Off Limits Page 6

  “I don’t really know. I haven’t spoken to her very much. I’ve been employing awfully good avoidance tactics.” I suspected Luke didn’t feel overly comfortable here, but I really appreciated him tagging along and I knew he’d be glad he had too.

  My dad ran a hand through his hair. He seemed so much greyer and haggard than before, even if it had only been a week. The small, single bed in the corner was little more than a mattress on the floor and it couldn’t have been comfy for sleeping on. “You said you were working?” His eyes had darkened against and I resisted the urge to sigh.

  I knew where this conversation was going.

  “Ah yeah, just at a chippy for a few nights a week. Definitely nothing impressive. For petrol money more than anything.” That would soothe his mind, hopefully. He’d never be able to make himself work in a fish and chip shop, no matter how much he needed the money.

  “Oh, I see. That’s nice, then. I’ve been job searching since I left home even more,” he tapped his foot impatiently. “Some money would be nice.”

  It was the least subtle thing I’d ever heard and for a moment, I really considered giving him my other half. I really didn’t need the money, but my father almost didn’t deserve it. There were plenty of retail jobs that he could have walked into with his previous experience, but he was just unwilling.

  Luke would never have accepted my money even if I’d begged him to take it.

  “I know, I’m sure something will come up soon, though,” I managed a small smile.

  “Have you seen him, yet? Met him?” My dad had seen him the one time he’d caught them in bed, but from my understanding they’d both left the house relatively quickly. I doubted either had even gotten a good look at each other.

  “Neither. Hopefully I never will.”

  He chuckled. “I’m sure you’ll be forced to eventually. Some kind of horrible dinner to get to know him, or something.”

  “Like she’d ever be able to convince me to do that.”

  A quick rapping on the door interrupted the conversation and the guy I’d met downstairs popped his head in without waiting for a response. “You kids need to get out of ‘ere, someone is coming over. Sorry ‘bout the short time, but this is something big. You’ll ‘ave to come back some other time.”

  My dad grimaced, but there was nothing he could do about it. I’d have to find out about his connection to this guy next time I came to visit. “It was really good to see you dad,” we all stood up and I embraced him in a tight hug. “I’ll come and visit again soon, I’ve really missed having you around.”

  “I’ve missed you too, honey, but maybe it would be better if you didn’t come back here again. Wait until I’m more sorted, or come and meet me in a coffee shop. And if you do insist on coming back here, bring him with you,” he stuck his thumb towards Luke before releasing me.

  “I will, don’t worry. I’m not just not going to see you because my mum’s forced you into this situation, though.”

  “I’m sure we’ll work something out,” he turned to Luke and shook his hand once more. “Good to meet you. Make sure you look after her while I’m not around.”

  “Dad.”

  Luke was quite clearly on the verge of making an uncomplimentary remark, but the sentence had clearly struck closer to home than either of us would have liked. We needed to be looking out for each other for sure, because this stalker thing didn’t look like it was going away any time soon. “I will do.”

  “You really need to go,” the guy at the door stressed once more, apparently not moved by our goodbyes.

  “You two should head off. Stay safe and I’ll see you again soon.”

  I gave a sad wave before exiting the door and starting down the stairs. It looked as though we’d not been quick enough because the door opened just as I reached the ground floor. The bald guy who was trailing us pushed his way through and quickly shook the hand of the man at the door. “’Ey up, mate, good to see you, sorry about these, they’re just leaving,” he ushered for us to hurry up and leave.

  The man at the door gave us a once over and I realised he had a glass eye. I tried desperately to stare, keeping my gaze glued to my scuffed up converse. “It’s no problem, I feel better in your business model if you’ve actually got customers at the house.”

  “Right, right, yes,” my dad’s landlord coughed awkwardly and stared us down, letting us know that we still had to leave straight away. I wanted nothing more than to get out of this building as fast as possible. “Still, they were just leaving. We can talk alone.”

  “Excellent,” he took a step forward so the exit was free and I went straight for it, keeping my eyes completely downcast. I almost jumped when I felt his gloved hand on my arm. “Just know that if you ever need anything straight from the source, you can always find me here,” he handed me a car with a number on and I stared at it in horror.

  I definitely didn’t want anything to do with that.

  Luke gave me a slight push from the other side and we exited together, both with pale faces. “I don’t want to go back there again, no matter what I said,” I stuck close to his side even when we were back on the street. “I don’t know what the fuck he’s doing in there.”

  “I’m not letting you go back there, whether you like it or not,” Luke even looked slightly annoyed by the entire thing. “So I’m glad that’s your opinion. What a bunch of sleazeballs. Your dad seems nice enough, anyway.”

  I chuckled, but held up my finger when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. It was an unknown number, which instantly had my guard raised.

  What a sweet family reunion. Just be aware that I know all about your dad’s illegal residence if you were feeling inclined to go to the police about me,

  Love, your friend in the Ford.

  I passed the phone to Luke with a quivering hand and my gaze found the car in no time at all. Parked down the street, facing the other way, there was still no chance I could see his face.

  Luke followed my line of sight and began striding towards the car, fists clenched by his side. “That piece of shit, I’m going to go and show him exactly what he gets when we threatens us. That piece of absolute shit.”

  I had to jog to catch up, and I tugged on Luke’s arm. “Stop, there’s no point. This isn’t going to accomplish anything.” Other than perhaps get him to spill the beans on my dad, of course.

  Luke didn’t listen, but the car had sped off before he was even halfway there. I knew if we hadn’t been stood in the middle of the road, then he would have lashed out at something. “What a dickhead. Who does he think he is to just threaten you like that and drive off like some kind of coward?”

  My fist was still wrapped in the arm of Luke’s jackets and I pulled once more. “There’s nothing we can do about it, come on we just need to get home. We’ll figure something out then.”

  Luke rounded on me. There was something to lash out at after all. “How can you just be standing there so calm? He’s threatening your family, not mine, and I’m on the one going over there to do something about it. How does that work exactly?”

  I wanted to back down, but his tall stature dominated mine anyway. “I’m just trying to be rational. He could have a knife or a gun in there or anything. He’s not exactly looking sane, is he?”

  The blaring of a horn made me jump and Luke and I had to scoot backwards to avoid being hit by the car that sped down the road. The driver shot a less than complimentary gesture at us.

  The metal of Luke’s car was cold at my back and Luke hovered close to me, still kind of in the road. “You okay?”

  “I’m fine. Look, you were trying to protect me and I was trying to protect you. This is the way this whole thing is going to have to work, I guess. I didn’t want you to get hurt.” I looked up at him with eyes pleading to understand. I just wanted him to calm down so we could go home and figure this thing out.

  Not that there was much to say other than “well, I guess we’ll just do everything he says from now on.”
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br />   But Luke returned my gaze with a look of utter helplessness. “I don’t like being in this situation. I don’t know what to do to solve it and keep us both safe.”

  I managed the smallest of smiles. “I’m sure we can figure something out together.”

  “I just want it to be over and done with already,” he sighed and didn’t look away. “Hey, are you okay?”

  I couldn’t really say that I was. “I’ll be all right, at some point in the near future hopefully.”

  When he tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, my eyes widened and I swallowed. Well, that was completely out of the blue and my stomach reacted with a flip. “I hope so too. This really isn’t fair on you.”

  My hands hung limp by my side as I strongly considered lifting them to his school tie. This was suddenly far too intimate, but I only wanted it to get worse. “Thank you for going after him. It… really means a lot that you would, you know?”

  I sucked in a breath when he leant forwards.

  He was leaning into kiss me and I wasn’t going to do a single thing about it, other than to accept his lips with a burning lump in my throat that tried to warn me I was doing the wrong thing.

  Only, he redirected the kiss at the last minute and it landed on my cheek. “We should go home,” he muttered, breath tickling my ear and still causing my eyes to slip shut.

  My crushes on Luke were something I’d endured on and off for longer than I liked to admit, but the closest I’d ever been to him was when we’d wrestled each other to the floor when we were younger than ten.

  This was something else entirely and my heart pounded against my chest with a desperate longing. I’d dreamt about this moment for so long, even when we were being absolute dicks to each other during the day time.

  Of course it was when he was going out with my best friend that some attraction would rear its ugly head.

  And I hadn’t even been the one to initiate this. At least, I didn’t think I was.

  Luke was gone, disappeared into the car by the time I pulled myself back into an even slightly normal mind-set and I slipped into the passenger seat with a stony expression.

  This was the end of even an amicable friendship. It had lasted surprisingly long.

  The drive was in silence and I knew Luke was going to drop me back off at home rather than taking me to his like the past few nights. Maybe I had missed that he’d started finding me attractive somewhere in that time, or maybe it had just been a completely spur of the moment thing. At least spur of the moment would mean it was unlikely to happen again. And that was definitely best.

  For Phoebe’s sake.

  Because I wasn’t even going to be able to look at her for days. Sure, I’d daydreamed about being with Luke whilst he’d been with Phoebe, I’d even imagined him cheating on her with me, but if it happened in real life? That would be unbearable and I’d be the biggest bitch in the world. She was my best friend.

  “My dad had a drug problem,” Luke spoke when we were five minutes away from my house. “It was part of the reason his debts were so high. My mum had known about it for years and never said anything, I think she might have been scared of him. Being there today, it just made me all stressed out. I’m sorry for being an idiot. I’d really rather you didn’t mention any of this to Phoebe.”

  It was a formal apology, at least in the words, but his tone quivered. Being in that house and seeing everything going on must have really messed with him and it was no wonder his emotions had been all over the place.

  It wasn’t attraction, it was some kind of trauma.

  At least that stopped me having to over think it and lead myself into a delusional thought process anymore. That solved that easy enough.

  “It’s fine. I won’t say anything. I hope you’re all right. I wouldn’t have asked you to come if I’d have known, about you or my dad.”

  He didn’t respond and I hadn’t been expecting him to. We said our goodbyes in an awkward fashion and I disappeared into the house with a heavy heart.

  I’d no doubt spend the rest of the evening imaging all the possible outcomes if we’d actually locked lips rather than feeling guilty about lying to my best friend again.

  Chapter Seven

  My mood was still sour from witnessing Luke and Phoebe all over each other at lunch, even if it was unreasonable and unfair. Of course they were all over each other, they were in a relationship. I was the outlier in this situation. Luke didn’t care about me and I shouldn’t care about him.

  It made work incredibly difficult because trying to keep a smile on my face was becoming harder and harder. Luckily, Luke was feeling quiet so there was no need for me to make rubbish small talk. I simply took orders and shovelled chips and loathed my hairnet.

  “You know my grade actually went up to a B last test,” Luke commented out of the blue near the end of our shift. “I thought you’d enjoy some ego-stroking.”

  I smiled to myself. There was nothing like it to lift my mood a little bit. “I’m glad to hear it. I always knew I was a good teacher.”

  “You feeling okay today? You’ve been a bit down, I think.”

  I scowled. Of course he’d picked up on it. “Fine. Just had a bit of a run in with my mum, as always. Nothing really important. I thought work would keep my mind off it.” Of course he knew our almost incident yesterday was going to have an impact, too, but I wasn’t going to mention it again.

  “I’m sorry for asking you to lie to Phoebe. I should tell her, I know.”

  I hung my head. “It’s fine. It was a mistake that came out of a completely weird situation, it’s not going to happen again and we’ll forget about it.” It only made me feel guiltier that my best friend wasn’t even the thing bothering me the most. I was so pathetic. “Whatever, anyway. I’d rather talk about something else. How are your multiple extra-curricular activities going? I don’t know how you’re fitting anything in around working and school.”

  “I do hobbies that don’t require a lot of time commitment mainly. Like, I play the piano and I do this creative writing group and then I play football. Apart from football, I meet like once a week with the writing people and practice with the orchestra for that amount of time, too. But yeah, it’s been good.”

  “How long have you been playing the piano?” I’d noticed the instrument in the corner a number of times, but I kind of assumed it was a decoration in-fitting with the rest of Angela’s décor. “That’s pretty cool. I played the flute for like three months before I couldn’t be bothered to practice anymore.”

  “Since I was about ten I think. My dad always pushed me to play, I haven’t really felt like playing since he left.”

  That was sad. “I always really liked piano music, you should play just because it sounds really awesome.”

  He grinned and I was sure his cheeks were tinged pink. “I do still try.”

  “I’m glad.”

  Tyler popped his head out of the door to let us know it was time to leave and I ripped my hairnet off with a sigh of relief. “I really hate this thing.” My hair tumbled back down to the dip in my hips and I fluffed it out. The natural curve came back when it was tied up for that long. “Anyway, let’s get going.”

  Luke blinked and nodded. “Sure. You said you had a run-in with your mum, were you wanting to come back to mine for a bit? My mum’s put a lasagne in and she says you’re more than welcome.”

  I couldn’t stop the smile. I wished me and my mum were like Luke and Angela. Now I had another parent-child relationship to be jealous of, but Angela had taken me under her wing more than Phoebe’s parents ever had. Then again, I was giving her money so there was no way of knowing how genuine that was.

  I still accepted his invitation.

  We dug into the food almost as soon as we got back to Luke’s and the food was gorgeous. It seemed like forever since I last had a cooked meal – my dad did the cooking and my mum did the cleaning. There had been a lot of instant noodles recently.

  “I was thinking we should go t
hrough the finances tonight,” Angela explained in between mouthfuls. “It was the month end a couple of days ago.”

  Luke raised an eyebrow, glancing at me only once, before nodding. “Sure… we can do it now if you want.”

  “I thought you’d want to wait until Carmen had gone,” her gaze flicked to me for a moment now, but Luke only shrugged.

  “I don’t care. I told Carmen everything, anyway. May as well get it over and done with.”

  I felt slightly awkward as Angela got up to go and fetch her paperwork. Hearing about it was one thing, but sitting in on their financial discussion did feel a little bit awkward. It felt like I was a part of their family already even though Luke had only introduced me a few days ago. I kept my gaze in my pasta and tried not to look like I was intruding. “It’s looking a lot better with your wage coming in.”