Dark Secrets (15 page)

I tapped my pencil on
the page, trying to see through the solid classroom door, hoping
David was waiting for me out there. The clock on the wall sat at
three minutes to lunch, but the corridors were already bustling
with students, and I was in the only class whose teacher didn’t
give early marks.

Then, almost as if it
obeyed my command, the bell wailed loudly and the class broke into
noisy shuffles, fleeing the room. I tucked my books under my arm
and pushed my chair in, looking up to the sound of my name. “Yes,
Miss Chester?”

“
Can I talk to you,
please?”

“
Um, sure.” I glanced
quickly at the corridor—to freedom—to David, leaning on the locker
with his hands in his pockets, looking down at his shoes. “Did I do
something wrong?”

“
No, just wondering
how you’re doing?” she said softly, busying her eyes on some
papers.

“
Doing?
Uh…I’m…fine.”

“
Just so you know—” She looked up at me, her pale lips forming
a smile. “I’m a good friend of your dad’s. If you need to
talk—at
any
time—I’m always available. Okay?”

I smiled politely,
hugging my books a little tighter. “Um, thanks.”

“
Okay, and, Ara?” she
said as I turned away.

“
Yes.”

“
Try to pay more
attention in my class.”

“
Okay.
Sorry.”

“
See you
tomorrow.”

“
Yep,” I said, feeling stupid after.
Yep?
What was I thinking?
Yep?

“
Everything all
right?” David stood from his lean.

“
Yeah. Fine. Why?” I
let him take my books.

“
What did Miss
Chester want?”

“
Sheee…just wanted to
see how I was going.”

“
Going with
what?”

“
Uh, homework?” I
cringed at the tone of my lie.

David smiled warmly,
keeping his eyes on the path ahead. “So…you’re not paying attention
in class?”

“
Um, no. Not really.”
I looked down at my feet, half noticing the walls go from white to
burgundy.

“
Why not?”

“
Why not
what?”

“
Why aren’t you
concentrating?”

“
I…I guess…I’m
tired?” And there that questioning tone came again.

“
You can talk to me,
Ara.” David gently grabbed my arm, stopping me by the auditorium
door. “You don't have to make up some lie.”

“
Lie? About
what?”

“
I heard what she
said.” He waited, looking right into me as if I’d just spill the
beans. “She wasn’t just asking how you were coping with a new
school, was she?”

“
I uh—”

“
Hey, you two.” Emily
popped up out of nowhere. “Ready to start our first official
meeting for the benefit concert?”

“
Yup.” I stepped away
quickly to stand beside Em. “Ready.”

“
Great. Did you get
lunch, yet? Cafeteria lines are out the door today.” She nodded
toward her tray of food. “Mr Grant said we can eat lunch in the
auditorium if we’re rehearsing.”

“
Really?” I said.
“That’s great.”

“
Yeah, I know, hey.
So, I’ll go reserve a table near the stage. See you in a
minute?”

“
Why don’t you go
ahead, Ara,” David said, passing my books and his bag. “I’ll brave
the cafeteria lines.”

My fingers tightened
around his backpack, finally touching something that belonged to
him. “Sure, thanks, David.”

He tried to smile, but
his clearly agitated gaze kept drifting toward Emily.
“Anytime.”

As he turned away, I
squatted down and reached into my bag. “David. Money.”

“
Keep it.”

“
No way.” I stood up.
“Take it.”

“
Ara.” He held his
palm against my outstretched hand, glaring down at me.

“
David.” I glared
back.

“
Come on.” Emily
grabbed my arm and dragged me gently away. “One thing you’ll learn
pretty fast is not to refuse David when he wants to spend money on
you.”

I turned my head
slowly to look at her. “How do
you
know that?”

“
David and I have
been friends for a while.” She watched him walk around the corner.
“We used to be closer, but…”

“
But?” I
probed.

“
Nothing. We’re just
not anymore—people grow apart.”

With a heavy sigh, I
grabbed our bags and books and headed into the auditorium behind
Emily. “I can’t let him buy me lunch all the time—when’s it going
to stop?”

She giggled, walking
ahead of me. “It’s not.”

Sinking into my quilt,
I drifted, floating in that blissful moment between sleep and wake,
where dreams mingle with reality, slowly and magically merging
until everything in the now disappears. Here, in this halfway
world, I could be with David in any form imaginable; friend,
girlfriend, lover.

I drew a deeper breath
and settled into the fantasy, angling my face to the warmth of the
summer sun as it kissed my skin, lighting everything around me with
a yellow glow.

“
Hey there,
beautiful.” David landed beside me in the grass.

“
Hey.” I smiled,
pulling petals off a daisy, whispering, “He loves me; he loves me
not.”

“
Don’t do that.” He
cupped my hand, crushing the flower slightly.

“
Don’t do
what?”

“
Don’t say
he loves me
not
.”

I looked across at him
and, seeing his playful smile, returned one. “Why can’t I say
it?”

“
Because it’s not
true.” He ditched the flower and rolled me onto my back, landing
beside me, with the grass closing in around us.

“
Then what is true?”
I asked, twirling my hair around my finger.

“
The phone,” he
said.

“
Huh?” I frowned,
staring up at him until the song of a bird transformed into a
high-pitched screech, then sat bolt upright in my bed, leaving the
dream behind to a cold-slap reality. “Oh, shut up,” I said to the
phone, flopping back down with my pillow over my face.

To my surprise, it
actually did, and I once again drifted off to fantasyland, finding
myself beside a tree, with warm beams of light wrapping around me
again, but no David.

“
David?” I looked
behind me, above me, below me. He was gone. But where did he go?
People didn’t just disappear from fantasies.

“
Ara-Rose?”

I turned slightly,
seeing only my reflection in the glass of the phone booth behind
me, disappearing with each flicker of a fluorescent light outside
the corner store. “Mum?”

“
Ara-Rose, where are
you?”

I felt the weight of
the pay phone in my hand then and squeezed it. “I had a fight with
Mike.”

“
With Mike? What were
you doing at Mike’s? I thought you went to Kate’s.”

“
Mum?” I said, panic
rising in my tone; I could see her face then, in the glass; she
rubbed her forehead, washing away the weeks of sleepless nights.
She looked tired and so worn. I knew I shouldn’t be doing this, but
I didn’t care. “I’m scared.”

“
Tell me where you
are?”

“
Mum, they’re coming
for me.”

“
Who?” She leaned
forward, her reflection showing the panic in her eyes. “Ara, tell
me where you are.”

I looked over my
shoulder at the dark shadows, stealing the light from the pavement
as they fingered their way along—getting closer. “You need to come,
Mum. You just need to come get me.” I kept looking over my
shoulder, unsure what was out there; I couldn’t see past the street
light over the booth, but I could feel them, knew they were
lingering, waiting for me to hang up.

“
I’ll come. Just stay
there, Ara. Just stay there.”

“
Hurry,” I said,
feeling a coolness take the air. Then, the line went dead. “Mum.” I
hung up the phone a few times, pressing all the numbers, but the
receiver was empty—no static, no noise. Behind me, the lights in
Ronnie’s store went out and the wind stopped; I touched a hand
slowly to the glass, and another came up to meet it.

“
Ara!” A deep voice
snapped my mind back like an elastic band on a wrist; my eyes flung
open.

“
Dad?”

“
Ara, your phone’s been ringing every few minutes for the last
twenty. Will you
please
answer it?”

I rolled over, rubbing
the haze from my eyes. “The phone?”

“
Yes,” Dad said and
closed my door, leaving me in darkness.

I jumped up, grabbed
the phone, tripping over the clothes and shoes on my floor, and
landed in my desk chair. “Hello?”

“
Hey, baby, did I
wake you?”

“
Mike?”

“
Yeah, how you
doin’?” he asked, then took a quick breath. “Oh, yeah, the time
thing. Sorry, Ara. I’ll go.”

“
No,
wait.”

“
Yeah?” he said
softly.

“
I…” I put the phone
to my other ear. “I was dreaming about her, Mike.”

He went silent. “Your
mom?”

“
Yeah.” My voice
cracked. “I keep thinking she’s gonna come pick me up and I’ll go
back home again, and—”

“
Aw, Ara, please
don’t cry, it—you’ll break my heart, baby.” He completely lost his
voice then. ‘I just, you don’t know how much it kills me that I
can’t be there with you right now.”

I smiled softly,
sniffling. “I’m sorry I didn’t take your calls the last few months,
Mike.”

“
I know, baby girl.
Okay. And—you know me, Ar. I’m always here for ya, no matter what.
Okay?”

I wiped the mess of
warm, salty tears from my cheeks. “I just—it’s been so hard without
you.”

“
Have you talked to
your dad, yet—about what you told me? Have you told
anyone?”

My head rocked from
side to side.

“
Ara, I can’t hear
you when you shake your head.” He chuckled.

My sudden burst of
laughter forced static down the phone line. “You always know how to
make me laugh.”

“
Look, you need to
talk to someone.” His voice took on the serious note he seemed to
have adopted over the past two months. “It’s not healthy for you to
keep all of this inside, baby girl. You said you made friends? Why
don’t you have a girlie night and do one of those big
deep-and-meaningful things?”

I shook my head. “I
don’t know them well enough, Mike. I’m just not ready to share that
part of my life with anyone.”

“
Well, what about
that David dude. I bet he’d listen?”

“
He might. But, I
don’t want him to hate me if I tell him the truth.”

“
Ara, grow up. You
need to talk to someone about this. Now, I don’t care who—your dad,
Vicki, Sam even, but—”

“
I’ve got you to talk
to.”

“
I’m not there,
Ara.”

“
You will be soon,
right? My dad said you can stay here.”

“
Yeah? Tell him
thanks. And stop changing the subject.”

“
I’m not. Look, I’ll
talk to someone, okay. I do know you’re right. I just—”

“
You’re just gonna
bottle it up until you’re in a straightjacket.”

I bit my
tongue.

“
I’m gonna call you
the second my interview’s booked, Ara, and we’re gonna pencil in a
day for me to arrive. Then, if you haven’t told David or Emily or
someone what happened, I’m gonna do it for you,” he said. “Got
it?”

“
Okay, Zorro.” I
laughed. “When do you think they’ll do your interview?”

“
Two weeks or
so.”

“
Cool. So, Mike, why did you call?” I asked, realising
that
he
woke
me
.

“
I was just thinking
‘bout ya, that’s all. The ice cream man came past, playing that
stupid jingle. Made me remember the time he ran over your foot—when
you chased him for your change.”

My left toes twitched.
That stupid truck cost me six weeks off ballet and a permanently
demented pinkie toe. “Well, I’m glad it brings you happiness to
remember me in pain.”

“
Aw, I really miss
ya, kid,” he breathed the words out. “I’ll let you get back to
sleep.”

“
Okay.”

“
Night,
Ara.”

“
Night.”

Chapter
Six

“
David! You
waited?”

“
Of course I did.” He
laughed, watching me cross the road, still pulling my shoes on.
“Stayed in the shower too long, did we?”