Free Falling Read online

  He raised one eyebrow at me. “No,” was all he said, and I couldn’t help but smile. He grinned happily at me as he tugged me towards the kitchen and the smell of deliciousness that wafted through the house. “So, think you’ll get anything nice for your eighteenth?”

  I grinned, thinking about the locket that was hanging around my neck. “I guess I’ll have to wait and see if the birthday fairy has been,” I joked, squeezing my arm around his waist. That was something he used to tell me and my twin brother, Alex, when we were younger and were too excited to go to sleep the night before our birthday, that if we didn’t go to sleep then the birthday fairy wouldn’t come. When we stepped into the kitchen I laughed as I took in the array of pink and blue balloons, the happy 18th banners, and the presents scattered over the dining table. “Well the birthday fairy’s been in here!”

  My dad grinned, and I chewed on my lip excitedly. Today was going to be a great day, sure I was going to school, but I’d get to hang out with Luke at lunchtime. Tonight we were all going out for family dinner; both sets of my grandparents were coming too. I’d managed to convince my parents that Luke needed to come with us because he was part of my ‘extended family’. Then tomorrow was Friday, which meant that Luke was taking me to an all ages night at a club to celebrate my birthday. Saturday night would be even better though, because on Saturday Luke and I were going camping near the lake, just the two of us. I sighed contentedly. My life was just perfect, and eighteen was definitely going to be my year.

  Chapter 2

  I dressed in my usual casual attire of jeans and a plain fitted T-shirt, scraping my long brown hair back into a ponytail, the same as every other day. As usual, I didn’t bother with any make-up. I wasn’t exactly a girlie girl so things like that didn’t happen in my normal dressing routine. I skipped back down the stairs and stopped when I heard Luke’s voice in the kitchen. He was talking to my dad.

  “Clay, it’s only camping, we’ve been before and you didn’t mind,” he stated.

  I heard a heavy sigh. “Yeah, but Alex went then too, and other friends. All I’m saying is that you’d better take care of her. I don’t like the idea of you two being alone together all night, but I guess I need to accept that she’s an adult now.” Dad’s voice was a little gruff as he spoke.

  “Honestly, you don’t have anything to worry about. I’ll always take care of her,” Luke answered. He sounded extremely exasperated so I wondered how long my dad had been grilling him for. I hadn’t heard him arrive so for all I knew he could have been subjected to the inquisition the whole time I was showering and dressing for school. Luke certainly put up with a lot from my dad, but other than the occasional threats and stuff they got on great.

  “Look, it’s just that you two are moving on so fast, what with the whole applying for the same colleges thing… I just don’t want any mistakes to mess up your futures. You understand what I’m saying?”

  “Yeah, of course. Maisie and I are always really responsible like that,” Luke replied easily, as if talking to my dad about our sex life wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. “I know we’re young but you knew you were in love at our age, you and Riley were already married by the time you were our age.”

  “Riley and I are different, I’d known her my whole life,” my dad countered defensively.

  “And I’ve known Maisie since we were thirteen.”

  I decided it was time to put an end to this conversation before my dad started getting annoyed or anything. He honestly did like Luke, but he just hated the thought of his little girl growing up. He never seemed to mind Alex going to parties or hooking up with girls all the time, but a serious boyfriend for his little girl was something entirely different.

  I cleared my throat as I walked around the corner, gaining their attention immediately. “I’m ready to go whenever you’re done with this little man-to-man chat,” I joked, waving my hand between the two of them.

  Luke smirked at me and my dad grinned sheepishly, like he’d been caught in the act. “I was just telling Luke about the potential bear threat for Saturday night. Maybe you should just stay home to be on the safe side?” Dad suggested, laughing quietly.

  I shrugged. “We’ll take anti bear spray,” I joked, playing along.

  Luke laughed and stood up from the stool he was perched on, coming over and draping his arm across my shoulders. “Happy birthday,” he whispered, kissing the side of my head as he held up a bunch of daisies. That was his flower of choice for me. He always bought them because when we first started dating I’d joked and told him they were my favourite because they rhymed with my name. He’d since learned that they weren’t my favourites, but it kind of stuck, so daisies were his thing now.

  I smiled gratefully and pressed against him, my stomach fluttering because of his presence. Gripping the front of his grey hoodie, I pulled him closer to me and pressed my lips against his. Almost instantly a loud, dramatic throat clearing came from my dad’s direction, so I pulled back and shot him a glare. Clearly it was alright for him to make out with my mom all the time, but I wasn’t even allowed to kiss my boyfriend hello on my birthday.

  “Thanks, Luke.” I smiled down at the flowers as I slipped my hand into the back pocket of his jeans.

  He smiled and brushed his knuckles across my cheek, his eyes soft and tender as he looked at me. “You ready to go before your dad starts hounding me again?” he joked, grinning slyly at my dad who rolled his eyes but smiled despite himself.

  I nodded, chuckling. I stepped away from him and kissed my dad’s cheek. “Thanks so much for all my presents, you didn’t need to buy me all of that.” They’d gone above and beyond this year, buying me a wicked new laptop ready for when I went to college in a couple of months, and a beautiful new watch.

  He waved his hand dismissively. “It was your eighteenth. Your mom and I thought you’d rather the laptop than a car of your own…” He trailed off looking at me hopefully, as if he suddenly doubted their decision. They’d bought my brother a car, just a starter car of his own, nothing new or special, but he’d loved it and ran out of the house wearing nothing but a pair of boxers just so he could test drive it. I wasn’t even sure he was back yet.

  I smiled and nodded. “I love the laptop, it’s incredible, and it’s way better than a car.”

  His shoulders loosened as he smiled. “Not sure your brother would agree.”

  “Yeah but Alex just hates driving around in Mom’s cherry red Rover.” I held up my flowers to him. “Can you ask Mom to put them in a vase for me?”

  “We’d better get going, Maisie,” Luke said from behind me, tugging on the end of my ponytail playfully. I smiled and took the hand he was offering, letting him pull me out of the kitchen. I couldn’t stop the excited grin that spread across my face. Today I was eighteen, a legal adult; I was the baby of my group of friends so this day had seemed to take forever to get here.

  “Have a good day at school. Don’t forget we’re going for dinner tonight. Your grandparents will be here at six!” my dad called as we walked out of the door.

  As we pulled into the parking lot, the car was immediately swamped with people, the same as it was every morning. Luke’s friends and teammates all converged around us, wanting his attention about some sport that was on last night that I just wasn’t interested in. I put on my polite fake smile and stepped out of the car. I couldn’t stand Luke’s friends, they were complete and utter jerks, and I genuinely had no idea why Luke hung around with them at all.

  “Luuuuuuuuke!” Ricky jeered, playfully punching him in the ribs. I tried my hardest not to groan as I looked longingly at the front door of the school. I didn’t want to stand here today and listen to them drone on about football, parties, girls and more girls. I just wanted to get inside and talk to people who actually liked me, instead of people who tolerated me because I was dating the quarterback.

  “What up, bud?” Luke greeted him, slinging his arm around my shoulder, stopping my escape. I sighed quietly and sat on
the hood of his car, preparing myself to be bored stiff, when surprisingly Luke shook his head. “Can’t stop to talk, my lady has a birthday today so I’m guessing she wants to go see her friends?” Luke said, looking at me with a smile.

  I kissed him quickly and nodded. “Yeah. You stay here and talk though, I’ll see you at lunchtime,” I suggested, jumping off of the hood of his car, ignoring how the girls sneered at me and looked me over in my choice of outfit. No one thought I was good enough for Luke, no one saw what he saw when he looked at me, but that was okay as far as I was concerned, as long as he saw it then that was all I needed. I couldn’t resist sending a smug smile to Sandy, the queen bee at our school whom every young and impressionable girl aspired to be. I knew she wanted Luke, but he’d never shown the slightest bit of interest in her. She gave me a fake smile in return and just turned away, bitching about me to her friends, it couldn’t have been more obvious if they whispered behind their hands whilst pointing at me.

  Luke frowned and shook his head, pulling me closer to him. “No way. If I could, I would spend your whole birthday with you, but I guess that’s not possible, so I’ll settle for every spare second you have,” he cooed, kissing me softly. Immediately his friends started jeering and making cat calls about how we should get a room. I just ignored them the same as I did every other day.

  He pulled away laughing and playfully punched the nearest guy to him, before nodding towards the front door, signalling for me to lead the way. I practically skipped up to the building, clinging to him. So far, this was easily the best birthday ever. Last year had been pretty special too though, because that was the night that Luke and I first slept together, but for some reason this one just seemed perfect from the very first second I woke up in his arms.

  As we approached my locker, I saw my two best friends, Beth and Charlotte, there waiting for me. They were holding open a homemade banner that said happy birthday on it. I laughed because of how much effort they’d gone to, there was glitter and everything. Both of my friends were adorable, yet so different at the same time. Beth was extremely ditsy and was always off in her own little dream world. Charlotte, on the other hand, was a computer geek. What she could do with computers blew my mind; if something technical needed doing then she was the one to ask. She’d gotten herself into some trouble when she was only fourteen because she had accidentally hacked into the police department network. She hadn’t meant to, she was just fooling around trying to break their security for fun, and actually did. Thankfully they realised that she wasn’t actually trying to do any harm, but I think she was now on their hacker watch list – a feat she was secretly quite proud of.

  “Happy birthday!” they both cheered as I got up to them.

  I smiled and they both grabbed me into a bone crushing hug. “Thanks.”

  “Here, we bought together,” Beth chirped, holding out a flat rectangular present that I already knew was a book because of the shape of it.

  I smiled and tore off the paper. “You didn’t need to get me anything,” I gushed as I pulled it open. Inside was a photo album, they’d done a design on the front, both drawing on it and writing ‘Senior year’ on the front. “Aww, I love this. Thanks girls!”

  “Open it,” Charlotte encouraged.

  I frowned, confused, but opened the front cover to see three tickets for the midnight preview screening of the second Hunger Games movie that came out in a few weeks. I squealed excitedly as I threw my arms around them both. “These are great, I can’t wait!” I chirped as we all started doing a happy dance in the middle of the hallway. From the corner of my eye, I saw the A-list girls looking at us with disapproval, but I just didn’t care, I was happy being a nerd so they could disapprove all they wanted.

  Someone cleared their throat next to us, so we stopped and I looked to see it was a freshman. He shifted on his feet nervously, probably a little scared to approach a senior. “You’re Maisie Preston, aren’t you?” he asked, flicking his eyes to Luke who looked like he was body guarding me because of the glare he was shooting the poor guy.

  “Er, yeah?” I confirmed, confused.

  “Principal Bennett wants to see you in her office,” he muttered, cringing away from Luke as he stepped closer to me possessively.

  The Principal wants to see me? “Oh really? Okay, thanks for telling me.” I smiled at the guy reassuringly because he looked like he was three seconds from passing out. Without saying anything else, he turned and scuttled off. I turned to Luke and raised one eyebrow, waiting for an explanation for that face. “Death glare for a freshman, really?”

  He shrugged casually, not seeming bothered by my stern face. “He was looking at your butt as you were jumping around.”

  I rolled my eyes. Luke could be a little possessive sometimes, but I could handle that, being with him was worth putting up with a little jealousness every now and then. “So what? People look at you all the time, does that mean I have to start glaring at the girls for looking at something that’s mine?” I asked, smirking at him playfully.

  He smiled and pulled me closer to him, crushing the photo album and tickets between our bodies. “I love it when you call me yours,” he whispered, looking at me hungrily. I smiled and pressed my lips to his, biting on his bottom lip gently, making his fingers dig into the small of my back.

  Suddenly his arms were gone from my waist and his body jerked away from mine. I looked up, shocked; Luke was now a foot away from me. My brother, Alex, had hold of the back of his sweater as he frowned angrily. “Five inch gap between you and my sister while I’m around, you know that, Hannigan,” he growled, pushing Luke away from me.

  I sighed in exasperation. Sometimes my twin was the most annoying thing in the world with his protectiveness. “Grow up, Alex. Just go run along and try and get your fill of some slut’s pants before school starts, huh?” I waved my hand dismissively. Alex didn’t like Luke much, never had done for some reason.

  Alex frowned at my comment but didn’t reply. Instead, his blue eyes that were the exact shade of mine turned to Charlotte. He swept one hand through his messy dark blond hair as he turned on the charming smile that most girls in the school swooned over. “Hey, so am I getting a birthday present?” he asked, looking at her suggestively.

  I groaned and rolled my eyes because he was starting earlier than usual today. Flirting with Charlotte was usually restricted to lunchtimes or after school when she came over to our place. It was innocent enough; they were friends really too, but he just liked to tease the life out of her because she wasn’t very experienced in that department. “I forgot to buy you anything,” she answered, shrugging.

  He smiled, his eyes glittering wickedly. “That’s okay; I’ll just take your first kiss.” He leant in close, his lips heading towards hers.

  She squealed and pulled back, frowning at him, pushing on his chest to get him away from her. “That’s not for you to decide!” she retorted, clearly annoyed.

  He smiled and kissed her on the cheek quickly. “You know I’ll get it sooner or later, Char.” He waggled his eyebrows at her before walking off, laughing at her horrified expression.

  I sighed and handed my presents to Beth. “I’d better go see what Principal Bennett wants. I’ll see you guys in class later.”

  Luke groaned and kissed me again as I went to walk off. I kissed him back, gripping the front of his hoodie, not wanting to leave either. “I wanted to spend more time with you on your birthday,” he whined, pouting.

  “You could always sneak in again tonight if you want,” I suggested, shrugging.

  He grinned and nodded eagerly. “I like that idea!” I laughed at his enthusiasm. Luke was coming to the meal with us tonight, so he’d just have to go home then sneak back in again once everyone else was asleep. “I’ll park more than two houses away this time so your ninja mom doesn’t know I’m there.” He laughed, kissing my forehead softly.

  “Good thinking. I’ll see you at lunch.” I patted him on the backside as I walked past, heading to th
e office to see what the Principal wanted. I knew I wasn’t in trouble, I was never in trouble. As I walked into the reception, I was immediately waved through to Principal Bennett’s office.

  She looked up as I walked in, pushing her thick rimmed glasses up her nose as she smiled warmly at me. “Maisie, thank you for coming, dear. I have a favour to ask of you,” she trailed off looking at me hopefully as she waved at the seat opposite her desk.

  I nodded, sitting down. “Okay, sounds intriguing.” I was always being asking to do things, I was on a lot of the committees and panels at school, arranging dances and charity events, I was kind of a ‘go-to girl’ for our Principal.

  “We have a new student starting on Monday. His name is Zachary Anderson. He’s transferring from another school.” A frown lined her forehead. “Anyway, I wondered if you wouldn’t mind meeting him in the morning, giving him the tour of the school, helping him find his classes and locker, that kind of thing,” she said, looking at me hopefully.

  I shrugged and nodded in agreement. “Sure, no problem.”

  She smiled gratefully. “Thank you, Maisie, I appreciate it.” She shuffled some papers on her desk, pushing her glasses up her nose as she read one over. “It looks to me like he was struggling a little in his last school and his aunt has requested a tutor to help him catch up with the new schedule. Would you be interested? She’s willing to pay.” She looked at me questionably over the rim of her glasses.

  I nodded enthusiastically. I loved tutoring and the money always came in handy considering Luke’s family had a ton of money. Compared to the Hannigans, my family looked relatively poor even though my dad earned really good money in his engineering job. Extra cash was always good, and then I didn’t have to let Luke pay all the time when we went out, even though most of the time he insisted anyway.

  “Absolutely. What does he need tutoring in?” I asked, curiously.