Free Falling
Page 14Zach 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 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.
“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.”
I opened my eyes and smiled at him gratefully. Hmm, maybe he is going to go easy on me after all. “Yeah? How many classes does it take before they teach you how to avoid getting flattened by a drunken girl driving a stolen sports car?” I joked.
He smiled causing a little dimple to appear in his right cheek. “That one’s a basic requirement, survival guide number one. You’d be surprised how often that comes in handy.”
“So, how come you’re transferring mid-semester?” I asked curiously. My best guess was that he’d moved house or something. He was obviously living with his aunt, but I didn’t want to pry and ask why he didn’t live with his parents.
He laughed. “I’m not transferring. I was excluded from my last school,” he said, shrugging as if it was no big deal as he pulled his hood up and then pulled out a packet of cigarettes from his pocket.
I eyed him warily. He wouldn’t smoke on school grounds, would he? Surely he was just after a reaction from me. “What were you excluded for?” I asked curiously.
He grinned. “The final straw was smoking, but I was hanging by a thread for fighting and skipping class before that,” he muttered, pulling out a cigarette and offering me the packet.
I shook my head and frowned at him. “You got excluded for smoking? That kind of seems a little harsh,” I admitted.
He shrugged. “Yeah, it didn’t help that I forgot to stub out my butt properly and the carpet in the English block caught fire,” he replied indifferently. I gulped at his words. As I opened my mouth to speak, he pulled a silver lighter from his pocket, flicked the flame on and cupped his hand around it as he brought the tip of his cigarette to it. I gasped in shock that he was seriously lighting up in the school, especially after what happened in his last one.
He frowned at me angrily, but didn’t say anything, just pulled out another one and lit it. I snatched it out of his mouth and stubbed that one out too. He was really angry now, his jaw tight as his eyes seemed to hold a burning passion in them that actually made me flinch. I glared back at him. Neither of us spoke as he calmly got another from the packet. Before he could even flick the flame on his lighter I grabbed the packet and his unlit one from his hand, put it on the table and poured the rest of my drink onto them.
He jumped up in shock and dived for the packet, flicking the water from it. “What the hell are you doing? Are you stupid or something?” he shouted, his whole body tensing up as he scowled at me.
I calmly stood up and nodded. “Yeah, I’m the stupid one. I’m the one who set fire to my old school and got kicked out. I’m the one who’s repeating senior year because I couldn’t be bothered to turn up and go to class. I’m the one that actually pays to put poison inside my body because I think it looks cool. Absolutely I’m stupid,” I stated sarcastically.
He stared at me for a couple of seconds before a smile twitched at the corner of his mouth, then he broke out into a full smile. I frowned, a little confused at the sudden change in mood. “There was me having you pegged for a little pushover girl who wouldn’t say boo to a goose and wouldn’t in a million years stand up for herself. I guess I was wrong, huh?” He regarded me almost proudly.
I frowned. I’d never met anyone as confusing as this guy. One minute he behaved like a jackass, and the next he was being nice, I literally couldn’t keep up with him. I had a feeling that most of this was an act to get a reaction from people, maybe he liked the attention.
“I guess you did,” I muttered, my voice a little weaker now. “Anyway, the bell’s about to ring so maybe we should think about getting you to your next class. I assume you are going to class?” I asked, raising one eyebrow at him curiously. It wouldn’t have surprised me if he’d walked out of school as soon as the tour finished.
He cocked his head to the side. “Do I have any classes with you?”
I nodded and pulled out his schedule. “Two. Both after lunch.”
A wicked smile crossed his face. “Then I guess I’m sticking around, wouldn’t miss the opportunity to piss you off for the world,” he stated, laughing quietly as I glared at him. I grabbed my bag and walked off without waiting for him, I headed in the direction of his history class. He caught me up easily. “So, does the cheating ex go to this school?” he asked.
I frowned and looked him from the corner of my eye. Why did he have to bring up Luke again? I was getting along fine not thinking about him, Zach and his ‘look at me I’m a badass’ personality were keeping my mind off of the betrayal for a while.