Free Falling (Best Friend 2)

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.

He smirked at me. “A lot going on? Like getting fitter so you can run further without having to stop?” he offered, laughing quietly to himself.

Oh yeah, he’s definitely blackmailing me!

His aunt cleared her throat. “Well if you can’t do it and know of someone who can, then give them my number, okay?” she requested, holding out a card to me.

Zach snatched it out of her hand and stuffed it in his pocket as he looked at me challengingly. “Maisie’s going to do it. Aren’t you?”

I could feel my fists clenching in anger. I really wanted to punch him in his smirking face. “I guess it would be alright. We could see how it goes,” I offered, looking him right in the eye, showing him that I wasn’t going to be intimidated by his badass attitude.

“Great,” his aunt chirped. “Right well then I’d best be off to work. Zach, please behave.” She looked at him pleadingly, and his face softened as he rolled his eyes and nodded. She turned back to Principal Bennett. “Thank you for your time, and we really are both very sorry.” They shook hands and she left, leaving us standing there with the Principal.

“Well, you’d best get on with the tour then. The bell rings in five minutes, would you like a note to get you both out of first period so you can do a thorough tour?” she asked, already reaching for the yellow pad behind the desk and scribbling two of them.

No, I want to get rid of this jerk as fast as possible! “No, it’s fine; I’ll just go with a quick tour. I’m sure Zach can find his way around on his own.”

She waved her hand dismissively and handed me the two slips. “Don’t worry. Take the longer tour and show him the way to all of his classes, it’ll be easier once the hallways are empty.”

I frowned and nodded, storing my pass into my bag and handing Zach his one. He semi screwed it up and pushed it into his pocket, then turned and smiled sweetly, motioning for me to go first out of the door. “Ladies first.”

I took a deep calming breath. I needed to remember he seemed like a nice guy when I met him Friday night. He could have got me into a lot of trouble and left me stranded by the side of the road – but he didn’t. Therefore I needed to give him a chance today. Maybe he was just behaving like this because he was scared and was putting on a front. Starting a new school was undoubtedly a little daunting.

I headed out of the door and turned back to smile at him, only to find his eyes were glued to my derrière. I gasped and shoved on his chest. “Stop staring at my ass!” I growled angrily.

He laughed and rolled his eyes. “Pur-leaze, that thing could barely even be classed as an ass! Besides, it’s hidden under the T-shirt, I couldn’t perv on it even if I wanted to,” he retorted, looking at me distastefully.

I frowned and suddenly felt self-conscious. ‘Barely be classed as an ass’, what was that supposed to mean? “Just shut up,” I scolded, turning and walking off up the hallway, pulling his schedule and locker information from my bag. I headed up to his locker and handed him the combination. “That’s your locker there if you want to store anything.”

He laughed and held up his empty hands. “Don’t have anything to store.”

I frowned. “Well where are your books and stuff?”

He laughed, shrugging noncommittally. “Lost them?”

Wow, this guy is stupid! “No wonder you’re repeating senior year,” I scoffed as I turned to walk off up the hallway to show him where his classes were. The rest of the tour was quiet, neither of us spoke apart from me telling him where things were, pointing out the fire exits and the gym, bathrooms, and the cafeteria.

When we were done there was still a little while left until second period started. “Want to go to the last fifteen minutes of class, or get a drink instead?” I asked, shrugging.

“Whatever,” he grunted, folding his arms across his chest.

I smiled and decided to be the bigger person and make some small talk. Instead of heading to classes, we stopped at the vending machines; I bought two bottles of water and led him out onto the benches at the side of the school. I sat down and handed him one.

“So, how long have you been doing partor?” I asked, smiling, trying to be friendly.

He laughed and rolled his eyes. “It’s parkour, sweetheart,” he corrected sarcastically. I sighed and closed my eyes. He was making this so difficult. Why did this have to happen to me today? I had to meet him at lunchtime today too. He was going to drive me crazy by the end of the day if he kept being this sarcastic and snappy. He sighed too and surprised me when he started talking again; I was expecting him to just ignore me for a while or something, just to prove that he was the jerk I thought he was. “I’ve been doing it for the last three years I guess. I train a lot, it takes a lot of time to master.”