Ricky’s mouth dropped open in shock. “What? What are you talking about, you don’t want to talk to him? Are you kidding?” he asked, shaking his head, looking at me like I’d lost my mind.

Sandy sauntered past me, grinning proudly. Before I knew what I was doing, I grabbed the back of her hair and pulled her to a stop. Obviously I was over the shock of it now, all that I felt was anger and hurt, and I wanted her to hurt too. She screamed and gripped my hands, trying to get me to let go, but I just tightened my grip.

“I left him upstairs for you, why don’t you go finish what you started? It’s not fair on a guy for you to stop half way through, he’ll get blue balls,” I growled angrily as I shoved her away from me in the direction of the stairs. She glared at me angrily, one hand on the back of her head, she was obviously in pain. She opened her mouth to say something back so I just held up one hand to silence her. “You need to find some respect for yourself. Seriously, you’re a dirty tramp, and that’s all these guys see in you, an easy lay, nothing more. Dirty, quick party sex is all sluts like you are good for,” I stated, looking her over distastefully before I turned and stormed off towards the front door. I ignored Ricky shouting after me, asking me what had happened and where I was going.

As soon as I was outside the door, I kicked off my sandals. I picked them up and hurled them as far away from me as I could, Luke had bought them for me and I didn’t want them touching me. I walked up to his car and pressed the button to unlock it. As I was doing it, I knew it was wrong and dangerous, but I just didn’t care. I needed to get as far away from Luke as I could and then maybe that would stop my heartache a little.

I saw the front door open and Ricky came running out of the house, looking around quickly. I jumped in the car and adjusted his seat, starting the engine and peeling out of the space, narrowly avoiding taking the bumper off of a parked car as I did so. I didn’t look in the mirror as I sped away from the house. I just needed to get home and crawl into my bed and sob myself to sleep.

I could barely see where I was going through the tears that just wouldn’t stop coming. I swerved as a car stopped with no warning in front of me, I pulled around it and then realised that, in doing so, I’d run a red light. “Shit!” I shouted, slamming my hand down on the steering wheel. Oh well, if any cameras caught that then the car is registered to Luke, so he’ll get in trouble not me! That thought made me laugh, so I ran the next stop light on purpose. No one was around anyway; it was after one in the morning.

As I was driving down the street, someone walked out into the road in front of me. I gasped and slammed both feet down on the brake as hard as I could. Instantly the car was sliding and skidding as I gripped the steering wheel for dear life. The tyres were squealing on the road.

I’m about to kill someone. I’m drunk, uninsured, and I’m about to run someone down.

The guy was just standing there watching as the car skidded towards him. I couldn’t see his face because he had on a grey hoodie, but I had the feeling he was looking right at me. The last thing he would see before he died would be my hysterical and horrified face - not a pleasant sight I’d bet.

I screamed as the car just went on and on. Everything was moving in slow motion, barely a couple of seconds had probably passed, but I couldn’t breathe, my heart had stopped. I wanted to close my eyes so I wouldn’t see when his body made impact with the car, but I couldn’t, they were stuck open wide, as was my mouth.

Chapter 5

Just as the car was about to smash into him, he jumped straight up in the air, a two footed jump. The car was still going forward so as he landed his feet hit the hood of the car. What happened next I couldn’t be sure of, but it looked to me like he ran up the windscreen. I heard footsteps on the roof and finally the car screeched to a halt.

I twisted in my seat, covering my mouth, stifling the scream that just continued to rip its way out of my throat. I looked out of the back window and saw him do some sort of backflip off of the back of the car. He landed gracefully on his feet and then turned back to look at me.

My heart was crashing in my chest; my drunken brain was unable to take in what I had just seen. He has just jumped onto the car, ran over the top of it and then done a somersault off the back? Am I dreaming right now? I fumbled with my seatbelt and jumped out, my whole body shaking.

“Are you f**king blind? Did you not see me there?” he shouted angrily, waving his arms to make his point.

I whimpered and slumped against the car for support, still unsure as to what exactly happened. I gulped and gasped for breath. This was definitely the worst night of my life. Luke had cheated on me, and now I almost killed someone and was going to be in so much trouble for driving under the influence. “I’m so sorry,” I croaked. “Are you okay?”

He waved his hand dismissively. “Fine. You should watch where you’re freaking going though. You could have killed me!” he growled. My legs wouldn’t support me anymore; I nodded and slid down the car and onto the floor, pulled my knees up to my chest and sobbed, rocking myself gently. “Er, look it’s… don’t cry about it… I’m fine,” the guy soothed, obviously uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled again, pressing my face against my knees.

“Forget it, it’s all good. I kinda wish I had someone to tape that though, I could have added it to my profile,” he said, laughing to himself.

Profile? What on earth is that about? I sniffed and turned my head, wiping my face on the back of my hand. “What profile?” I asked. “How did you do that anyway? What did you do? I just don’t get it. One minute you were in the road and the next you were jumping down from the roof of the car, not a scratch on you.” I shook my head in disbelief, my voice breaking as I spoke. Maybe this really was a dream like I thought earlier. Maybe this was an alcohol induced nightmare. Or maybe this was something out of a fantasy movie and he was a vampire or werewolf or some other dark and dangerous mythical creature.

“Parkour,” he replied, shrugging.

Par-what? “Huh?”

He smiled and pushed the hood of his sweater down so I could see him properly. He was a good looking guy, brown eyes, shaven dark hair, and a strong jaw. If I wasn’t in love with Luke I would have said this guy was hot, but I never looked at other guys like that really.

“Parkour. Freerunning. Not heard of it?” he asked sarcastically, looking at me like I was stupid.

I gulped. I’d heard of freerunning but not the word parkour, was that what that was? The whole jumping onto a moving car and running over the top of it to avoid being crushed to death? “Oh, yeah I’ve heard off it. I’ve just never seen it. That was just,” I trailed off, not having the right word to complete the sentence.

“Amazing?” he offered, smirking at me as he ran a hand over the back of his head, obviously proud of himself.

I shook my head. Amazing wasn’t exactly what I was going for. “Weird and scary more like,” I admitted.

He laughed. “Yeah well, it saved me from a few weeks in a cast, so I’ll take weird and scary.”

I winced as I thought about how badly I could have hurt him. I was so stupid to have driven Luke’s car. What was I even thinking? My parents were going to go crazy when they found out about this. “I’m really sorry.”

“Should you even be driving? You smell like a damn brewery,” he stated, waving his hand in front of his face, looking at me disgusted.

I shook my head. “No. I was at a party and I stole my boyfriend’s keys because I wanted to go home,” I admitted, crying again at the thought of Luke.

He frowned. “He wouldn’t take you or something?” he asked, shifting on his feet as if he was uncomfortable having a conversation with me. Maybe he didn’t like crying girls, but then again, what guy did?

I gulped, not wanting to get into this with a stranger. “We should get you to the hospital or something,” I replied, changing the subject.

He snorted. “I’m fine. Not hurt at all, just chill. Next time don’t drive drunk.” He turned on his heel and started to walk off, leaving me there sitting on the floor against the car, crying helplessly. He stopped after a few steps, his shoulders stiff; he turned back to me and frowned. “Do you have someone that can come and get you?”

I sniffed and shook my head. I couldn’t call my parents about this; I’d be in so much trouble. Alex was at the party. And Luke, well, even if I could call Luke, he wouldn’t be able to help me because he couldn’t even get his jeans on.

The guy sighed. “How about I drive you home?” He looked slightly bored, as if this happened to him every day and was nothing out of the ordinary.

Is he seriously offering to drive me home? I almost kill him, and he’s offering me a ride? He doesn’t even know me; shouldn’t he be reporting me to the police for DUI or something? “Really?” I asked, my voice croaky from all the crying.

“Yeah. Unless you want me to leave you here on your own, this isn’t a nice area though so I wouldn’t recommend it,” he answered, shrugging as if it was no big deal. He got out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, pulling one out with his teeth before offering me the packet, one eyebrow raised. I shook my head quickly and frowned. I hated smoking. “Well, do you want a ride or not? I’m not waiting around all night,” he barked, his tone clearly annoyed that I hadn’t answered him.

I nodded quickly and tried to push myself up using the car as leverage. My hand slipped and just as I was about to fall on my face, he gripped my elbow and righted me, pulling me to my feet. I smiled gratefully. “Thanks,” I mumbled, sniffing and noticing that my voice barely even worked because of all of the crying.

“How much did you drink anyway?” he asked, wincing as he turned his face away as if he smelt something distasteful.

I discreetly sniffed to see if I really smelt that strongly of alcohol, but I couldn’t smell anything at all. “I don’t know. A lot I think.”