Secret Diaries (Heartlake Cliche #1)

Chapter Twenty

February 9, 2009

Mom says mothers don’t always know what’s best. But they know when something is best for their children.

     “I’ll bring you home,” Nick told Grace as soon as things had calmed down at the St. James gymnasium.    

     “Okay.”

     Lia and Haley had gone on to help Elena and the rest of the Student Council, leaving Grace to keep Nick and Matt from doing something irresponsible because of anger on behalf of Rachelle. As if she could stop them when the two boys go berserk.

     Nick was still angry at the turn of events but he had to restrain himself or things would surely go out of hand. He needed to calm down and think of possible next steps. Grace was right. Rachelle needed time away from the people who would be most affected. She had to pull herself together first before she could—would—face any of them. She was proud like that. 

     And while she did that, he would be looking for the person behind all of this. He or she had already done enough damage and it was time to stop all the insanity.

     “We’ve got to stop that fucking bastard who did this!” Matt declared behind the two. “I swear when I get my hands on him, I’ll kill him.”

     They both paused in their tracks and turned to Matt.

     “Don’t do anything rash,” Nick reminded his friend.

     “Besides, killing the person would just get you jailed. I’m sure it’ll just make Rach more depressed,” Grace added with conviction.

     Matt simply smirked at them.

     “Don’t forget that the culprit could be a girl,” Lance voiced out as he and Kane gathered with their friends.

     “Ugh!” Matt wailed as he hit the gymnasium’s door with his balled fist. “We’ve been looking for the bastard since the damned letter but there’s nothing. Nothing!”

     “Relax, Matt. These things take time,” Kane said to calm the Quarter-To-Five vocalist.

     “Oh shut up!” Matt replied angrily. “The whole thing’s already been up for a month. We should’ve found a clue by now.”

     “You sound like something’s up your sleeve,” Nick asked, turning to Kane.

     “Nothing’s up but I met someone who’s damned good with computers. And when I told him about what we needed, he said there’s a huge chance he can come up with something,” Kane explained.

     Lance nodded in understanding. “He could find something about that letter. And the photos circulated the net. He could look for the source and that might lead us somewhere. I guess we just have to be patient and continue with what we do,” he concluded.

     They ended their discussion by scheduling a meet-up so they could make plans for their own investigation. The group also decided that it was high time they inform Vivian Harlow of the things that had been happening to her daughter. Vivian could use her connections to stop the media from feasting on Rachelle’s story. The young model may not be a big Hollywood celebrity but she was famous enough that Heartlake citizens would want to probe into her personal business.

     As soon as Nick and Grace were settled in the car, Nick saw that his date had started fumbling through the contents of her purse. Grace was the organized type and if he remembered correctly, she was not one to fumble through anything.