Free Falling (31 page)

I stood there with my mouth wide, trying to take in what
Sandy had said about Zach in his old school. Just what was it that he didn’t
want common knowledge here? Zach turned, his eyes meeting mine for a second
before he pulled back his shoulders and marched off through the crowd without
another word.

Alex’s grip loosened on me so I turned and looked up into
his angry face. I winced, rubbing at my shoulder as the crowd started to
dissipate. He shook his head dejectedly. “Oh yeah, you did so well with the
‘I’m
going to ignore her completely’
plan that we agreed on,” he stated, raising
one eyebrow.

I swallowed loudly. “I thought so too,” I muttered.

He sighed dramatically. “Looks like my self-defence lessons
were a waste of time too, huh? She kicked your ass big time.” He shook his
head, picking up my schoolbag and holding it out to me. “You fight like a
girl.”

I laughed despite myself. “I am a girl.”

Chapter 20

Everywhere I went, whispering erupted around me. People were
speculating about my dog, who it was that had done it, was it Sandy, if it
wasn’t Sandy then who was it… I heard Zach’s name mentioned in connection to it
too after what Sandy had said about him in his last school. I even heard a
couple of people suggest that I’d poisoned my own dog in order to gain sympathy
and blame Sandy because I was jealous that my boyfriend was in love with her.
One person even questioned if I even had a dog in the first place. They weren’t
even bothering to be discreet in their gossiping. It was disgraceful.

At lunchtime, I was surrounded by friends who were all
trying their best to cheer me up and keep my mind off of the fact that I was
centre of attention for the whole school. I’d apologised to Charlotte and Beth
for snapping at them earlier in the morning, and of course was forgiven
straight away. Luke and Alex were sat with us too, both of them seeming quieter
than usual. Although it was nice to be surrounded by people, they did nothing
to block out the stares and gossiping of my fellow students. Everything was
just too much for me to deal with. Too much noise, too little air, too many
bodies around me. I felt a little trapped.

“I’m just going to the bathroom,” I muttered, standing up
and quickly waving a dismissive hand at Charlotte as she went to stand too.
“I’m fine on my own. I’ll just be a minute.” She nodded, sitting back down
again and continuing with her sandwich. Before either of the boys could protest
and insist that one of them should come with me, I scurried away from the table
and out of the lunchroom. Once I was out of the hustle and bustle of it all I
started to feel a little better, but I still craved fresh air and solitude.

Instead of going to the bathroom like I’d said, I headed
down the corridor and out of the side door. The warm midday air hit me in the
face and made me sigh in contentment as I let the door swing closed behind me.
After a few seconds of just standing there I decided to go the full hog and go
and sit in the sunshine of the school field. As I rounded the corner, however,
I noticed that I wasn’t the only one that looked like they wanted fresh air and
alone time. Zach was jogging slow, lazy laps around the field. I hadn’t seen
him all morning. My guess was that he was hiding and keeping out of the way of
the gossip after Sandy’s comments this morning.

I watched him running for a few minutes before thinking that
he was probably hot. There was a vending machine back inside the door where I
came out of, so I headed back inside, buying a bottle of water for him. Once I
had it I walked out across the field. He noticed me almost immediately, slowing
down his pace before changing direction and jogging towards me. The frown on
his face told me that he didn’t really want to see me as he stopped in front of
me.

“Hey,” I greeted, forcing cheerfulness to make up for the
fact that he was scowling and kicking at the grass with his foot.

“Hey,” he grunted in response.

I held out the bottle. “Bought you this.”

His brows rose in apparent surprise as he hesitantly took
the bottle out of my hand. “Yeah? Thanks.”

I smiled, nodding at the track. “Why are you out here on
your own? You could have eaten with me, you know.”

He sighed deeply, shrugging. “Figured you might not want to
speak to me much today. You’ve already got enough attention on you without
fraternising with a scumbag.” His tone was sad as he spoke and I instantly
hated Sandy just that little bit more.

I snorted at his explanation. “Don’t be silly. Besides,
people are gossiping about me whether I fraternise with you or not, so it makes
no difference if I talk to a scumbag,” I joked, nudging his arm with mine. He
laughed quietly, his eyes coming up to meet mine as he chugged down some of the
water.

“I’m sorry to hear about your dog. Is he okay?” he asked, cocking
his head to the side as he looked at me quizzically.

I nodded, feeling a little pang in my heart at the mention
of Chester. “He’s okay. He’s at the animal hospital right now,” I replied.
“They said we can probably take him home tomorrow.”

“That’s good. Glad he’s okay, he’s cute,” he muttered. “So
when did all this happen then?”

I sighed and sat down, crossing my legs and picking at the
grass. “Last night. When you dropped me home from tutoring I found him in the
garden. Someone had fed him some meat, and he was barely breathing.” My voice
broke as the memories of it surfaced again.

Zach groaned and sat down next to me, placing his hand on my
knee and squeezing supportively. “I’m sorry. I should have come in with you and
made sure everything was alright before I left you. I shouldn’t have just
dropped you outside your house when I knew you were gonna be going in to an
empty house,” he said, shaking his head and frowning.

I forced a smile and used the sleeve of my sweater to dry
the tear that leaked out. “It’s fine, you weren’t to know that someone had
snuck into my house and poisoned my dog.” I tried to keep my tone light, but a
sob made my voice hitch in the middle of my sentence.

“I guess. I still feel like crap about it though. I’m
sorry,” he muttered. His gaze met mine. I could see little worry lines in
between his eyebrows as he seemed to be silently scolding himself for not
walking me in to my house last night.

His hand came up, touching my cheek, just at the side of my
nose. I winced and cringed away from his hand as a small stinging pain followed
his touch. “Looks like you got a couple of scratches when you were fighting,”
he muttered, letting his hand drop back down to my knee again.

I nodded, shrugging dismissively, not wanting to talk about
me getting into a fight in the middle of the hallway. “Yeah, Alex told me off
because I fought like a girl and let her kick my ass,” I replied.

He chuckled. “You are a girl.”

A grin crept onto my face. “That’s exactly what I said.”

He nodded but didn’t answer. He just looked at me, searching
my face for something, but I didn’t know what. His eyes were so intense as he
looked at me that I had to look away from them because it felt like he was
trying to read all of my secrets. We lapsed into silence. Zach’s thumb stroked
the side of my knee in small circles as I played with a blade of grass. It was
nice actually, calming even. After everything that had happened in the last
couple of days, it was nice just to sit there quietly in the sun and not feel
the need to make conversation.

Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end. The
ringing of my phone made us both jump and Zach to snatch his hand back into his
lap as he turned his head and looked out over the field. I sighed and pulled
out my phone, expecting it to be one of my friends or Alex, asking where I was.

Instead, the name DI Neeson flashed on my screen. I frowned
at her name, wondering what this was going to be about. For some reason my mind
flicked to Sandy. Did she somehow know that I’d been in a fight with her and
now she was calling to scold me for it? I squirmed uncomfortably as I answered
the call.

DI Neeson’s voice greeted me. “Good afternoon, Miss Preston.
I just wanted to let you know that the locksmith completed the work on your
house this morning.”

“Oh, oh right. That’s good,” I muttered, feeling my
shoulders relax slightly.

“I have your new keys. What time will you be home? I can
meet you there,” she offered helpfully.

“Um, I’m not sure. Alex and I are going to go and visit
Chester straight after school. So maybe four thirty?” I replied, thinking
everything through. That would give us almost an hour with Chester which should
be plenty of time because apparently we weren’t allowed to take him home today
anyway.

“Four thirty is good for me. I’ll see you at your house
then.” The line went dead before I could even ask if they had found anything or
had progressed with the investigation. Thankfully she hadn’t mentioned my
altercation with the blonde witch.

Pushing my cell phone back into my pocket, I stood up. I
needed to get back before everyone really did start calling me and asking where
I was. “I should go back inside. I only said I was going to the bathroom.” Zach
looked up at me and nodded. “I’m going to have to cancel tutoring for tonight.
I’m going to see Chester straight after school.”

A grin crossed Zach’s face as he nodded. “Tutoring’s
cancelled? Whatever will I do with myself?” he joked.

“Jump over stuff no doubt,” I replied, rolling my eyes
playfully.

His deep laugh filled the air as he nodded in agreement.
“Probably. Thanks for the water,” he said, holding up the now empty bottle.

“No problem. Are you coming in with me?” I asked, nodding
back to the building. “Have you eaten?”

He pushed himself up in one fluid motion and shook his head.
“I’m just gonna run some more. I get kind of antsy when I get stressed.
Sometimes running helps with it, and I can keep myself focussed,” he replied,
twisting the bottle around in his hands before tossing it towards the trashcan
that was off to my right.

“Hmm, maybe I should take up running then,” I joked.

A smirk broke out across his face as his eyes twinkled with
mischief. “You could probably do with getting a little fitter from what I
remember of your running skills.”

I gasped and slapped his shoulder, chuckling because I knew
he was talking about the night we met and how I had drunkenly ran away from
Luke’s broken windshield. “Shut it, you,” I giggled, which made him laugh too.
“Go back to your running and I’ll see you in class this afternoon.”

“See ya, little rebel,” he called as he turned and jogged
off towards the open field again.

I chuckled, shaking my head in amusement before turning back
to face the firing squad, knowing I was going to be in trouble for sneaking off
like I had.

The visit to see Chester after school left my throat hoarse,
my eyes stinging and my heart aching. Although he was a lot better than last
time I saw him, he was still weak and just laying around. His little tail
wagging as we walked in was the only thing that made him seem more like his old
self. The vet had said that he was still on medication and that he was
extremely lucky. They were keeping him in for another night as a precaution,
but that we could pick him up after school the following day. Leaving him in
there had almost broken my heart, but he was better off with the experts for
now.

Alex hadn’t really said much since we arrived at the animal
hospital. When he was upset he was more the strong, silent type; he would be
hurting inside and not showing it no doubt. I sat in the car on the way home,
chewing on my lip, silently wondering if he blamed me like I blamed myself.
After all, the person hurt Chester because of me. It
was
my fault he
almost died. The guilt of that was slowly eating me up inside.

As we pulled up into our driveway, the door opened on the
brown Sedan that was parked on the street outside our house. DI Neeson smiled
over at us, taking off her sunglasses and tossing them into the car. “Good
afternoon,” she greeted warmly as I climbed out and crossed the front yard to
her car.

“Hi. Have you been waiting long?” I asked, nodding at the
newspaper that was strewn across her front seat where she’d obviously been sat
for a while.

She waved her hand dismissively. “Not long.” She nodded
towards the house, digging in her pocket and bringing out three bunches of
keys. “Let’s go inside and put the kettle on, I have some information for you.”

Alex stiffened, his hand going up to grip my shoulder
supportively. “Do you know who this guy is? Have you arrested him?”

DI Neeson shook her head in rejection, waving her hand
towards the house again. “Let’s talk inside.”

I gulped. For some reason this seemed like it was going to
be bad news. I lagged behind as the police lady and Alex both headed to the
house, using the new keys to open the door. I hesitated at the door, for some
reason not wanting to go in. The house was too quiet. After seeing Chester in
the veterinary hospital, still so weak, I couldn’t help but miss him greeting
me at the door.

Alex and DI Neeson headed straight to the kitchen, so I
stopped in the hallway, steeling myself for whatever I was going to hear. Was
she going to confirm that it was Sandy? Was she going to tell me that they were
arresting her right now and that it was all over? Or was that grim expression
on her face for some other reason?

“Maisie, want coffee?” Alex shouted from the kitchen.

I gulped, knowing I needed to get it over with. Taking a
couple of deep breaths, I forced myself to move again and walked into the
kitchen, seeing them both standing there. “Yeah, thanks.” I nodded, smiling
gratefully. I took a lot of sugar in my coffee so the boost would probably be a
good thing right now.