Free Falling

“You’re such a nerd,” he joked, bumping his shoulder with mine. I rolled my eyes, about to make a sarcastic comment back, but the bell rang before I could speak. He smiled, nodding over my shoulder. “I’d better go get to class, don’t want to be late and earn myself a reputation for being a delinquent.”

I laughed at that and waved as he strutted off down the corridor confidently, not seeming to notice the girls looking at him and smiling as they tried to get his attention.

My day passed without a hitch. I’d had none of those weird silenced phone calls, no typed notes with petals inside, and nothing was scrawled on my locker. Sandy didn’t even look in my direction all day. During gym I silently wondered if maybe the box with the teddy inside was the anticlimactic cl**ax. Maybe she was bored of me not reacting the way that she wanted me to. Hopefully my choice of ignoring it all had the right effect and now she was abandoning her vicious façade against me. One could only hope.

Even tutoring went well. Maybe my luck was finally turning around again and life would get back to normal. After Zach had finally graced me with his presence and picked me up after school, we’d gone to his place to study. We worked for almost two hours, getting a lot done, before stopping to have dinner with his aunt and uncle again. After, he drove me home.

It was cold as I pulled off Zach’s jacket and passed it back to him. “Thanks for the loan. I really should remember to bring a sweater or something when we’re going to be on the bike,” I said, holding it out to him gingerly.

He grinned teasingly. “Just admit it; you’d rather wear my clothes, that’s why you always wear silly little flimsy shirts when you know we’re studying. You like cloaking yourself in my smell.”

I rolled my eyes, shouldering my bag. “Whatever you want to believe, Zach,” I replied sarcastically. “Thanks for dinner. See you tomorrow.” I turned for the house, hugging myself against the cold. Now that I’d taken off his jacket I was instantly covered in goosebumps.

“See ya.”

I waved over my shoulder as his bike roared loudly, then started disappearing down the street. I fumbled with my keys, slipping them into the lock and pushing the door open. As I stepped through the front door of the house I dropped my bag on the floor and frowned at the unusual quiet of the place. Normally the smell of food would hit me as soon as I walked through the door; chatter and the sound of a TV would fill the house. But today I was the only one here because Alex was training until late, and my parents were with my nanna. Even Chester, my dog, wasn’t whining and skipping excitedly down the hallway towards me. I didn’t like coming in to an empty house, it felt a little eerie.

I decided to go and make a snack before I started on my own homework. The quiet was a little weird as I walked down the hallway. “Chester? You’d better not be asleep on the beds again!” I called, chuckling to myself. He had a fondness for Alex’s bed and took any opportunity to sneak in there if his door was left open. I stood at the bottom of the stairs and peered up. “Chester!” I scolded, rolling my eyes. “Come on, dinner time.”

I headed into the kitchen, flicking on the lights as I went, knowing that the word dinner would have him scuttling down the stairs within seconds. After scooping out half a tin of dog food into his bowl and changing his water, I stood back against the counter, watching the door. “Chester!” I called again when he didn’t appear. I groaned in frustration and marched out, up the stairs towards Alex’s room. By the time I got to the top of the stairs though I realised that he wouldn’t be in there. The door was shut - unless maybe Alex had shut him in there by accident. As I opened the door though I saw that the room was empty, no indent on the bed, no tell-tale black dog fur on the pillow, nothing.

“Chester, where are you?” I called loudly. I cast my eyes around seeing that all of the doors upstairs were closed so he wouldn’t be up here. I sighed and marched back down the stairs. We had a large cat flap in our back door that was actually big enough for him to fit through. We usually kept it locked while we weren’t home because Chester could get out through it fine but could never seem to apply the same logic to get back in again. We only unlocked it when someone was home so that they could let him in again.

I strutted to the back door, grabbing my keys on the way past and unlocking it quickly, assuming that Alex had forgotten to lock the cat flap this morning. Poor little thing. If he’s been outside all day he’s probably freezing! As I pulled the door open I saw him. He was lying in the middle of the grass, not moving.

“Chester?” I whimpered and stepped out quickly, rushing to his side. I gasped when I noticed his shallow breathing. His eyes were closed as if he was sleeping, but he seemed to be struggling to breathe. White foamy spittle coloured the corners of his black lips. “Oh no,” I muttered, quickly stroking him to see if he was hurt or anything. My eyes prickled with tears as he let out a low whimper and his eyes fluttered open before closing again. I didn’t know what to do; he was just lying there completely still. I needed to call a vet or something.

My eyes landed on something a couple of feet away from where I was crouched. It was a grease proof wrap, white paper, like what butchers wrap meat in. I frowned at it then looked back at Chester. “Did you eat something?” I muttered, shaking my head in confusion. When my gaze landed on something else that was laying on the grass, I felt my body jerk in shock. A white calla lily, exactly like the ones that I kept being sent, laid there as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

A sob rose in my throat. I looked back at my dog, horrified as realisation washed over me. Someone had poisoned my dog, and they’d done it because of me. “No, no, please no.”

My hand flew straight to my pocket, pulling out my cell phone and dialling the one person that I knew would be round here in an instant. He answered almost immediately. “Luke! Oh God, it’s Chester,” I croaked as I buried my face against the scruff of his neck and broke down into hysterical sobs.

Chapter 17

Mere minutes later, Luke’s car screeched to a halt outside the front of my house. He burst through the back gate seconds after cutting the engine. I looked up at him pleadingly, silently begging him with my eyes to help my dog.

Luke’s face fell as he looked from me to Chester who was still lying motionless, struggling to breathe. “Shit. He looks bad,” he mumbled, dropping down next to me.

I nodded, sniffing loudly. “He’s been poisoned. We have to get him to the vets,” I croaked, swiping at my endless tears.

Luke frowned and looked at me with doubtful, yet sympathetic eyes. “He hasn’t been poisoned, baby, he’s just old.”

I shook my head adamantly. “He has, look!” I pointed at the lily and felt my chin wobble as guilt washed over me. “See? They left that!”

Luke raised one eyebrow as he looked at the flower. “Left what? Maisie, what are you talking about?” He slipped his arms under Chester’s body, lifting him gently. “Look, let’s just get him to the vet and see what they say. But, baby, dogs don’t last forever; maybe it’s just his time.”

I groaned in frustration because he wasn’t really listening to me. The rational part of me understood because he didn’t know about the flowers or notes so of course he wouldn’t think anything of it, but the grief-stricken part of me was annoyed with him for dismissing what I was saying. Chester whined quietly and my heart throbbed as I looked down at him apologetically. This was my fault; he was hurt because of me.

Luke strutted towards the gate without waiting for me. “You need to lock your house,” he instructed as I stumbled along behind him in a state of panic. I nodded weakly, not thinking clearly. I ran into the house, locking the back door behind me and then running through the house and out the front door, locking that too. By the time I got to Luke’s car I saw that he’d already settled Chester in the back seat, laying him out carefully. The car started as I jumped into the back with him and stroked his ears softly.

I cried the whole way to the veterinary clinic while Luke tried to soothe me, telling me that they’d take care of him, that I should think positive, that maybe he’d just eaten something that had upset his stomach. Deep down I knew his words were true, he had definitely eaten something - Sandy the witch had given him something that had been wrapped in grease proof paper and had left me a lily so she could gloat about it.

By the time we got to the clinic Chester was worse. His breathing was so shallow and rapid that it broke my heart. The muscles in his legs were twitching and his nose was bleeding. As soon as the nurse saw Luke carrying Chester in, and me crying hysterically, we were immediately rushed through into a treatment room where two men in green scrubs fussed over my dog, checking in his mouth and eyes, taking blood samples, trying to rouse him to no avail. The nurse stood there asking me question after question about how I found him, what he’d eaten, if he was fit and well this morning. I answered everything to the best of my ability, telling them about the grease proof paper that lay there and my suspicions that someone had poisoned him on purpose. They too looked sceptical but took extra blood samples too so they could do a toxicology report.

“Maybe it’s best if you wait in the waiting room?” the nurse suggested when they started trying to make Chester vomit by squirting clear liquid down his throat. Luke nodded, wrapping his arm around my shoulders, pulling me from the room quickly. My legs barely worked as Luke guided me across the waiting room to the seating area. From the corner of my eye I saw the other pet owners looking at me sympathetically as they clutched their pets closer to them unconsciously, obviously now thinking the worst for their ill animals.

I sat down, struggling to breathe as I buried my face into the side of Luke’s neck, clinging to him helplessly as I imagined Chester dying, how awful it would be to never see him wag his tail again, or bark excitedly when I came home from school. We’d had him since a puppy and I couldn’t bear to lose him.