Free Falling

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…

“Calm down, baby,” Luke cooed again.

I threw off his hold angrily, turning to glare at him because he’d stopped me from tearing her fake blonde extensions out like I’d wanted to. “Calm down? She just slapped me!” I cried, only now registering that my cheek was stinging from the blow. I could still taste the metallic tang of my own blood where my cheek had mashed into my teeth. My arm hurt too and was definitely going to bruise.

Luke’s teeth ground together angrily as he nodded, his eyes settled on the side of my face. “I can see that. But you hit her first,” he stated rationally. “Now, what was that about?”

I frowned and crossed my arms over my chest defensively, trying to gain some self-control because my emotions were frayed and any second now I was going to burst into tears, I could feel it building. “She’s a witch. She said some stuff about you and I got angry,” I finally replied, not really wanting to get into the whole accusation thing again. We’d gotten off track and the fight wasn’t actually specifically about that, it was more about her making moves on my ex-boyfriend. What I had hit her for was her remarks about Luke, so that wasn’t a lie I’d just told.

His head cocked to the side, an apologetic look on his face. “Maisie, I’m so sorry about what happened, but fighting with her in the middle of the school isn’t going to take back what I did. You’ll get yourself in trouble, in fact, that’s probably what she wants to happen,” he explained. I scowled as his hand reached out and smoothed my hair back from my face, tucking some loose bits behind my ear. “Another couple of seconds and teachers would have been all over that fight. That’s not you, baby. My Maisie doesn’t get into trouble at school.” That’s true. Maybe I should have waited and jumped her in a dark alleyway when no one was around. “Just please don’t start anything else with her, okay?” he pleaded.

Somewhere in my angry state of mind, I registered that he was defending her. The witch that he had cheated on me with, the girl that was now starting up some sort of hate campaign against me, he was defending her.

Anger built again as my hands clenched into fists. “Oh I’m sorry, did I just ruin your chances of getting laid tonight? Will she take out my indiscretion on you and not let you tap that tonight?” I spat acidly.

His mouth dropped open as his eyes went wide. He literally gaped at me like I’d just said the most ridiculous and shocking thing in the world. “My chances of getting laid? With her? Are you crazy?” he choked out, his voice strangled as he shook his head and looked at me like I’d actually lost my mind.

Her words were ringing in my ears. ‘He’ll be begging me for it. He’ll be hanging all over me and you’ll have to watch it all.’

Before I could stop myself, I slapped his chest as hard as I could, making my hand sting and him flinch. “Well she was good enough for you last weekend!” I screeched. I could feel the angry and insanely jealous tears rolling down my face now as I lost my battle to stay composed. I looked away from his handsome face. Why do I have to love him so much still? It’s just unfair.

“That was a mistake and won’t ever happen again!” Luke growled fiercely, bending so his face was level with mine.

“Yeah, until she throws herself at you again and you can’t say no.” My heart hurt. I’d gotten up this morning fully prepared and ready to confront her, and then I’d just fallen to pieces and had made myself come across as a jealous and bitchy girl. Why couldn’t I have some of my brother’s courage? He wouldn’t have let her say all those things to him. “She said you were as good as hers already.” A sob made my voice crack and my chin wobble as I thought about Luke not actually being mine anymore. What if she was right? What if he did need something more fulfilling, what if I wasn’t enough for him? What if he did realise that he was more suited to the school cheerleader, rather than a nerdy student? What if he did start chasing her around like I frequently imagined happening lately? How would I cope with that?

I watched as anger crossed his face. His teeth ground together as he cupped my face in his hands, titling my head up so that my eyes met his. “I don’t want her. I don’t want anyone other than you. I’ll never cheat again, baby, never. I’m yours forever,” he practically growled. The intensity in his brown eyes was a little overwhelming as he gazed at me.

The ‘yours forever’ part made my hand touch the material of my shirt in the centre of my chest, my fingers tracing the outline of his locket that I had hidden under my shirt because I couldn’t bring myself to part with it. My pulse seemed to drum in my ears, and before I knew what I was doing, I’d gone up on tiptoes and crashed my lips to his possessively.

He responded immediately, crushing his body against mine, kissing me back fiercely. The kiss was hot, sizzling, scramble your brains hot. It was different from any kiss we’d ever shared before. This one was filled with jealousy, passion, lust, and a lot of pure neediness. Every cell in my body seemed to come alive as our tongues tangled together. I couldn’t get close enough as everything seemed to fade away, the graffiti, the party, the cheating; all of it just disappeared as I lost myself in the beautiful familiarity of Luke’s kiss.

My hands twisted into the back of his hair, making him moan into my mouth and clutch me closer to him. Everything was so incredible, just like it used to be, but filled with more passion where it hadn’t happened for a while.

But as he broke the kiss and pressed his forehead to mine, his eyes still closed and his mouth pulled into a dazzling grin, I realised that nothing had changed. He’d still cheated, and everyone knew it - that wouldn’t go away just because of one kiss, and neither would the hurt that accompanied the knowledge that things would never be the same again. It was easy to pretend that everything was fine while his lips were pressed against mine; it was easy to forgive, but the forgetting part, that was the hardest.

He sighed contentedly, his hand stroking my back as he kissed my nose, my cheeks, and my forehead, before hugging me so tightly that I could barely breathe.

I reluctantly pulled out of his arms and looked at him apologetically. I knew I shouldn’t have done that. I’d accidentally just built up his hopes that everything was fine when, in reality, I felt far from fine. I still wasn’t ready to move on yet. I couldn’t let him go, but at the moment I wasn’t ready to get back with him, and I wasn’t sure I ever would be. I loved him, that much I knew for certain, but I still didn’t know if I could get over seeing him screwing another girl. The image was still engrained in my memory every time I saw her smug face.

Instantly Luke’s face fell. A small line formed between his eyebrows as his arms dropped from my waist down to his sides. A wave of guilt washed over me, making me feel like the one that had done wrong instead of him. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have kissed you. I was just caught in the moment and upset,” I whispered, swiping at the tears that were now drying on my face.

He smiled, but it didn’t reach his sorrowful eyes. “Don’t apologise,” he replied, shrugging, obviously trying to go for casual indifference.

I gulped at the pain I could see behind his fake smile. “I’m trying to forget it, it’s just hard. I need time,” I explained, taking his hand and rubbing my fingers over his knuckles. His hands felt so soft and my mind wandered to memories of them in mine, or his fingertips caressing my cheek. Another lump formed in my throat.

He nodded, stepping closer to me again and wrapping his free arm around my waist. “Time is something that I have a lot of,” he whispered. “I’ll wait until you’ve cleared your head. We both know we’re made for each other.”

The sincerity of those words made my eyes prickle with tears again. Deep down I knew he was right. When it was just us, like now, I could see my future with Luke, my happy future with the house and the kids. But my stubborn pride and my self-worth were trying to force me to move on and let him go. My head was telling me to be a stronger person, one who didn’t need a man to complete her, but my heart was still stuck in the moment with Luke. My whole being was revelling in the feel of being in his arms again and being surrounded by his smell. I was torn. With his warmth and protectiveness wrapped around me I knew I needed him, even if I didn’t want to admit it.

While I was still figuring out what my next words should be, he pulled back and smiled at me. “Let’s get you to class, huh?”