Free Falling (Best Friend 2)

He nodded but then offered to help clear the table. My mom waved him off, smiling. “I got it; you go do your tutoring thing. I assume that’s what this is about?” she asked, smiling kindly.

He nodded and rolled his eyes. “Yep. Apparently your daughter is one of the smartest students at school so I have to be humiliated by being tutored by someone younger than me,” he replied, shrugging.

I laughed at that statement. He was repeating a year; therefore, everyone was younger than him. “Come on then, let’s hurry this up, I have something to do tonight,” I suggested, eyeing the clock worriedly. It was almost six thirty already, and Luke would be here at eight. I turned and headed out of the door, knowing he would follow me. I stalked up to my room, rummaging through my schoolbag for a binder or notepad or something that we could work with.

When I found everything, including coloured pens to make it easier to make him up a studying schedule, I turned to find him stretched out on my bed looking the picture of ease. I frowned and he raised one eyebrow, putting his hands behind his head, kicking off his shoes.

“So, shall we get down to the really gritty stuff?” he offered, smirking at me suggestively.

I sighed and stomped over to my bed, gripping his legs and shoving them out of the way so I could sit down at the foot of my bed, glaring at him. “If you’re not going to take this seriously then you can just find someone else to tutor you, Zachary,” I stated, dumping all of the books and pens on his legs.

A frown slipped onto his face. “Stop calling me that, I hate that!” he snapped.

I’d definitely hit a nerve there with the name thing. “Fine, I’ll stop calling you that, seeing as you asked me so nicely,” I replied, rolling my eyes at him. “Are you going to work hard at this or not, because I’m not wasting my time if you’re not going to bother.”

He sat up and pushed all of the stuff off of his legs. I thought he was going to get up and walk out, but he didn’t. Instead, he nodded and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, I need to graduate this year otherwise I’m screwed.”

“Screwed, how?” I asked, frowning and trying to work him out. He was such a complicated person at times. Sometimes he came across with his devil may care attitude, but just now he actually looked a little vulnerable, worried even.

He blew out a big breath and closed his eyes. “I’ve been offered an opportunity, an awesome opportunity, but the offer is only good if I graduate.” I raised one eyebrow, prompting him with my silence to continue. He chewed on his lip and seemed to be weighing his options before he spoke, “I got offered a job, my perfect, dream job actually. Stuntman for an upcoming action movie,” he explained.

My mouth popped open in shock at that little bit of information. “Holy crap, really?” I gasped.

He nodded, smiling proudly. “Yeah, but because of certain things that I really don’t want to talk about, I need to finish high school to prove to them that I can stay focussed. So far, I don’t seem to be able to stay focussed enough to stick to anything. So, if I can’t graduate in a couple of months then I’m screwed like I said.”

Wow. Am I sitting on the bed with a future movie star? That thought was a little weird actually. “Well I guess you’d better work hard this time then, huh?” I teased, picking up a pen and throwing it in his direction. He caught it effortlessly and smiled, rolling his eyes.

For the next hour he actually took me seriously. There were no cocky jokes, no snide remarks, and no slutty comments. I was more than a little proud of his effort. We’d talked through his weak points, discussed action plans, and finally drew up a schedule so we could get together and study. We also made up a homework planner for him too, so that he could do that on his own. I was really hoping he’d stick to it, but I guess only time would tell. When we’d done all the hard work and had a planner for both of us, he grinned.

“You’re such a nerd. Why did we have to colour it in? This isn’t art class,” he teased, laughing at his sheet that was all boxed in and coloured to make it easier to understand.

I snatched it out of his hands and flopped down onto my stomach. “The red ones are the most important staple subjects that take priority. The blue ones are second, and the green-” I started to explain, but he jumped in and cut me off.

“Third, I get it. I think I can see where this is going,” he joked, nudging me over on the bed as he laid down next to me.

“Exactly. The white bits are where you have free time. Yellow is for less important things that you don’t actually require to graduate. With this like this then you can see where you are and if you have a spare half an hour then you can work on the yellow or something,” I suggested, shrugging and smiling at his schedule proudly.

It had taken a long time to work out when we would meet up. His freerunning training took a lot of his spare time, also the fact that he didn’t want to go to the library was a bit of a pain, but we’d gotten there eventually. We both had free periods at the same time on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for an hour so we would do it then at school. On Mondays and Thursdays it was to be afterschool, either at my place or his. The only thing I didn’t like about those two days was that he said he’d drive. I didn’t have a car, so it was the back of the bike for me for two days a week so that we could get home to study.

Fridays were the biggest pain to sort out. He went freerunning with his training group on Fridays afterschool for at least an hour where they would plan out their weekend activities and what they would jump over. So that left us with two options on Fridays, I either waited at school and let him pick me up - which he freely admitted that he’d probably be late for, or, I went with him to his training session and I could get on with my own schoolwork while he was doing his thing. We agreed to see how it went each week, to stay a little more flexible on Fridays. I actually could have just waited at school and had Alex drive me home, but he normally had some desperate girl hanging all over him ready for the weekend. I didn’t really want to sit in the car with him getting pawed by some hoe he would drop by the time morning bell rang on Monday.

“If I get free time it won’t be spent on the yellow sectioned crap,” he stated, shaking his head fiercely.

I laughed and looked over at him. He was grinning happily and actually looked pretty cute, not like a badass at all. “So what will you be spending it on? Hooking up with easy girls or smoking your life away?” I joked, propping my head up on my elbow and waiting for a little more information about him. So far he’d been fairly secretive.

He shrugged. “I don’t hook up with easy girls.”

I snorted at that, remembering him leaning in and flirting with the girl outside of gym earlier, also the ‘I’ve got four girls’ numbers already’ comment at lunch. “Uh-huh, and I like to smother myself in whipped cream and run na**d in the street,” I said sarcastically.

He raised one eyebrow. “Now that I could watch in my free time.” I laughed and slapped his shoulder which made him laugh too. “Honestly though, I don’t hook up with easy girls,” he repeated.

“So you like the harder to get ones then?” I joked; picking up that he’d said the word easy twice now.

He smiled. “Think what you want. Your opinion makes no difference to me, little rebel.”

I frowned. “If I have to stop calling you Zachary, then you have to stop calling me names that link in with what happened on Friday night,” I instructed.

He pouted at me. “But I like calling you that. I like the fact that I’m the only one that’s seen you do something naughty.”

I laughed because of how dirty the word naughty sounded just because it came out of his mouth. I smirked at him. I wasn’t a totally innocent girl, Luke and I had gotten a little naughty at times. But he was right in one way; I’d never broken the law before Friday. “I’ve done plenty of naughty things,” I corrected.

He smiled and leant in closer to me, his breath blowing across my lips, his eyes doing a kind of smouldering thing as his gaze held mine. “Oh yeah? What kind of things, and would I be able to either get a full description or maybe join in next time?” he purred seductively.

I gulped. Oh wow, is he flirting with me? Am I flirting with him? What on earth am I doing right now? I laughed nervously and sat up on the bed, crossing my legs and trying to think of something to say to that.

“Just because I’m not easy doesn’t mean that I’m interested in you,” I stated indifferently.

He laughed. “And who said I was interested in you anyway? Getting a little ahead of yourself there, Maisie? I never took you for a big ego type chick,” he countered. I gulped and blushed like crazy because I’d just assumed that he was hitting on me, and apparently had made a fool out of myself. He smiled at my unease and patted the bed for me to lay down next to him again. “I’m kidding. You don’t have to worry though; I wasn’t hitting on you, I promise. I don’t date, so you’re safe,” he vowed, looking away and fiddling with the highlighter pen he was holding.

I settled myself back down on the bed next to him but made sure that we had a gap between us just in case he was messing around. “You don’t date? Why’s that then?” I asked, not believing a word of it. He was a good looking guy, he had to date. He had girls throwing themselves at him, that much was obvious from today at school.

He shrugged. “I don’t date because I don’t want to fall in love with anyone.”

I frowned, trying to work out if he was just messing around with me right now. He looked so serious though. “Why, are you afraid of heartbreak?” I teased, growing more and more curious with each passing second.

He smiled sadly and shook his head. “No. But what’s the point in falling for someone when it won’t go anywhere? I would hate to tie a girl in with me for life, that would suck for her. So I just stay away from girls altogether,” he explained, his brown eyes locking onto mine. I studied his face trying to think of what that actually meant. Tying a girl to him for life, why would that suck for her?

“What?” I asked, confused.

He laughed and picked up my schedule, holding it out to me. “So yeah, you’re safe. Let’s just stick to the tutoring thing, okay? Personal stuff stays out of it,” he suggested. “Plus, your butt doesn’t do anything for me.”

I laughed and slapped his shoulder, trying to fake hurt. “Don’t keep insulting my butt, I’ll get a complex about it,” I scolded playfully.

He winked at me. “I guess I’d better get home soon. My aunt will be worried about me, I didn’t tell her that I was coming here after school, so she’s probably wondering where I am.”

“And what will she think when you walk in with a smashed up face?” I asked, wincing as I looked at his split lip and bruising jaw.

He waved his hand dismissively. “She’ll just be pleased that I stayed the full day at school.” I laughed, and he moved on the bed, scooping together all of his things that we’d made. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Maze-Daze.”

I groaned. “Please don’t call me that either.”

He opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by a commotion coming from downstairs. I could hear Alex growling something, there was a slight crash as something banged against the wall. Then I heard Luke’s voice too, shouting that he was invited and that I wanted to talk to him. I gasped. He’s early! I didn’t tell anyone that he was coming over. Crap!

I sprang off of the bed and ran for the door as fast as I could before Alex got too angry and they started fighting again. As I burst out of my room, I looked down to see Alex was practically pinning Luke against the wall as they shouted at each other. Alex looked ready to kill.

“Alex! I did invite him!” I shouted, running down the stairs as fast as I could without breaking my neck.

My brother looked up at me and frowned, his grip not loosening on Luke for a second. “What the hell? Why?” he cried angrily.

I reached his side then and looked at him pleadingly, trying to keep my eyes away from Luke’s for as long as possible; his eyes always were my favourite part about him. “Because I need to talk to him,” I explained, frowning at Alex because he hadn’t let go yet. He looked like he was having trouble not beating my ex-boyfriend to a pulp. My dad was there too, I didn’t see him at first but my mom was standing in front of him trying to calm him down. He looked like he wanted to kill Luke too. I sighed dramatically and grabbed Alex’s wrist, pulling to get him to let go of Luke’s hoodie. “Alex, just leave it. I said I invited him over, so just go already will you?” I requested, trying to look stern even though I actually loved him for doing that for me. I loved how protective he was of me, it was adorable - it’s just that it was infuriating at times.

He made a kind of growling sound as he shoved Luke away from him, making him hit the wall again that he was already being pinned against. “I swear to God, Hannigan, if you hurt my sister again I’m going to kill you,” he promised, his voice full of menace.

Luke nodded, signalling that he’d understood, so Alex walked off. He mumbled something to my dad before they both stomped off into the lounge together, still grumbling cuss words under their breath. My dad was worse than my brother at times. I turned back to Luke and smiled apologetically, but he wasn’t looking at me, he was looking over my shoulder with an angry expression on his face.

I frowned and turned, expecting Alex to be watching us or something, instead, Zach was walking down the stairs, a cocky smile on his face as he held Luke’s gaze.