Free Falling (17 page)

“Let’s just take it slow and be friends,” I repeated,
putting emphasis around the word friends. He nodded, pressing his face into my
hair as he wrapped his arms around me too, crushing me against his chest. I
have no idea how long we stayed like that, unmoving, unspeaking, but it didn’t
feel like long enough.

He pulled back and smiled his heart stopping smile. “I’d
better go; your brother and dad are probably waiting to jump me outside or
something. I can’t deny them the satisfaction of beating me to a pulp again.
Your dad hasn’t even taken a swing yet, so I guess I need to allow that to make
him feel better,” he said, laughing quietly.

I smiled at that, he was probably right there. “Okay, well
I’ll see you tomorrow at school.”

A small frown crossed his face. “Think I could pick you up
in the morning? Drive you to school?” he asked hopefully. “As friends of
course,” he added the last part quickly.

I gulped; I wasn’t ready for that kind of thing yet. It was
hard enough being at school with everyone knowing and gossiping about me and
him; I couldn’t show up with him and spark more rumours about us. People would
already be wondering why it was that we were being friends; I couldn’t show up
with him too.

“I think I should ride with Alex.”

He sighed and nodded. “Okay. I’ll see you at school then.”
Before I could protest, he leant in and pressed his lips against mine. The
familiar sparks and little bursts of heat rushed through my body because of how
perfectly his lips fitted mine. Then it was over. He pulled back and smiled at
me sadly before he stood up and stroked his hand down the side of my face. “I’ll
wait as long as you need. I love you.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said nothing. He
took that as his cue to leave and walked off; leaving me watching the place
that I last saw his body. I touched my lips; I could still feel the ghost of
his kiss there. Running my tongue over my bottom lip, I could still taste him.

I forced myself to go downstairs to spend some time with my
family. It was obvious they were worried about me. It took longer than I
thought to assure my ape of a brother that I wasn’t forgiving Luke too fast,
and that we weren’t back together. It took even longer to get him to agree not
to shove his fist down Luke’s throat.

I made small talk with my parents about Zach’s tutoring
schedule. Finally, after faking that I was okay for another half an hour, I
excused myself to bed. As I curled in the sheets I could feel the sadness
trying to creep over me again. As soon as I was in the darkness my mind drifted
to Luke again. I willed myself to fall asleep quickly, but that didn’t happen.
Instead, I cried for another half an hour before drifting into a shallow and
uneasy slumber.

Chapter 11

When morning finally came I felt terrible because of barely
sleeping. I was on auto-pilot as I dressed and trudged to Alex’s car. As we
pulled into the parking lot of the school I spotted Luke sitting on the hood of
his car, three spaces down. His friends were all hanging around him, talking,
but he seemed a little distracted. When we pulled into the space he sprung away
from his car and headed over, a smile stretching across his face. I watched the
way his unbuttoned black shirt blew in the light wind, the white T-shirt stuck
to his body showing off how sculpted he was from all the football he played. I
watched the way the smile showed off his pearly white teeth and strong jaw. I
sighed sadly. He still had an effect on my body; I was still incredibly attracted
to him. The trouble was I also noticed how the other girls looked at him too.
They had always looked, but before I’d been confident in his affections so them
looking had never bothered me; I didn’t get jealous because I trusted him. Now
though I felt a little sick with jealousy.

Alex said his goodbyes as he eyed up a group of girls who
were standing off to one side. He was obviously choosing his weekly target.
What with all the excitement yesterday and fighting with Zach, I guess he
didn’t get to make a move on many girls.

Luke reached the car just as I closed my door. “Hey, baby,”
he greeted. His hand moved to take mine so I shied away slightly which made his
face fall. “Sorry,” he muttered, letting his hand drop to his side as he kicked
his shoes on the ground.

“Morning,” I replied, trying to ignore the way he looked so
sad.

“Morning.”

I laughed uncomfortably, and flicked my eyes around to see
that everyone was watching us. Some people were discreetly watching but
pretending to do something else, some people looked away quickly as I glanced
in their direction, others were outright staring with their mouths open. “Well,
this is awkward,” I muttered, chewing on my lip.

Luke smiled at me apologetically. “Shall I walk you in,
or…?” he trailed off, looking at me hopefully.

I took a deep breath and forced a smile even though I felt
like crying. “Sure. Oh, did you get your assignment done for English?” I asked,
trying to change the subject. I was pretty sure he had an essay to hand in
today.

He smiled at me gratefully, probably because I was making an
effort to be friends. We talked a little awkwardly as he walked me into the
building. I kept my hands firmly gripped onto the straps of my schoolbag
because his hands were swinging dangerously close to mine. People were watching
as we walked past and I tried my best not to see them - well, I tried to
pretend like I didn’t see them anyway.

Whispers were starting as we walked down the hallway and all
I wanted to do was curl up in bed and cry. I looked up the hallway and frowned.
People were crowding near my locker; an excited murmur was rippling through the
crowd.
What on earth is that about?

Out of nowhere Charlotte grabbed my arm and yanked me to a
stop. “Maisie! Oh my God. I’ve reported it to the janitor; they said they’ll
get it sorted once everyone goes to class. It’s disgusting. I bet it was the
witch that did it,” she hissed, her jaw tightening in anger.

“Huh?”
The janitor will get what sorted?

Her eyes widened as her grip on my arm tightened to the
point of pain. “You haven’t seen it?”

Luke stepped forward and looked at her curiously. “Seen
what, Charlotte?” he asked, rolling his eyes.

Charlotte didn’t reply, just dragged me forward, shoving
people out of the way. “Move it or lose it. Come on, people, get out of the
way!” she ordered.

I followed behind her helplessly, weaving through the
gathered students, wondering what was going on. The crowd parted, people turned
to look at me, and the murmur got even more excited as people regarded me with
wide eyes, obviously waiting for my reaction to whatever it was. Sandy smirked
at me and my hand clenched into a fist as Zach’s words from yesterday echoed in
my head, ‘You need to punch that hoe in the face’.  I wanted to, I really did,
but I forced myself to look away from her taunting smile.

Charlotte stopped and I looked up at whatever was so urgent,
only to see that someone had vandalised my locker. One big bold word had been
spray painted on the yellow door of it, large red letters, the paint thick and
angry looking.

‘Bitch’

“What the heck?” I cried, frowning at it angrily.
Why on
earth would someone write that on my locker? That’s just stupid because I’m not
a bitch at all!

“I know, it’s disgusting!” Charlotte growled, shaking her
head angrily. “It should be gone by lunchtime apparently.”

I felt my face flush with embarrassment because everyone was
staring at me. I hated to be the centre of attention, and it looked like every
gaze in the hallway was locked onto me in that second. Why would someone even
write that, who wrote it?

“What the hell is that?”

I turned to see Luke had pushed his way through the crowd
and had stopped at my back. His eyes were glued to my locker as his jaw
twitched angrily. My mind was whirling, trying to think of someone that would
want to write that on my locker. I got along with everyone; I was well liked -
just not popular. I guess the popular girls had never really liked me because I
was dating the quarterback, but none of them would resent me that much, would
they? Maybe Sandy…

In the back of my mind I could hear Luke ranting loudly,
asking who did it, if anyone saw anything. He was incredibly angry by the sound
of it. My eyes flicked to Sandy again. She was giggling behind her hand,
whispering conspiratorially to her friend.

“Did you do that?” I asked her, pointing at it angrily. I
couldn’t think of a single other person in the school that would have a problem
with me like she did.

She raised one eyebrow looking at me incredulously. “No. But
the person who wrote it obviously has your number though huh? You certainly are
a bitch,” she replied, straightening her shoulders as people turned to watch
the exchange.

Anger made my stomach shake as I glared at her. “Sandy,
what’s your problem? What have I ever done to you? So I went out with someone
that you wanted, so what? Does that mean that you have to hate me forever and
make snide remarks about me all the time?” I growled.

She snorted and looked at me distastefully. “Well you’re not
dating him now though, are you? He saw how ridiculous he was being and came to
me eventually,” she replied, shrugging and smiling at me wickedly.

I stepped forward to make an angry comment back, but Luke
was quicker and pulled me behind him as he glared at her. “You don’t talk shit
about her. She’s worth a million of you; for one thing she’s not a nasty skank.
There’s a reason I fell in love with her and not you, she’s not a fake bimbo
whore who’s up herself. You were a drunken mistake, nothing more than that, so
don’t flatter yourself,” he hissed angrily.

Her mouth dropped open in shock as her cheeks flushed pink
with embarrassment. “Well you weren’t exactly that good in bed, Luke Hannigan!
Total waste of a condom if you ask me!” she retorted.

Luke’s body stiffened but he didn’t reply. She turned on her
heel, flicking her perfectly straightened, natural blonde hair over her
shoulder as she stomped off, with her girls following behind her like little
lapdogs following their master. Luke turned back to me and shook his head,
frowning. I could feel my eyes filling with tears and I willed them not to
fall. People were still staring at me and I didn’t want anyone to see me cry.

Why was this all happening to me? I had a great life before
this all happened. Everything was perfect, I had the perfect boyfriend, great
friends, everything was planned out and exciting. But then everything fell to
pieces around me.

Luke frowned and turned to the side. “Everyone just get
lost. Just go to class or something, seriously, just leave!” he ordered.
Because he was still Luke Hannigan, most popular jock in school, everyone
seemed to move as one as they whispered and dispersed quickly.

I glanced up to see Zach leaning against the wall opposite
me, his arms folded over his chest, he was watching me intently. His eyes
locked onto mine. I gulped at the intensity I saw there before he tightened his
jaw and walked off too.

“Baby, you okay?”

I snapped out of the little haze I seemed to be trapped in,
and looked up at Luke. He was watching me with a concerned look on his face. I
nodded and stepped forward into his body, just needing a little comfort.
Instantly, his arms wrapped around me, enveloping me in his beautiful smell. I
pressed my face against his chest and tried my hardest not to cry as I wrapped
my arms around his waist, clamping myself to him.

“This will all get easier. I’m sorry,” he whispered, kissing
the side of my head softly as he stroked my back.

I sniffed and pulled away. “I know.” I turned back to my
locker and the awful red writing again. “I better get my books and stuff and
get to class.” I smiled at Charlotte who was just looking at me
sympathetically. “Someone’s gonna clean this off, right? I don’t need to do
anything?”

She nodded. “They’ll sort it out, don’t worry.”

Sighing, I forced myself to punch in my combination and open
it, grabbing my books for the morning class. Inside I was dreading Alex seeing
this, I hoped they got it removed before he did because he would be crazy mad
about it. I wouldn’t be able to stop him hearing about it, but seeing it would
make his ‘protective big brother’ instincts even worse. When I had everything,
Luke walked me to class and Charlotte headed off in the other direction for
hers.

“Want to eat lunch together?” Luke asked, cocking his head
to the side, smiling hopefully.

I shrugged but nodded at the same time. “Sure.”

My morning was spent with people asking me constantly about
my locker. I had repeated myself over and over again so much that even I was
bored of the sound of my own answers. Sandy had ignored me completely in first
period. We sat at opposite ends of the classroom and as soon as the bell
sounded, I packed up and practically ran out of the room. I hated this
attention; it was like everyone was watching me, waiting for me to blow a
gasket or something.

At lunchtime I headed back to my locker, only to see that
the ugly writing had gone. In its place was a freshly scrubbed clean patch of
silver. I cringed because the rest of the locker was yellow apart from that
patch. It was glaringly obvious that something had been written there and
scrubbed off. People were watching me discreetly, so I forced myself to put on
a brave face and store my books, grab my purse and slam the door shut. I was
going for the unconcerned approach, but I was pretty sure I didn’t pull it off
very well.

“Hi.” I jumped and turned to see Zach leaning against the
locker next to mine. One of his jeaned legs was crossed over the other, his
arms folded over his chest. A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.
He nodded towards my locker. “So, who did that?”