Dark Secrets (61 page)

He looked down then,
his eyes focusing on something far away while his lips turned up;
my heart skipped at the sight of his dimples.

“
What are you smiling
at?” I asked.

“
I hope you like
scary movies.”

An eerie feeling swept
over me as my gaze followed his to the front door at the base of
the stairs. “Why?”

“
Come in, Emily,” Sam
said as he passed.

“
Hello,” Emily chimed
in her high but elegant voice, opening the door.

“
Hey, Em.” I stood
up.

“
Hey,” she said, then
turned and waved to someone outside. “Bye, David.”

David?
Not surprisingly, when I looked back, my eyes
fell upon the plain colours of the corridor walls and the rosewood
floorboards below the rug David had been kneeling on. “Right on
time, Em.” I looked at the clock on the wall as I reached the base
of the stairs.

“
Yep, and I hope you
like scary movies.” She held up a USB stick. “It’s based in
Australia—some place called Wolf Creek?”

I shivered.
That’s
what David meant.
“Uh, wow. That’ll be great,” I lied, not really sure why I did
that.

I could almost hear
David laughing down the street. Well, I hoped he enjoyed his little
joke, because he’d be paying for it when I called
him
at two in the
morning, scared, unable to sleep because the bad man might get
me—instead of calling Mike, like always.

My arms folded in
smug gratification. Well, there you go, that was
one
thing I’d let him
pay for.

Chapter
Twenty-Two

“
I don’t know.” Emily
grinned at Dad as he stood up. “I think Sam has a
point.”

“
See, old man,” Sam
said. “If a senior agrees with me, I must be right.”

Dad, with a humoured
grunt, stacked a pile of plates in the sink and leaned against the
counter. “Well, I happen to know that this particular senior is an
A grade student because she
doesn’t
play video games.” He motioned a hand to Emily,
who sat taller—bristling with pride.

“
Dad.” Sam smirked.
“Emily’s only an A grade student because she has a cru—”

“
Good work ethic,” I
cut in, sure Sam was about to say “crush on her
teacher.”

Sam bit his lip,
offering Emily an apologetic look; she just shook her head, picking
the pineapple off her pizza.

“
If only a good work
ethic was addictive—like those video games you play, Samuel.” Dad
sat back down at the table. “The fact is, my boy, you have an
example to set for the other students, being that you’re
a—”

“
Teacher’s kid. I
know, I know.” Sam rolled his eyes. “We’ve all heard the speech,
Dad. But, you can’t debate my argument with any profitable
reasoning. I learned more about physics by playing Halo than I did
from Mr Ester.”

Dad let out a long
breath, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“
It’s okay, Mr
Thompson,” Emily said in an encouraging tone. “Alana and I still
believe in the importance of homework, isn’t that right,
Lani?”

Alana looked up from
her plate and nodded.

“
I’m sorry.” I folded my arms. “I’m with Sam on this one.
Burnout taught
me
the logistics of driving a car.”

Dad jostled with a
little chuckle. “Exactly.”

“
Hey. What’s that
supposed to mean?”

“
I mean—” he sat
back, folding his arms, “—that there’s a reason you don’t have your
licence yet.”

“
You don’t have your
licence?” Emily practically spat the words out.

“
Um…no.” I sank into
myself.

“
Why?”

“
I uh, I’m not very
good at driving,” I lied. Truthfully, I just didn’t see the need to
be behind the wheel.

“
Maybe Alana and I
could teach you,” Em offered.

“
I think we’ll leave
the driving lessons to the experts,” Dad chimed in.

“
But, if your methods
aren’t working, Mr Thompson, maybe she could learn from those of us
closer to her age,” Emily said.

Sam stifled a giggle;
Dad raised a brow at him. “When did I become the old
guy?”

“
Uh, about forty
years ago, Dad.” I laughed.

“
Hm. Should’ve seen
it coming. So—” he said with a change in tone, “what are you girls
up to tonight?”

“
Scary movie,” Emily
said.

“
Yay.” I waved an
invisible flag, with mock enthusiasm.

“
Yeah? Which one?”
Sam sat up, suddenly more eager to be a part of the conversation
again.

“
No way, pest. Girl’s
night,” I said.

“
Aw. No
fair.”

“
Life’s not fair,
son. Get used to it,” Dad said distractedly—the common disease of
resorting to philosophical one-liners taking the intelligence out
of any point he may have been trying to make.

“
Well, Sam, if you
want to paint your nails and look at pictures of Ara’s hunky BFF,
then you can have a girl’s night with us,” Emily said.

“
Yeah, I’ll pass.” He
slumped back in his chair.

“
All right, well—”
Dad stood up and took the last of the plates, “—Sam and I will get
the dishes, and you girls can go talk about boys.”

Awkward.
“Yeah, um, that’s our cue to go.” I stood and
motioned the girls to follow.

Three pairs of feet
dangled off one side of the bed, three heads off the other, while
the sun slipped behind the house, bringing darkness down the walls,
and the dancing rainbows around my room faded, but Emily and
Alana’s stories distracted me from the dying colours in my life,
reminding me of a time when I once thought the world was
normal.

“
So, whose idea was
it to hang the crystals over the window?” Alana asked. “It was so
magic in here with all those rainbows.”

“
Oh, um,
Pollyanna.”

“
Pollyanna?” She
rolled onto her belly.

“
Yeah. It’s from an
old movie my mom used to love.”

“
Hm. Never seen it.”
Alana looked at Emily, who shrugged, shaking her head.

“
So, Ara, are you
gonna show us these pics of Mike, or what?”

“
Sure, Em, but,
you’re with Spence now, do you really need to be checking out other
guys?”

“
Who says I’m checking him out?” She sat up beside Alana. “I’m
just curious as to why
your
eyes light up when you mention
him.”

“
They so do not light
up,” I demanded.

“
Um, actually, Ara,
they kind of do,” Alana said carefully.

“
Yeah, you sparkle.”
Emily waved her fingers around. “So—” she shuffled to the edge of
the bed, “—let’s see them.”

“
Fine.” I rolled up
with a huff and wandered over to my desk. “I don’t have many,
though. I only grabbed one box when I moved—and it was the wrong
one.”

“
Which box did you
mean to grab?” Em asked.

“
Just some old family
ones.” I shrugged as if it didn’t matter. “I’d switched the boxes
about a week before and just didn’t realise until I was already
here.”

“
Why not ask your mom
to send them over for you?” Alana said.

“
Yeah. Guess I
could.” I bumped the drawer closed with my hip and plonked down on
the ground with the box in front of me. Alana sat beside me,
waiting anxiously while I fingered the lid, trying not to peel back
the carefully placed rainbow and kitten stickers Mike randomly
stuck on there when he was bored one day.

“
Oh, my God!” Alana
reached past my wrist and grabbed the first picture the light
touched, then jumped up and handed it to Emily, who smiled
instantly.

“
Oh. He
is
cute.”

“
You think?” My lip
curled.

Emily laid back on my
pillow, her silky blonde hair spilling out around her like liquid.
“Hell yeah. He’s kinda rustic, isn’t he?”

Alana, with another
picture in hand, nodded. “Is he a surfer?” She flipped the image
around for me to see; Mike, in his board shorts, on the
beach—golden and tanned, with yellow hair falling scruffily over
his eyes.

“
Yeah, I suppose.” I
shrugged. “He does surf.”

“
I can’t believe how
cute he is.”

“
Yeah, he sorta is…in
a way.” I pretended to cringe.

“
In
a way? Ara, he’s actually
really
cute,” Alana said. “Even by my
standards.”

“
And you two never
uh—” Emily let the suggestion in her tone lead that
question.

I shook my head. “It’s
really not like that.”

“
Never?” She grinned,
and the pathetic liar in me showed herself on my face. “Oh, my God.
You so had a fling!”

“
We
didn’t.”

“
You did,” Emily
insisted.

“
Did not.”

Alana studied my
smirk. “Ara, you’re a terrible liar.”

“
Drat.” My shoulders sunk. “Okay, maybe I did,
kind of
, throw myself at
him. Once.”

“
Really?” Emily sat
up and crossed her legs under her. “Well? Come on, girl, fill us
in!”

My head dropped to one
side with a groan. “Okay. Um, so, it was my friend’s
eighteenth…”

“
Ooh, wait, wait,
wait.” Em waved her hands about, coming to sit down in our little
circle around my box of Mike. “Okay. Go.”

“
Um.” I laughed at
her, half frowning. “So…I had a drink at her party. Well, okay,
maybe three.” I laughed. “Or more.”

The girls gasped,
wide-eyed.

“
What?” I
shrugged.

“
You rebel,” Alana
breathed the words out.

“
I know, I know. It’s
not one of my proudest moments. But, the legal age for drinking in
Australia is eighteen,” I added. “So, I’m not that far off—not like
here.”

“
Huh! So lucky,”
Emily scoffed.

“
So, anyway. I walked
to Mike’s house to stay the night so my mom wouldn’t find
out—”

“
Did
his
mom
know you were drunk?” Emily sat forward.

“
Let me finish.” I
held a hand up; Alana laughed. “It was actually Mike who picked up
on it, like, before I even got in the door.”

Emily and Alana
exchanged glances. “How did he know you’d been drinking?” Alana
asked.

“
He’s been a cop since he was eighteen,” I said. “He knows the
signs, and he knows me—and
I
don’t act like that.”

“
Wait. I thought he
was just getting into the Force,” Alana asked.

My head moved in a
‘no’ as I popped a candy in my mouth. “He’s just getting in to the
Tactical Response Group. That’s where he really wanted to be. But
he’s been a beat cop for forever.”

“
So...” Emily led,
“what happened then?”

“
Um, well, so, he
took me upstairs to his room and sat me down for a severe talking
to. But, I just thought he was hilarious. I couldn’t stop laughing
at him.”

“
How did he take
that?”

“
He was trying not to
laugh, too, but…then I kind of went and threw my arms around him
and kissed him—told him I’d always loved him.”

“
Huh! I would’ve,
too,” Emily said.

“
Did he kiss you
back?” Alana asked, completely arrested by my tale.

“
Yeah—” I lowered my
head, “—for a moment. But then he stopped—pushed me
away.”

“
Ouch.” Emily
winced.

“
That must have
hurt?” Alana’s voice softened.

“
Not really. I mean, I felt rejected and all, but it was…he
yelled at me. He had
never
yelled at me before—for anything.” I laughed it
off, but I’d pushed that memory so far down that remembering it
came as a shock. I’d almost convinced myself the kiss never
happened.

“
Why’d he yell at
you?” Alana asked.

“
Was it because you
kissed him?”

“
It was because…he
said he was just really disappointed in me—for drinking. He was
worried, I guess.”

“
That sucks. So he
didn’t like you the way you liked him?” Emily asked.

“
No.” I shrugged
casually. “But it was a mistake. I don’t really feel that way about
him. It was just the alcohol.”

“
Or did you just tell
him it was liquor-lust to save face?” Emily smirked.