Off Limits Read online

  “You’re going to get immaculate grades, well, apart from maybe the German. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

  He waved me off, clearly unwilling to explain. “Let’s just get out of here. If I spend any more time with you I might go insane. Then I’ll not pass any of my exams.”

  I threw my bag of face wipes at him. “Thank God. I never thought a day would come where I’d have to spend this much time just with you. I really hope you learn this stuff quickly.”

  “Phoebe’s going to be so sad that we’re not best friends already.”

  “Maybe you should give her a ring and get her to pick you up. I’m sure she’d be more than happy. I really can’t be bothered to drive right now.” I’d remembered that there was still a tub of ice cream in the fridge and, if I was lucky, I’d find some alcohol from rummaging around in my cupboards. “Or you could just walk.” Luke had gotten up to grab his bag and I threw myself onto the bed.

  “It’s not that far to mine. Like twenty minutes or something.” Luke tugged on my long red hair, trying to drag me up. I groaned, refusing to move.

  “Get your mum to pick you up.”

  “She doesn’t drive.”

  I continued to just lay there, quickly becoming comfortable and knowing I’d made the wrong decision. Getting up now was going to be impossible.

  Luke didn’t give me much choice; grabbing me as if I weighed nothing, he hoisted me over his shoulder. I shrieked, unable to stop myself as I wobbled. Luke secured his grip easily, hand over my hips and dangerously close to my bum. “You’ve still got your car keys, right?”

  “Put me down, idiot,” I hissed, really trying hard not to react to the physical contact. He wasn’t exactly gentle, with fingers digging into my skin, and I wasn’t having the most innocent thoughts. “I’ll give you a stupid lift home if you tell me where you live.”

  I could practically hear the grin in Luke’s voice as he explained that it would be more fun to piss my mother off by bringing me downstairs like this. I continued to bang on his back as if it would do something and when he bent down to go through my door, I couldn’t stop the small scream that left my mouth.

  I’d never been good with heights.

  My mum had opened the door the second she heard us on the stairs and she could only grimace up at our position. “What do you think you’re doing, young lady? I expressly said I wanted that door kept open.”

  “Sorry Mrs. Slater,” Luke’s voice was full of cheek and even I blushed at the arrogance. “I’ll try and keep that in mind next time.” His step didn’t falter as he whisked me past my mother and she was staring, almost open mouthed. I’d had plenty of boyfriends in the past, but I’d always made an effort not to bring them home. No doubt our position wasn’t giving my mum impressed thoughts.

  “See you later, mum,” I called, deciding to just roll with it and loving the angry expression on her face. I’d explain that Luke was as far from a boyfriend as could possibly be later, but for now this was too amusing to pass up.

  At my car, Luke placed me down and his hands lingered on my hips for only a second. “I hope she doesn’t ground you or something.”

  “I wouldn’t listen, so it doesn’t matter. Her expression was priceless.”

  Luke rolled his eyes. “You know where I live?”

  “Nope. Is it someone I’ll know?”

  He gave me the address and I chucked him my keys, not recognising the street name at all. “If you hurt my car I will kill you.”

  We were heading in the opposite direction to school, so Luke must have had one hell of a drive every morning and afternoon. The days he wasn’t staying at Phoebe’s, anyway.

  “I really need to ask for your help with something,” Luke turned down the music I’d been blasting out. “It’s kind of important.”

  I frowned. That wasn’t the insult or joke I’d been expecting. “What’s up?”

  “I have a job that I’m supposed to be working in the evenings starting next week, so I can’t really practice the German after all.”

  I stared. “Well, why didn’t you just tell Phoebe that, then?”

  He scratched the back of his head. “I don’t want to tell her about it at all. I’m working at a fish and chip shop and you know how all her family is. I don’t want her looking down on me or anything.”

  “I can’t lie to her. And you know she’s not like that, anyway. Did you see the house I just came out of? And we’ve been best friends for years.” He was being completely ridiculous. “Just tell her and it would be fine.”

  “I’m not telling her. It’s more complicated than that,” he took a deep breath and spilled everything. “When my parents divorced, my dad spent loads of money in my mother’s name and we still haven’t paid it off. He’s been gone to who knows where for two years now. I need this job and I don’t want to have to explain why.”

  “So, you want me to lie to Phoebe and tell her that you’re practising German with me when you’re actually working.”

  “I would really appreciate it,” he was pushing his luck so much. No wonder he’d been so eager to aid my quest of pissing my mum off. “I just need to have this job to help out my mum.”

  I really weighed this up, and wasn’t sure why I was on the verge of accepting. “She’s my best friend,” I repeated. “Doesn’t she know anything about your financial problems?”

  “No, she doesn’t and she doesn’t need to. It’s embarrassing, okay? I just want to put it all behind me.”

  “Fine.”

  I wasn’t even sure what made me do it. Probably because I was feeling so miserable about my own parents that if Luke could solve his parental problem then at least someone would be happy. Maybe it was because he’d managed to cheer me up a bit and so I was feeling rather impartial towards him at the moment.

  Either way, it was probably the wrong decision. Phoebe and I didn’t lie to each other and I was being an idiot.

  “I can still tutor you a bit, too, if you want. If it would help, I mean.” I wasn’t sure what possessed me to do that, either. Maybe it was that this way it would be a direct lie when I told Phoebe I was helping Luke.

  “That would be really helpful, thank you.”

  We stopped speaking after that, but I stared out the window with the smallest of smiles. This was definitely an interesting turn of events. One that I was letting supposedly buried feelings dictate in a beyond stupid gesture.

  “Hey, erm, I think we’re being followed,” Luke adjusted his mirror and I turned in my seat. It was a rundown blue Ford, travelling at an acceptable distance behind us. It was too dark to see who was in the driver’s seat.

  “Are you sure? He’s probably just going the same way as us.”

  At the next street, Luke made the turn-off at the very last second, bashing my forehead against the window and making me swear. “Couldn’t you have warned me?”

  There was a very smug “no,” in response.

  “See, it was nothing,” I muttered, seeing the empty road behind us.

  Luke’s hands turned white on the steering wheel. “Check again.”

  The car was speeding to catch up with us and my heart beat made a rapid incline. “What do you think he wants?” I stared out the window, trying to get a glimpse of the person inside, but it was no good. We were being chased down by some unknown creep who knew exactly how far away he needed to be to remain anonymous. “Do you think he’s going to hurt us?”

  Luke kept his eyes on the road, gnawing on his lip. “I think I’ve got a plan.”

  He didn’t sound confident enough for any relief to hit me. Instead, I concentrated on the worst possible outcome and sent myself into a nervous mess. “I hope it’s a good one.”

  When he pulled up outside a large, detached house I fired Luke a grimace. “You’re complaining about money issues and you live here?”

  “Of course I don’t live here,” Luke rolled his eyes, cutting out the engine. “I wasn’t going to just drive home and let that creeper know where I li
ve. Now, get out of the car.”

  I really tried my best not to stare at the car which had pulled up just a way down on the other side of the street and focused on wondering what it must be like to live somewhere like this. It was comparable to Phoebe’s house and Phoebe’s family was practically perfect. Perhaps if they’d had money it would have saved my parent’s relationship.

  Luke started walking up the drive and I tried to resist gluing myself to his side. I felt safer next to Luke than anyone I could think of, I had to admit. “What are we doing?”

  “You’re going to say goodbye to me and then he’s going to drive off. Well, hopefully. If he’s just after a house to rob or an address then he’ll drive off when he thinks I live here.”

  I tugged on the ends of my long, red hair. “And what if he doesn’t drive off?”

  “Then I’ll go over there and ask him what the fuck he wants,” Luke muttered, continuing up the unreasonably long driveway. Neither of us wanted a confrontation. I just wanted to go to bed at this point.

  I’d never been followed before and there was the horrid, nagging feeling at the back of my brain telling me that this was personal. It was like I tried to make everything as awful as possible for myself, but I couldn’t banish the thought. This would shake me up for weeks, I was sure.

  At the door, the car had shown no signs of moving. “What do I do now?”

  “Give me a hug, then he might know we’re leaving,” Luke instructed. It was pitch black where we were; no outside light had come on and the streetlight was too far away to really help.

  “Do I really have to?” It was almost an attempt at a joke, but Luke ignored me and wrapped his arms around me.

  It was a hug I hadn’t entirely realised I’d needed, but as I reciprocated, I found my cheek resting on his chest. I probably wouldn’t be getting another hug for ages, with my dad gone. Luke was warm and his hands were relaxing on the small of my back.

  Maybe this was something else I could add to the list of things I envied Phoebe for.

  “Is he gone?” I mumbled, resisting the urge to tighten my arms around him. I didn’t need to make this weird.

  “No, he’s not. You’re going to have to walk back to your car.”

  My hands were starting to get clammy and there was a layer of sweat under my bangs despite the chilly wind. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m still close enough to do something if he makes a move. It’ll be fine. I’m just going to pretend to stand here and watch you leave.”

  I sighed. “Okay then, Romeo. I really hope you’re right about this.”

  “When am I ever wrong?”

  I did give him a quick squeeze before letting go, I couldn’t help myself. Then, I took the agonisingly long walk back to the car. My steps were slower paced than normal and I tugged on my hair so much that I was probably going to have a bald patch.

  When I reached the large shrub at the end of the driveway, the car sped off.

  I turned back to Luke, who was already coming down the driveway in a light jog. “He’s gone,” I stated, blinking rapidly. “I can’t believe that worked.”

  “Don’t sound so surprised that I had a great idea,” there was more relief than humour in his voice, though. “Come on, we should get going, in case he comes back.”

  Inside the car, I really tried to calm myself down. That was that and it had been a minor scare, nothing to become paranoid over. Everyone was followed at some point in their life, probably. “You know I’ve got no idea how to get home now.” We’d taken so many quick turns around small backstreets that I was completely lost. I’d never driven around this area before.

  “You’re kidding? Well, whatever, I’ll have to draw you a map or something when we get in. I have awful signal at my place, it’s near a forest and stuff.”

  The thought of driving myself home made me feel quite ill, hopefully that would have passed by the time we got there.

  We pulled up outside a house that was almost identical to my own. It was like we’d never left. The only difference was that the tiny front garden Luke had was perfect. It was still freezing February at the moment, but I knew in summer it would be even more gorgeous. Our garden was always an overgrown mess, impossible for sun bathing in on the couple of sunny days we got a year.

  There was no hiding the fact we both rushed into the house and I didn’t look back over my shoulder. “Hi mum!” Luke called out, kicking off his shoes and gesturing for me to do the same.

  His house was old-fashioned but beautiful inside. It was obviously cheap furniture, but there was something about the way it was arranged that made it look incredibly cosy. Vanilla was a soothing welcome.

  Luke embraced a small, greying woman when we left the cramped hallway and entered the lounge. “Hi, honey. How was your day today? Oh, hello!” She stuck her hand out in welcoming to me. “You must be Phoebe, right? Just as pretty as Luke always described.”

  My cheeks flamed, as was the curse of being ginger.

  “That’s not Phoebe,” Luke chuckled at my face. It wasn’t even anything to get embarrassed about, but my body never seemed to realise that. “This is Carmen.”

  “Oh,” there was a recognition on his mother’s face that couldn’t possibly have been good. “It’s nice to meet you, Carmen. I’ve heard a lot of different things about you.”

  I laughed. “I really do hope it was Luke whining because I’d managed to terrorise him effectively.”

  His mother grinned. “Something like that,” she turned to her son, “what are you both doing here?”

  “Carmen’s helping me out with my German and I didn’t have my car. I need to draw her a map or something. Is the Wi-Fi working?”

  His mother sighed. “Not this month. I’ll have it sorted soon.”

  “No problem, do you guys want me to get you anything to eat?”

  I shook my head, my appetite was severely lacking right now. “No, thank you.”

  “Come and help me look for a pen and paper,” Luke beckoned for me to follow him.

  In the kitchen, I figured I’d save him the pain of having to explain an entire twenty minutes of driving to me. “I really don’t want to drive home by myself.”

  “The person following us was a one-off thing. You don’t have to be scared about it.”

  The thought of going around the back roads, when I wasn’t entirely sure where I was going and it was pitch black, had me sick to my stomach. “But what if it wasn’t?”

  Luke didn’t look completely relaxed. “I know, I think you probably shouldn’t drive home by yourself, either. I mean, you can have my sofa, if you want. Or I can drive you home and then I’ll bring you back tomorrow when it’s not so weird to pick your car up.”

  “Wait,” I cut the conversation short, his mother’s comment dawning on me. “Phoebe’s never been here?”

  “No.”

  “Why not? Have you actually be lying to her straight out about your financial situation, or something?” It was all a bit bizarre, to be honest.

  “I never lied, I just, don’t really mention it. I mean, I have to tell her I can’t afford to do stuff sometimes, but that’s it. I’m just not finding any reason to bring her home yet.”

  “Phoebe’s not the kind of person to just accept that you don’t want to bring her home. She must be pestering you to meet your mum.” I knew Luke had met her parents within a week of them starting dating.

  He shifted on his heels, pouring a glass of water. “I just don’t want to, okay? I will do at some point, but not now. We’ve not been going out for ages yet, anyway. It doesn’t even matter,” he scowled suddenly. “And it’s really none of your business.”

  “It’s none of my business, apart from the bit where you’d probably rather I didn’t mention the fact I’d been here and how you want me to lie to her about your job?”

  “Yes, pretty much,” Luke grimaced, putting down the glass. “I’ll drive you home.”

  It worked out better this way, I supposed. It was none of
my business, really. I should stay out of their relationship. All Phoebe wanted was for us to get along, not to become slowly more and more engrossed in her boyfriend. The fact I was lying to her for him didn’t bode well.

  I needed to sort my priorities out.

  In the room, I offered Luke’s mum a small smile and she expressed the pleasantry that it was nice to meet me.

  “Nice to meet you too,” I trailed off awkwardly. Going by what Luke had told me about his dad, calling her Mrs. Foster would have probably been a mistake.