Free Falling (10 page)

“Alex, will you wait for me in your car?” I requested,
looking at him pleadingly as he immediately tensed up and started glaring at
Luke. He sighed and nodded, walking off and getting in his car, turning in his
seat to watch me. He really was so overprotective it was plain ridiculous.

I walked up to Luke slowly; not quite knowing what words
could start this conversation. “What are you doing here?” I asked, trying not
to meet his sad eyes. He looked terrible, like he hadn’t slept either. Dark
circles resided under his eyes, and his skin and hair had lost some of the
shine and glow. He was even wearing rumpled clothes, which was very unlike him
considering he had enough clothes to wear a new outfit every day and throw it
in the trash instead of in the laundry. He looked like death warmed up.

He smiled weakly. “I thought I might get to speak to you
this morning. I haven’t been able to get past your brother and dad all weekend,
so I thought I’d try now considering this is the first time you’ve left the
house in two days,” he answered. His eyes locked onto mine as he stepped closer
to me.

“How do you know I haven’t been out for two days?” I asked,
trying not to let the sad tone of his voice affect me.

“I slept in the car. Stalkerish I know, but I just wanted to
see you,” he admitted, wincing.

I laughed humourlessly. “Comfortable?”

He shook his head and laughed quietly too. “Not in the
slightest. But I just needed to be here in case you changed your mind and were
ready to talk to me.” He handed me the flowers and candy. “I got you these
yesterday, they’re a little wilted now though. I guess they didn’t enjoy being
in the car overnight either.”

The situation felt like it was crushing me. This was the
Luke that I fell in love with, the one that always put me first and made me
feel like I was the most special girl in the world. I couldn’t help but wonder
if he’d made
her
feel like that too. This was just too much. I had no
idea what I wanted to say to him, I had no idea where we went from here or if
there was any way I could get past this.

“Luke, I just can’t do this. Please can you just give me
some space?” I asked, chewing on my lip, willing myself not to cry anymore.

“Maisie, you know I would never cheat on you,” he said,
bending his head and looking directly into my eyes, tracing one finger across
my cheek.

I snorted and batted his hand away from my face angrily. “Well
you did a pretty good impression of someone faking sex.”

He groaned and gripped his hands into his hair. “Someone put
something in my drink! I didn’t take anything but I felt like shit, like I
wasn’t in control or something. After you left I just couldn’t stop throwing
up. I spent the rest of the night in hospital attached to a drip trying to get
my fluids back into my system!” he cried, looking at me desperately. “You know
I’d never do anything like this to you. You’re my life, Maisie, the only good thing
I have going. It’s me and you, that’s how it’s supposed to work.” He took my
free hand, rubbing circles in the back of it with his thumb.

“I can still see it, Luke. Every time I look at you all I
see is her on top of you! How can I forget that? How?” If he had the answer, if
he could make me forget, then I’d take it like a shot. If I could go back in
time and never go to the party then I would give anything for it. I believed
him when he said he wouldn’t have cheated on me if he hadn’t been high, I could
tell by his face how much he meant it and how hurt he was. This was a one-time
thing. He had never done it before, no matter what Sandy said, that was the
first time he’d cheated. That thought brought me a little comfort, but it
didn’t mean that I could forget it.

“I don’t know,” he whispered, his lip trembling as he spoke.
“I want to forget it too. I wish with everything inside me that it never
happened; I hate myself for hurting you. I love you so much.” His hand brushed
my face again and I couldn’t help but close my eyes and turn into his hand so
he cupped my cheek. We just stood there, neither of us moving, I just enjoyed
the closeness of him and the heat that spread through my body from his hand. I
loved him too, but I had the strong feeling that everything was ruined, whether
he meant to cheat or not, he still did it. I felt bad that he was hurting, but
I could still feel the betrayal and the pain in the bottom of my stomach, my
heart was still broken.

“I just need some time, Luke. I love you too, but I just
don’t know how this can get any better,” I admitted.

“I’ll give you some time, if that’s what you need. I’ll wait
forever, because you and me, Maisie, we’re supposed to be together. You’re the
only person I’ve ever truly loved, the only one it would kill me to lose. I
can’t lose you. I’ll do anything to make this up to you, anything,” he said,
kissing my cheek softly.

His lips were only on my skin for a split second, but I
could feel the ghost of them the whole drive to school. Alex tried to talk to
me, but I just looked out of the window, watching the streets pass by in a
blur.

When we pulled into the parking lot Alex jumped out, jogging
around to my side and wrapping a protective arm around me as people started to
stare and whisper. Obviously news had already spread. I let him lead me into
the school as I pretended not to notice how everyone gossiped and pointed at me
as I walked past. Alex waved off his friends and girls that wanted to talk to
him; instead he walked me directly to my locker where Charlotte and Beth were
already waiting for me.

“There you go, girls, twin sister delivered. Now it’s up to
you to look after her until the end of school,” Alex stated. He bent and kissed
the top of my head softly. “If you need me today then call me.” I nodded
weakly, forcing a smile.

As soon as he left I was immediately pulled into a hug by
both of my friends. They both started fussing over me and saying soothing
things like Luke ‘wasn’t good enough for me’ and that ‘I was better off without
him’. All three of us knew that it wasn’t true, but I appreciated the
solidarity from my girls. I sighed and grabbed my books from my locker knowing
that life didn’t stop just because I felt like I’d lost a huge piece of me.
From the corner of my eye I saw Luke walk in; he stopped at the end of the
corridor and smiled weakly at me before turning and walking off in the other
direction. I looked up at the ceiling and willed the tears that were building
up, not to fall. That was nice that he did that, I knew he wanted to talk to
me, but I appreciated that he respected my request for some space.

Once I had everything that I needed, I decided I should to
go to the office and see if the new guy had decided to grace us with his
presence. I secretly hoped he’d skipped again today because I didn’t have the
energy or the will power to be courteous to someone today. I probably wouldn’t
be a very good welcome to the school; the state I was in would probably scare
him away from here altogether.

“Guys, I’m going to the office to see if the new guy is
coming in today,” I said, smiling and trying to pretend like I wasn’t close to
bursting into tears.

Charlotte clicked her tongue and waved her hand
dismissively. “Let someone else do it. You don’t need to be doing that today,”
she scolded, shaking her head.

I sighed. “I have to, I was asked to. You know what I’m
like, I have to do things to please people,” I joked, shrugging. She rolled her
eyes and I blew them both air kisses, promising to meet them in third period
because that was the only lesson I had with them both. I headed to the office,
praying that he wasn’t here. As I walked in the receptionist smiled at me, her
face lighting up and I could see she was waiting to gossip with me.

“Skipped again?” I inquired. “Is he getting excluded and
he’s not even started? That must be a record.”

She shook her head, leaning over the counter to talk to me.
“He’s here! He’s in the office; I think he’s in a lot of trouble though. His
aunt drove him here personally; she practically dragged him in here.” She
nodded towards the closed office door, and I groaned.
Great, that means I
have to show around the new guy and eat with him. Now I can’t just escape into
the bathrooms at lunch and hide!

“Great,” I lied, smiling. “I’ll just sit and wait then shall
I? I assume I’m still showing him around?”

She nodded. “Yeah, thanks Maisie.” She pointed to the chairs
off to one side so I went to sit down and wait for him to come out.

A few minutes later and the Principal’s door opened a couple
of inches. “Oh he’ll behave and come every day even if I have to drive him here
myself,” a lady said sternly from inside the office.

“Can we stop talking about me like I’m not here? You have
any idea how patronising that is?” a guy asked sarcastically.

“Zachary!” the same lady scolded.

I groaned. I really didn’t want to be showing this guy
around at all.

“What? You’re pretending like I’m not even in the room, like
I’m freaking five years old! Anyway, whatever, are we done? I need a smoke,” he
said, sounding bored. 

“You cannot smoke on school grounds!” Principal Bennett
chimed in quickly, her voice firm and full of authority.

“Fine, I’ll leave the grounds then,” he answered; I could
hear the amusement in his tone. I caught the eye of the receptionist who was
listening too. Her mouth was agape and her eyes sparkled like this was the most
exciting thing that happened to her for weeks. “Am I dismissed? Shall I send in
the next delinquent for punishment?” Without waiting for an answer, the door
opened and I watched as he walked out.

My stomach dropped as I laid eyes on him. He had a huge
smirk on his face that was exactly as I remembered it from Friday night. He
scanned the room, winking at the receptionist before his gaze fell on me and
his predatory smile got even bigger.

“Well, well, well. Little miss DUI, come for a second shot
at killing me?” he mused, looking almost happy to see me.

Chapter 7

My mouth dropped open in shock as my eyes widened in horror.
Zach walked over and plopped in the seat next to me, looking chilled and
relaxed as his aunt was in there apologising for his behaviour and promising
that he would be good and make a real effort at the school. His posture didn’t
look like he was going to be making much of an effort though. 

“The Principal will scold you now,” he teased, nodding
towards the office door. “What did you do anyway? Smash something?” he asked,
leaning over to talk to me in private, putting emphasis around the word smash.

I gasped.
I knew that freaking windshield thing would
come back to bite me in the ass!
Luke hadn’t said anything about it to me
and he probably wouldn’t even mention it, he’d be annoyed if he found out it
was me though. “Shh!” I hissed, glaring at him.

He laughed and ran a hand over his shaven hair. He looked
like he’d just been dragged out of bed, literally. He was wearing grey
sweatpants, with black boxers underneath – I could tell the colour because the
sweats hung so low on his body that you could probably see the crack of his
butt if it weren’t for the waistband of his boxers. His white T-shirt clung to
his body showing off his muscles underneath, and he wore the same grey hoodie
that I had borrowed Friday night. 

I couldn’t speak; I had no idea what to say. Do I beg him to
not say anything? Was he going to hold this against me forever? I was supposed
to be tutoring this guy too; I certainly didn’t want to do that now. Not him,
he was a cocky jerk and he would drive me crazy if I spent more than ten
minutes in his company.

“You look like shit,” he commented.

Make that three minutes in his company.

I looked down at what I was wearing, my usual type of thing
that consisted of plain T-shirt and jeans, ponytail, no make-up, the same as a
usual school day. “Wow, that’s so sweet, thanks,” I muttered sarcastically.

The door to the office opened and an extremely harassed
looking lady with blonde hair walked out of the office, scowling at Zach.
Principal Bennett followed close behind her, she too was harassed looking. I
had a feeling Zach could piss off more than just me in three minutes.

“Oh, Maisie dear, thank you for coming. I assume you’ve
already met Zachary,” she said, looking at me almost apologetically.

“Zach,” he corrected acidly.

I stood up, smiling politely. “Yeah, we’ve already met.” I
nodded, wincing at the double meaning to those words.

Principal Bennett motioned towards the blonde lady who was
obviously Zach’s Aunt. “This is Mrs Kingston. Mrs Kingston, this is Maisie, the
girl I spoke to you about, the tutor,” she introduced. Zach chuckled darkly
behind me, but I ignored him, he was obviously amused that I was supposed to be
tutoring him.

The lady smiled and nodded. “It’s lovely to meet you,
Maisie. I’m sure I’ll be seeing more of you around the house then,” she said,
smiling sweetly.

I smiled apologetically. “Actually, Mrs Kingston,
something’s come up and I won’t be able to tutor Zachary anymore.” I flicked my
eyes to him as I said his full name, knowing that would obviously annoy him. “I
can happily recommend someone else that will be willing to do it though.” There
were always plenty of people wanting extra cash around here.

Zach jumped out of his chair. “Oh no, I don’t want anyone
else. I want you,” he protested, looking me right in the eyes, bending slightly
so our faces were on the same level. “You can sort out this thing that’s come
up. Right, little rebel?” he asked, raising one eyebrow at me.

Did he just call me little rebel as some kind of threat?
Oh my freaking goodness, I hate this guy!
“I have a lot going on right now,
I don’t think I’m in the right frame of mind to take on a tutoring job,” I
answered through my teeth, trying desperately to keep my tone light and
friendly.