The Freefall Trilogy (Complete Collection) (8 page)

'What were you thinking?' he murmured at Lucy.  Lucy blinked back at him.  In a split-second, he turned.  Suddenly he was a pool of anger, fist raised.  She watched him throw the neon pink plugs out at the grass, glowering back.  The vein on his neck was up.  Lucy swallowed.  She'd never seen him like this.

'
Wh's goin on here?' Froggy demanded.  Lucy found him at her side, the two of them frowning up at Josh.

'EARPLUGS?  ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?' Joshua screamed in her face.

It came in loud and clear through the hiss.  Lucy shrank back, but he kept coming. 

'WELL?'

She could feel her throat closing up.  Cheeks burning; eyes starting to sting.  She turned to
Froggy for reassurance, but this time around, he was scowling at her. 

'I...  I don't like the noise,' she finally squeaked, eyes flickering across the grass. 

'The noise?' Joshua seethed. 

He was hopping mad. 

She watched him stoop down and grab the walkie talkies, waving them angrily. 

'That
noise
was supposed to be guiding you in!'

'I...  I couldn't hear you,' she tried to explain.  'I had a thing with my ears.  I couldn't equalise.'

Joshua chewed his lips angrily, eyes closing.  She watched him trying to gather himself.

'You...
had a thing with your ears
because you were wearing them!' he said through gritted teeth, jabbing a walkie talkie back at the grass.  He was striving for a modicum of decorum, but dismally failing.  'You could have given yourself a perforated eardrum.  Or worse.'

'I'm sorry!' Lucy croaked.  The tears she'd been desperately trying to hold back were seconds away; already pooling in her eyes.  Joshua stared back unblinkingly.  Lucy felt
Froggy's arm across her back.

'Leave it out, Snowy,' he growled.

'Leave it out?' Joshua gaped.  'Did you see that turn?'

'Aye, I did there
laddy.'

'Good!' boomed Josh, eyes bulging, shaking with anger.  'If you've got anything about you, you'll fucking fail her.'

Lucy watched in astonishment as he ran a hand through his sun-bleached curls, turning his back, stalking away. 

'That was a low fucking turn,' Froggy grumbled under his breath.  'If I were him, I'd be furious too.' 

'Are you going to fail me?' she said quietly, still watching Josh march away across the grass.

Froggy gave her a look.

'Well
y'did demonstrate awareness of other canopies,' he nodded.  'And we are still on the airfield... just about.'

His brow lowered.

'But y'came into the landing pattern far too late.  Another two seconds?  Y'ed be looking at a fail.  Aye.' 

The look darkened, voice dropping. 

'Another seven, eight?  They'd be picking bits ay'ye up off the fucking ground.'

Lucy stared at the grass.  Her cheeks visibly blanched.

'I'm nay gonna fail ya,' he told her, ruffling her hair with his knuckles. 

Lucy sagged with relief. 

'Just donnay do that to me again. 
Ever
.  Y'hear, me Lucy?  Nay fucking earplugs next time.'

'Snowy.  I wanny word with ye.'

Froggy's
voice boomed as he marched across the hangar. 

A whole fleet of riggers stopped packing their parachutes; looking up.  You could have heard a pin drop.

Joshua turned and squinted down at the little Scotsman, almost flinching.  Froggy did hopping mad like nobody else.

'How fucking dare ye?' he snarled, brow clenched, head cocking from side to side with each syllable. 
Froggy's lower teeth were bared in anger, his fists clenched in rage. 

'She's my fucking student!' he barked up at Josh.  'How dare ye interfere? 
Ye're knocking the stuffing out of the wee girl!'

Joshua's gaze fell to the floor. 

He already knew that.  He wasn't proud of himself.  He could see her teary-eyed face all the long walk back.

Froggy
blinked up at him, dark eyes softening.  He reached up and squeezed Josh's shoulder.

'I know exactly
wha's going on in y'heed,' Froggy told him, his voice laced with concern.  'But y've gotta stop this,' Froggy warned, still in a more conciliatory tone.

Josh's eyes flickered up from the ground.

'I know,' he said guiltily.

'
D'ye know what she scored on her written?' Froggy smirked up at him.  '97 fucking percent!'

Joshua's eyes widened. 
Froggy grinned up proudly. 

'Go an make
y'peace with her,' Froggy warned.  'We're up on the next lift.  I think it'd be better for both'ay ye not to leave it like this.'

As Lucy was tightening her harness, she looked up and froze.  The whole room fell into silence.  It all seemed to go in slow motion.

The crowd parted, like the Red Sea, Joshua sweeping straight through the middle.  In a breath, she was up in his arms.

'No more earplugs,' he grumbled.  She could feel the smile against her cheek.  Lucy wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder, clenching her eyes shut, breathing him in.

'No more earplugs,' she promised, and it was almost a sob.  They'd never had so much as a crossed word before.  Josh set her down, her feet finally touching the ground.  A smile, a quick peck on the lips, and just as suddenly, he disappeared.

Lucy didn't see or hear from Joshua throughout the day.  It was just her,
Froggy, Martin and the other AFF students.  She suspected there might have been a bit of animosity from her peers after that little stunt, especially the two other girls.  Oh they were polite enough, but Lucy detected an atmosphere; a few sideways glances in her direction, smiles that dropped a little too quickly.  But the weather was good; they were flying through the jumps.  Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 in quick succession.  Every time she got to the door, it felt a little bit easier.  The wind never died down; there was still that cloying stench of diesel.  She was still terrified - she imagined that would never go away.  But for every hour she spent in the classroom, dangling from that awful black harness, suspended from the ceiling like a giant baby bouncer; every time she went through the drills; every video she watched and every question and answer she completed, she felt a little surer of her herself.  She felt a little more self-composed.

By the time they'd done their fourth jump, they were losing the light.  Lucy couldn't have managed a fifth.  Her bones ached; she was spent.  Lucy was hungry -  ravenous, in fact.  It was time to turn in for the night.

She tried to run her fingers through her short ringlets, but they were full of knots.  Her skin felt greasy and grimy.  Lucy looked up from the slatted bench.  The kit room was emptying out.  She lowered her nose to her armpit.

'They
y'are!' 

Lucy's head shot up. 

'I've been looking for ye all over.' 

She put her hand on the back of her neck, elbow clamped to her ribs, rolling her head, smiling meekly. 
Froggy grinned back. 

'His lordship is waiting for ye at the pub.  I'll give
y'a lift if y'like.'

Lucy didn't have any brothers or sisters.  If she did, she imagined this is what it would feel like.  She and Froggy had been all over each other that day - personal space is zero when you're crammed in on a Cessna.  There were no dodgy looks; no hidden agenda.  They sat in the front of his beat up blue Golf, driving down the twilit lanes, watching the occasional finch dip and dive in front of the car.  There was a companionable silence, as if the two of them had know each forever.  It was odd to imagine that they'd just met that morning.

'I think it's only fair to warn
y'Lucy,' Froggy confided.  'Yer man's still pissed off about what happened earlier on.'

Lucy's heart sank.  She rolled her eyes.  The lids drew shut.

'Oh for God's sake,' she sighed.

'
Y'canny blame him,' Froggy tried to reason.

'I said I was sorry,' Lucy told him.  'I just had them left over from the wind tunnel training... I didn't know!'

'Y'would'ay done,' Froggy chastised her.  'If y'ed just asked one'ay us.' 

He turned into the pub
carpark, rolling into a space.  The handbrake clicked.  Froggy turned off the ignition.

'I can't believe his still mad.'

And yet, she sort of could.  Her phone had been silent all day.  That was a first since the Saturday they met.  It was all adding up now.  That hug in the hangar, that was just to settle her before her next jump.  He didn't look her once in the eye.  She ran her hands down her tired face.  More passive aggressive bullshit.  She'd had enough from Phil to last her a lifetime.

'Ay,'
Froggy warned her, unclipping his safety belt, the fastening whirring up to his shoulder.  'Cut the guy some slack, Lucy.  I don't think y'know the full story.'

Lucy undid her own safety belt, sliding it up, staring at
Froggy.  His dark eyes flickered back guiltily.

'Alright, alright,' he sighed, scraping his messy dreadlocks back from his face, thumbing his beard.  'I'm not sure I'm the one who should be telling ye this, but I take it
y'don't already know...'

The frown made it abundantly clear that she didn't.

'Snowy's last girlfriend...' Froggy said quietly, staring down at the pedals. 

Her heart sank.  Not ex girlfriends - they'd never started up on all that.

'She was killed in an accident.'

Lucy's eyes widened.  She blinked back at him.

'Nothing to do with skydiving,
mind'ye,' Froggy added quickly.  'It was a pile-up on the M5.'

She closed her eyes, letting it wash over her. 

And there it was: the annoying little niggle she'd been trying to ignore; more and more recently.  Josh had been acting, well...
weird
.  Lucy felt Froggy squeezing her shoulder. 

'If he seems a bit over-protective, well, ye canny blame him, but
y'have to understand...  He's only hard on ye because he cares.'

Lucy raised her chin, glazed eyes
catching Froggy's dark stare.  She could feel it flickering across her face; searching her soul.

She stared down at her fingers, entwined in her lap. 

Does he?

Lucy wasn't so sure.

Josh sat with Martin in one of the snugs, fiddling with a beer mat.  Martin was bleating about the latest Newcastle United transfer.  Joshua smiled and nodded patiently, sipping his cola. 

Finally, the door swung open.  Lucy and
Froggy walked in. 

Joshua stood up, smiling at her.  Lucy kept her eyes on the gaudy orange-patterned carpet.  Josh's smile melted.  She didn't look up once. 

He frowned, watching her disappear into the ladies'.

What's up with her?

She didn't seem like someone who'd just sailed through Level 4 of the
AFF course.  Normally, they'd be bouncing off the walls. 

Froggy
strolled towards them, looking up meekly.

'
Froggy?  ...What's going on?'