Dark Secrets (94 page)

“
Hey, kid.” He
grinned, his eyes falling over my bare curves.

“
Mike!” I scrambled
for something to cover myself with. “Shut the door! My dad might
walk past.”

“
Relax, baby.” He
looked behind him, closing the door, then sauntered across the
room. “You look gorgeous.”

“
I look like a girl
in her underwear.” I leaned in front of the mirror again, forcing
the silver stud against the unyielding hole in my earlobe. “I’m
just trying to get this damn thing to go in.”

“
Need
help?”

“
Nah, I’m fine.” I
glanced away from the mirror long enough to see his smiling eyes
trace my shoulders and ribs, fixing on my blue lace
undies.

“
New?”

“
Yeah, I bought them
to match my dress.” I slapped his hand off my hip.

“
What about this?
Have you always had a strapless bra, or is that new
too?”

“
No. It’s
new.”

“
Well, you look very
sexy—” his voice dragged, “—a little too sexy for an unmarried
girl.”

“
Stop it.” I slapped
his hand away again. “I can’t concentrate while you keep doing
that.”

“
Here, let me
try.”

“
Okay, but, good
luck.” I placed the earring in his waiting hand. “I haven’t been
able to get one in that hole for over a week.”

The warmth of his
breath touched my neck as he leaned close, stud in fingertips, and
fumbled against my earlobe until I heard a small ‘pop’. “All
done.”

“
Thanks.” I rubbed my
ear. It burned a little.

“
Is the other one
okay?”

“
Yeah, it’s just this
one—it keeps closing. I don’t know why.”

“
Start wearing your
earrings and it won’t happen.”

“
I can’t. I hate
sleeping in them. So?” I leaned my butt on the dresser, rolling my
hand in the air. “Did you want something?”

“
Oh, um—” He unfolded
his arms. “I came to see if you were hungry. I uh, I haven’t seen
you eat anything today.”

“
That’s because I
haven’t,” I remarked, pushing past him.

“
Ara?” he whined.
“Why, baby?”

“
Because, maybe if I
don’t eat, I’ll die.” I flopped backward on my bed with a
huff.

“
Ara, grow up, you
don’t mean that.” He stood above me, his arms folded.

“
No. But I also kinda
do.”

“
Well—” he grabbed my
hand and pulled me to sit, “—then you need to get some help, baby.
That’s not normal.”

I forced a smile,
tilting my head. “Mike. You worry too much. I’m fine.
Really.”

“
Ara? Sane girls
don’t say they’re trying to starve themselves to death.”

“
I didn’t really mean
it—not literally.” I stood up. “Now go, let me get dressed or I’ll
be going to the ball in my underwear.” I waved my hands down my
body.

“
Huh,” he scoffed,
“you should. You’d be the belle of the ball, Ara.”

“
Suck up.” I opened
my door for him.

“
Oh, in case I didn’t
mention it,” he said, pecking me on the cheek as he passed, “you
look hot like that.”

“
You might have.” I
rolled my eyes and shut the door.

The black and white
image fused with colour as my mind came back to the present. All
around me, night had fallen into complete silence; the crickets
hushed, even the voices downstairs—leaving a kind of stillness that
left me breathless, listening carefully for any signs of life. When
I looked back at the girl in the mirror, my eyes flashed from her
pale face to the wiry shadows behind her, the resonance of a
familiar gaze lingering in my immediate memory—a reflection from
the world
I
lived
in. My head whipped up. I spun around and ran to grasp my
windowsill, hope filling my heart as I held back the call of his
name on my lips, leaning out into the dusk air.

But below, the quiet
street was empty; the streetlamp, spilling circles of white light
onto the pavement, flickered a few times, and that same silence I’d
come to hate greeted hope and I with a wall of
emptiness.

I backed away from the
window—away from the absence of anything that resembled life, then
turned to my mirror and waited for the girl in the blue dress to
look at me again. The face we thought we saw was not David—merely
physically manifested wishful thinking; the only thing outside my
window was the beginning of another night. And for the rest of my
life now, that’s all there’d ever be.

I closed my bedroom
door and headed down the stairs, seeing my dad’s eyes tear up like
sudden rain.

“
Dad?” I glided down
the stairs. “You okay?”

“
You look so pretty,
honey. Just like your first ballet concert.”

“
Uh, yeah, well, just
don’t lift me onto your shoulders this time.”

“
Why, not? You’re
still my little girl.” He looked up at me where I stopped on the
last step.

“
I’m not a little
girl, Dad.”

“
Honey, you’ll
always
be my little girl.”

“
I wonder what’s
taking Ara so lo—” Mike stopped dead as he walked in; his arms
dropped, his lips split into a pearly smile, and his eyes, from
behind a small black mask, glistened. “Ara.”

“
Hey,
Mike.”

He leaped up onto the
step. “Aw, baby, look at you.”

“
You like it?” I
brushed my hands down my hips.

He shook his head
slowly, considering my dress. “More than the outfit I saw you in
when I re-pierced your ear.”

Dad’s eyes narrowed; I
looked away, clearing my throat.

“
Come on then.” Vicki
held a camera up and waved us off the stairs. “Time for
pictures.”

“
Really?” I groaned,
taking Mike’s arm.

“
Ara, this might be
the last ball you ever go to,” Vicki reasoned. “I want
memories.”

“
Oh, fine.” I huffed,
and Mike grinned at me with a kind of enthusiasm that wasn’t there
when he was forced to escort me to the last ball we went
to.

But I didn’t share his
excitement.

Vicki posed us in
awkward and weird places to snap her memories, but the world slowed
down around me, and I stood in the warm embrace of my fiancé,
smiling for reasons I could only pretend I felt, watching
everything move as if it were on screen—a film with no volume. The
voices, the wind, the laughter, all gone—everything in my world was
silent, empty—wrong. This should have been David; it was always
supposed to be David, but once upon a time, I’d have said the same
about Mike.

Everything was back
where it was before—before the universe flipped the hourglass,
before I lost everything in my world that grounded my soul, and
before I ever knew anything about David Knight.

Now, I was in the arms
of the one I was destined to be with all along.

It was an odd
learning curve, and a painful one, but I just had to accept it.
When I got home, when I landed in Perth and went home to Mike’s
house,
she
wouldn’t be there—around the corner. Mum was gone. Harry was
gone. And I had to move on.

This was moving
on.

I closed my eyes and
let the world pass by for a moment, spinning, like the snow in a
musical, glass dome. When I opened them again, fairy lights
twinkled from the tall white trunks of leafless trees, and soft
music filled my ears as sound suddenly enhanced my world
again.

An almost magical glow
seemed to surround everything. The majestic old council chamber sat
tall as the backdrop to the dim, candle-lit space, and masked
dancers twirled around the floor with hypnotic cadence—sweeping and
bowing to the harmony of a string quartet.

Mike and I stood at
the cusp of the wooden dance floor, surrounded by the beauties, but
my eyes delighted only in the canopy of stars, observing the
Masquerade from the kingdom above.

“
Do you recognise
anyone?” Mike asked.

“
No.” I felt kind of
lost, like I was alone in the crowded space. The dance floor, the
stairs, and even the balcony off the council chamber were filled
with people—masked strangers, just like me—but for all I felt in my
soul, the court could’ve been completely empty.

“
Would you like some
refreshments before we dance?” Mike gestured toward the
balcony.

“
I’m fine.” I tucked
my arms into my chest, wondering if David was
here—watching.

“
Would you like to
dance?” Mike bowed, offering his hand.

“
Not
really.”

“
Aw, come on, Ara.
First rule of a dance is never to refuse a dance,” he said with a
grin, stealing my hand.

Rolling my eyes, I
sunk into a curtsy, obliging Mike, and with one step over the
threshold of the dance floor, he swept me into his safe, strong
arms, and we joined the flow of dancers like a rose petal on the
breeze; never missing a beat. I followed each step of Mike’s wide
stride, closing the movement with a short, gliding turn, making
patterns like circles around the room. “When did you learn to dance
like this?” I asked, very impressed.

“
Well, a guy’s gotta
know a few tricks if he’s gonna get the girl.” He flashed his
cheeky grin, and a small flutter started my heart.

“
I like this new
you,” I said, turning my head in the direction our hands led
us.

“
Good, because this
is the me you’ll be marrying.”

The music faded out
then, and the room came to a standstill; Mike kissed my hand and
bowed, while the rest of the crowd softly applauded the
musicians.

“
Can we go find Em
and the others now?” I asked.

“
Of course, Ara. This
is your night. We can do whatever you want.” He looked over his
shoulder. “Come on, we’ll go to the balcony—it’ll be easier to see
from up there.”

As we passed through
the crowd, they parted for us, turning their heads; I leaned closer
to Mike and whispered, “What are they staring at?”

“
You,” he
said.

“
Why? Is my bra
showing?” I quickly tucked my thumb around the rim of my
dress.

“
No, baby.” He
laughed, pushing my hand down. “It’s just because, of all the
beauty here tonight, you’re the brightest thing in the
room.”

Shrinking into myself,
I glanced at the other costumes; pale grey, coffee, burgundy,
black—no blue. I was the only girl in a colour this bright. “Great.
I feel like a wasp at a bumblebee convention.”

Mike laughed. “Well,
you look like the flower.”

“
Erg.” I rolled my
eyes.

We stopped by the
balcony railing and looked down onto the room of dancers, swirling
under a blanket of stars. I felt like a god between
worlds.

“
Wow, it’s so much
prettier from up here.”

“
Yeah. These Yanks
really know how to throw a shindig.”

“
Yanks?” I raised a
brow at him.

He just grinned,
inching away from the slap he expected. But as he turned back to
lean on the railing again, he stopped, watching a young couple
giggle their way into the darkness on the other side of the chamber
court. “What’s down there?”

I looked too. The
gardens were dark, the lights, usually lining the paths that wound
through the endless trees and wide planes of grass, were switched
off—an obvious attempt to deter hot-blooded teens. Little did the
planning committee realise, that dark spaces made it so much easier
to be…’romantic’.

“
Do you think your
friends might be down there?”

“
Don't think so,” I
said with a sigh. Above, the clock on the tower chimed nine; its
hollow, long tolls haunting and dreary, like warning bells down the
streets of death and plague.

He nodded a few times,
his eyes narrowing. “You’re missing him…aren’t you?”

“
I—” I drew a breath
and looked away; there was no point in lying.

“
I’m sorry,” he said,
looking down at his clasped hands.

“
Mike?” I started,
“It’s—”

“
Hey, there you are.”
Before I even spun around, Emily wrapped her arms over my shoulders
and squeezed. I gave Spencer, who stood awkwardly in the dust cloud
of Emily’s enthusiasm, a short wave. “We’ve been looking everywhere
for you guys.”

“
Yeah, sorry.” I
stood back from her, swiping my hair from my face. “But we’re here
now. And look at you—” Emily twirled around to show her long blonde
ponytail, in a spiral down her back, and the perfect fit of the
dress; Mike cleared his throat beside me. “I can't believe how
grown-up you look.”

“
Yeah, my mom says—”
She stopped and looked beside us when Mike and Spencer shook hands.
“Oh yeah, sorry guys.” She ducked her head a little. “Um,
Mike—Spence; Spence—Mike.”