Off Limits (2 page)

“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 live. 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?”