Secrets Abound (Supernaturally Bound Book 1) (6 page)

“Don’t you ever get tired of watching the same episode over and over again?” Aiden asked me as he entered the living room. He slid down next to me on the couch.

“It’s a classic and classics never get old. That’s why they’re called classics.” I explained.

“Okay, if you say so.” He laughed. “By the way, your clothes from last night are in the dryer.”

“Oh, thanks, but you didn’t have to. I could’ve gone home and gotten something to wear.” I told him.

“As funny as it would have been to watch you struggle with your crutches and keeping that robe closed, I thought you might like something else to wear.” He smiled.

“Look at you, always thinking ahead. Reminds me why I keep you around.” I teased him.

“And here I thought it was for my smoldering good looks.” He joked.

“Oh, no, you’re not my type.” I told him with a smirk.

“No? What’s your type?” He asked. His eyes held an amused gleam that propelled me to further my teasing.

“Oh, you know, short, chubby, and definitely bald.” I said, making him laugh. “You have way too much hair for me. And your abs are way too hard. I like my men flabby.”

“So, you’ve felt my abs, huh?” The corners of his mouth tipped up. I could feel my cheeks instantly burn at his comment.

I was grateful when Aiden’s phone rang before I was forced to respond. He answered it and then handed it to me. “It’s Cassie.”

“Hey.” I said into the phone.

“Apparently you gave Eli my number last night because he’s been blowing up my phone all morning. He wanted me to tell you that he was sorry about last night and that he tried searching for you. He also wanted me to have you call him.” Cassie said all in one breathe. I knew Aiden could hear what Cassie was saying because he tensed up when she mentioned Eli.

“Okay, thanks for giving me the message, but I’m not going to call him.” I told her and Aiden sighed almost silently.

“Well, I’ll at least let him know you made it home in one piece. Are you sure you don’t want to call him? He was
super
hot.”

“I’m sure.” I told her.

“Okay, but I swear you are so damn picky. You seriously need to get laid.” Cassie began her lecturing.

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, I already know your opinion on my sex life.” I said in a bored voice. “Aiden needs his phone back.” Aiden seemed entertained by our topic of discussion.

“Oh, and don’t even get me started on you and Aiden. Why don’t you two just hook up already?” She asked. Okay, so this wasn’t the first time Cassie had suggested I hook up with Aiden, but it was the first time she’d said it when he was in ear shot.

“Gotta go, Cass, bye.” I said. I had never hung up a phone faster than I did at that moment.

“Aw, the conversation was just getting interesting.” Aiden grinned as I handed him his phone back.

“You shouldn’t eavesdrop on other people’s conversation.” I scolded

“I can’t help what I hear.” He said, trying for an innocent smile.

“I should get dressed.” I told him as I stood up and grabbed the crutches.

The rest of the weekend was uneventful. I remained in bed with my foot propped. Aiden stopped by a few times to check on me, but his brother kept him busy all weekend. He did, however, manage to bring me a few of his books to read. I ended up missing school on Monday because it hurt too much to walk on my ankle. Plus, I had to call in sick for work since my job consisted of me being on my feet the entire time.

I met Aiden in front of his house on Tuesday morning. I was able to walk using only one crutch, but I was definitely slower than normal. We walked side by side for ten minutes or so.

“Okay, this is taking way too long. We’ll be late if we continue at this speed.” Aiden glanced at the time on his phone.

“Well, what do you suggest?” I asked him.

Without giving me a verbal answer, he grabbed my bag and tossed me onto his back. My first reaction was fearful that he was going to break the camera that was in my bag. That thought was lost when I started slipping. Scared I was going to fall, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders tightly. I felt like a child riding on his back like that. Not that I had gotten too many piggy back rides when I was younger, but still.

I was amazed at his speed, especially considering he had an extra hundred and fifteen pounds on his back. Okay, an extra hundred and twenty pounds, but whatever.

“God, Bridget, do you just jump on every guy you see?” I heard Vicky say.

Vicky and her two minions strolled up next to us as Aiden set me back on my feet in front of the school. Vicky Sinclair was one of the most popular girls in school and head cheerleader. She’d despised me since the day I moved to Waverly. Kyle, her boyfriend at the time, tried to hook up with me at a party. He got pissed when I wouldn’t have sex with him, so he just told everyone that we did.

“Only the cute ones.” I knew that would annoy her because she’d been crushing hard core on Aiden since he moved here.

“Oh, well at least now you’re setting standards. Good for you.” She said, making Mandy and Candy snicker.

I always referred to Mandy and Candy as Vicky’s minions. They were identical twins who followed Vicky around like puppy dogs. They both had long, dark red hair that they always wore in ponytails.

“Ignore them.” Aiden whispered to me, still helping me stay balanced by putting his hand on my shoulder.

I knew Aiden had heard the rumors of my supposed promiscuous sex life, most of them started by Vicky, but he never once asked me if they were true. Either he knew me well enough to know they were false, or he didn’t care one way or the other.

I wobbled into my first period right as the bell rang. I slid into the desk next to Cassie.

“Well, it looks like you had fun this weekend.” She glanced at my crutch. “No wonder you missed school yesterday.”

“Yeah, I twisted my ankle at the party.” I told her.

“What happened after I left?” She asked me.

“Alright, class. Open your textbooks to page one hundred forty-four.” Mr. Krieger said as he waltzed through the door not giving me a chance to answer Cassie’s question.

The rest of the period was spent listening to Mr. Krieger rattle on about the deeper meaning behind the author’s intent. While this subject was something I’d normally enjoy, Mr. Krieger’s theories were always a bit of a stretch. If anyone bothered to contradict him, their grade would surely reflect it. It was best to remain silent in his class.

He had every student so bored and zoned out that when the bell rang, we all jumped in surprise. I had drama next period with Aiden and, unfortunately, Vicky and Mandy. I sat down in the seat next to Aiden and noticed that,
surprise surprise
, Vicky sat down in the seat on his other side.

“So, Aiden,” Vicky said, placing her hand flirtatiously on Aiden’s arm. I glared down at her hand hoping I could sear her skin with sheer will. “My birthday is Friday, so I’m throwing a party this Saturday. You should totally come. My parents will be out of town, so it’ll be wild.” She continued.

“Uh, yeah, maybe.” He said noncommittally.

When Ms. Teal entered the classroom, she darted straight to the chalkboard. She was the only teacher that still used an actual chalkboard. Every other teacher I’d ever had used dry erase boards, but Ms. Teal liked the sound of the chalk scraping against the board. She was the only one.

To say Ms. Teal was a bit eccentric would be an understatement. Simply looking at her you could tell she was nuttier than squirrel poop. She was a slight lady with curly, grey hair that went to her shoulders and surrounded her head in a crazy pouf. She wore long flowery dresses with a jean jacket. She had these huge, thick glasses she always stuck on her head but could never seem to find.

She wrote out on the board “Romeo and Juliet” and spun around to face the class. She didn’t say anything but rather, stood there examining everyone’s reactions. Vicky and Mandy squealed and began whispering excitedly. All the guys in the room groaned. I’m sure they were all thinking of ways to get out of wearing tights. I was just praying that I wouldn’t have to play Juliet in whatever assignment she was about to give us.

“I’m going to separate everyone into groups, and each group is going to be given a scene from Romeo and Juliet. It is then your assignment to rewrite that scene to whatever adaptation you choose. For example, there was an animated adaptation of the play that made the characters all gnomes and no, Michael, you can’t use gnomes.” She said, and Michael lowered his hand. “Everyone needs to come up with an original idea and take on the play. Now, since there are only three guys in here, that’s how many groups there will be. Sorry guys, you are all going to be Romeos. Unless, of course, you decide dressing drag is a better way to go. It’s entirely up to you. I encourage creative freedom in here. You’ll have one week to finish everything. We will start seeing performances next Monday. I posted your groups and your scenes at the front of the room so get to work.”

I was grouped with Aiden, Vicky, Mandy, and three other girls. We were assigned act five scene three, the death scene and Romeo and Juliet’s last kiss.
Gee, I wonder who will volunteer to be Juliet.

“I’ll be Juliet.” Vicky chimed right on cue. We were all sitting on the floor in a circle. Aiden was next to me and Vicky was across from us.

“Maybe we should focus on what our adaptation is going to be before we assign parts.” I said.

“Vicky’s the obvious choice for Juliet.” Mandy came to Vicky’s defense, as always.

“Unless
you
want to be Juliet, then our scene could be about a prostitute and her forbidden romance with a duke.” Vicky said, making Mandy cackle.

“I don’t think that would count as star-crossed lovers.” Michelle, one of the other girls in our group said.

“Fine, whatever, be Juliet, I don’t care. Can we just decide on something so we can get started?” I asserted, annoyed that I had a full week of this to look forward to.

“Well, I think we should do vampires and werewolves.” Vicky suggested.

“No vampires.” Aiden said abruptly.

“Yeah, vampires are cliché and overdone.” I maintained, backing up Aiden even though I wasn’t sure why he cared one way or the other.

“What are you talking about? It’d be perfect and easy to do. All for vampires and werewolves?” Vicky said, and everyone but Aiden and I raised their hands. “Then it’s settled; let’s get busy.” Vicky got up to get her idea approved by Ms. Teal and everyone else went back to their desks to grab pens and paper.

“Hey, who cares if it’s corny? An A is an A. Plus, we can make them do most of the writing since it was their stupid idea.” I whispered to Aiden when I saw the annoyed expression on his face.

“You seriously want to give Vicky complete control over how many times Romeo and Juliet kiss?” He asked me with a lighter expression.

The thought of the two of them kissing made me feel anxious. I didn’t know if I was feeling jealous or if I just couldn’t stand Vicky getting her way. Maybe it was both.

“Oh, yeah, making out with the prettiest girl in school. Sounds like a real nightmare.” I said sarcastically.

“She’s not the prettiest.” He said in a low voice, his eyes locking with mine. I wasn’t sure if he was indicating that I was prettier than Vicky, but I could feel my heart flutter in my chest.

“Okay, so Ms. Teal loves my idea.” Vicky said as she returned to her spot beside Mandy. “So, Juliet will be the vampire, obviously, and Romeo can be the werewolf.”

“Why is that obvious?” Michelle asked.

“Hello? Werewolves are hairy.” Vicky scrunched up her face.

The rest of the period was filled with arguments over all the details, Vicky winning most of them. Aiden and I remained quiet, waiting for class to be over. I couldn’t stop replaying his comment in my head.

My next class was boring. Neither Aiden nor Cassie were in it and no matter how hard I tried not to, I always seemed to get stuck sitting next to Curtis. Curtis was only fourteen and he would have been a freshman if he weren’t a super genius, especially with computers. He was sweet but he had a huge crush on me and was constantly asking me out.

Fourth period, I had BCIS (a business computer course) which was taught in the computer lab. It was my second favorite class next to photography just because we got to play on Facebook the whole time. Coach Lauder taught the class, but he was only there because the school made all the coaches teach at least one class. These were considered the blow off classes and filled up first.

Aiden and I sat at the two computers in the far corner of the classroom. I logged into Facebook and searched through all my notifications. I had five new friend requests. I clicked on them to see who they were from. There was Nicole, Tiffany, Grey, Hail, and Eli. I was hitting accept on all of them but hesitated when I got to Eli’s name. I didn’t hit accept, but I didn’t decline it, either.

“So, do you feel like going to a party with me on Saturday?” Aiden asked me.

“She invited you, not me.” I frowned, not looking away from the monitor.

“Yes, but she didn’t say I couldn’t bring someone.”

“As clever as your little loophole is, why would I want to go anywhere near her house?” I asked.

“Because I’ll be there,” he said, “and it’ll piss her off if you come with me.”

“I still don’t know why
you
even want to go.” I said. “Unless you’re hoping to do a bit of rehearsing with Vicky.” The thought made my stomach twist into a knot.

“No, I just don’t want to pass on a good party.” He said.

“Whatever you say, Romeo.” I murmured.

After BCIS, we went to lunch where Cassie was already sitting at our table. She was on her phone texting someone and didn’t even acknowledge us as we joined her. She giggled after a second and glanced up at us.

“Oh, hi guys.” She beamed.

“Who are you talking to that has you in such a fabulous mood?” I asked her.

“Bryan. We’re hanging out tonight.” She said.

“A date after your weekend rendezvous? You must really like him.” I had never seen her act like this with a guy.

“Whatever, we’re just having fun.” She insisted but continued smiling at her phone. It was wonderful to see her actually interested in someone. She usually ditched guys after a few days.

“Bridget.” Katie, the office aide, said as she handed me a note. “It’s from Mrs. Owens.”

I unfolded the note and read aloud, “Come see me last period.”

Mrs. Owens was our student counselor. I always dreaded our monthly meetings. She mostly just nagged me on my grades and asked how home life was.

“Well, at least you get to miss your last class.” Cassie reasoned.

“I’d rather deal with Mrs. Conner than Mrs. Owens.” I whined.

Next period, I went to the darkroom and started developing a few of the pictures I had taken at the party. The first ones were a couple pictures of Cassie I had taken before the party. I couldn’t use these for my project but would keep them for my wall at home.

There were quite a few pictures of people at the party, but I didn’t have anything for the bio part of it. I had gotten so distracted by Eli that I forgot to speak with anyone else. Oh well, I still had a few weeks to work on it. I’d probably just hit the mall with Cassie or something.

I hung up the pictures to dry and started working on a few more. When the pictures gradually became visible, I found myself studying them. They were of Eli. He was staring off with an inscrutable expression. The bonfire had lit up the right side of his face, casting shadows across his left side. He was so intense in this photo that I became curious as to what exactly ran through his mind.

I knew the bell was going to ring any minute, so I started gathering all my things together and putting away the chemicals. I’d have to leave the pictures hanging up to dry, for now. I locked the darkroom back up and returned the key to Mrs. Walker.

The entire way to chemistry I was distracted with thoughts of Eli. I was surprised by the moment I caught of him with his troubled expression. His mood had seemed light at the party. Well, at least until his showdown with Aiden.