2024-11-09 00:00:00 +0200

November 9 Also by Colleen Hoover Slammed Point of Retreat This Girl Hopeless Losing Hope Finding Cinderella Maybe Someday Ugly Love Maybe Not Confess First published in the USA by Atria, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2015 This edition first published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2015 A CBS COMPANY Copyright © Colleen Hoover, 2015 This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. No reproduction without permission. ® and © 1997 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. The right of Colleen Hoover to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. Simon & Schuster UK Ltd 1st Floor 222 Gray’s Inn Road London WC1X 8HB www.simonandschuster.co.uk Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4711-5462-1 eBook ISBN: 978-1-4711-5463-8 This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY Simon & Schuster UK Ltd are committed to sourcing paper that is made from wood grown in sustainable forests and supports the Forest Stewardship Council, the leading international forest certification organisation. Our books displaying the FSC logo are printed on FSC certified paper. To Levi— You have great taste in music and your hugs are awkward. Never change. Contents First November 9th Fallon Ben Fallon Ben Fallon Second November 9th Ben Fallon Ben Fallon Third November 9th Fallon Ben Fallon Ben Fallon Ben Fourth November 9th Fallon Ben Fifth November 9th Fallon Ben Fallon Fallon Fallon Sixth November 9th Fallon Ben’s novel—CHAPTER ONE Fallon Ben’s novel—CHAPTER TWO Fallon Ben’s novel—CHAPTER THREE Fallon Ben’s novel—CHAPTER FOUR Fallon Last November 9th Ben First November 9th I am translucent, aquatic. Drifting, aimless. She is an anchor, sinking in my sea. —BENTON JAMES KESSLER Fallon I wonder what kind of sound it would make if I were to smash this glass against the side of his head. It’s a thick glass. His head is hard. The potential for a nice big THUD is there. I wonder if he would bleed. There are napkins on the table, but not the good kind that could soak up a lot of blood. “So, yeah. I’m a little shocked, but it’s happening,” he says. His voice causes my grip to tighten around the glass in hopes that it stays in my hand and doesn’t actually end up against the side of his skull. “Fallon?” He clears his throat and tries to soften his words, but they still come at me like knives. “Are you going to say anything?” I stab the hollow part of an ice cube with my straw, imagining that it’s his head. “What am I supposed to say?” I mumble, resembling a bratty child, rather than the eighteen-year-old adult that I am. “Do you want me to congratulate you?” My back meets the booth behind me and I fold my arms across my chest. I look at him and wonder if the regret I see in his eyes is a result of disappointing me or if he’s simply acting again. It’s only been five minutes since he sat down, and he’s already turned his side of the booth into his stage. And once again, I’m forced to be his audience. His fingers drum the sides of his coffee cup as he watches me silently for several beats. Taptaptap. Taptaptap. Taptaptap. He thinks I’ll eventually give in and tell him what he wants to hear, but he hasn’t been around me enough in the last two years to know that I’m not that