My phone beeping in my pocket caught my attention. Shifting awkwardly so I could shove my hand into my pocket, I pulled it out. I had a new message from Alex.

‘Where R U? Why R U not home if U left early?’

I frowned and looked at the time. It was after half past four. My eyes widened in shock. Had I really been laying here, just thinking, for that long? I jumped up, sending a text that I was on my way and then headed home quickly.

When I got to my house I spotted a motorbike in the drive, parked behind Alex’s car. I frowned at it wondering who it belonged to. As I pushed open my front door the smell of food wafted out, making my mouth water and my tummy rumble because I hadn’t really eaten all day - my lunch had been scattered across the floor when Luke and Zach had been fighting.

“Maisie, that you sweetheart?” my mom called from the kitchen.

“Yep,” I confirmed. As I walked up the hall, I was almost bowled over by my dog, Chester. He was a little black cocker spaniel and he was adorable. But he was getting on in years now; he was almost twelve years old. “Hey, boy.” I bent and scratched behind his ears while he wagged his tail like crazy at me. He followed behind me as I walked to the kitchen where I could hear my mom cooking. “Hi,” I greeted, seeing both of my parents standing there.

My dad smiled, cocking his head to the side quizzically. His green eyes regarded me with concern, so I forced a smile. “Hey. How come you’re so late?” he asked.

I sighed, knowing they would hound the answer out of me later anyway, so I might as well just tell them now. “I had a little run in with Luke at school, I was just walking and thinking, that’s all. I didn’t realise the time.”

I saw my dad’s fist clench at the mention of Luke’s name. He was doing well restraining himself actually; I was surprised that my dad didn’t punch Luke when he first found out.

“What did that little punk do now?” he growled.

I sighed. “Nothing. Can we just…” I trailed off, wincing; I really didn’t want to talk about anything today.

My dad sighed too. “I heard your brother got detention for fighting at school today. Care to elaborate on that? He wouldn’t,” he said, raising one eyebrow in question.

A wave of love washed over me for my twin. He hadn’t explained anything about the whole lunchroom scene to my parents, I was extremely grateful to him. Yet another thing I owe him for.

“Seriously? You can’t figure out what happened all by yourself?” I asked sarcastically.

My dad grinned. “I can actually; I just wanted someone to give me a play by play of Alex smashing Luke’s face in. I’m sorry I missed it,” he answered, shrugging casually.

“Clay,” my mom hissed, her tone warning. I smiled gratefully at her. Movement behind me made me turn, and in walked my brother.

He smiled sadly at me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling me into a hug. “You okay there, Maze-daze? Hard day?” he asked, looking at me worriedly.

I sighed and relaxed into his embrace. “I’m fine. Thanks, Alex, I owe you,” I admitted, smiling weakly.

He shrugged. “Let me tap your friend’s ass and we’ll call it quits.”

“Alex!” my mom scolded, throwing a dishcloth at him.

“Charlotte wouldn’t even go there anyway,” I dismissed, shaking my head confidently. I heard Alex grumbling something under his breath, but I didn’t even try to understand what he said because at that moment, the toilet flushed in the downstairs bathroom. I looked around the kitchen, a little confused. We’re all here, so who on earth is in the bathroom?

When the toilet flushing perpetrator stepped into the kitchen, I groaned. How had I not put two and two together when I saw the bike out the front? Zach didn’t look at me though as he went to stand next to my brother, crossing his arms over his chest defensively.

I smiled weakly. Is he still annoyed with me for walking off and leaving him after gym class? “Hey there, Zachary. How’s the face? You look like shit,” I teased, smirking at him, using the words that he’d said to me this morning.

A smile twitched at the corners of his mouth but he was obviously fighting it. “Still getting better with the bitchy comments, if we keep going you’ll be able to hold your own in an argument by the time you graduate,” he replied, his voice cool and aloof. He didn’t even bother looking at me.

I laughed at that comment. “What you doing here anyway? Got nothing you need to be jumping over?”

He sighed and frowned. “I came to hang with your brother. Also, I thought maybe I’d get to talk to you about tutoring and stuff. Maybe we should make up a schedule?” he offered, finally looking at me.

I groaned quietly. I’d forgotten about that. “You sure you wouldn’t rather just let someone else do it?” I asked, putting maybe a little too much hope in my voice because he frowned and shook his head forcefully. “Fine,” I grumbled. “I’m going to wash up before dinner.” I headed into the bathroom, closing the door behind me before leaning against it and sighing deeply. I already knew this was going to be a rough evening. On top of having to plan out a tutoring schedule with Zach, I knew I needed to speak to Luke about Friday night. I needed to know how he felt about what happened with Sandy, how he saw everything. That was going to be an extremely painful conversation. This was going to be a long night, I could feel it. I already knew I’d be crying myself to sleep tonight.

Chapter 10

After washing my hands, I stepped tentatively out of the bathroom. Hushed whispers caught my attention, so I stopped just outside the door and listened to what they were saying. “So, she said there was a run in with Luke. What happened?” my mom asked.

“Ask her. I’m not getting involved. I have the twin loyalty thing that I was born with,” Alex answered in his cool and aloof tone. I smiled gratefully. Sometimes, just sometimes, I loved having a brother.

“Alex, be serious. We’re trying to help,” my mom whispered back. “She looks so sad and she hasn’t really opened up to anyone about it. It can’t be good to keep it all bottled up inside like that.”

This time it was Zach who came to my defence – just maybe not the way I would like him to have done it. “I told her she should punch that Sandy girl in the face. But apparently violence solves nothing,” he joked, laughing to himself.

Having heard enough and not wanting to get caught listening, I pulled out my phone and snuck up to my room, needing to get one of the things cleared up, or at least set the ball in motion. I text Luke, asking him to come over at about eight o’clock so we could talk. He replied immediately with a yes, as I knew he would. I sighed and headed downstairs and was grateful that the conversation seemed to have turned to something other than me.

They were talking about Zach’s freerunning and the disciplines of it. Zach was trying to convince my dad that it was, in fact, a sport even though it wasn’t classed as it. That it was basically gymnastics, mixed with martial arts and a lot of other things thrown in.

I stood in the doorway, just listening to him talk. He was so passionate about it, the way he waved his hands as he spoke, the way his mouth pulled up into a smile or his forehead creased with a frown. If I could just get him to apply the same passion to his schoolwork he’d probably be an A-student. He had already proved with a couple of things that he said to me today that he wasn’t a brainless moron. There just had to be some reason why he wasn’t connecting with classes. Maybe he liked the attention of being a delinquent; I’d heard that a lot of people did. Maybe he was starved for attention at home or something – though that wasn’t true from what I’d seen this morning with his aunt. She certainly had a fond smile for him, but then again, maybe he hadn’t been living with her that long. Maybe the lack of attention was a by-product of why he lived with his aunt in the first place. I guess only he knew for sure.

He turned to look at me then; he’d caught me staring at him, trying to work him out. He smiled his cocky little smile and raised one eyebrow. Wait, does he think I’m checking him out? The knowing smirk that slipped onto his face clearly indicated that he thought he’d caught me looking at him for a reason other than the truth. Even though that kind of thing had never even entered my head, I felt my cheeks heat up and my eyes dropped to the floor. Both of those reactions probably confirmed his theory that I was lusting after him. Damn it, what is wrong with me? Can’t I just make it through one hour without embarrassing myself?

I sighed and stepped into the room, stubbing my foot on the doorframe and tumbling into the room, catching myself on the table. Huh, apparently I’m struggling to make it through a minute without embarrassing myself, not an hour. Zach’s smirk grew bigger as Alex laughed and chirped, “Epic fail, Maze-Daze!”

I righted myself as my mom passed steaming plates of pasta to the three laughing males in my house. Even my dad was having a little chuckle at my expense. Perfect.

Sitting down and looking only at my plate, I silently hoped that talk wouldn’t turn to me and Luke again. I tried my hardest not to think about him coming over later and how that painful conversation was going to go down. Luckily for me though, Zach steered the conversation to sports, and the whole meal was spent with the three males talking about freerunning, kickboxing and football.

When we were finally done eating I looked at Zach expectantly. “Want to work out a schedule now or something?” I offered, hoping he’d say no. Then again, maybe tutoring him would keep my mind from wandering to other things; he seemed to be able to keep my mind off of Luke pretty easily.

He nodded but then offered to help clear the table. My mom waved him off, smiling. “I got it; you go do your tutoring thing. I assume that’s what this is about?” she asked, smiling kindly.

He nodded and rolled his eyes. “Yep. Apparently your daughter is one of the smartest students at school so I have to be humiliated by being tutored by someone younger than me,” he replied, shrugging.