Off Limits Read online

  Luke rolled his eyes. “She’s always like that. Whatever, I’ve deflected her a thousand times before. Let’s just get on with the German.”

  The ride went significantly quicker when we were actually communicating and it almost irritated me how quickly Luke picked up on what I was telling him. Maybe he’d just skived off in German to the extreme for all these years or something.

  “Okay, I’m going to come in and be your first customer because I’m starving. If I order in German I guess that’ll be okay.”

  “This entire thing is horribly embarrassing,” he grimaced. “I really wish it was anyone but you that was here, I mean, seriously.”

  “To be fair, I haven’t made fun of you. I could have been really cruel,” and I’d been on the verge of it many times. “Anyway,” my stomach rumbled and interrupted us. “Let’s go.”

  Luke’s boss was incredibly weird looking. I couldn’t quite place what it was, but I felt uncomfortable whenever he smiled. “Luke, it’s going to be a busy day today. Your colleague has handed in their notice unexpectedly.”

  I hovered in the corner. “No problem,” we were both pretty sure this wasn’t going to take much learning. “Are you wanting to order something?” He checked with me. “I’m not sure what you’re going to do for the four hours I’m working. The car will be cold and dark.”

  His boss’s eyes lit up. “If you’re free then I’m sure we could use some help for the night. Is cash in hand okay? Thirty pounds for the four hours?”

  I spared Luke a glance, but he didn’t look offended by the arrangement. “Sure, that would be cool.”

  The fish and chip shop was ridiculously easy to run. Luke took the orders and I dealt out the food for the most part. It was only the hairnet that really got on my nerves.

  “This is so funny,” Luke exclaimed, grinning ear to ear as I attempted to fit my excessively long hair into the thing. It normally sat to the dip in my hip and I felt almost bare without it.

  “Maybe this was a bad idea after all.”

  Luke’s boss – Tyler, he’d later revealed – hung around in the background for about an hour until he knew we were sorted. After that, he went into the back room and didn’t come out. I felt more at ease when Luke and I could just do our thing without a watchful eye staring us down.

  We didn’t make a single mistake, as far as I was aware, and there were a few lulls where we actually got some German practice done.

  Tyler reappeared when the shift was over and put the closed sign across the door. “Good work, both of you.”

  We nodded, unsure what else there was to say to that.

  “And so, Carmen, I’d like to offer you the more permanent job, if you’d be interested. It would be the same contract, hours and wages as Luke and starting immediately.”

  I glanced up at Luke once more, but he was impartial. It was my decision. “Sure, that would be really great, thank you.” This way, we could get the German done and I’d actually have some money coming in. I could be less reliant on my mother for everything.

  “Excellent,” he shook my hand and went to fetch a piece of paper. He’d clearly been preparing this whilst we’d been working. “Just sign here and we can sort out all the bank details and stuff later.”

  He’d said it was the same as Luke’s so, probably stupidly, I just signed it.

  “Well, that’s all sorted then. I’ll see you tomorrow at the same time.” He handed me the thirty pounds as promised. My regular wage worked out as slightly less than that, but it was still more money than I’d ever had before.

  “Is anywhere even still open at this time?” Luke asked as we left the shop and braced the cold. “Well, anywhere that sells mascara.”

  I was too busy shivering to really register what he was saying. I’d been working in my school uniform with an apron on top and whilst the chippy had been boiling, the outside weather at nearly nine o’clock wasn’t so pleasant. “I think that Tesco’s will be open. I’m pretty sure they close at ten and they always have some make-up.”

  “Okay, cool, I hope you didn’t take the job just because of the German thing by the way. You didn’t have to do that.”

  I smirked, “I’m really just after the money, don’t worry. I’m not that generous at all.”

  “Well, that’s good, then. Hey, are you cold? You can have my jumper if you want.” He shrugged out of the big, black fleece I’d been ogling. It did look awfully cosy.

  “Nah, it’s cool. I’m sure it’s not that far to the shop,” I had to hope, anyway. I’d only been to Chesterfield a few times and really hoped I was remembering the way correctly. I wrapped my arms around myself and wondered if Luke and I could have always been this civil if we’d given each other the chance.

  It was surprisingly nice.

  He draped the fleece over my shoulders. “I really try to be a gentleman sometimes.”

  Pushing my arms through the sleeves, I buried my face in the material that swarmed my small frame. It smelt like Luke. “Thank you.”

  But he couldn’t hide the fact he was freezing almost as soon as he’d relinquished his fleece. I couldn’t help but feel a little bit guilty, but my comfort cancelled it out.

  Inside the shop, I picked up the cheapest mascara and took it to the till. Luke hovered in the warm blower at the entrance and rubbed his hands up and down his arms rapidly. I couldn’t resist the mental smile. I’d definitely never expectedly gentlemanly Luke to be shown to me.

  He’d obviously forgiven my goof with Phoebe earlier.

  Back outside, I shoved my mascara in his pocket and handed him back the fleece. “I think we can call it a truce if you have it for the walk back to the car. You are driving, after all. And I’ve just crashed your whole job thing.”

  He accepted the sweater reluctantly, before holding out the unzipped front. I raised an eyebrow at him. “Get in,” he reiterated, shaking the jacket once more.

  I hesitated for only a second before aligning myself against Luke and letting him zip up the jacket. My back crushed against his chest, I was definitely nice and warm. Heat flooded me almost unexpectedly. “Warm enough now?”

  I nodded, not sure I could manage to speak without sounding husky. It was a jokey thing from someone who was apparently trying to be my friend, but my cheeks were burning in the darkness and nothing could stop my heart pounding.

  It appeared there was going to be another phase of me desperately wanting to bang Luke coming on.

  We reached the car in three times the time it should have taken, but we were in fits of giggles and I’d almost fallen over at least twelve times.

  Luke undid the jumper and I stepped out, really trying not to act weird. I didn’t want to be too friendly, but I didn’t want to be obscurely shy, either. Just normal would be fine.

  “I’ll remember to bring my own jumper next time, I promise.”

  Luke chuckled and unlocked the car, running a hand through his unruly black hair. “That would probably be a good idea. Now let’s get home, because I’m really starving. We should have just grabbed some chips before we left.”

  I’d been hungry for a good four hours now and the thought of food was very appealing. I slid into his passenger seat and rummaged through my bag, pulling out a bag of crisps. That would at least put us both on.

  It was when we were halfway back that I spotted a familiar car. The smile I’d been wearing as we joked about Phoebe’s awful taste in music dimmed and I stared in the rear-view mirror. “Pass me your phone.”

  When he hesitated, I reached into his pocket and grabbed it myself. “Where did you save that number plate?”

  Luke told me where, his own eyes glued to the car I’d seen now, too. This was going to be the confirmation we needed.

  And as I compared, my humour slowly drained and became fear. “It’s the same one,” I clasped Luke’s phone so tight that it was probably on the verge of breaking. “He really is targeting us.”

  Luke slammed the accelerator on and I felt my stomach drop.
I’d never been entirely comfortable in speeding cars, but for once I could accept it was better than being followed by that creep.

  Surprisingly enough, the blue car didn’t follow. Knowing they were too scared of a speeding ticket to catch us up was something, I supposed. “What do we do now?”

  “I have no idea,” and there was no way either of us could know what to do. “Maybe we should go to the police now and tell them what we know. They might check it out or something.”

  “Maybe,” I wasn’t sure what they would do other than explain how we were paranoid about the fact we’d seen a car that happened to have the same number plate twice in one day. We couldn’t prove that it was the same car that had followed us before. “I bet they wouldn’t even look into it, though. Don’t we need some proof or something?”

  “I guess you’ll have to google it and let me know or something. I’ve got no internet access at mine.”

  I made a mental note to do that, but it would be on my mind so much there was no chance I’d forget. Having an apparent stalker wasn’t something I was likely to just forget about. “Sure.”

  At Luke’s house, my nerves hadn’t completely calmed. I still found myself staring around before getting out of the car and my hands were permanently clammy. How was I supposed to ever feel safe again after this?

  Inside, Luke greeted his mother and we all sat ourselves down in the living room. “Do we have any chips?” He checked. “I need something quick to put in the oven for us to eat.”

  “Yes! And some fish fingers, too, and I bought a gorgeous loaf of bread this morning. That’s a good tea right there.”

  He excused himself and I was left alone with this mother. It was probably awkward enough already, but I only made it worse by saying something stupid. It had been occupying my mind ever since I’d been offered the job, though, and I really just wanted to help.

  My parents were fucked, but at least Angela and Luke could be happy. I might resent him for it sometimes, but he most definitely deserved better than a chippy. And his mum seemed nice enough, too.

  “They offered me a job at the same place Luke worked today,” I was rushing my words and my fingers were white from clasping them together so hard, but I needed to say this before Luke came back. “And Luke told me about all the stuff you’re going through and… well, I wanted to offer you half my pay check. And I’m really not trying to be like charitable or anything like that, I don’t know if Luke said anything, but my parents are going through a messy divorce right now and there’s really nothing I can do about that, but well… I really, I really kind of like Luke and I think he deserves not to have to worry about this so I’m just offering for him. If that makes sense.”

  Angela was watching me with wide eyes and her mouth opened and closed once in silence. “I really can’t take money from you, I’m sorry.”

  It was of course the first response, it had to be to be polite, but I really wanted to do this. My mother spent her spare cash on fancy clothes and stupid furniture that didn’t fit in our house. It was almost a blessing if she had to spend some of that on petrol and my insurance. Whereas Luke, he was nice and I was in the stupid phase where I fancied the pants off him.

  I just wanted to help someone out.

  “I know that you think I’m probably being weird or something, and I’m really trying not to be patronising, I just want to help. It would only be half my pay check, it probably wouldn’t even be that much money.”

  Angela couldn’t even look at me, but I knew she was dying to say yes. It was an irresistible offer and I was genuine. I hoped that came across. “I would pay you back every penny, with interest, if you wanted.”

  “There’s no point in putting you in even more debt. Just take the money.”

  I’d never really done anything genuinely nice for someone before. I mean, minor things, of course, but I’d never given to charity or volunteered or gone out of my way to do something. This took limited effort and it made me feel incredibly good about myself.

  I was consumed in a hug. “I’ll never be able to repay you for this.”

  “I don’t want you to, and I don’t want you to tell Luke, if he starts acting all soppy then I’ll be really sad. I just want things to stay the same, but for him to not have so much of a burden, you know?”

  “Thank you,” it was a teary hug that went on almost uncomfortably long. I really didn’t want to end up sobbing myself. “And I’m sorry about your parents. I know it’s hard right now, but you can always talk to me.”

  Giving someone money was a way to buy instant friendship, I supposed. I wasn’t even entirely sure what I was doing here, doing this.

  Phoebe would probably hate me if she ever found out I not only knew about this, but was actively trying to help and hiding it from her.

  Luke came back into our hug and fixed me with an uncertain look. I just shrugged. “I told her about my parents.”

  “Ah,” and then the conversation turned to the stupid things that had been happening in the news recently. It was easy and light conversation that I missed having with my own parents. Even though they’d been technically separated for months, they’d always been civil and that was all I’d cared about.

  I munched on my food contently, finally not having to worry that my stomach would make an embarrassing noise. I really wanted to avoid feeding Luke ammunition.

  When it was time to leave, I hovered in his hallway and could barely bring myself to look outside into the darkness.

  There was no way I could drive home tonight, both Luke and I knew that.

  “You should sleep on my sofa and then drive home in the morning. We’ll drive to school together.”

  “Thank you,” I kicked off the one shoe I’d managed to put on. “I really just didn’t want to drive tonight.”

  He smirked, “yeah, I really wouldn’t have fancied it myself. And I probably wouldn’t have forgiven myself if this creepy stalker man tried to nab you. This is probably the best solution.”

  I ignored the slight fluttering in my stomach. The same would apply to anyone. “Yeah, I think so too,” I decided to just avoid any kind of emotional response to his last sentence. Maybe I was coming up to my period if I was this sappy.

  “Well, I guess we can watch a film or something,” he checked his watch, “my mum will be heading to bed in a few minutes. She has to start work at five in the morning.”

  He explained what was happening to his mum and she gave me an odd sort of smile, just warning us to keep the noise down.

  “Let’s go get pyjamas and a duvet whilst my mum’s still up and then we can come pick a film,” Luke suggested, following his mum up the stairs. “I don’t think either of our pyjamas will fit you, I’ll see if I’ve got an older, smaller pair or something.”

  I disappeared into the bathroom with the threadbare pyjamas he handed me. “I would offer you some boxers, but that might be a bit too weird,” he smirked as I shut the door.

  They were too big for me and I looked completely ridiculous. The shirt came down to my knees and I had to pull the string incredibly tight to keep the gingham bottoms up around my waist. I was definitely going to trip over the excessively long trouser legs. After washing my face and noting how pale and ill I looked without my make-up, I made my way downstairs.

  Luke had already draped a quilt and a pillow over the sofa and was crouched down by the DVD cabinet. “Kick Ass okay? I’ve had a bit of a craving to watch it for the past few days. I’ve got popcorn in the microwave.”

  Cuddling down under the covers and snatching the pillow for myself, I agreed that was cool. I loved that film and popcorn was always welcome.

  When the opening began, I really tried to concentrate, but I had to ask the question. “Which one of us do you think that weirdo is after?”

  Luke sighed, huddled up under the covers on his own side of the sofa and looking like this was the last thing he wanted to talk about. “I really don’t know,” knowing would have probably been worse, really. At le
ast this way we were completely in it together. “I don’t think I’ve ever done anything that would piss someone off so much they’d ever stalk me.”

  “I guess I’m a girl. Girls have to put up with creepy stalking stuff sometimes, right? Then again, I’m sure guys do, too. I don’t think I’ve ever pissed anyone off. I tend to stay out of people’s ways most of the time. I mean, I don’t like Phoebe’s friends that much, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never shown that to anyone.”

  “I really don’t think we’ll know until he wants us to.” I supposed we’d mentally agreed this was a man. His silhouette had definitely looked manly. “And I don’t want to know what will happen then. We need to figure something out, really, instead of hoping he just pisses off one day and gets bored.”

  I gripped the covers and lost my appetite for the popcorn that was sitting between us. “I’ll google the police thing tomorrow and see what it says. There must be something they can do.”