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She pats my leg. “Unfortunately that’s not how it always works. Sometimes even best friends need to keep stuff from each other. At least until they’re ready to talk about it.”
“Did you keep stuff from Dad? I mean, back when you were best friends.”
Traces of remorse haunt her eyes. “There was a lot of stuff I didn’t tell him. I kept more from him than I wish I would have.”
I hug my knee to my chest. “Then why did you do it?”
She shrugs, uncomfortable. “I was afraid of what I would feel if I said stuff aloud. Afraid that your dad wouldn’t love me anymore if I told him everything about me.”
I rest my chin on my knee. “Just what kind of secrets did you have, Mom? You sound super sketchy right now.”
She shrugs again and her eyes well up. “It doesn’t really matter anymore. What’s in the past is in the past.” Sucking back the tears, she stands up. “You can drive my car to school if you want to, but you’ll have to gas it up.” She starts to leave, dabbing her eyes with her fingertips.
“Mom, wait.” I spring from the bed and hurry over to her. “I’m not sure if I need to tell you this, but it kind of feels like I should, since I’m worried Ayden himself might not tell Lila or Ethan.”
I quickly tell her about the guy standing outside the house, giving her the details of what he looked like, and giving her the sketch I drew of guy the night I first saw him. I omit that Ayden snuck out for a while, not wanting to get him in trouble. He still hasn’t confessed what he was doing and I’ve given up on trying to get the information out of him. For now anyway.
“I’m glad you told me,” my mother says when I’m finished. “I’ll make sure to mention it to Lila. She’ll want to know about it.”
“You don’t think he’s bad, do you?” I gather my hair into my hand and fasten it into a ponytail with an elastic from my dresser. “Like maybe one of those people the police are looking for?”
“I doubt it.” But concern masks her face. “But it’s better to be safe than sorry.” She glances down at the phone in her hand. “You should get ready for school; otherwise, you’re going to be late.” She walks out of my room and closes the door behind her, leaving me to stew in my own worry.
I decide to text Ayden to make sure he’s okay; something short and simple, knowing that he’s probably stressed out from being at the police station.
Me: Hey! If u need anything, give me a holler.
Then I put my phone down and get ready for school, waiting for him to respond and trying not to stress out when he doesn’t.
Chapter 4
Lyric
Three hours and one silent ride to school with Kale later, Ayden still hasn’t given me a holler¸ which should be a good thing, right? Means the visit with the police went okay?
Doubt resides in the back of my mind, though. Knowing Ayden, his silence could mean he’s shutting down. Like my mother told me this morning, even best friends keep secrets from each other.
While I attempt to remain understanding, it still makes me sad. I barely know what’s going on with him at the moment. If he’s hurting while dealing with his brother’s death, and what on earth he was doing when he snuck out of his house the other night.
“Earth to Lyric. Have you heard anything I’ve said at all?” Sage waves his hand in front of my face, interrupting my thoughts.
Startled, I jerk back in surprise and chuck the pencil in my hand. Our desks are facing each other, so the pencil ends up zipping by his head, missing his eye by an inch. Thankfully, we’re in fourth period English, and the teacher, Ms. Reltingly, loves doing group projects, so most of my classmates are distracted and don’t notice my crazy ninja reflex reaction.
Sage, of course, does since he’s the one who caused it.
He cautiously raises his hands in front of him and leans back in his seat. “Jesus, Lyric. You don’t need to get all crazy and try to stab my eye out.” He leans over his desk, scoops up my pencil, and flips it through his fingers like a baton before handing it to me.
“Sorry.” I check the time on the wall clock. Holy shit! Lunch is in ten minutes. “How long have I been zoned out?”
Sage shrugs as he flips a page in his textbook. “For about twenty minutes.”
I casually glimpse around at the rest of the class; everyone is partnered up and working on the assignment. “Dude, I suck. I’m like the worst partner ever.”
Sage fiddles with a silver barbell in his brow. “It’s just class, no biggie.” He releases his piercing and starts doodling skulls on the top of his notebook. “Do you want to talk about what’s bothering you, though?”
I peek at the page he’s on and turn to the same one. “Who said anything was bothering me?”
His brow cocks. “Lyric, you’ve been staring at the wall for the last twenty minutes and haven’t said a word. Something definitely has to be wrong for you to remain that quiet.”
I press my hand to my heart, pretending to be offended. “Are you saying there’s no way I can just be quiet without something being wrong?” When he presses me with a look, I sigh. “Okay, you’re right. But I promise it’s nothing. I’m just waiting for Ayden to text me. That’s all.”
“Yeah, where the hell is he today? We were supposed to meet up before school to chat about something, but he totally blew me off and ignored my text, too.”
“He had an appointment or something, and I think he must have forgotten his phone,” I lie because I have no clue what to tell him. No one outside of the Gregorys and my own family knows what’s going on with Ayden and the police. They don’t even know about his brother’s death.
“Yeah, if he’s not texting you, then he’s definitely forgotten his phone. What’s going on with you two, anyway? You seem a little,” he rubs his jawline, “offbeat lately.”
“Whoa, nosy much?” I squirm, something I’m not a fan of doing. Usually, I’m comfortable in every situation.
“I’m just curious what’s going on with you two ... for the band’s sake.” He shrugs and waits for me to answer his question. “You know, the last thing we need is some sort of lover’s quarrel that causes us to split up.”
I shoot him a dirty look. “Ayden and I aren’t lovers.”
“You sure about that? Because I can never tell with you two.”
“Hmmm, let me think,” I sarcastically say, thrumming my fingertip on my lip. “Well, there was that one time when we kissed under the bleachers and I nearly swooned on the floor. It was so magical.” I roll my eyes. “What are we, gossiping girls?”
“Hate to break it to you, but you are a girl.” He scans me over, his gaze remaining a little too long on my chest.
I cross my arms and decide to put him on the spot. “Okay, so why were you two meeting up before school? Because I’d really like to know for the band’s sake. I mean, for all I know, you two could be having a bromance quarrel.”
He stares at me blankly, clearly unimpressed. “You’re too clever for your own good, Lyric Scott.” He tucks his pencil into the spiral of his notebook then leans back in his chair with a lazy grin on his face. “And I’m not telling you my secrets unless you tell me yours.”
I scrunch my nose at him. “Well, this game isn’t fun if you’re not going to play.”
“Sorry.” He seems very unapologetic. “Besides, I don’t want to talk about this with anyone until I chat with Ayden first.”
“You’re being very cryptic.” I examine him intently. “You’re not thinking about springing the band, are you? I know we haven’t gotten any gigs yet and everything, but working my magic takes time.”
“I know it does.” He reaches into his pocket for his phone. “And it’s not that. Trust me, I’m way too comfortable with you guys to ever start over with a new band.” He reads something on the screen of his phone then smiles. “Well, looks like our boy got his phone back.”
“Ayden just texted you?” I lean over my desk to look at the screen of his phone, but Sage quickly presses it to his chest.
“Dude, that’s private shit right there, Lyric.” He stuffs his phone into the pocket of his blue hoodie. “I know you and Ayden don’t have boundaries and everything, but seriously, you can’t just read people’s phones whenever you want.”
“Sorry.” I
’m not, though. I’m actually really curious to read what’s on his phone, more than I was before.
“It’s cool.” He shuts his book, giving up on us finishing the assignment. “We should probably finish the project up after band practice or something since we wasted so much class time.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I close my textbook and shove it into my bag.
For the next seven minutes, I mentally chant the lyrics of an angsty song I wrote during first period, trying to cool off and not get jealous over the fact that Ayden texted Sage before me.
