comfort and hug him back, letting out a shaky breath as I once again see Warren's maniacal face behind my closed eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Raine. I promised you this wouldn't happen ag-"

I cut Toby off by squeezing him before he can finish his sentence and let West in on my secret that this isn't the first time Warren has attacked me. He catches on and squeezes me back apologetically before we pull apart. He eyes the bruise on my cheek with a frown.

"That bad?"

"It'll fade," he says reassuringly, but I think that was more for himself.

I just smile and nod. I don't have the energy to sign that though the bruise will fade, the memory won't.

"I'm going to go call my mom and let her know where I am," West says before pulling out his phone and walking out of the room.

I stare at his broad back as he walks away and questions pop back into my mind. There is clearly something going on with him and Warren; their conversations have been way too cryptic for my liking. No one else would dare mess with West, too afraid of what he could do, and Warren knows the dangers of it too. So instead, he has chosen tactics of manipulation to torment West, I've caught that much...but manipulation using what information? And why does he have that information?

"I called Dad last night," Toby admits carefully, pulling me from my thoughts about West. "He should be here by mid-afternoon. New York is getting pounded with snow and he says he's trying to catch the earliest flight he can but they keep getting delayed."

A flood of warmth passes through me when I think about Dad being here to help me through this. He was there for me the first time. He and Toby are two of the biggest reasons I ended up being okay, and knowing that despite the long-distance and despite the strain on our relationship he still is going to be here for me...it's something that I need right now.

"Thank you."

Toby pulls me in for another hug in response.

"I'm just sorry I didn't uphold my promise."

I pull away so that he can see my signs.

"This is in no way your fault, or any of the others' fault. Warren is to blame."

Toby sighs deeply and nods with a halfhearted smile. Clearly he's not convinced that I'm not upset with him or any one else except for Warren. My eyes go to the window and I watch as the rain pours down outside. I watch droplets slide down the window over and over again, and I jump in the slightest with each distant roar of thunder. My eyes follow a bluebird as it flies towards our bird feeder, quickly regretting his decision to be out in the rain. Kind of like how I quickly regretted my decision to go to the party last night.

That's when the scent of coffee hits me full force and I glance over at the counter to the two steaming mugs.

"Is one of these for me?" I ask, reaching out to take the larger of the two.

Toby scratches the back of his neck. "Uh- yeah, totally."

After pouring in equal parts cream and sugar, I take my coffee stark white, I raise a brow at his odd reaction as I take a sip.

Setting it down, I begin to sign. "Well, who else would it be-"

My hands still when Alyse suddenly comes into the kitchen, wearing one of Toby's sweatshirts and a pair of his sweatpants with her hair slightly messy. My jaw drops a little when she freezes like a deer caught in headlights upon seeing me.

"O-oh. Hey, Raine! I didn't think you would be awake."

I glance at her, at Toby, and then back to her, staying silent before Toby quickly jumps in and answers my unspoken question.

"After you and West went to bed, the rest of us had to figure out where to stay. Since Dad isn't here right now and the Master is basically a guest room, I offered for Alyse to stay over. Tyler ended up walking home despite the rest of us telling him not to, and Gray decided to call an Uber since his mom would flip if he didn't make it back."

I shift my eyes back to Alyse and warily eye the clothes she has on, and she takes over.

"I obviously couldn't sleep in my party clothes, and the thought of sleeping in your Dad's bed naked was equally as gross, so Toby offered for me to wear his clothes. The alternative option was going into your room to wake you, but I clearly wasn't about to do that."

Her story is almost too convincing.

If I was able to speak, this would be the exact moment I would say something along the lines of "riiiiggght..." or "uh huh..." to show that they didn't succeed in erasing my suspicion.

"But anyway, Raine are you okay?" Alyse asks, discarding the awkward tension for a more serious tone.

I drop my gaze to the coffee back in my hands. In that moment, West appears back in the kitchen. He somehow commands any room just by being there and all attention shifts to him whether he means for it to or not. No one fails to notice West or how strong he is, both physically and mentally. And this strong man was there for me at my lowest point last night, and again this morning, and he's made no signs to show that he's going to stop.

Forcing my eyes to go back to Alyse I give a small smile and nod.

"I will be."

West smiles at me and my heart unconsciously thuds faster. He really was there for me at one of my weakest moments and didn't dare shy away. No, instead he got closer. Closer to my secrets, but also closer to my heart. Neither of us look away from one another, and I feel my unpleasant thoughts slipping away, being replaced with thoughts of West. His dark brown eyes, his mesmerizing smirk, his sharp jaw line, his gentle smile.

"Toby, do you mind giving me a ride home? My mom is blowing up my phone right now," Alyse murmurs, and Toby is quick to follow her to the front and out the door.

"So, you think something is going on with those two?" West asks as he walks further into the kitchen.

I chuckle, "Definitely, and I'm going to interrogate Alyse on it eventually."

He walks over to me and my chuckles stop from his serious yet gentle expression. It dawns on me yet again just how close he and I have become. I don't know if there's any chance of me escaping this secret anymore. I don't know if it's an option to keep it from him for as long as I want to, and once again that thought terrifies me.

"Sunshine," he starts, snapping me out of my thoughts. "It's important to me that you know that last night...well, I don't even know if you are embarrassed at all or what you're feeling, but you need to know that nothing is going to scare me away or make me think less of you or whatever else I'm worried you've conjured up in that head of yours."

I don't know how to respond to him. I don't know how he manages to always say exactly what I need to hear. But I do know that I'm not the only one with a past they're afraid to reveal. So I take a step closer to him so that I have to slightly crane my neck to keep his gaze locked on mine.

"The same goes for me. Whatever you were too afraid that Warren was going to say last night... you don't have to be. I'm here, West."

That catches him off guard. He stares silently at me, struggling to put up a guard to hide whatever secrets he's been trying to keep from me. I reach my hand out to gently rest on his cheek to let him know that I'm telling the truth. He doesn't have to hide from me. Maybe that's makes me a hypocrite, but I need him to know that I'm here.

His brows draw together and he leans into my touch and I feel like I can see the way his heartbeat speeds up, until eventually he lets out a shaky breath.

"Raine... there's some things I need to tell you."

---

12/8/2020 - This may seem like a filler, but I promise it is anything but. I completely rewrote this chapter to lead up to what I know everyone is anticipating in the next edit! Finals are drawing closer and closer, my first one is less than a week away, but I knew I had to update again before then. Please, please, please bare with me here. I will update as soon as I have the free time, but you may have to wait another week (hopefully I can post another edit sooner though).