Free Falling (7 page)

“You just slept with another girl. I’m not going home with
you,” I croaked, shaking my head.

His face fell as he squeezed his eyes shut. “Please?” he
begged. “I don’t feel right. I… I think someone put something in my drink. I
wouldn’t have done it otherwise, I swear. Please, I know you’re hurting, but
please forgive me?”

My feet started to move towards him of their own accord, my
body was already forgiving him because that was probably the easier thing to
do. I wanted to be with him. I wanted the things we’d planned for our lives. I
fell down on my knees in front of him, pushing the trashcan out of the way, not
looking at the contents and trying to ignore the smell of it. He grabbed my
face pulling me closer to him, looking right into my eyes. His whole face was
the picture of sorrow and remorse. I looked into his brown eyes that I had
stared into for the last nineteen months. His pupils were enormous, he was
unquestionably stoned, yet I hadn’t seen him take anything.

“Do you have any idea how much you’ve hurt me?” I asked. The
tears continued to fall down my face uncontrollably.

He nodded and wiped the tears away, looking like he was in
pain. “Maisie, that would kill me if I saw you doing that with another guy.” He
pulled me into a hug, stroking the back of my head softly. “Please forgive me?”
he whispered.

I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around him, pressing my
face into the crook of his neck. I wanted so much to say yes. Luke was the only
guy I ever wanted; he was my first kiss, my first boyfriend, my first. I
thought it would last forever, but I hated cheaters. Once a guy got away with
cheating once, then they would do it again and again, and I refused to be treated
like that.

I pulled back so I could look at him. Immediately he crashed
his lips to mine. I kissed him back because it was just a natural response to;
kissing Luke was like breathing, something I didn’t even need to think about.
When he nibbled on my bottom lip wanting to deepen the kiss, I closed my eyes
and the first thought that popped into my head was,
I wonder if he kissed
Sandy like this…

I jerked away from him and swiped angrily at my mouth. Where
was my self-respect? I’d just walked in on him screwing another girl and I was
about to forgive him and let it go as if it was nothing? I was a stronger
person than that, wasn’t I? 

I jumped to my feet and slapped him hard across the face,
ignoring how he winced and hissed through his teeth. I grabbed his jeans from
his hand and shoved my hand in his pocket, getting his car keys out before
throwing his jeans across the room so he would have to get up and get them.

“You’re an asshole, Luke. I can’t believe I let you sucker
me in for so long,” I shouted angrily.

He looked at me stunned, his mouth hung open in shock. I
turned on my heel and stormed out, slamming the door behind me, ignoring how he
screamed my name over and over. Drunk or high, he shouldn’t have cheated on me,
I would never do that to him, ever, and I deserved someone who could say the
same about me.

I desperately tried to stop crying as I stormed through the
house, but I just couldn’t. The hurt that I felt inside was making me feel sick
and slightly lightheaded, but the shock had sobered me up a lot. As I staggered
across the lounge, I saw Ricky dancing with a girl, so I walked up to him and
grabbed his arm, pulling him round to face me.

“Luke’s upstairs, he needs some help. Go sort him out and
make sure he gets home. If he asks, tell him I don’t want to speak to him,” I
instructed, swiping at my face again, wiping the traitor tears away.

Ricky’s mouth dropped open in shock. “What? What are you
talking about, you don’t want to talk to him? Are you kidding?” he asked,
shaking his head, looking at me like I’d lost my mind.

Sandy sauntered past me, grinning proudly. Before I knew
what I was doing, I grabbed the back of her hair and pulled her to a stop.
Obviously I was over the shock of it now, all that I felt was anger and hurt,
and I wanted her to hurt too. She screamed and gripped my hands, trying to get
me to let go, but I just tightened my grip.

“I left him upstairs for you, why don’t you go finish what
you started? It’s not fair on a guy for you to stop half way through, he’ll get
blue balls,” I growled angrily as I shoved her away from me in the direction of
the stairs. She glared at me angrily, one hand on the back of her head, she was
obviously in pain. She opened her mouth to say something back so I just held up
one hand to silence her. “You need to find some respect for yourself.
Seriously, you’re a dirty tramp, and that’s all these guys see in you, an easy
lay, nothing more. Dirty, quick party sex is all sluts like you are good for,”
I stated, looking her over distastefully before I turned and stormed off
towards the front door. I ignored Ricky shouting after me, asking me what had happened
and where I was going.

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 fucking 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.”