Free Falling (22 page)

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?”

I nodded, thankful for the reprieve. His hand tightened in
mine as he stepped away and opened the door, leading us out into the now
deserted hallway.

Chapter 14

Being the centre of attention really wasn’t my strong suit.
The staring and curious glances that were directed at me made my head ache and
my shoulders stiff. Whispering erupted everywhere I went that morning, excited
gossiping as I walked past people.
‘That’s the girl that I was fighting with
Sandy,’
or
‘Apparently her boyfriend cheated and now she’s lost the
plot’
. I tried to ignore it, I really did, but it followed me around like a
grey thundercloud, dampening my mood with a wave of depression and humiliation.

By lunchtime I just wanted to go home and cry. Luke and I
had eaten together again, which was slightly weird after the fact that I’d
kissed him in the morning, but thankfully he didn’t mention it. The rest of the
day was much the same. People weren’t getting bored of staring at me in the
slightest. Gym was especially hard because Sandy was there too. I noticed with
some measure of satisfaction that she looked a little weary of me, and didn’t
really make eye contact with me at all. That, coupled with the fact that she
had a subtle bruise forming across her cheekbone, made me feel marginally
better. Of course Zach was there, making jokes, fooling around, being sarcastic
to the teacher and generally not doing anything he was told to do. As usual he
made the class more bearable for me. I even managed to laugh a couple of times,
despite Sandy, the boyfriend stealing hoe, being within a hundred yards of me.

By the end of school I was well and truly ready to go home
and crawl into bed, maybe get a huge hug from my dad and curl into his side
when we watched TV like I used to when I was a little girl. I didn’t want to wait
for Alex to finish his football practice, so I decided to walk home instead.
Lucky for me it was a fairly pleasant day, so I enjoyed the sunshine as I
walked. After a couple of minutes my cell phone vibrated in my pocket.

I pulled it out and answered it without looking at the
caller ID. “Hello?” I was met by nothing but silence. “Hello?” I tried again,
frowning. “Hello?” When no one answered I sighed and disconnected the call.

I barely managed to get the phone back in my pocket before
it vibrated with another call. Glancing at the screen I saw it was an unknown
number. “Hello?” I answered. This time it wasn’t dead silence. No one spoke,
but I could hear quiet breathing. Someone was on the other end of the call,
they just weren’t talking.

“Alex, is that you fooling around? Because it’s not funny!”
I snapped, glancing around the deserted road as I shifted my bag on my
shoulder.

The breathing continued on the line.

“Who is this?” I asked, pulling the phone away from my ear
and looking down at it again as if the answer would magically appear. “I think
you have the wrong number.” I disconnected the call again and suddenly the
phone buzzed in my hand - unknown number calling again.
What the hell?
I
decided to just leave it this time. It was obviously someone playing a joke on
me and I wasn’t rising to it this time. I rejected the call and turned the
phone off, shoving it in my jeans pocket.

Anger built up inside me. Had I not been through enough
recently? Now someone had decided to heavy breathe on a call? People sucked! My
mind suddenly wandered to Sandy again. But she wouldn’t call me, would she? Not
after this morning, surely.

I huffed and lifted my chin, pulling back my shoulders,
trying to appear unaffected. Whoever was calling me - probably Sandy - was
obviously trying to upset me and was probably watching my reaction. Well she
wasn’t getting the satisfaction of upsetting me, not this time! I marched home
angrily, my thoughts only on her and how much she’d screwed up my life. I’d
never hated anyone more.

The following day was better in the sense that someone had
broken into the school overnight and vandalised the Principal’s office with wet
toilet paper and silly string. Talk was therefore no longer on me, it was more
guided towards speculating who had pranked the principal. For that I was
grateful at least.

My day passed quicker than the previous one. At lunchtime I
did however get another of those silent calls from the unknown number. I had
been sat with Charlotte and Beth at the time; I’d passed it off as nothing,
just a wrong number, when in the back of my head I was wondering when this was
going to end. I’d noted at the time that Sandy wasn’t in the lunchroom; she was
probably holed up in the bathrooms, giggling with her friends as she tried to
torment me into making another scene. I was convinced that Luke was right in
what he’d said the previous morning - the hag was trying to get me into
trouble. Therefore I just wouldn’t rise to it, I’d pretend as if it weren’t
happening and hope that she got bored before it started to play on my mind.

Today was Friday, so thankfully I had a whole weekend of
relaxing to look forward to. I just had to get through tutoring Zach first
though, and then I could relax, but even before that I had to go with him to
watch his parkour training that he did on a Friday night with his group. I
really had no idea what to expect.

We pulled up in the parking lot of what looked like an old
abandoned building instead of a gym like I was anticipating. I was still
clinging to him like my life depended on it, grinning with unbridled excitement
because of the ride on his bike. He smiled over his shoulder at me as I unwound
my arms from his waist and scrambled off, pulling the helmet off and ignoring
his chuckle as I smoothed my hair back into place.

Apparently Zach met up with a group of likeminded friends on
a Friday evening, and they spent an hour or two going through new stunts, or
plans that they had to jump over certain stuff the following week. I had no
idea that people actually paid for traceurs to put on performances at shows and
stuff. Apparently Zach and his group of fellow freerunners had a show coming up
in a couple of weeks, so they needed to build up a routine that looked
polished, but at the same time, looked like it was made up on the spot. It all
sounded intriguing, but I still just didn’t get it or its appeal.

“Ready?” Zach asked, shoving his hands in his pockets and
nodding off to my left.

I shrugged. “Yep.”

He grinned as we started walking across the parking lot,
skirting along the edge of the building that looked like it was extremely close
to falling down. The windows were either missing panes, broken or boarded up.
Graffiti covered almost every inch of the walls as we walked along. I looked at
it all in awe, it wasn’t just people tagging stuff and scribbling crudities
like usual graffiti, someone had made a kind of mural on the wall. It was
incredible, and I looked at it in awe as we walked, taking in all the colours
and noticing how perfectly they blended together. It was all segmented off,
different scenes in each little section. My eyes stopped on a perfectly
spray-painted picture of a geisha in full costume, her little umbrella
shielding her from a bright sun overhead. It was beautiful and took my breath
away. I stopped, wondering how someone actually created that with paint cans.

Zach smiled, watching me as I looked over the wall slowly,
taking in each segment, shocked by the intricacy of each one. “Like it?” he
asked.

I nodded, swallowing loudly. “It’s incredible. I had no idea
people could do this.” I’d never seen graffiti like this in my life, usually it
was limited to scribbled words that someone had done in a rush, but this, this
looked like someone had spent hours, days, even weeks creating it.

Zach took hold of my elbow. “Reggie did that. You can tell
him you like it when we meet him,” he replied.

“Reggie?”

He nodded, guiding me along again as we walked along the
edge of the building to some unknown place. “Yeah. He’s one of my group. He’s
in art school.” He led me around the corner where four other guys were all
standing, talking and stretching their muscles as they laughed easily. They
were all dressed the same as Zach, sweatpants hung low on their hips, T-shirts
or vest, and a hoodie. I barely had time to notice that all of the exposed
walls around were also covered in Reggie’s art - I couldn’t bring myself to
call it graffiti because that would take away from the beauty of it. They all
turned to see who approached; an easy, friendly smile broke out on each face. I
let my eyes wander over them all quickly. They were varying in ages, skin tones
and builds, but at the same time they all had that mischievous glint to their
eye that Zach had.

I smiled timidly as curious glances fell on me. They
obviously wondered who I was, that was clear on every single face. Zach’s hand
released my elbow as he grunted a greeting to everyone, slapping people on the
back or shoulder in a friendly way. He turned back to me when he was done
saying hi to everyone. “Guys, this Maisie,” he announced.

I gave a weak wave; slightly unnerved by the way they were
all looking at me, like hunters assessing an injured deer. Before I knew what I
was doing I’d stepped closer to Zach, my insides fluttering with nerves. I’d
never liked meeting new people at the best of times, but these guys were
certainly intimidating and looked like they wanted to eat me or something.

“Hi,” I greeted shyly.

One of the guys looked back to Zach with one eyebrow raised
curiously. “Girlfriend?” he grunted.

Zach nodded; a hand was placed possessively on the small of
my back, pressing and making me step even closer to him. “Yep,” he replied. I
felt the frown line my forehead because of his lie.
What the heck is that
about?

The four guys’ postures seemed to change immediately at
Zach’s word. Shoulders loosened, eyes that seemed to blaze with fire merely
seconds before, now regarded me with just casual interest. The change in
attitude was startling.

“Maisie, this is Jase, Stu, Reggie, and Newt,” Zach
introduced, waving a hand at each of them in turn.
Newt? Nice name…

“Nice to meet you.” I smiled politely.

“Ready to watch your man blow your panties off with his
talent?” Jase asked me, smiling a friendly smile now. He was fairly young,
probably about seventeen I would guesstimate. His eyes glittered with amusement
as he raked a hand through his short blond hair.

I laughed uncomfortably, not knowing how to answer that. “I
guess,” I replied.

He grinned. “What’s up, sweetness, you not wearing any
panties? Why so hesitant?” he asked, nudging Zach in the ribs with a proud
grin.

Zach rolled his eyes, his thumb stroking a lazy circle
against the small of my back. It was strangely soothing. “Ignore these
assholes, they’re not used to talking to girls, so they forget how to be
civilised,” he said to me, shooting them a warning glare. “Leave her alone and
let’s get this session done so I can take her home.”

A grin split Jase’s face. “Eager to get her home, huh? Don’t
blame you there,” he stated, winking at me playfully.

Oh God, is he flirting with me?
I wasn’t used to this
at all.

Zach’s hand left my back and he lunged at the guy quickly. I
gasped, panicking, until I realised they were both laughing as they seemed to
asses each other, both lunging and striking out at the other, but neither of
them landing any blows. I watched as Zach sunk into an attacking posture, his
legs bent, his arms out ready like some kind of silent ninja. The other guy did
the same, both of them grinning like kids at a pro wrestling match. It was
surprisingly sexy, and I couldn’t help the little thrill that went through me
as they seemed to dive into some kind of kung fu stunt routine that they were
obviously making up on the spot.

After a couple of minutes of them aiming kicks and punches,
and dodging the blows with apparent ease, the other guy stood up and held his
hands up innocently, laughing breathlessly. “Fine, I won’t wink at your woman
again,” he stated.

Zach grinned, wrapping his arm around the other guy’s neck,
playfully rubbing his hair. “Good, because she’s not interested. Right, little
rebel?” He looked back and me and laughed as I shot him a scathing look because
of the name. Before I could either answer or protest, he leant in and planted a
soft kiss on my cheek. I felt the blush heat my face and neck as his lips
lingered on my skin for mere seconds before he pulled back and smiled his lazy,
playful smile. “Go sit over there and watch your man blow your panties off with
his talent,” he teased using Jase’s words, nodding at a little wall that was
behind me.

I gave him a sarcastic smile, rolling my eyes as I trudged
over to the wall and hoisted myself up to perch on the edge. My feet dangled
inches from the floor as I looked up at them expectantly. Zach grinned and
pulled off his black hooded sweatshirt, tossing it at me without warning so I
almost fell off of the wall as I jerked to catch it.

He grinned wickedly. “Put that on, it’s cold,” he
instructed. It wasn’t a question, so he didn’t wait for an answer as he turned
and walked a few yards away with the other boys, chatting animatedly with them
as they pointed at stuff intermittently, waved their hands around or drew on
the concrete floor with a piece of chalk. I shrugged his sweater on, grateful
of the warmth that it still held from his body. I pulled the sleeves over my
hands, cocking my head to the side, preparing to watch what he called ‘fun’.

I’d never seen anything like it; it both frightened and
exhilarated me at the same time. It was beautiful in an odd, thrilling kind of
way. I watched with an open mouth and wide eyes as Zach and his group fooled
around, back flipping off of walls, jumping from the top of the building to the
smaller building off to one side, literally running up walls and throwing
themselves off, seeming to know something that gravity itself didn’t know.