Free Falling
Page 7

As soon as I was outside the door, I kicked off my sandals. I picked them up and hurled them as far away from me as I could, Luke had bought them for me and I didn’t want them touching me. I walked up to his car and pressed the button to unlock it. As I was doing it, I knew it was wrong and dangerous, but I just didn’t care. I needed to get as far away from Luke as I could and then maybe that would stop my heartache a little.
I saw the front door open and Ricky came running out of the house, looking around quickly. I jumped in the car and adjusted his seat, starting the engine and peeling out of the space, narrowly avoiding taking the bumper off of a parked car as I did so. I didn’t look in the mirror as I sped away from the house. I just needed to get home and crawl into my bed and sob myself to sleep.
I could barely see where I was going through the tears that just wouldn’t stop coming. I swerved as a car stopped with no warning in front of me, I pulled around it and then realised that, in doing so, I’d run a red light. “Shit!” I shouted, slamming my hand down on the steering wheel. Oh well, if any cameras caught that then the car is registered to Luke, so he’ll get in trouble not me! That thought made me laugh, so I ran the next stop light on purpose. No one was around anyway; it was after one in the morning.
As I was driving down the street, someone walked out into the road in front of me. I gasped and slammed both feet down on the brake as hard as I could. Instantly the car was sliding and skidding as I gripped the steering wheel for dear life. The tyres were squealing on the road.
I’m about to kill someone. I’m drunk, uninsured, and I’m about to run someone down.
The guy was just standing there watching as the car skidded towards him. I couldn’t see his face because he had on a grey hoodie, but I had the feeling he was looking right at me. The last thing he would see before he died would be my hysterical and horrified face - not a pleasant sight I’d bet.
I screamed as the car just went on and on. Everything was moving in slow motion, barely a couple of seconds had probably passed, but I couldn’t breathe, my heart had stopped. I wanted to close my eyes so I wouldn’t see when his body made impact with the car, but I couldn’t, they were stuck open wide, as was my mouth.
Chapter 5
Just as the car was about to smash into him, he jumped straight up in the air, a two footed jump. The car was still going forward so as he landed his feet hit the hood of the car. What happened next I couldn’t be sure of, but it looked to me like he ran up the windscreen. I heard footsteps on the roof and finally the car screeched to a halt.
I twisted in my seat, covering my mouth, stifling the scream that just continued to rip its way out of my throat. I looked out of the back window and saw him do some sort of backflip off of the back of the car. He landed gracefully on his feet and then turned back to look at me.
My heart was crashing in my chest; my drunken brain was unable to take in what I had just seen. He has just jumped onto the car, ran over the top of it and then done a somersault off the back? Am I dreaming right now? I fumbled with my seatbelt and jumped out, my whole body shaking.
“Are you f**king blind? Did you not see me there?” he shouted angrily, waving his arms to make his point.
I whimpered and slumped against the car for support, still unsure as to what exactly happened. I gulped and gasped for breath. This was definitely the worst night of my life. Luke had cheated on me, and now I almost killed someone and was going to be in so much trouble for driving under the influence. “I’m so sorry,” I croaked. “Are you okay?”
He waved his hand dismissively. “Fine. You should watch where you’re freaking going though. You could have killed me!” he growled. My legs wouldn’t support me anymore; I nodded and slid down the car and onto the floor, pulled my knees up to my chest and sobbed, rocking myself gently. “Er, look it’s… don’t cry about it… I’m fine,” the guy soothed, obviously uncomfortable.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled again, pressing my face against my knees.
“Forget it, it’s all good. I kinda wish I had someone to tape that though, I could have added it to my profile,” he said, laughing to himself.
Profile? What on earth is that about? I sniffed and turned my head, wiping my face on the back of my hand. “What profile?” I asked. “How did you do that anyway? What did you do? I just don’t get it. One minute you were in the road and the next you were jumping down from the roof of the car, not a scratch on you.” I shook my head in disbelief, my voice breaking as I spoke. Maybe this really was a dream like I thought earlier. Maybe this was an alcohol induced nightmare. Or maybe this was something out of a fantasy movie and he was a vampire or werewolf or some other dark and dangerous mythical creature.
“Parkour,” he replied, shrugging.
Par-what? “Huh?”
He smiled and pushed the hood of his sweater down so I could see him properly. He was a good looking guy, brown eyes, shaven dark hair, and a strong jaw. If I wasn’t in love with Luke I would have said this guy was hot, but I never looked at other guys like that really.
“Parkour. Freerunning. Not heard of it?” he asked sarcastically, looking at me like I was stupid.
I gulped. I’d heard of freerunning but not the word parkour, was that what that was? The whole jumping onto a moving car and running over the top of it to avoid being crushed to death? “Oh, yeah I’ve heard off it. I’ve just never seen it. That was just,” I trailed off, not having the right word to complete the sentence.
“Amazing?” he offered, smirking at me as he ran a hand over the back of his head, obviously proud of himself.
I shook my head. Amazing wasn’t exactly what I was going for. “Weird and scary more like,” I admitted.
He laughed. “Yeah well, it saved me from a few weeks in a cast, so I’ll take weird and scary.”
I winced as I thought about how badly I could have hurt him. I was so stupid to have driven Luke’s car. What was I even thinking? My parents were going to go crazy when they found out about this. “I’m really sorry.”
“Should you even be driving? You smell like a damn brewery,” he stated, waving his hand in front of his face, looking at me disgusted.
I shook my head. “No. I was at a party and I stole my boyfriend’s keys because I wanted to go home,” I admitted, crying again at the thought of Luke.
He frowned. “He wouldn’t take you or something?” he asked, shifting on his feet as if he was uncomfortable having a conversation with me. Maybe he didn’t like crying girls, but then again, what guy did?
I gulped, not wanting to get into this with a stranger. “We should get you to the hospital or something,” I replied, changing the subject.
He snorted. “I’m fine. Not hurt at all, just chill. Next time don’t drive drunk.” He turned on his heel and started to walk off, leaving me there sitting on the floor against the car, crying helplessly. He stopped after a few steps, his shoulders stiff; he turned back to me and frowned. “Do you have someone that can come and get you?”
I sniffed and shook my head. I couldn’t call my parents about this; I’d be in so much trouble. Alex was at the party. And Luke, well, even if I could call Luke, he wouldn’t be able to help me because he couldn’t even get his jeans on.
The guy sighed. “How about I drive you home?” He looked slightly bored, as if this happened to him every day and was nothing out of the ordinary.
Is he seriously offering to drive me home? I almost kill him, and he’s offering me a ride? He doesn’t even know me; shouldn’t he be reporting me to the police for DUI or something? “Really?” I asked, my voice croaky from all the crying.
“Yeah. Unless you want me to leave you here on your own, this isn’t a nice area though so I wouldn’t recommend it,” he answered, shrugging as if it was no big deal. He got out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, pulling one out with his teeth before offering me the packet, one eyebrow raised. I shook my head quickly and frowned. I hated smoking. “Well, do you want a ride or not? I’m not waiting around all night,” he barked, his tone clearly annoyed that I hadn’t answered him.
I nodded quickly and tried to push myself up using the car as leverage. My hand slipped and just as I was about to fall on my face, he gripped my elbow and righted me, pulling me to my feet. I smiled gratefully. “Thanks,” I mumbled, sniffing and noticing that my voice barely even worked because of all of the crying.
“How much did you drink anyway?” he asked, wincing as he turned his face away as if he smelt something distasteful.
I discreetly sniffed to see if I really smelt that strongly of alcohol, but I couldn’t smell anything at all. “I don’t know. A lot I think.”
He nodded and let go of my arm. “My ride’s over here. You should lock your car otherwise it’ll get stolen. I’m already a little worried about what state it’ll be in if you leave it here all night,” he said, looking over Luke’s BMW M6 appreciatively.
I shrugged. “I don’t care; it’s my ex-boyfriend’s.”
He raised one eyebrow, looking at me curiously. “I thought you said your boyfriend wouldn’t take you home, now you have your ex’s car?”
I shook my head. “Same guy. He’s now my ex because he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants tonight,” I stated, feeling my lip tremble as I said the words. I didn’t want to think about it again, I didn’t want to think about the fact that the guy I was totally and utterly in love with had just cheated on me and thrown everything we had down the toilet for a one night stand.
He frowned. “Stupid guy,” he mumbled so quietly I was barely even sure if I heard him right. Then he grinned at me, tossing his half smoked cigarette on the floor and stubbing it out with his toe. He had a wicked glint to his eye as he bent down and picked up a rock the size of a baseball, holding it out to me. “Want a little payback?” he offered, nodding at the car when I didn’t quite understand what he was getting at.
“Payback? What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, shaking my head in confusion.
He laughed. “Don’t you want to hit him in the worst place imaginable? Well, after a kick to the balls anyway.” When I still didn’t get it he sighed and stepped closer to me, taking my hand and putting the rock in my palm. “A guy’s car is important to him, if someone were to come along and smash his windscreen during the night… well, that would be very unfortunate, wouldn’t it?” he asked, smirking at me.
I gulped, watching his face to see if he was serious. He wanted me to smash Luke’s windshield and then pretend it wasn’t me? I looked back at Luke’s car. It was his baby, but I didn’t think he would be that bothered if it got bashed up, his family had too much money to be concerned over a piece of glass that needed replacing. Besides, he had two cars, so this was really no big deal if it got a little damaged; he wouldn’t care so there was no point.
“Don’t you want to pay him back for cheating on you? Don’t you want to hurt him like he hurt you?” he purred, his voice so seductive and encouraging that I actually shivered. It felt like he was the little devil that was sitting on my shoulder telling me to do bad things. “Cheating on you, while you were at the same party no less. The guy deserves something, doesn’t he?” he teased. I could hear the amusement in his voice.
I turned to frown at him. I wasn’t smashing Luke’s windshield, it wouldn’t accomplish anything and would just leave his car open to thieves during the night. “I don’t want payback; I just want to go home.” I sniffed and wiped at my face again, noticing that the tears had finally stopped; maybe I’d finally ran out, who knows.
He rolled his eyes as I dropped the rock down onto the floor. “Girls like you want to be walked all over. I wonder how many times he’s screwed some tramp and then done you straight after,” he mused as he turned to walk off.
I felt the anger boiling in my system. His words hit me hard. Just how many times has Luke been with another girl and then had sex with me in the same night? Before I knew what I was doing I’d picked up the rock and thrown it as hard as I could at Luke’s car. I wasn’t standing very far away from it so the shot hit the middle of the glass, leaving a huge indented crack and the rest of the windshield crumbled and cracked too. Immediately the car alarm started wailing and the lights started flashing, lighting up my feet and legs. The sound was deafening in the silence of the deserted street and I couldn’t help the little scream that escaped out of my mouth.
“Holy shit!” the guy cried next to me, then he burst out laughing, picked up the stone from the hood of the car, and grabbed my hand, starting to run down the street, dragging me along with him. As I ran, for some reason I started to laugh too. I felt a little good for doing that. Hopefully the car alarm would sound for so long that it would kill his battery too.
We ran, holding hands, laughing. I enjoyed the sensation of my hair whipping back, and the wind blowing in my face. I liked the adrenalin and the fear of being caught. For some reason all of those things made my heart thrum in my chest and a smile stretch across my face. I felt kind of free, more alive somehow. We ran until I couldn’t do it anymore. When my lungs felt like they were on fire, I pulled him to a stop and put my hands on my knees, gasping for breath, and swaying a little on my feet from the alcohol. I looked up at him to see him leaning against the wall, his arms crossed casually. He looked the picture of ease as he smirked at me, not even a little out of breath even though we’d been running flat out for a good three minutes.