AN: So I took a mini "vacation" after I finished Everything is Temporary, but I'm pretty much ready to get back at this before the summer ends. So readers, I give you the PROLOGUE to The Many Ways to Fall. I think after my camping trip next week, I'll be back to regular updates. Good? Good. Enjoy :)

This is set to two years after the final chapter of Everything is Temporary.

Title: The Many Ways to Fall (Sequel to Everything is Temporary)

Pairing: Chad Dylan Cooper and Sonny Monroe.

Genre: Angst/Romance ;

Summary: "You walked away from me once... it would break me if you did it again". Sometimes you need to break hearts in order to save them. Some people just aren't meant to have a happy ending. Sequel to Everything is Temporary.

The disclaimer is quite simple, really. I own nothing, not Disney or Chad or Sonny, because they would totally be together already if I owned Sonny With a Chance.

My big recommendation is to read Everything is Temporary before you read this, but hey. I don't control the click of your mouse, do I? ;)

If love was a fire
Then we have lost the spark
Love never felt so cold

( the many ways to F A L L )
& prologue.

~ colourfuldaze.

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His words raced through her mind and she could feel her pulse quickening as she takes her first sight at him. Her breathing is becoming heavier, and soon enough she's taking gasps of air and her body feels as though her knees are about to let her down. This is the usual reaction whenever she's in the same building as him, which is why she usually tried her best to avoid it. But this, she had been looking forward for this. It had been two years after all. This was how the story had ended for them, shamefully avoiding the inevitable day.

He kept his promise, for the most part. They never went to the same parties, they had not spoken since that faithful day. It surprised her to see the wedding invitation in her mail. It was beautiful, and she had known what it was before she had even opened it. She should have known, after all. He would never have chased after her again, not when he promised that he wouldn't.

-a-wedding-invitation-

TO: Allison Monroe

This was the only one that I actually formally wrote. August 18th, 2020. I've done everything that you've wanted, and I only ask for one thing from you. I want you to be there, to see it. That's all. I'm out of your life, this is my final request from you. This was what you wanted. I just want you to see it.

Chad Dylan Cooper.

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She had told herself repeatedly that there was no way that she would attend. She would just be crushed, by the same two people that had broken her six years ago. She cried for the whole night after she got the invitation, then never thought about it again. She had taught herself to be strong-willed, she had stopped showing her emotions so long ago.

Yet her she was, standing in a chapel, watching as he makes his vows holding the hand of his blonde bride – her former best friend, waiting for them to be attached, forever. She stood behind the entrance doors, not wanting to be seen by the ones who had known her so well so many years ago.

It was supposed to be her, standing next to him. That was just what was expected. Chad and Sonny, it had clearly been perfect. She was supposed to be the bride, not the ex-girlfriend standing in the background of his perfect day, his wedding day. This should have been their day. The bride that was standing there beside him, that should have been her. Tawni should have been the Maid of Honor, not Chad's perfect bride.

Within the span of six years, her world had come spinning down on her in a way that she thought only happened in cliché movies. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. The control she used to have of her life had disappeared the night that she made her choice. She did what he expected her to, not what she wanted. Never what she wanted.

"You are formally wedded. You may kiss the bride", she heard the distant voice of the priest say. She watches silently as the tears roll down her face, finally coming to the realization that she would never, ever, again have the chance to touch him, to kiss him, to love him.

This isn't her marriage to ruin, so she walks out of the chapel – not realizing the icy blue-eyed man that wanted so desperately to chase after her, or the sad blonde woman who wanted more than anything to run and apologize. He tries to look at his new wife, yet he can't find the courage to do so. Deep inside their hearts, their souls – they both knew that this wasn't the way the story should have went. Somewhere along the way, they made the story into their own. Never considering the well-being of a certain shattered brunette.

The story had a sad ending. None of the characters got what they wanted, as much as they acted like what they had was enough. They lived their lives knowing that nothing, nothing at all, could ever be enough to change the past. The past had ruined everything, after all.

She walks right into the arms of her best friend, James Conroy. She looks into his eyes and thinks, 'maybe this won't be so bad after all'. They were the ones, always left alone. He knew exactly what she was feeling at every moment in time, because he was always there to experience it too. Sometimes it felt like they were the only two people in the world who were destined not to have their very own happy ending.

The reality had hit her randomly the next day. She was washing the dishes in the house that she shared with her best friend and the thought had occurred to her. She suddenly heard a crash and she broke out of her daze. Just like it had two years ago, something felt terribly wrong.

It took six years, but she had finally realized what Chad had lost in the fire that his family had so many years ago. Not that it mattered, anyways. Tawni would be there for him when he realizes it, too.

She knows the sacrifice that he made for her and it's about time that she made one too. She walks away from the newlyweds and silently wishes them a happy, good life. This was her sacrifice, after all. She runs away, from the problems, from the heartbreak that she would have encountered.

Yet there was the small, weak voice in her head, the one that she tries so desperately to ignore, constantly telling her that it wasn't really the end of the game. There would be more. There would always be more.

The game never ends until a winner is crowned, after all.

"And I quit. I give up.
Nothing's good enough for anybody else it seems.
When I'm by myself nobody else can say goodbye."

AN: Well, that was quite a long prologue wasn't it? :) Hope it was angsty enough, yet enjoyable. Review please :D

Constructive Criticism is welcome.

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