Off Limits Page 8

  If Phoebe had been removed from the equation, maybe Luke and I could have actually worked something out.

  Maybe we could have been happy.

  Chapter Nine

  Tyler had already commented on how sullen we looked once and that it was off-putting to the customers, but keeping a fake smile on my face was incredibly difficult. I was sure it still looked more like a grimace. Tyler had probably just given up on telling us now and had shut the door to his office.

  I couldn’t blame him, the tension in the air was unbearable. I’d never wanted to leave somewhere so badly.

  Luke and I had been completely silent towards each other, the extent of our conversation being orders that needed filling. I wanted desperately to make conversation, but my mind was blank. Our heavy mood hung over the entire room and I just wanted it to go away. I needed some reprieve.

  “Carmen?” I blinked, looking up from where I’d been shovelling chips to the woman Luke was serving at the counter. “What are you doing?”

  “Ah, working, I guess.” I pulled a sheepish face and took Luke’s place at the counter, facing my mum. She looked torn between looking aghast and proud. She was beyond offended I hadn’t told her.

  “You didn’t think to mention this to me?” She folded her arms, eyebrows knitted.

  Our relationship had gone so downhill that I hadn’t even thought to tell her I had a job. “I don’t know, really. I didn’t think about it.” I looked at the till awkwardly. “Did you want to order something?”

  She shook her head in exasperation, barking out her order for two. Richard was probably in the car outside.

  “I’ll tell you when I get home, if you’ll be in,” I offered. Luke had been right, when we’d talked on the first night. I didn’t want to let things get so out of hand that our relationship was irreparable. I still loved my mum and following recent events, I really needed someone I trusted in my life.

  I was ashamed to admit that I was beginning to understand her position.

  “Okay, I’ll be in.”

  Luke handed me the order without looking at me, and I handed it to my mum. “Catch you later mum.”

  I turned to Luke, but his face told me he wasn’t planning on offering an opinion. I hung my head and memorised the order of the till buttons.

  It had to get better eventually.

  ***

  The vibration from a text message put me on edge. If it was from Phoebe, I wouldn’t want to reply and if it was from Luke, something had to be horribly wrong. There was no one else who ever text me to get in contact.

  No one apart from the stalker, I realised, when the withheld number lit up my screen.

  I hadn’t read the message yet, but I could see the attachment. I opened it, wanting to punch something. It was Luke and I, locked in a pixelly embrace in his kitchen. I had to take a few deep breaths before bringing myself to read the message.

  If he’d got us in a choke hold before, now were rendered completely useless. I’d have done anything he said, including meeting him at school with Luke, which was what his message required.

  There was no indication of what he wanted, other than for us to meet him there. I should have gone alone; manned up and taken the fall so that Luke didn’t have to get involved, but I was too chicken for that. Besides, openly disobeying one of his commands when he’d got that picture on his phone probably wasn’t the best idea.

  So I dialled Luke’s number with a knot in my stomach. He’d be angry. “What’s up?” I could hear Phoebe talking in the background and knew it couldn’t have been worse timing. His tone and words did a good job of being normal.

  “He text me, he has a picture of us,” there was no point in beating about the bush. “He wants us to drive to the school.” Getting off the phone whilst he was still with Phoebe was probably the biggest priority.

  Luke paused for a long moment. “Okay, I’ll be right there. See you later mum, love you.” His tone was terse and there was just a hint of fear. Phoebe was going to know something was wrong.

  I sat in my car, parked outside my house, and waited for Luke to call me back. Tapping my steering wheel didn’t offer any of the normal stress-release and I couldn’t bring myself to turn on the radio. My mind was filled with the possibilities of what he might want. It was bound to be something awful, something that keeping my relationship with Phoebe probably wasn’t worth.

  The phone buzzed and I put it straight to my ear. “Hi.”

  “I need you to take me to Luke’s house, it’s urgent,” Phoebe rushed her words and it sounded like she was pulling her shoes on.

  I really didn’t need this right now. “Why, what’s happened?”

  “His mum was on the phone and he had to leave straight away. There’s something wrong, I know it. I need to be there for him.”

  I wasn’t sure why she couldn’t see that if he needed her there, he would have just given him a lift herself. “How do you know he’s even gone home?”

  “He said he was.”

  “If he wanted you there, I’m sure he’d have said. He probably wants to just work this out himself and then tell you about it, or something.”

  Phoebe wasn’t convinced. “I can help make whatever the problem is better,” I heard her front door shut. “He’s just too proud to ask me. I should be there.”

  “You don’t even know what’s wrong. It might be nothing important, it might be something private within his family. You can’t just turn up.”

  “Carmen please, I really need you to do this for me.”

  “I’m sorry, I really can’t give you a lift. I need to go, anyway. I’ll talk to you later. I’m sure Luke is fine.” I winced when I hung up and saw the dozen messages Luke had sent me and even more missed calls. There was no point in reading whatever expletives he had for me now, I just returned his call instead. “Phoebe rang me,” I cut off whatever he’d been about to say. “Asking for a lift. You know how persistent she is.”

  “Well, whatever. Just meet me at the garage around the corner from school.”

  “Okay,” I hung up and sped off, knowing he’d probably already be there. Phoebe lived close to school.

  I pulled up beside him, climbing out of my own vehicle and joining him in his. The heat blasted into my face, but I still felt pale and cold. I handed Luke the phone to let him see the picture and the message. “You can kind of tell it’s us.”

  Luke nodded slowly, hand curling into a fist. I jumped when he hit his steering wheel. “What the fuck? As if I needed this right now.”

  My eyes remained downcast whilst he worked his anger out. “I know. We have to do what he says, don’t we? Or, at least go and find out what he wants.”

  “Yeah, we do. Come on, let’s get it over and done with.”

  He drove at a sluggish pace, taking my hand in his and squeezing once just as we turned the corner. “He’s not going to hurt you, don’t worry.”

  I tried to let that settle the nerves, but all it did was make my cheeks heat up slightly. Of course he would protect me if he could, just as I’d protect him. The hand squeeze… that was perhaps more questionable. I tried not to think about it.

  We parked up and were met by the familiar blue Ford, parked in front of the school gates without a care in the world. I tugged at my hair, glancing at Luke. He cut the engine and opened his door with an attempt at a reassuring glance.

  The man stepped out of the car wearing a balaclava and he had such a generic stature that it was impossible to identify him. Maybe his voice would give him away.

  The computerised voice coming from his mobile meant there was no way I could tell who he was. He just still just the madman in the rundown car that had some kind of vengeance against us. “You’re here, together, how adorable.” If it had been any other situation, I would have found the clunky pronunciation of the computer hilarious, but I was too on edge for that. Instead, I just inched closer to Luke, really trying not to hide behind his tall stature. “Now, I’m sure you saw the picture. It’s no
t quite as clear as I’d have liked. I think we need to take a new one.”

  Luke and I glanced at each other uneasily. “You want us to kiss again?”

  The man produced a camera and grinned. “Exactly. If you refuse, I could of course just send the lovely Phoebe the picture I already have, but I’m sure you wouldn’t want to risk that.” The phone pronounced Phoebe’s name so awfully it took me a moment to realise what it was saying.

  It was a much less horrifying request than it could have been and part of me was even excited – I couldn’t help it. A minute ago, I’d never been going near Luke again and now we got to lock lips, even if it was under duress.

  I wondered if Luke felt that streak of excitement, too, or if his brief attraction to me had already waned.

  Either way, we were forced to face each other and the man held his camera up expectantly. Luke opened his mouth and his lip quirked, but he held in whatever joke he’d been tempted to say. Instead, I had to stand on my tiptoes and Luke placed the quickest kiss I’d ever experienced on my lips.

  The flash broke through the darkness, but there was no way he’d managed to capture the moment. “Don’t mess me around,” he snapped it out in his real voice this time, even though it had been several tones lighter than his real voice could have possibly been. I felt sure I should have recognised it, but nothing clicked in my head.

  Luke cleared his throat and my attention was drawn back to him. Pushing our luck again would be a stupid move.

  So we’d have to really kiss this time.

  Our lips touched without softness. It was a hard kiss that gave our stalker exactly what he wanted, but also satisfied the desire that swam through me whenever I laid eyes on Luke nowadays. My hands didn’t have time to move and run through that thick black hair, but Luke’s fingers dug into my hips almost painfully.

  The flashing of the camera broke our embrace, and I hated the deep breaths that echoed into the silence. I wanted to be able to do that every day, whenever I wanted, not because a stalker was blackmailing us into it.

  “Thank you so much,” the robotic voice was back as the man flashed his teeth at us once more. “I’m sure that will be enough to keep me happy for now. I do hope it wasn’t too awful for either of you. I’ll be seeing you at some point, I’m sure. Ta-ta for now.” He sped off in the car that haunted my dreams and let Luke and I standing far too close to each other, each unsure of what to say.

  I jumped when Luke pressed his hands to my arms. “You okay?”

  “I’m fine,” it wasn’t exactly a lie. That was far less traumatic than it could have been. “Just… I don’t know, really. Sad, I guess.”

  Luke wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug. “We’ll figure some way out of this,” he attempted to promise. “There has to be something.”

  I didn’t want to listen to what he was saying, I just wanted to revel in the feeling of his arms around me and block everything else out. “We have evidence,” I muttered instead, resisting the urge to bury my head in his chest and never come out. “If we went to the police we could prove it. If only my dad hadn’t messed up where he was staying.” And if only I hadn’t thought it was acceptable to fall for my best friend’s boyfriend.

  Then maybe this entire thing could be over.

  “We’ll work something out,” Luke repeated, not giving either of us hope. This hadn’t been too bad, but he surely wasn’t going to stick to making us kiss in the future. There was some purpose behind this and it would be revealed to us soon enough.

  He pulled back and I hung my head, avoiding his gaze. There wasn’t even any reason to be crying. I was just being pathetic. Luke and I had kissed once off our own backs, it didn’t mean I should be wildly into him. It was Phoebe I should be upset about, it was hating myself that should be bothering me, not the fact that I already missed Luke’s embrace. “Let’s get going. I’m guessing you’ll have a lot of missed phone calls from Phoebe, she was pretty persistent when she rang me earlier.”

  Luke grimaced. “Right. I decided I couldn’t break up with her until after her birthday, but after this weekend we won’t be together anymore. Then at least I won’t have to feel guilty every day for not wanting to talk to her about my family and stuff.”

  “Yeah,” I didn’t really want to talk about their relationship. Getting out of here was the main thing. I slipped into Luke’s passenger seat, after considering just walking around the corner to my own car. “Well, whatever. Let’s just get gone. I need to explain this stupid job situation to my mum and then I want to hide in my room and drink a lot.”

  Luke started up the engine and grimaced. “That does sound quite appealing. I might join you, in spirit.”

  I couldn’t stop the small smile. The entire situation was ridiculous. He pulled back up next to my car less than a minute later and sent a worried glance in my direction. “You’ll be okay getting home?”

  “Of course. I’m really not that pathetic.”

  Luke chuckled, but held his hands up. “I was just checking. This whole thing is scary.”

  It was, and the pressures from Luke and I and my parents definitely weren’t helping. It had all come at absolutely the wrong time. I might have been able to deal with each one separately, but there was never a spare minute in my brain. “Yeah, it is. Everything is just kind of fucked up.” I opened the door and resisted the urge to ask him if I could just come back to his. Sitting with Luke, watching a movie, maybe I could do something enjoyable for a change. “I’m going to head off. I guess we’ll see each other at work tomorrow.”

  I once again had the urge to tell Luke about my date with Jamie, but held off. It was a stupid impulse and I’d only end up feeling disappointed.

  “See you later,” he gave me a small wave and I got into my own car. I’d been planning on sitting and ruminating for a while, but Luke was waiting for me to set off first and so I had to drive.

  Of course it would be my house that Phoebe was actually outside of, sitting in her car and waiting for me to come home. I didn’t have any excuses as to where I’d been and I didn’t have the mental stability to have a stable conversation with her right now.

  Part of me was tempted to do a quick reverse and drive until I’d forgotten about everything.

  Instead, I put on my best false smile and pulled up, knocking on her window and grabbing my keys. My mum still wasn’t home, so she couldn’t have mentioned my job, or anything about Luke, at least. “Hi,” I greeted her awkwardly. I really hoped she wasn’t here to continue the argument from earlier.

  She stepped out of the car with a sheepish expression. “I thought I should come and apologise since you didn’t answer your phone. I didn’t want you to think I was mad at you, I was just overreacting, again, I know.”

  “It’s no problem. You want to come in? My mum isn’t home yet.”

  “Sure.”

  I walked up the driveway ahead of her, letting the grimace settle on my face. I just had to be normal; it was just me and Phoebe, as we’d always been.

  I had to not think about Luke.

  “So, how is tutoring Luke, anyway?” Phoebe inquired as I unlocked the door. “Feels like I haven’t really spoken to you in ages.”

  I shrugged. “I’m sure he’ll have told you it’s fine. He hasn’t grown on me, if that’s what you’re asking, but I have improved his grades.”

  Phoebe grinned. “It’ll come, don’t worry. You’re just too stubborn to admit that you could actually be friends.”

  I debated sitting on the sofa, before deciding I’d rather not have to face my mum whilst Phoebe was here. I plodded up the stairs. “Maybe, but I really don’t think you’re right.” Friends wasn’t something Luke and I could accomplish – we’d managed less than two weeks of that. “So, what’s going on with you? How are rehearsals?”

  Phoebe’s face faltered. “I’m starting to get really nervous.” They had a big performance in Scarborough coming up and Phoebe was the lead lady. I’d never really been to her shows before, but I
knew this was a special occasion. I’d have to be there. “I know I’m just being silly, but I’m so worried I won’t be able to do it. There’s been so many mistakes in practice and everything.”

  I perched on the edge of my bed whilst Phoebe got comfy. “You’re worrying too much, your shows have always been great before. They wouldn’t have given you the lead role if they didn’t think you could do it.”

  She smiled. “I guess so.” Sometimes I wondered if she just did it for the attention, but it was so regular it couldn’t have been. “I’m sure I’ll feel better closer to the time.”

  “Of course you will.”

  “It’s just Luke and I have been kind of weird recently,” she sat cross legged, picking at my threadbare blanket. “He hasn’t kissed me for at least three days. On the cheek and stuff, sure, but when he’s out my house he’s just not interested. I try and he deflects. We haven’t been… together in even longer.” She shifted, meeting my gaze. “Something is definitely wrong.”