Chapter 31
Luke waves at me from his motorbike. He’s here to pick me up from school like he always does. Every girl's head turns towards me as I run up to him and wrap my arms around his waist.
“Hey, Chicken. How was school?” he asks, taking his helmet off and running his fingers through his messy, ginger hair.
“Nothing new...” I look behind me to see everyone still staring. “You’d think they’d asked enough questions about us by now.”
We’ve been together for about two years now, but everyone in school has only been finding out about it recently.
We didn’t really want anyone to know since Luke is four years older than me.
Everyone knows he’s been a family friend since we were babies.
But in the year leading up to us getting together, I’ve been seeing him differently.
He’s really attractive. With a sharp jawline and messy ginger hair—long at the top and cut at the sides.
He also has cute freckles dusting his face.
And I think he started seeing me too. I think I always liked him, and my newfound teenage hormones didn’t help.
He twists to the compartment on the back of his bike and pulls out a bouquet of roses. “Happy birthday, Chicken.”
I squeal, taking the roses from him. “Thank you!”
He leans in, puckering his lips, but I swerve out of the way, looking behind us to see some girls watching and giggling.
“Sorry, not here,” I say in a small voice. He looks annoyed as he leans back.
We have kissed, don’t get me wrong, but not in public. And I don’t want to give the mean girls of the school something to talk about.
But we’ve also only kissed a couple of times, and nothing else. I get shy. And we’re waiting until I’m eighteen for… all the other stuff. I’m not comfortable yet, and he understands that.
“Get on,” he says, putting his helmet back on and gripping the handles of the bike.
I wait expectantly for him to hand me my helmet, but he just turns and throws his thumb backwards, indicating for me to sit.
“My helmet?”
“Oh shit, I forgot it. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, okay… Should I just walk, then?”
“No, it’s fine. Just hop on. I have a surprise for you.”
“I don’t think it’s safe to—”
“Just get on the bike, Camila,” he snaps, clearly agitated by my hesitation.
I sigh, lifting the seat to put the roses back in, and climb on the back, gripping his waist as he revs the engine and pulls out of the school car park.
“Does Mum know you’re taking me out?” I shout over the wind and the sound of other cars on the road.
“Yep,” he replies simply, sounding annoyed at the mention of my mum.
My mum is my best friend, and we spend a lot of time together.
Luke says it annoys him that I spend more time with her than I do with him.
But while our parents approve of our relationship, my mum does limit my time with him.
She says we’re young, and it’s best to not become dependent on each other.
She makes me leave my door open when he comes round, as do Luke’s parents.
We speed down the streets. The wind blows my hair this way and that, and I don’t even have a hairbrush to brush my hair out after.
Looking up into the sky through strands of hair, dark angry clouds have already formed above us, and I think it’s going to start raining soon.
It was sunny this morning, so the only protection I have is either my bag or my blazer.
The bike slows, and we approach a car garage that I’ve been to more times than I can count. Apparently, it’s where Luke works. He doesn’t let me in much on what he does for work; he says I’m ‘too young’ for stuff like that.
“Stay here,” he says, slipping off his helmet and securing the bike in place.
I do as I’m told. I don’t really fancy going in there, anyway.
The men are all creepy. There are two of them sitting outside on a pair of tyres, watching Luke and me.
One of them leans over to the other and whispers something, making the other one nod.
I sigh, facing the other way. Nothing I’m not used to at this point.
I fold my arms over my chest. Luke is taking longer than usual in there, and I’m starting to get worried. But there’s no way I’m going after him. I’d rather stay out here, in the rain that’s slowly starting to spit at me.
After a while, he finally returns, and my hair is already soaked from the rain. He puts his helmet back on and turns on the bike.
“Ready?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I shout back.
He speeds out of the garage, leaving smoke behind us.
“Something came up, so I’m gonna have to take you home.” His muffled voice causes a pang of disappointment in my chest. We’ve spent every single one of my birthdays together, and this is the first time he’s let me down.
But I’m also angry.
He made me wait for ages in the rain for him, thinking he was taking me somewhere nice, just for him to disappoint me and take me home.
“Okay,” I sigh defeatedly.
Whatever.
All I want to do now is go home, have a warm bath, and get into bed. Maybe watch some pole dancing videos.
“You could’ve at least given me your helmet,” I grumble as the rain stings my face from the speed he’s riding at.
We approach my house at the end of the cul-de-sac. My mum’s car is parked in the drive, which is weird, because she doesn’t normally get back from work until seven, and it’s only thirty minutes past five.
"That's weird,” I mumble.
“What is?” Luke asks, scrolling through his phone.
“My mum’s not usually back until seven.”
I climb off the bike, squeezing my hair out from the rain.
“Maybe she felt sick or something.” He shrugs, aimlessly scrolling through Facebook. He’s not even paying attention to any of the posts.
“Ugh.”
“What?” he snaps, putting his phone back in his pocket.
“You’re such an asshole. It’s my birthday today, and you’ve done nothing but piss me off.” I fold my arms across my chest.
“I’ve had a long day, Camila. Just go home. We’ll do something nice tomorrow,” he whines, tapping his knuckles on the engine in front of him. He’s unusually fidgety.
“What happened in the garage?” I try my luck asking, not that he’ll tell me anything.
“Nothing.”
“You expect me to believe that? You’d been in there ages, and now you’re acting like a right dick.”
The rain is still pouring on us. Or, on me. He’s nice and toasty in his motorbike jacket, while the rain is soaking through the material of my school uniform.
His fists clench on the seat, and he digs his knuckles into it. Luke is easy to rile up, and he’s not pleasant to be around when it happens. Which makes this my cue to leave.
“Whatever. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I say, turning and walking towards my front door, not sparing him another glance. I hear the roar of his engine speeding back down the road before I even reach my front door, walking up the front garden path.
“Ugh,” I grumble to myself, pulling my house keys out of my blazer pocket.
I turn the lock and push the door open to the low hum of ‘Stand By Me’ by Ben E King playing throughout the house.
She usually plays it in the morning while making breakfast before I go to school, and we dance to it together in the kitchen.
It helped to set my mood for the day when I was younger, and we’ve been doing it ever since.
“Mum?” I call out.
No answer.
“Mum!” Louder. Still no answer.
I pull out my phone and send her a text asking where she is because her car is in the drive.
I slip off my wet shoes and hang my drenched blazer on a coat hanger by the front door. I’ll have to remind Mum to wash it for me later.
Trudging into the kitchen, ‘Happy Birthday’ banners and balloons are spread around, half of them hung up and half still waiting to be blown up. I walk over to the kitchen island, where there’s a cake with half-finished ‘Happy Birthday Ca’ written in frosting.
“Was there an emergency I didn't know about?” I ask out loud, annoyed now that everyone seems to have abandoned me on my birthday.
Heading upstairs, I walk into my room and put my phone on charge.
My little post-school routine. I stretch out my limbs from sitting on chairs all day and start walking towards the bathroom.
As I pass Mum’s room, a dark spot catches my eye.
I stop in my tracks and walk backwards to her open doorway.
“Mum?” I say, quieter this time.
Focusing my attention on the dark spot I noticed, I see a pair of feet sticking out from the corner of her bed.
What the hell?
“Mum?”
I creep towards the pair of feet, noticing that her dark purple carpet has an even darker stain on it. I hold my breath, my limbs beginning to tremble. Gulping down oxygen, I reach the pair of legs. I close my eyes as I lean over the bed, mentally preparing myself for what I’m about to see.
I open them.
The room blurs out.
There’s a ringing in my ears.
Sick gathers in my stomach as I stare at my mum’s lifeless eyes, surrounded in a puddle of her own blood leaking out of her neck.
“MUMMY!” I cry, holding my shaking hand over my mouth. “Mummy?”
Nothing makes sense. Her face is mottled, her eyes stare vacantly at the ceiling, there’s a slit in her neck with fresh blood trickling out.
Bile burns in my throat as I will my body to move towards my phone.
I stumble through the doorway, into the corridor, into my room, taking my phone off charge, dialling 999.
“Hello, what’s the address of your emergency?”
I think I give them our address. I can’t be sure.
I stumble back into her room, dropping beside her and throwing my arm around her, my phone forgotten on her bed. I can hear the call handler still asking questions. But the words fade to a blur. I can’t see anything but my mum and the way her chest isn’t moving.
“Mummy,” I whisper, a tear sliding down my cheek.
I press my hand to her face. It’s cold. She doesn’t react.
“Mummy, wake up, please.”
More tears fall.
“You’re the only friend I have.”
I notice something white underneath her neck. With two fingers, I slide it out from underneath her and open the note.
I'LL BE BACK IN TWO YEARS. ALL MY LOVE, LUKE.
I let out a harrowing scream once I read the note.
This is the beginning of the end of my life.
I don’t know when the police and paramedics get here.
I can’t hear what they’re saying.
Maybe a suicide?
I don’t show them the note.
I don’t hear from Luke for two years.