Chapter 4

I flick through the channels on my TV, nothing on. I lay on my bed and stare at my ceiling, thinking about what to do. My mind wanders over to Conor for the billionth time tonight. Why does he have to act like a complete dick all the time? I decide to take my mind off things and go on a walk.

I pass the shop and debate on whether to walk past the park. What’s the worst that could happen? I keep my head down the whole time as I walk past the park, I know it’ll just be crowded by teenagers anyway.

“Lucy?” I hear a voice. Great. I knew I’d see someone. I turn around to see Jack looking confused.

“Hey Jack” his face lights up when he see’s my face.

“I thought it was you!” he laughs, pulling me in for a hug. “You coming on the park for a bit” he says into my hair.

“No I’m alright thanks”

It still looks intimidating to me.

“Come on, it’s only us!”

“Who’s there?”

“Just me, Alex, Ben, Mike, Lois, Leila, Olivia and Char” he says, counting his fingers. I noticed how he didn’t mention Conor in all this. I also noticed the beer bottle in his hand. I lift up his hand with the beer bottle in.

“Really Jack?” I ask, disappointedly although it's not like I've never drank in my life.

“It’s only one” he winks. “So are you coming on or what? I need to ask you something too!” he gasps.

“Oh fine” sigh in defeat. He smiles and walks me onto the park where I get greeted by a hug from all the girls. Only the boys are drinking so that takes some weight off my shoulders.

“Jack?” I ask.

“Yes”

“You said you needed to ask me something”

“Oh yeah, come over here a second” he says, grabbing my wrist and pulling me over to the side. “What happened after school?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean” he sighs.

“Well, we went to see Mr. Nicholas about what happened in science but he didn’t say anything, so me and Conor left, then he started saying how me and you will never ‘work’. I got angry at him and just walked on my own” I breathe. "Why?"

He looks confused, “So was that it?”

“Yes Jack. Why?” I laugh dryly.

“Well, he was just acting weird when he came back. He was angry at me and that’s rare. I was just confused” he explains. That’s weird...

“Oh right. Well I’ve not a clue. Where is he anyway?” I ask.

“Well after we had an argument, he stormed out of the house and I haven’t seen him since. He won’t answer his calls or texts”

“That’s strange”

“I know. Anyway, let’s get back” he smiles, walking back over to the group.

I spend about 45 minutes on the park. I got to know them all much more. We all exchanged numbers and took so many weird pictures. They’re all such a laugh. I lost track of time and realise it's 8:30pm already and it's starting to get dark, so I decide it was time to go home. Jack offers to walk me back but I tell him no because I didn’t want to ruin his fun. I wave them all off and started taking the 5 minute walk back to my house.

I walk past the shop and round the corner towards the narrow ginnel giving me a shortcut to my house, until I heard shouting. It sounds like two boys arguing so I decide to listen in. I either turn around and pretend I didn’t hear anything, or see what’s going on and well, hope for the best. Me being me, I go to see what was going on.

“Get the fuck off me” I hear a familiar voice.

“This won’t even be close to the pain that she was feeling”

“WAS! It was ages ago, just let it drop” he sounds vulnerable and genuinely scared. I hear a punch so I take a step closer to see what's happening. A really tall, muscular guy walks closer to the boy pinned up against the wall. He wipes blood off his lips and hit’s the boy in the stomach. I can’t see any faces because their hoods are up but the tall guy won’t stop hitting the guy pressed up to the wall.

“Hey!” I shout, drawing attention to me. Lucy, what have you gotten yourself into? “Leave him alone” I snap, pulling the guy off the wall and putting him behind me.

He laughs dryly, “Get out of my way before you get what he’s getting”

He pushes me out of the way, making my fall to the floor.

Oh hell no.

I drag myself up from the floor and punch the man as hard as I can in the nose. I instantly regret it, knowing what I’m going to get in return. I'm surprised at myself, my jaw is left hanging open and so is the boy’s behind me. I still can’t see his face but I can see his mouth wide open. The man clenches his nose and just when he’s about to make another move, the boy behind me grabs my wrist.

“Run” he snaps and drags me out of the ginnel making his hood fall down from the wind.

“Conor!?” I gasp. I can hear the man I just hit, screaming in the ginnel.

“Come on” he moans, tightening his grip on my wrist and continuing to run with me as far as possible. We reach a field and Conor stops, putting his hands on his knee’s, trying to get his breath back.

“Conor. What was that?” I breathe.

“I could ask you the same thing” he smirks after he’s got most of his breath back, but he can tell I’m not amused. “Are you alright?” he asks, looking at my red knuckles “He’s a fucking low life”

“Conor I’m fine” I assure him, tugging my jumper to hide the bleeding.

“No you’re not” he sighs. “Come here”

He grabs hold of my hand, instantly giving me butterflies. His hand warms my cold hand up and my heart’s practically coming out of my chest right now. He leads me to the back of a huge house and walks towards the door, letting go of my hand. He slowly turns the door handle and silently sneaks into the house, leading to the kitchen.

“Conor you can’t just sneak into someone’s house!” I whisper loudly.

“Relax, it’s mine! I don’t stoop that low” he smirks making me blush. I look at the floor to hide my face and I can see the strange look he gives me before opening the freezer and getting out some frozen peas. He awkwardly coughs before grabbing my waist and lifting me onto the kitchen counter. He grabs my hand and puts the peas on my swollen hand. “Are you ok?” he sighs, looking into my eyes.

Ok I’m lost.

He has the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen and I’ve only just noticed. I can’t pull away from his gaze. My hearts beating as fast as it ever has before and my mouth’s gone dry.

“I-I’m fine” I cough, “thanks”

“I’m sorry” he mumbles.

“Why?”

“For getting you into this mess, for hurting you” he sighs, holding up my hand, “and for being stupid earlier” he says, referring to what happened after school.

I smile slightly, “It’s ok”

“Now are you going to explain to me what was happening just then?” I ask, raising an eyebrow at him.

“I guess, but come out here” he whispers. I jump off the counter and leave the bag of peas on there, following Conor outside. I cross my arms to keep me warm as the wind blows my hair in different directions.

“So um, a few months ago, I kissed this girl called Amy, while I was drunk and she got the idea that we was going out. I didn’t ask her or anything but I kinda went along with it because, yano, she was... fun?” he laughs. “She was so clingy and annoying but I didn’t know what to do about it. I hate the idea of ‘dating’ someone, so when I went to a party she saw me with another girl and she just kicked off. I kinda planned for this to happen. We got into an argument about how I didn’t even ask her to be my girlfriend, and I started calling her ugly and shit. She complained about me ‘cheating’ on her or whatever so I just laughed and went back to the party. That was her brother you just hit, nice swing by the way” he says making me laugh “he obviously found out about what happened and has only now done something about it. He also found out about me stealing beers from him while I was ‘dating’ Amy. Bitch must’ve told him”

I think about the situation he's in and just burst out laughing. He looks at me confused.

“You idiot” I snigger.

“I don’t understand” he frowns.

I smile, “Well I just advise you to stay away from her brother then”

“Same to you!” he laughs.

“Are you ok?” I frown, knowing he got hit several times

“I’m fine” he smiles quickly and looks to the floor.

“Conor, your lip’s still bleeding”

“I’ll be fine, ok?” he snaps.

“I’m only trying to help”

“Yeah well you’re not”

“Right, well I’ll get going then” I say, not wanting to get into an argument. I turn around and start walking away from his house.

“Wait” he sighs, grabbing my wrist. “You don’t know your way” he mumbles. I hadn’t thought about that. “I’ll walk you back” he offers. I’m glad he did because it’s really dark, cold, and I don’t fancy getting lost.

“We’ll walk to the shop and then you can lead the way from there” he mumbles.

“Um yeah, thanks”

I start rubbing my knuckles and he must notice.

“Are you ok?” he asks again.

“I’ll be fine” I snap and look away from him. The last time I asked him that, we almost argued about it, so I guess I could give him a taste of his own medicine.

Once we get to the shop, I start leading the way from there. He insisted he walked me all the way home although I was saying I’d be fine. The walk was awkwardly silent, I just didn’t really know what to say to be honest and he wasn’t exactly making effort. I could tell he was in deep thought about something. We finally get to my house after about what feels like hours.

“Thanks” I nod for walking me home.

“It’s ok” he smiles. We’re just stood outside my door looking at each other waiting for someone to say something. This is the most awkward thing I’ve ever-

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow” he says, interrupting my thoughts.

“Yeah, see you then” I smile and walk into my house.