All Falls Down

1 | keep up

I can't keep trying, I'm done comprising

'Cause the stars are lining up for once in my life

And you're on the ground when I'm climbing mountains

So, don't you drag me down

1

It was good while it lasted was what I told myself as my thumb hovered over send.

I closed my eyes and sighed defeatedly. It was more difficult than I had expected.

My phone got snatched away from me.

'You're hopeless,' Liz rolled her eyes, clutching the device in her hand.

I shrugged. When it came to hurting people then I didn't mind one bit if I was bad at it.

Her hands flew across the touch screen of my phone as her brows furrowed in concentration.

'Your texting skills suck,' she said, not looking at me.

I let her do whatever she was doing. I leaned back on the deckchair and picked up a novel that we were reading for our literature class. 'It's not that I suck at texting. It's just that I suck at breakup via texting,' I said.

She hummed in response.

I pinpointed the line I had been reading before I had decided I couldn't keep trying to keep up a single-handed relationship with Wade Carmichael. Today was the fourth time he had canceled on me. This week.

I shut the book between my palms and rolled my eyes. 'It's not like you're a pro at this. You've never even had to go through a breakup,' I said with only a speck of snark in my tone.

At this, she looked up at me. The sun made her squint. She lowered the shades from her head to her eyes.

'And you've been through a lot of them. This implies that your point is totally irrelevant because by now you should have been an expert at this, but you're not so,' she pressed her lips together before letting them go, emitting an unpleasant sound.

I huffed and snatched my phone back from her hands. From the periphery of my eye, I saw something that made me leap up from my chair.

'Jesse, don't eat it!' I said rushing towards my three-year-old brother and making him drop the sand-covered popsicle that he was going to eat.

He let out a horrified screech. 'Why? I want it,' he said and reached for the fallen popsicle again.

I crouched down in front of him and took it from his hand. He pouted and stared at me with hatred in his eyes. He believed that if he kept staring at someone hard enough they would erupt in flames.

'It won't work on me. You know that I'm immune to your powers,' I told him making him huff in annoyance. He kicked sand at me and then ran away.

'Not all my powers,' he yelled as he climbed on the deck chair I was sitting at a while ago.

I stood up and dusted the sand off my clothes.

Liz laughed and high-fived Jesse. I walked over to them. When Jesse saw me, he jumped off the chair and hurried inside. 'Forget about the beach for a week,' I called after him.

'Your little brother is so cute,' Liz cooed.

'He is a little devil,' I said and sat down again. I finally saw what she had typed.

'This is ridiculous,' I announced, chuckling as I read through it again. 'Liz, I thought you said you were good at this,' I said.

She shrugged casually but I could tell she was offended.