“How much did you hear?” Maddie asked.
Hunter’s expression was uncharacteristically blank. “Enough.”
“Wait, who’s been kissing their cousin?” Red said.
“No one!” Maddie said, flushing pink. “God. Where’s Luca? We should go dance. I want to dance.”
“Here,” Luca said brightly, appearing between the two boys. He glanced between Hunter and Maddie. “Wait, what did I miss?”
“Nothing,” Maddie said tightly, grabbing hold of Hazel’s hand and dragging her toward the dance floor. Red let out a snort of laughter and followed them.
“Why wouldn’t I be good boyfriend material?” Hunter wondered out loud.
Luca reached for a can of beer. “What?”
“Boyfriend material,” he said. “Maddie said she didn’t know if I would even be boyfriend material. What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Who knows,” Luca said, opening the can of beer and sitting down on the bench. “Why do you care what Maddie thinks, anyway?”
“Well, I don’t,” Hunter said, collapsing beside him. “But still.”
Luca just smiled knowingly into his can.
* * *
It took Hazel and Red nearly twenty minutes to convince Maddie it was okay for them to go and rejoin the others. She finally agreed, begrudgingly, and the three of them made their way back to the bench at the end of the garden.
“These beers are warm,” Hunter was complaining as they walked up. “It’s like drinking piss.”
“Sorry, Princess,” Luca said. “There were none left in the cooler.”
“How do you know what piss tastes like, anyway?” Maddie said, taking a seat without looking at Hunter.
“Oh, hey,” he said. “Still thinking about making out with your cousin?”
“Get lost, Hunter.”
He just grinned at her, handing her a beer. She cracked it open and took a sip, before pulling a face and handing it straight back.
“That bad, huh?” Red said.
Luca stood up from the bench. “I’ll go see if I can find some ice.”
“I’ll come with,” Hazel said. “I need to use the bathroom.”
Luca nodded, and the two of them made their way into the tent, through the crowd, and out the other side into the house. It wasn’t as busy inside, and while Luca headed for the kitchen, Hazel went upstairs to find the bathroom.
When she came out a few minutes later, the hallway light had been turned off. She started feeling her way along the wall, searching for the switch, when suddenly someone appeared right in front of her. Or, rather, a shadow did.
“Hello?” she called out nervously, stepping away from the wall.
The overhead light flickered on, and she blinked in the sudden brightness. Her eyes adjusted and then focused on the figure at the top of the stairs. It was a boy, and he was staring at her in a way that made her skin crawl.
“Well, look who it is,” he drawled then, stepping forward and coming to rest against the wall beside her. “Everyone’s favorite Pommy.”
Red and Hunter had often called her that before to tease her about being English, but now the word sounded tainted, cruel. Hazel vaguely recognized the boy in front of her from one of her classes.
“Um,” she said, trying to inch her way along the wall to put some distance between the two of them. “I’m sorry, but someone’s waiting for me. I should go.”
“Whoa. Not so fast.” His clammy hand grabbed hold of her and pulled her toward him, his fingers wrapped tightly around her wrist. “I’m not done with you yet.”
“I need to go,” Hazel repeated firmly, yanking her hand out of his grip, desperate to get back to Red and the others. “Now, if you’ll excuse me…”
“Wait.” He was in front of her again, blocking her path. His hands were on her shoulders, pushing her backward and pinning her against the wall. He wasn’t incredibly tall, not like Red, but he still towered over her. His warm breath tickled her cheek, and he smelled of beer and something sweet, something exotic. Coconut, she thought vaguely. “Don’t be such a tease,” he murmured. “Let’s just have one little kiss.”
“No thank you,” she said, and tried to shrug him off, but he was too strong, and his grip on her only tightened, his fingers digging painfully into her skin. Would anyone even hear her over the music if she screamed?
“Just one kiss,” he slurred. He cupped her face roughly, while the other hand still pinned her against the wall as he leaned forward and covered her mouth with his own. One moment he was kissing her sloppily, trying to force his tongue past her lips as she fought against him, and the next someone was dragging him off her and she could finally breathe again.
“What the hell—” he started to say, but a fist collided with his face before he had the chance to finish his sentence. He dropped to the floor, blood gushing out of his nose, and stared up at Hazel in horror—except he wasn’t looking at her, he was looking behind her at the person who had hit him. Hazel spun around and came face-to-face with her rescuer.
Thank God.
“Luca?” she choked out, but he just ignored her, his eyes hard, his mouth set in a thin line. He swept her gently aside to get to her assailant.
“Get up,” Luca hissed, and although Hazel had heard him angry before, she’d never heard him sound quite so cold.
The boy did as he was told, scrambling to his feet. The hallway had begun to fill with people from downstairs, watching with interest. “What the hell, Cawley,” he said angrily, holding the side of his face. “What was that for?”
Luca’s eyes flashed dangerously. “You know exactly what it was for, and you’re never going to do that again, not to anyone. Are we clear?”
The boy stared defiantly up at him as if he couldn’t believe anyone would have the audacity to tell him what he could and couldn’t do. Especially not Luca, the boy who treated blending in like it was an art form. Hazel wondered if Luca was drunk—she knew he’d had a couple of beers at the party and probably a couple at Hunter’s before they’d arrived, but he didn’t look drunk. He looked like he knew exactly what he was doing.
“I said, are we clear?” Luca repeated calmly when he didn’t answer, and the boy shifted uncomfortably, aware that every pair of eyes in the hallway was focused on him.
“Yes,” he muttered eventually, lowering his eyes to the floor. “We’re clear.”
Luca gave him a curt nod, apparently satisfied. He turned around and fixed his gaze on Hazel. “Are you okay?” he asked, sounding genuinely concerned. “Did he hurt you?”
Hazel shook her head, but her hand went instinctively to her shoulder. She could still feel his fingers there, digging in and leaving bruises, but she’d live. “Can we go and find Red, please?” she mumbled instead, suddenly embarrassed at the way everyone was staring at her.
“Sure,” Luca said gently. He offered her an arm, which she took gratefully as they started down the hallway. Hazel ducked her head as they passed the boy. She couldn’t bear to look at him. All she kept picturing was his hands on her skin, remembering the smell of his breath on her lips. She hated how weak he’d made her feel.
“Dickhead,” Hazel heard him mutter at Luca once they’d passed, and when Hazel looked back at him incredulously, she saw that he was about to swing his fist at Luca’s head. She opened her mouth to warn him, but Luca was way ahead of her—he whirled around, deftly blocking his fist, and pushing him away before he could get close. The boy stumbled backward, but he didn’t give up; teeth bared, he launched himself at Luca again, fists flying. This time, Luca delivered one smooth punch to his jaw, and the crowd erupted in noise as the boy’s eyes rolled back in his head and he crumpled to the floor.
21
Ten minutes later, Hazel, Luca, and Red were crammed into the back of a taxi, sitting in awkward silence. After the incident upstairs, they’d hastily found Hunter and Maddie to say goodbye and then rushed out of the party.
“Well,” Red said finally, “that was a complete disaster.”
Luca snorted, and Hazel glanced over at him. He had his face pressed against the glass of the window, staring angrily at the world that whizzed past. “That fucker deserved it.”
“Jesus, Luc, you can’t just go around punching everyone who pisses you off! That’s not how it works!”
“So what would you rather I did? Let him continue forcing his tongue down Hazel’s throat?”
“You could have tried pulling him off her first!”
Hazel winced, the memory of that boy’s mouth on hers still uncomfortably vivid. She knew that Red was only angry because he was worried—worried about her, and worried about his brother. But she also knew that he was glad Luca had stood up for her. The fact that he’d done it with his fists wasn’t great, but even so, they all knew that Luca wasn’t the one in the wrong here.
“Oscar Whitely’s an asshole,” Luca added vehemently. “Someone should have knocked him out a long time ago.”
Red met Hazel’s eye and half-smiled. “Not gonna argue with that.”
The taxi fell into silence, and no one said a word for the rest of the journey. When they finally pulled up outside the Cawleys’ house, Luca disappeared inside while Red paid the driver. Claire was still at work, so Red ordered Hazel to sit on the sofa while he scrounged some cookies from the cupboard and made them tea.
“Do you think he’s okay?” Hazel said finally.
“What, Oscar? He’s fine. He was only out of it for like two seconds.”
“I meant Luca.”
“Oh. I … don’t know,” he said, placing a tray with cookies and two mugs of tea on the coffee table.
“Is he drunk?”
“Not badly. Not like last time.”
“But you’re worried about him,” she said.
“He punched one of the most popular guys in his year in the face. Twice.”
“He was protecting me, Red.”
“Maybe I should check on him.”
“Go,” Hazel said.
Red shot her a grateful smile and disappeared upstairs, and she’d barely had time to lean back into the sofa when he returned.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, Luc’s fine,” he said, sitting beside her. “But he wanted to speak to you.”
“To me?”
“For some reason.”
“Okay,” Hazel said, and stood up from the sofa. She could only imagine how weird this must look to Red; as far as he knew, she and his twin barely had anything to do with each other beyond the interactions they had because of Red himself. “I don’t mind. He is my knight in shining armor, after all.”
Red grimaced. “Hazel, I’m sorry. I should have been there to look out for you.”
“It’s okay.”
“I’m glad Luca was, though.”
“You and me both,” she said. “I’ll be right back, okay?”
Hazel headed up the stairs. She walked to the very end of the hallway, past Red’s room and Claire’s room and the bathroom, until she reached the one door she’d never seen open. Luca’s.
She took a deep breath and pushed on it. The room was completely dark, just like the hallway at the party.
“Luca?” she said, fumbling for a switch.
Light flooded the room, and she stood there for a moment, taking in her surroundings. Luca was standing in the middle of the room, wearing a pair of running shorts and a T-shirt.
“Hey,” she said softly. “Red said you wanted to talk to me?”
“Yeah, I … just wanted to say sorry.”
“Why? It wasn’t your fault.”
“I shouldn’t have hit him, though.”
“Probably not. But I’m glad you did. Thank you, by the way.”
“I couldn’t let him hurt you.”
“That’s … honorable,” she said with a wry smile. “But I’m not completely fragile.”
“More than you realize,” he told her firmly. He stepped forward, placing his hands gently on either side of her face, his touch feather-light—and, okay, he was definitely a little tipsy. “Sometimes you gotta let other people look out for you for once.”
Hazel didn’t know how to respond, so she shook her head. “Good night, Luca.”
“Night Hazel,” he murmured back, and closed the door behind her.
Dear Mum,
I remember the time you were called in for a meeting with my English teacher at school. She was angry with me because I spent more time writing in my diary than I did listening to her talk. You nodded when you were supposed to and promised her you’d give me a good talking to.
When we left, you asked what I wrote in my diary. I told you I liked to write stories, and it was what I wanted to do when I grew up. You just gave me a hug and told me to follow my dreams.
That’s not my dream anymore, but I’ll never forget the faith you had in me. It meant so much.
I miss you, Mum, but I remember.
Love,
Hazel
22
Despite the dramatic events of Friday night, everyone wanted to stick to their plan to spend Saturday together—even Luca decided to join them in the end. Hunter was going to give them a personalized, off-duty tour of the waterfall, and Hazel was excited to put last night behind her and focus on enjoying herself.
They agreed to meet at the end of Hunter’s road at midday so they could catch the bus to the waterfall together. Hunter was the only one there when Hazel arrived, and he waved enthusiastically, his wild blond hair scraped back off his face with a colorful bandanna.
“How’re you doing?” he asked as she approached.
“I’m fine,” she said, and she was. After all, it could’ve been a lot worse. “How were things after we left?”
“Honestly? A bit anticlimactic. Everyone was pretty impressed that Luca stood up for you like that, though.”
“Hopefully Oscar will think twice before doing that again.”
“Hopefully,” he agreed. “I can’t believe he tried to force himself on you. What a dick.”
“I think he got his comeuppance.”
Hunter laughed. “He sure did.”
* * *
The others arrived not long after, and they headed toward the bus stop. The sun was already high, and now that Australia was in the middle of spring, the heat was sweltering, especially pressed up against one another in the aisle of the packed bus—but Hazel didn’t mind. Everyone was in a good mood, and she was glad to be out of the house.
Hunter led the way through the rainforest to where the waterfall began, reeling off his tour-guide spiel as they went. The waterfall itself was smaller than Hazel had imagined—it couldn’t have been more than five meters tall.
“Okay,” Hunter said as they came to a stop at the edge of the pool at the bottom, which was already filling with tourists. “Ready to go up?”
“Up?” Hazel echoed, horrified—because although it was small, it wasn’t that small.
He grinned. “Of course. What did you think we were here to do? Stand at the bottom and just look?”
“Actually, that sounds like a really good idea. You guys go ahead, and I’ll stay here with the bags.”
“Nice try,” Maddie said brightly, linking her arm in Hazel’s. “This is a group bonding exercise, which means everyone has to do it. No exceptions.”
Hazel looked over at Red, begging him silently with her eyes to back her up, but he just smirked at her. “Come on, Hazel, it’ll be fun!”
“If I fall…”
Red rolled his eyes. “You won’t fall.”
“Promise?”
He crossed his heart solemnly. “On my life.”
Hazel surveyed the others. They were watching her expectantly, even Luca, waiting for her answer. Was she going to join them, or was she going to chicken out and miss what might be the experience of a lifetime?
“Fine,” she caved, and everyone cheered.
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, the five of them were making their way slowly and carefully acr
oss the rocks. Hunter and Maddie were at the front, followed by Luca and then Hazel, with Red bringing up the rear. They were already high enough that Hazel’s head was starting to spin.
Ahead, Hunter had picked up speed—but just as Hazel started worrying about keeping up, her foot slipped on an algae-covered rock and she lost her balance. Her arms started to flail but before she could fall, Luca whirled around and caught her, big hands firmly on her shoulders to help steady her.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine. Thanks.”
Luca nodded curtly and let go, turning around on the rock and carrying on after the others.
“He’s got a real thing about protecting you at the moment, huh?” Red teased quietly from behind her. Hazel turned to pull a face at him, took a moment to gather herself together, and then followed Luca.
* * *
By the time they reached the top of the waterfall, she’d just about gotten the hang of scaling the rocks with ease, but it was still a relief to be able to sit down and catch her breath without worrying about falling. They sat in silence, admiring the view of the rainforest. The rushing of the water was surprisingly calming; it was beautiful and peaceful, and Hazel was so glad she’d made the climb.
“I’m too hot,” Maddie complained after a while, tugging at the neck of her T-shirt. “It’s like seven hundred degrees up here.”
“You know an easy solution to that?” Hunter said, scrambling to his feet.
“No, I … Wait! No, no, no, Hunter don’t!”
He ignored her protests with a grin, wrapping his arms around her and jumping off the side of the rock. The two of them plunged down toward the bottom of the waterfall, a mess of screaming and flailing limbs as they broke the surface of the water. They both emerged again a moment later, spluttering and laughing, their clothes sticking wetly to their bodies. Maddie clung on to Hunter as he waved up at them.
“Come on!” he yelled. “The water’s lovely, and it’s safe, I promise!”
Luca turned slowly to look at his brother, who was watching him with a smirk. “Redleigh, don’t you dare—” he started, but Red had already shoved him off the edge. Luca went down a little more gracefully, save for the yelp he gave as he left the rock, and even managed to cover his face before he hit the water.
Don't Forget Me Page 10
