Free Falling (21 page)

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she cried,
looking at me with wide eyes.

I slapped the note against her chest harder than was
necessary. “You stay the hell away from me, you hear?” I growled. People had
turned to watch now, I could feel all eyes on me, but I wasn’t letting that
affect me. She needed to know to back the heck off. “Just leave me alone you
vindictive little witch!”

Her jaw tightened as her shoulders seemed to stiffen. “Me?
What the hell would I want to go anywhere near you for?” she asked, looking me
over distastefully.

Oh yeah, of course she’s denying it!
“I mean it,
Sandy, you just back off! Is it not enough that you’ve already split me and
Luke up?” I ranted, throwing my hands up in exasperation.

A small, nasty smile twitched at the corners of her mouth as
she raised one eyebrow. “It’s not even nearly enough,” she replied coldly. “I’m
just glad you’re finally in your place, which is nowhere near Luke!”

My jaw ached where I was clenching it so tightly. Her sky
blue eyes were alight with happiness as she stood there, taunting me with her
perfect looks. “Oh just get over it. Even though we’re split up he still wants
nothing to do with you, so have some pride and stop acting like a desperate
skank!” I countered.

She gasped, looking a little taken aback before a wild
ferocity crossed her face. “You! You’re the little skank! You muscled in on the
quarterback thinking his popularity would drag you into a good social standing,
well I’ve got news for you, princess, you’re nothing, and you never will be.
You were never good enough for him. A little nerd like you could never satisfy
a guy like Luke. Of course he was begging me for it, of course he was all over
me last week, he finally wanted someone who could fulfil his needs! And that
wasn’t the first time it’d happened either!” she screamed, her cheeks flaming
with anger.

Her words felt like she’d stabbed me in the heart.
Begging
her for it? Wasn’t the first time?
For about two seconds I actually
believed her, and then I remembered Luke’s distraught and horrified expression
on the day following the party. I believed him, he had never cheated before,
she was just trying to hurt me.

“You lying little-” I started, but she was still on full
flow and cut me off.

“Now that you’re out of the way he’ll be running to me as
soon as he realises that he’s better off without you. Give it a couple of days
and he’ll be begging me for it again. He’ll be hanging all over me, and you’ll
have to watch it all. That boy’s as good as mine already,” she interjected,
smirking confidently.

The last of my control slipped as a red haze of rage seemed
to cloud my vision. I launched myself at her, ignoring the gasps and squeals of
delight that came from the enthralled spectators. We slammed into the wall as
one of my hands tangled in her hair, pulling roughly as she let out some sort
of primal scream, trying to throw me off. A hand connected with my face but I
was too wired to even feel it. The adrenalin was making it hard to focus as we both
fell to the floor, screaming abuse at each other as we clumsily slapped and
clawed at each other. As we rolled over, both of us trying to gain the upper
hand, my elbow collided with the floor making me let out a little yelp, but I
didn’t release my hold on her. It didn’t hurt too much; besides, I was too
focussed on trying to kill her to actually have time to feel the pain I was
sure to feel in a few minutes.

The rage built as her nails dug into my forearm, scratching
and drawing blood. I had no idea how long we were rolling around on the hard
floor for. In the back of my mind I could hear people excitedly cheering us on,
chanting ‘fight’ like they did when Luke and Zach had been fighting a couple of
days ago.

Arms wrapped around my waist, tightening and lifting me off
of her, pulling me backwards. But I didn’t stop. I thrashed against their hold
as I continued trying to rip her head off.

“You little bitch!” Sandy screamed, reaching for me too. But
one of the football team had grabbed her too and were turning her away from me
as her face contorted with rage, her eyes flashing as her teeth clenched.

I couldn’t really see clearly through the fog of anger that
had settled over me, but I was vaguely aware of moving. Either I was moving or
someone was moving me, I wasn’t sure which as I continued to thrash to no
avail.

My eyes flicked around quickly, noticing that Sandy was
getting further and further away from me as someone was practically dragging
her down the hallway. There was a huge crowd of people all milling around,
watching with wide eyes and open mouths. The expression was the same on every
face, excitement and shock - every face except one. A solitary figure stood off
to one side, leaning casually against the wall, one leg crossed over the other,
hands in his pockets, and a small smile on his face. Zach. As his eyes met mine
I realised that he was fixing me with a proud stare. I frowned at him as he
pulled his hands from his pockets and gave me a fake round of applause before
winking at me.

Suddenly a door slammed in my face and the death grip that
someone had me in, loosened marginally. “Calm down, baby.”

I swallowed and blinked a couple of times, trying to figure
out what had happened. A door. A door had closed in front of me and now I was
in a classroom, being restrained by…

“Calm down, baby,” Luke cooed again.

I threw off his hold angrily, turning to glare at him
because he’d stopped me from tearing her fake blonde extensions out like I’d
wanted to. “Calm down? She just slapped me!” I cried, only now registering that
my cheek was stinging from the blow. I could still taste the metallic tang of
my own blood where my cheek had mashed into my teeth. My arm hurt too and was
definitely going to bruise.

Luke’s teeth ground together angrily as he nodded, his eyes
settled on the side of my face. “I can see that. But you hit her first,” he
stated rationally. “Now, what was that about?”

I frowned and crossed my arms over my chest defensively,
trying to gain some self-control because my emotions were frayed and any second
now I was going to burst into tears, I could feel it building. “She’s a witch.
She said some stuff about you and I got angry,” I finally replied, not really
wanting to get into the whole accusation thing again. We’d gotten off track and
the fight wasn’t actually specifically about that, it was more about her making
moves on my ex-boyfriend. What I had hit her for was her remarks about Luke, so
that wasn’t a lie I’d just told.

His head cocked to the side, an apologetic look on his face.
“Maisie, I’m so sorry about what happened, but fighting with her in the middle
of the school isn’t going to take back what I did. You’ll get yourself in
trouble, in fact, that’s probably what she wants to happen,” he explained. I
scowled as his hand reached out and smoothed my hair back from my face, tucking
some loose bits behind my ear. “Another couple of seconds and teachers would
have been all over that fight. That’s not you, baby. My Maisie doesn’t get into
trouble at school.”
That’s true. Maybe I should have waited and jumped her
in a dark alleyway when no one was around.
“Just please don’t start
anything else with her, okay?” he pleaded.

Somewhere in my angry state of mind, I registered that he
was defending her. The witch that he had cheated on me with, the girl that was
now starting up some sort of hate campaign against me, he was defending her.

Anger built again as my hands clenched into fists. “Oh I’m
sorry, did I just ruin your chances of getting laid tonight? Will she take out
my indiscretion on you and not let you tap that tonight?” I spat acidly.

His mouth dropped open as his eyes went wide. He literally
gaped at me like I’d just said the most ridiculous and shocking thing in the
world. “My chances of getting laid? With her? Are you crazy?” he choked out,
his voice strangled as he shook his head and looked at me like I’d actually
lost my mind.

Her words were ringing in my ears.
‘He’ll be begging me
for it. He’ll be hanging all over me and you’ll have to watch it all.’

Before I could stop myself, I slapped his chest as hard as I
could, making my hand sting and him flinch. “Well she was good enough for you
last weekend!” I screeched. I could feel the angry and insanely jealous tears
rolling down my face now as I lost my battle to stay composed. I looked away
from his handsome face.
Why do I have to love him so much still? It’s just
unfair.

“That was a mistake and won’t ever happen again!” Luke
growled fiercely, bending so his face was level with mine.

“Yeah, until she throws herself at you again and you can’t
say no.” My heart hurt. I’d gotten up this morning fully prepared and ready to
confront her, and then I’d just fallen to pieces and had made myself come
across as a jealous and bitchy girl. Why couldn’t I have some of my brother’s
courage? He wouldn’t have let her say all those things to him. “She said you
were as good as hers already.” A sob made my voice crack and my chin wobble as
I thought about Luke not actually being mine anymore. What if she was right?
What if he did need something more fulfilling, what if I wasn’t enough for him?
What if he did realise that he was more suited to the school cheerleader,
rather than a nerdy student? What if he did start chasing her around like I
frequently imagined happening lately? How would I cope with that?

I watched as anger crossed his face. His teeth ground
together as he cupped my face in his hands, titling my head up so that my eyes
met his. “I don’t want her. I don’t want anyone other than you. I’ll never
cheat again, baby, never. I’m yours forever,” he practically growled. The
intensity in his brown eyes was a little overwhelming as he gazed at me.

The ‘yours forever’ part made my hand touch the material of
my shirt in the centre of my chest, my fingers tracing the outline of his
locket that I had hidden under my shirt because I couldn’t bring myself to part
with it. My pulse seemed to drum in my ears, and before I knew what I was
doing, I’d gone up on tiptoes and crashed my lips to his possessively.

He responded immediately, crushing his body against mine,
kissing me back fiercely. The kiss was hot, sizzling, scramble your brains hot.
It was different from any kiss we’d ever shared before. This one was filled
with jealousy, passion, lust, and a lot of pure neediness. Every cell in my
body seemed to come alive as our tongues tangled together. I couldn’t get close
enough as everything seemed to fade away, the graffiti, the party, the
cheating; all of it just disappeared as I lost myself in the beautiful
familiarity of Luke’s kiss.

My hands twisted into the back of his hair, making him moan
into my mouth and clutch me closer to him. Everything was so incredible, just
like it used to be, but filled with more passion where it hadn’t happened for a
while.

But as he broke the kiss and pressed his forehead to mine,
his eyes still closed and his mouth pulled into a dazzling grin, I realised
that nothing had changed. He’d still cheated, and everyone knew it - that
wouldn’t go away just because of one kiss, and neither would the hurt that
accompanied the knowledge that things would never be the same again. It was
easy to pretend that everything was fine while his lips were pressed against
mine; it was easy to forgive, but the forgetting part, that was the hardest.

He sighed contentedly, his hand stroking my back as he
kissed my nose, my cheeks, and my forehead, before hugging me so tightly that I
could barely breathe.

I reluctantly pulled out of his arms and looked at him
apologetically. I knew I shouldn’t have done that. I’d accidentally just built
up his hopes that everything was fine when, in reality, I felt far from fine. I
still wasn’t ready to move on yet. I couldn’t let him go, but at the moment I
wasn’t ready to get back with him, and I wasn’t sure I ever would be. I loved
him, that much I knew for certain, but I still didn’t know if I could get over
seeing him screwing another girl. The image was still engrained in my memory
every time I saw her smug face.

Instantly Luke’s face fell. A small line formed between his
eyebrows as his arms dropped from my waist down to his sides. A wave of guilt
washed over me, making me feel like the one that had done wrong instead of him.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have kissed you. I was just caught in the moment and
upset,” I whispered, swiping at the tears that were now drying on my face.

He smiled, but it didn’t reach his sorrowful eyes. “Don’t
apologise,” he replied, shrugging, obviously trying to go for casual
indifference.

I gulped at the pain I could see behind his fake smile. “I’m
trying to forget it, it’s just hard. I need time,” I explained, taking his hand
and rubbing my fingers over his knuckles. His hands felt so soft and my mind
wandered to memories of them in mine, or his fingertips caressing my cheek.
Another lump formed in my throat.

He nodded, stepping closer to me again and wrapping his free
arm around my waist. “Time is something that I have a lot of,” he whispered.
“I’ll wait until you’ve cleared your head. We both know we’re made for each
other.”

The sincerity of those words made my eyes prickle with tears
again. Deep down I knew he was right. When it was just us, like now, I could
see my future with Luke, my happy future with the house and the kids. But my
stubborn pride and my self-worth were trying to force me to move on and let him
go. My head was telling me to be a stronger person, one who didn’t need a man
to complete her, but my heart was still stuck in the moment with Luke. My whole
being was revelling in the feel of being in his arms again and being surrounded
by his smell. I was torn. With his warmth and protectiveness wrapped around me
I knew I needed him, even if I didn’t want to admit it.