Fall hard sun city 2, p.1
Fall Hard (Sun City #2), page 1
Copyright © 2023 by Jade Church
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Fall Hard By Jade Church First Published in Great Britain By Jade Church in 2023
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-7391457-2-9
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-7391457-3-6
Hardback ISBN: 978-1-7391457-4-3
Conditions of Sale
This book is sold subject to the conditions that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published. The characters and events in this book are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any similarity to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
CONTENT WARNING
Fall Hard contains themes and content that some readers may find triggering, this includes: references to anxiety and depression, misogyny, homophobia, alcohol and drug use, sexual harassment, on-page sex, and swearing.
ALSO BY JADE CHURCH
Temper the Flame
This Never Happened
Get Even (Sun City #1)
In Too Deep (Living in Cincy #1)
The Lingering Dark (Kingdom of Stars #1)
Three Kisses More
Coming Soon:
Tempt My Heart (Living in Cincy #2)
Strip Bare (Sun City #3)
The Clarity of Light (Kingdom of Stars #2)
PLAYLIST
OPTIONAL LISTENING FOR MAXIMUM VIBES
10:35 – Tiësto, Tate McRae
Flowers – Miley Cyrus
Dancing’s done – Ava Max
Only Love Can Hurt Like This – Paloma Faith
golden hour – JVKE
Love Again – Dua Lipa
She’s Thunderstorms – Arctic Monkeys
WANTED U – Joji
Glitch – Taylor Swift
Pretty Please – Dua Lipa
For everyone trying to find their own way
CHAPTER ONE
Love sucks. I wasn’t much of an expert, I’d only really fallen once—but there was only one thing worse than loving someone who didn’t love you, and that was watching them fall in love with someone else. So there I was, about to do something that was probably a terrible idea—but lately all my ideas seemed terrible, so what could one more hurt?
I’d gotten to the club earlier than I cared to admit and immediately headed to the bar for a drink—I’d made a mistake not having anything before I came out, that was for sure. Luckily, the neon rainbow stripes that encased the front of the bar had made it easy to spot and I’d claimed a seat there on the tall black bar stools with ease.
I had been to a club only once in my life, when I’d just turned eighteen and managed to sneak out of the house, and I’d forgotten how loud and… sticky, they were. Dark too, only the rainbow lights tracing the edges of the walls, DJ booth, and the small smattering of tables tucked into a few alcoves adding a soft multi-coloured glow to the room.
The girl I’d been watching for the past half-hour pushed away from the bar and made her way to a packed corner of the club. Her blonde hair was an unnatural white that seemed to change color with the disco lights and was almost the same color as her skin. I kept my eyes on her retreating figure as she paused by a skinny white guy wearing a ripped tee emblazoned with Britney Spears’ face. Her hand dipped into the pocket of her high waisted jeans as she leaned in close to the guy, then she moved back to the bar. Done. Easy. I could do this. Probably.
I sighed, barely even feeling the buzz of the last three drinks I’d had against the strange tingling numbness that moved through my chest recently. It had been happening for a while, ever since I’d moved to Sun City and accidentally fallen in love with my best friend.
She was out with everyone else right now, gone to some football match her boyfriend, Ryan, was playing in and I’d told them I had to study. I snorted into my cocktail at the thought. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d gone to class.
I waited til she reclaimed her seat a little further down from mine and then I ordered another drink, the steady pulse of Christina Aguilera’s Dirty making my heart feel like it thudded too hard. Her top was red and off the shoulders, not unlike something Jamie might have worn—
I gulped the drink the bartender handed me as I shook off the thought.
“Whoa. Steady there. You know they put alcohol in those things, right?” The girl grinned at me and I swallowed before offering her a smile. If you didn’t know better, then what I was about to ask her might seem perfectly natural coming from my lips—tonight, I looked the epitome of a party girl. I’d loosely curled my hair and let it run free over my shoulders, put on my highest pink velvet chunky heels and let my sparkly eye make-up be the only accessory needed to match the pink sequin mini dress.
“Well, there’s a little mixer too. Got to stay hydrated.” I laughed breathlessly and bit my lip as the girl’s eyes moved over my bronze legs, made longer by my heels, and back up to my face. “Listen…” I leaned in close and a flirty smile tugged up the corners of her mouth. “I, um, was wondering if you have any pills?”
She leaned back, a look that might have been disappointment flashing across her face as a cheer went out in the crowd at the next song, before she nodded. “Sure. What are you looking for?”
“Ah, you know.”
An eyebrow raised at my answer and I wanted to curse. “Sure, but do you?” I didn’t answer and she rolled her eyes. “Look, are you sure you want to—”
“I’m sure,” I said firmly. “I’ve just never done this before. My friend usually buys,” I lied, clearing my throat a little and her eyes narrowed slightly before she nodded.
“Fine. How many do you want?”
“Just one.”
Another eyebrow raise. Crap. I was so clearly out of my depth. I’d thought this would be good for me, to get out of my own head for a while, but maybe it was just another mistake.
“Thirty,” the girl said and I barely held in my surprise. That seemed like a lot for one pill, but I couldn’t say for sure if she was ripping me off or if I was just hopelessly naive. Either way, it didn’t matter. Thirty dollars was nothing in the face of the inheritance my parents had given me to essentially stay out of their lives, another form of hush money—their signature move.
I slipped the cash out of my clutch and she rolled her eyes as I tried to be surreptitious about it and failed.
“Have a good night,” she said dryly, handing me a clear baggie and then shoving away from the bar.
“You too,” I murmured, the words lost in an old Taylor Swift song as I shook the pill free and examined it closely. Was I supposed to take the whole thing? I glanced around to see if I could maybe ask the white-haired drug dealer but she’d disappeared into the crowd on the dancefloor. I didn’t even know what this thing was or how it would make me feel—what if I had an allergic reaction? I tried to shake the thought off. What would Jamie do?
Jamie would have already taken the pill by now and not given it a second thought. Yet here I was, having second, third, and fourth thoughts. I didn’t need to do this—not to have a good time, and not to prove anything. But I just felt like I needed… something. Change, or maybe just an end to the aching hollowness that seemed to follow me around lately. It had been a rough year.
My palms were getting sweaty and I tossed the pill back and forth between my hands, not wanting it to melt or something. Just do it. I let out a slow breath as I brought my hand to my mouth and then paused. Was I supposed to swallow it whole? Chew it? Crap, I should have just asked Jamie—
I reined my thoughts in before I could get lost in my own head again, wondering what she was doing right now, whether the match had ended and they’d all gone to The Box for drinks after. She’s with Ryan. Her boyfriend. Having a great time without you.
I swiveled the seat so I faced outwards and could watch the dancers, the ache in my chest reverberating around the bass of the music.
She was the reason I’d come here. Jamie. Or one of them, at least.
There were people like Jamie, so comfortable in their skin it seemed almost inhuman to me. She’d had her nudes leaked by her ex and was barely phased. She didn’t break. How could you not envy someone like that? Who knows exactly who they are?
“For you,” the green-haired bartender said from behind me and I looked up in surprise as a shot of tequila was placed next to me on the purple counter, alongside a cocktail.
“Oh, sorry! I didn’t order this.”
“No, doll. She did.” He smiled at me and nodded his head off to the left where a familiar, blonde head smirked at me. Bryn.
“Right,” I murmured, opting not to pick it up. “Thanks.”
I hadn’t exactly come here looking for company, not the familiar kind anyway. I came here to get lost, to be someone new. While I knew from the way she flirted every time she saw me that Bryn would happily take me home and help me forget, I didn’t look Bryn’s way again.
For one night, I wanted to be someone else—someone unafraid to take risks, who doesn’t pause to think or rationalize all the different ways a situation could go wrong, someone scary. That was one of the things I loved a
bout Jamie. With her, you never knew what might happen next.
And so I found myself in a gay nightclub, buying drugs for the first time, getting ready to dance with strangers, just so I could pretend for a little while. To escape my own skin, like I wasn’t the girl in love with her best friend, the girl that got kicked out of school, or the girl disowned by her parents. I put the pill on my tongue and swallowed it with the last of my drink before the shaking of my hands could persuade me to rethink my decision. Tonight, I was free.
How long would it take to kick in? I swung my legs idly to the beat and returned the smiles of a few people dancing in the middle of the floor. It wasn’t a big club and the bar took up a lot of room, spanning the whole of the back wall, but the layout twisted and turned into small nooks where people were laughing or making out. Posters had lined the walls in the tiny corridor that had led to this larger dance floor, advertising the events coming up, so I knew that on Fridays they did karaoke and there was a drag show one Monday a month. Karaoke made me think of her though, not that what Jamie did with her voice should be cheapened down that way, and I fanned myself with my hand lightly as the heat from the club made my cheeks flush. Or maybe that was just the alcohol—it was wild to think about how far I’d come since leaving St Agatha’s, the religious college I’d been kicked out of after being caught in a kiss with my female teacher. I had a fake ID, because I wasn’t going to be twenty-one for another ten months, I was fully independent, and my dress just about covered my ass.
I sighed as I reached absently for the drink Bryn had sent over, dumping the tequila into the tall glass of orange liquid. This wasn’t working. Sitting in a club and waxing poetic about my best friend was the exact opposite of what I was trying to do there.
The drink was fruity and sweet and I wrinkled my nose as I sipped it. I was pretty picky about the cocktails I drank, and this one was a little too syrupy to really be my thing, but the guy behind the bar was busy and I was thirsty. So overly sweet, flirty cocktail it would have to be.
The rhythm of the music changed to something bassier, the thud of it echoing through my chest as I let my shoulders relax. I glanced to my right and smiled at the pretty redhead collecting her drink. She had freckles similar to mine, coasting along her nose daintily, and her dress was a green silk that looked so weightless on her it could have floated away.
“Wanna dance?” I half-shouted over the music and then swallowed the rest of my drink quickly when she nodded with a big grin, grabbing my hand and tugging me out into the middle of the floor. Now, not everyone at gay clubs was actually gay, she could just be there with friends, but when she stepped closer and slipped a pale arm around my waist to tug me closer, I melted. She smelled like summer flowers, sweet and heady, and her gold eyeliner sparkled in the lights of the dance floor as her eyes dropped to my lips.
I didn’t even know her name. But that was exactly what I’d wanted, right?
We laughed and swayed our hips to the music, a song I vaguely recognized but wasn’t paying much attention to as the room swirled into a haze of rainbow lights and glitter.
“I love your eyeliner,” I said into the redhead’s ear, letting my lips brush the shell, and she grinned at me. “Pretty,” I breathed as I pulled away and stroked a thumb idly underneath her eye.
The song changed, something heavy and angsty that made us throw our hands in the air and jump as high as we could manage without breaking an ankle in our towering heels. A group of people waved to her off to my right and she kissed my cheek before dancing over to them. I waved her off airily, not even feeling the disappointment as I swayed and bounced to the music, barely feeling the hands on my skin as I twirled between dancers. I don’t know when I closed my eyes, couldn’t remember deciding to do so, but the room felt like it was overwhelming my senses in a riot of color and sparkles when they flickered open. The cheesy disco lights were going strong and the girl I was dancing with had glitter in her hair that I stroked fondly, twining it around my finger as her brunette strands shone red under the lights.
This was what I’d been looking for, to just get lost for a little while. The emptiness in my chest that had threatened to overwhelm me the longer I stayed in the apartment had faded, replaced with laughter and the scent of honey shampoo.
Someone bought me a drink. Then two, then three, and the next set of hands that settled lightly on my waist steadied me when I hadn’t even realized I’d been swaying.
They smelled nice, like jasmine or clementine, something flowery that danced on the edge of fruity. I inhaled deeply as I rested my head on their shoulder, slow dancing despite the Carly Rae Jepson song that blasted out around us.
I didn’t want to move, tiredness settling into my arms and legs as I relaxed in this stranger’s arms, but my throat was parched. I pulled away slightly too fast and bit the inside of my cheek as the pleasant haze I’d been drifting in threatened to send me down a swirling ravine that I knew would leave me puking.
“Sorry,” I slurred. “Need another drink.”
“I think what you need is to go home.”
I wrinkled my nose. That voice sounded familiar.
I forced my eyes open and squinted in the flashing lights—when had they turned on a smoke machine? I clutched the woman’s arm as I fought to assess myself for a second. It wasn’t often that a smoke machine could trigger my asthma but for some reason my lungs felt sluggish anyway, like I was breathing in syrup.
“Hey, you’re okay.” The voice was so strong that my body relaxed, like it had just been waiting for orders. “Come on, I’ll take you home.”
A slither of coherency cracked through my senses and I frowned as I focused on familiar blue eyes that were, annoyingly, pinched with concern.
“I’m not going home with you.”
Bryn rolled her eyes, thick dark lashes casting fascinating shadows across the high points of her cheeks and I struggled to focus on her words for a moment. “I’m not propositioning you, Olivia. You’re absolutely fucked right now. You need to go home.”
A giggle burst out of my mouth and I clamped a hand over my lips before letting it drop. “You said fuck.”
Bryn wound an arm through mine and tried to guide me to the exit. “Come on.”
“No.”
We ground to a halt and a breath that even I could recognize as sheer exasperation escaped her.
“No?”
“No, I’m not going to sleep with you.”
“Oh, sweetheart. I doubt you could even locate a boob right now—I’m taking you to your home, not mine.”
Without thinking, I reached out and placed a hand on her chest. She was wearing a gauzy silver mesh top that sparkled prettily and I instantly coveted it, especially because it managed to feel silky rather than scratchy. We both looked down at the hand that cupped her left breast. It was full, bigger than my palm could comfortably cover, and Bryn looked bemused as she reached out and gently tugged my hand away.
“Come on.”
I didn’t argue. I would probably feel a thousand shades of embarrassed about this tomorrow, but right now I couldn’t deny that the thought of my bed waiting for me sounded like bliss. Well, that and maybe some fries. Salty, greasy, goodness.
“Yes, yes, fine, we can stop for fries if somewhere is open.”
I blinked, not realizing I’d said the last part aloud. Whatever. As long as I got my fries, I didn’t care that I’d touched Bryn’s boob. Plus, Sun City was a student town—of course someone would be selling fries at… I checked my phone and hissed as the brightness seared my eyes. Wow. Three AM. Not bad. Not bad at all.
I didn’t think I’d gone out partying by myself in, well, ever and tonight I’d actually had a good time. There weren’t many times in my life that I’d been able to just feel… good. Carefree.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Bryn said as she steered me around a bush that had appeared out of nowhere and I blinked at her in confusion.
“Am I still saying all this to you out loud? I thought I was just thinking stuff.”
Bryn snorted. “Jesus you’re wasted. What did you even take?”
