Wasted Time

Chapter 18

Emily's POV

'Please come.' The words buzzed around in my head like flies as I tried to decide what to do. My head ached, and the area around my eyes was sore from crying. Luke had broken up with me with absolutely no warning, and pretty much no reasoning at all. I was confused, and very hurt. We had always got on well during our relationship, with almost no arguments, and this was so unlike Luke. Perhaps I ought to give him a chance to explain... being too quick to judge never got anybody anywhere.

I opened the window in my room and closed my eyes, letting the cool air fan my face as I struggled to steady my breathing. After checking my appearance in the mirror and deciding that it didn't matter anyway, that Luke needed to see what he'd done to me, I took a few deep breaths to compose myself and tiptoed towards the door as quietly as I could.

I opened it and gingerly peered out into the living room. I had no idea who else was back, because I rushed straight into my room when I got home and had seen no sign of anybody else except Michael, who had taken me home, but I had heard footsteps. I wasn't particularly in the mood for seeing anyone or explaining what I was doing, so I was glad to find the room empty and creep across it before slipping out of the main door into the darkened corridor. Just before I turned left towards the laundry room, I heard a noise from the floor below, and immediately froze.

Hiding behind a conveniently placed pot plant, I peered over the edge of the rail down the stairs to see two figures sitting on a sofa placed on the floor below, one male and one female. I squinted to see if I could make out their faces, then realised that the one on the left was Luke, recognising him from the shirt I remember him wearing at the party. It made sense that he was here, on his way to the laundry room to meet me, but who was the girl sitting next to him?

I pushed my face as close as I dared to the bars to try and make out identifiable features. As I watched, Luke leaned his face into the girl's shoulder, and she put her arms around him. She bent down over his head, her mouth passing over the edge of his face. My heart felt like it was shattering into pieces; Luke and I had been broken up for an hour at the most, and he had already found himself somebody new? Suddenly, a horrible thought occurred to me, and a shiver crept down my back like a trickle of ice-cold water. What if this wasn't somebody new? What if he had been seeing this girl for a long time, and I had never noticed?

Before, I would have never suspected Luke of cheating on me, but after our hasty breakup, I was beginning to come up with even wilder theories by the second. The girl turned her head suddenly, and the dim light illuminated her hair and face. My eyes widened as I noticed the ends of her hair were dyed blue, and behind her ear was a tattoo of a feather. It was unmistakeably Charlie.

I gasped loudly, then immediately covered my mouth and backed further into the plant. Charlie looked up, frowning, and I moved as far away from the railing as I could, to avoid being seen. My foot caught on the edge of the plant, and I stumbled backwards, panicking as I realised what was happening. I struggled to catch my balance, my arms windmilling and my feet slipping while I tried to make as little noise as possible. Unfortunately, it was no good, and I crashed to the floor painfully. I winced, knowing that they would have definitely heard.

I couldn't help myself glancing over the railing just in case, and was surprised to see that they were both looking downwards to the floor below them. Frowning, I leaned over further to see Maddy and Chris coming up the stairs onto the floor where Charlie and Luke were sitting. They began to talk to each other, and silently thanking Maddy and Chris, I took this opportunity to run back into the flat and shut my bedroom door behind me, breathing fast as I leant against it. Whatever Luke had been going to say to me in the laundry room was meaningless now that I knew he had already moved on. Trying to stop myself from bursting into tears once again, I quickly changed into my pyjamas and buried myself in a miserable cocoon of pillows and blankets.