Free Falling
Page 20

The drive home was just as thrilling as I expected it to be. When he pulled up outside my house, he didn’t cut the engine. I gripped his shoulders and climbed off; pulling off the helmet that he’d given me to wear again. He smiled wickedly, so I quickly smoothed down my hair and rolled my eyes.
“How come you brought me one of those to use anyway?” I asked, handing the helmet back to him.
He shrugged. “You wanted one, so I got you one. I’m just chivalrous like that,” he stated, smirking at me.
I rolled my eyes and shouldered my bag. “Well have fun doing your Spider-Man thing,” I joked.
He grinned. “I will. And I’ll see you at school tomorrow, little rebel,” he teased.
I frowned and slapped him in the arm. “We agreed to drop that!”
He smirked at me and gunned the engine loudly, making a cloud of black exhaust fumes billow around us. I stepped back, waving my hand in front of my face and coughed dramatically for emphasis, which made him laugh as he pulled out, speeding off down the street.
I smiled as I watched him drive away. When he was out of sight, I headed into the house to find my mom in the kitchen just finishing up washing the dishes after dinner. “Hey,” I greeted, dropping my bag onto the side. She jumped and turned to smile at me warmly as I headed over to her side and grabbed the dishtowel, drying up the stuff that was on the draining board.
“Hi. So how’d it go?” she asked, looking at me curiously. I’d told her that I didn’t really want to tutor Zach, that he was annoying and cocky. She’d told me to give him a chance; apparently she quite liked him from the meeting yesterday.
I shrugged. “Okay I guess. We got a lot done.”
“That’s good,” she commented, passing me the last plate before pulling out the plug and flicking the bubbles off of her hands. “You got a delivery today. They came tonight. They’re calla lilies,” she said, nodding behind me.
I frowned, turning to see a beautiful bunch of lilies sitting on the side. My mom had already put them into one of her glass vases for me, arranging them neatly. They were beautiful - but not the usual flowers that Luke gave me. “Luke came here?” I asked. My stomach fluttered because he’d gone to so much effort for me, I loved that he was trying so hard to win me back. I still didn’t know how I felt about the whole thing, but him wanting me so much made me feel special and needed. Maybe there was a chance for us after all. Maybe I could try and move past this and remember how great it always felt when we were together. I missed him dearly and I wished he was here right now so I could throw my arms around his waist and clamp myself to him tightly, never letting go. I really missed just knowing that he’d always be there when I needed him.
She shook her head. “A delivery guy brought them,” she answered. “They’re lovely, though I’m not really struck with his choice of flower. White lilies are usually given at funerals and stuff,” Mom continued, drying her hands on the towel I was holding.
“They are?” I headed over, smelling them, instantly smiling because of their sweet aroma.
“Yep. Doesn’t he usually buy you daisies?” I nodded in confirmation. “Well, maybe he wanted to spend a bit more to try and impress you,” she suggested, shrugging.
I frowned, picking up the card that my mom had put on the side next to the vase. “Maybe,” I agreed. “I’m gonna go put these in my room and then I think I’m gonna soak in the tub for a while.” I really had some thinking to do; my mind was already racing, planning out whether I should call him and thank him, and what I should say. I picked up the heavy vase in one hand, trying not to spill the water as I grabbed the card and my schoolbag and headed up to my room, sniffing the blooms again as I walked, smiling to myself.
Once I was in my room I sat them on my dresser and turned my attention to the card, wondering what he’d said in it. Secretly I was hoping for some heartfelt apology, some beautiful words that would make the broken, betrayed part of me just melt away so I could forgive him. This was probably his apology for getting jealous and telling me what to do at the end of school today.
I ripped open the envelope and pulled out the little card, only to realise that they weren’t from Luke at all. My first thought was disappointment, because I’d obviously assumed wrong and he wasn’t making a huge effort to win me back. My second thought was anger. Tears of indignation stung my eyes as I growled in frustration, throwing the card on the side. I ripped the flowers from their vase and dropped them into the trashcan roughly, shoving them down and breaking the stems on them, no longer finding them beautiful.
I was going to seriously murder Sandy. I picked up the card from the side, not reading the single printed word on there that I’d already seen scrawled several times in my notebook tonight. I ripped it into tiny pieces and dropped it on top of the flowers, my jaw aching where I was clenching my teeth so tightly together. Not only had she possibly drugged my boyfriend, had sex with him, humiliated me in front of the whole school, defiled my locker and notebook, but now the witch had sent me funeral flowers? She really had gone too far, and tomorrow I was confronting her about it. All thoughts of ‘violence solving nothing’ were gone from my mind now.
Chapter 13
I’d woken in the morning all prepared to do this. The anger was still boiling in the pit of my stomach; I’d been spurred on by the sight of the broken flowers that now decorated the inside of the trashcan in my room. But now that I was here though, now that I could see her laughing with her little posse at the end of the hallway; my courage was fading fast, as was my nerve.
I didn’t really like to make a scene, and confronting her in front of the whole school, calling her out for being a vindictive little slut, was definitely going to be a scene. I’d waved off my friends this morning, making excuses of needing to speak to a teacher because I’d wanted this moment. And now it was here, I was chickening out.
People lingered in the hallway like usual, leaning up against the lockers, chatting about the events of the previous evening or swapping tales of essays gone wrong. I couldn’t focus on it though; all I could see was her with her blonde hair, shining like golden strands because of the sun streaming in through the window behind her, lighting her up like she was wearing a delicate sparkly halo. Why did everything about her have to be so annoyingly perfect? Life was unfair.
Her tinkering little laugh rang out down the hallway as people looked at her in awe as she stood there all high and mighty in her tiny little shorts and shirt that left virtually nothing to the imagination. I tried to force my feet to move, to close the thirty or so feet to her side so I could plant my foot firmly on her ass. But nothing was happening, I wasn’t moving. Self-loathing trickled down my spine as instead of walking to her side and doing what I’d been planning on doing all night, I walked to my locker instead.
I punched in my combination, ignoring the clean patch from the janitor scrubbing the word off that she’d scrawled there. Angrily, I shoved my books in, taking out the ones I would need for my morning classes instead. As I picked up my history book, a piece of red paper fell to the floor, landing on my foot. I bent and grabbed it, frowning at it curiously. It was a red envelope; a capital M was written on the side in elegant cursive, like it had been traced from some old fashioned calligraphy set or something. Someone had obviously pushed it through the slots of my locker.
I glanced around, but no one was paying the slightest bit of attention to me as I ripped it open and pulled out the folded sheet of red paper. Out fell a long white silky petal. I watched, entranced, as it floated to the floor elegantly. I looked back at the note in my hand, not having a clue who it was from. Words had been typed there using some sort of old fashioned typewriter. The words made the hair on the back of my neck stand up on end.
‘Hope you enjoyed my flowers last night.
You’ll pay soon.’
I stared at it, confused. You’ll pay soon? What the heck was that about? Pay for what? Suddenly it hit me like a truck. I’d pay… this was from Sandy again! I’d pay for embarrassing her at the party like I did last weekend! My anger spiked immediately as I dropped my schoolbag at my feet, not even bothering to shut my locker as I half marched, half ran up the hallway towards her. When I got to her side I shoved her shoulder, making her squeal and stumble forward a few steps into one of her friends, before she turned and glared at me.
“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…