WANT TO KNOW A SECRET?

(10)

"Only our closest friends will ever come up here..." Tyler told us. "This room here is Landon's, then this one's Rosco's, and that's Miles'" He pointed to the three rooms on the left side. "Now Nate, we thought you could stay with Leo..." He opened the first of the three doors on the opposite wall and we entered a wide room. A bag, Leo's probably, had been placed on the huge bed that took almost half of the room.

"What about Pops?" He asked worriedly.

"She'll be next door with me." He answered Nathan, his blue eyes locked on mine, daring me to argue with him.

Nate threw a glance my way, silently asking me if I was ok with Tyler's cavalier plan but my only concern was his well-being.

"Are you going to be ok?" I asked him, my voice still hoarse.

"Well, a three-day-sleepover with Leo, hmm, let me think!?" He joked weakly to cheer me up so I gave him a small smile.

"You can leave your bag here..." Leo told him before showing him around.

An arm circled my shoulders and guided me to the room next door. I recognized the color code that I'd seen in his bedroom five minutes before. He placed my duffle bag next to his bed, and showed me around in silence. The huge bathroom, the balcony that communicated with his brothers' rooms and had a wooden staircase that led down to the swimming pool I'd admired the other night.

I sighed thinking how much simpler things would be if we stayed here instead of living in Bryan's block.

"Tell me what's on your mind..." He said.

"Breakfast for a beautiful girl..." I was grateful for Landon's arrival. "A banana and toffee muffin and a chocolate delight..." He said before handing me a medium-sized drink and a muffin.

"Did you get some for Nathan, too?" His answer was to push a strand of hair away from my eyes and kiss me on the forehead.

"Eat up, we need to leave in ten minutes..." He then said.

"Pops?" Nate appeared on the balcony with a drink and a half-eaten muffin. When our eyes met, he silently told me to eat so I took a huge bite of the muffin and forced myself to chew it and to swallow it despite its cardboard taste. I took a small drink of what must have otherwise tasted delicious and did my best not to grimace.

Nate's eyes were still on me and a slight head nod toward the muffin prompted me to take another bite of it.

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"Hey bitch!" Somebody pushed me from behind, and I landed against a fire exit door. I had been on my way to assembly hall for a Pep Rally after my double P.E. class.

The boys played at the school stadium against Lymington High at six tonight and the cheer and dance teams had both prepared several routines to wish the players good luck. That's all everyone had been talking since we'd got here that morning.

I tried to get back up but somebody grabbed my hair at the same time another person pushed the door open. They then dragged me outside.

I wasn't a fighter. In fact, I'd never been in a fight. Until Tom's public shunning I'd always been your average stay out of trouble kind of girl. I wouldn't say I was invisible, I knew I wasn't, especially after growing up with Tom and Cam, but I hated confrontations of any kinds. I'd always been that girl everybody booed because she'd stopped the fight.

Even before Cam died.

I clenched my hands.

If only I had got there earlier... One. Two. Three... One. Two. Three... He'd been the one on top of Tom, throwing punches after punches when I arrived at the scene. But Tom had obviously managed to land a punch... Otherwise Cam would still be with us today... One. Two. Three... One. Two. Three...