Secrets

Chapter Fifteen

Hope you enjoy!

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Thursday night, after the whole day spent wandering around the amusement park, Jay drove the two of us back to Miami. I had told my parents that I wouldn't be coming home, so I had him drop me off somewhere in Sean's neighborhood since greeting my comfortable bed wasn't an option. Sean's parents thankfully allowed me to stay over. My best friend attacked me with questions of where I was and what I was doing, but I had been too tired to even consider answering.

The car ride home had been surprisingly uneventful and extremely awkward, considering my phone died after many hours of using the battery without recharging it. There was once again no mention of our sexual urges. The Bus did not come up in conversation as I thought it might.

Friday at school was ordinary, except for the fact that Hanna was still absent. I had vaguely told Sean and Kayla that I tried to find out her location, but I had failed. I made sure to study Kayla's face when I said this, but her expression this time did not suggest her being a passenger on the Bus. She merely seemed disappointed that Hanna had not returned.

However, Kayla's disappointment doesn't last much longer.

I'm sitting in the middle of my king sized bed on Saturday night, many different homework assignments spread out in front of me. I sigh loudly, not feeling capable of completing my necessary work. I had planned to go to a college party tonight, but my plans had changed when I realized some school assignments are actually important.

As I'm glaring angrily at a project for my science class, I hear my phone vibrate from somewhere on my bed. I search around for it, ruffling the comforter and throwing aside some papers in the process. Soon enough, my phone is in my hand. Unlocking it, I see that I have a message from Sean. My eyes widen slightly as I read it.

Sean: Brock texted me saying that Hanna is back. Apparently he saw the lights of her house on. Should we go over there or just leave it until Monday?

Brock is a football player for our school who just happens to live near Hanna. His house is across the street from hers, so he would have a perfectly clear view of a car pulling into the driveway or any signs of someone being inside the house. Luckily, Sean somewhat knows Brock and has his phone number.

I stare at the message, unsure of my reply. On any usual night, we could show up at her house randomly and start gossiping about an idiot from school and she wouldn't mind. However, this situation is somehow connected to the Secretò Bus, so I'm not sure if we should get involved or just leave it alone.

Underneath everything visible on the surface, I know that I'm trying to hide the truth. I can't see myself in the future without Hanna Howards by my side. We've always be inseparable, and I don't want to lose our friendship because she went a bit too far with rule breaking. We have way too many memories to just throw them away. That is what can be seen on the surface.

The truth is that I can't be shielded from the Bus. I want to stay beside Hanna, but if she sees the passengers as a family just as Jay made it seem, then I doubt she would break away from them because I ask her to nicely.

There is no winning in the situation, and yet we all have to play the game.

I decide that we should give Hanna some time to settle back into her house. She's been away for a few days and she'll probably want to relax before having questions shot at her as if she were in the middle of a battlefield. I'm also giving her until Monday because I don't have the time to deal with lies, and I can practically reach out and touch them due to them being so predictable and obvious. I begin to text Sean back.

Tori: Leave it until Monday. Or maybe she'll text us before then.

There is a chance that she will visit my house tomorrow morning, but I don't want to bother my brain with the thought. My mind needs to be focused on understanding science, something that it doesn't do naturally or logically. I flip through the papers, searching for the one I had previously been studying, but I seem to have temporarily lost the project when I was looking for my phone.

I groan loudly as I fall back onto my pillow, my hair fanning out in the process. There is no hope for me in the academic world. Seeing no reason to hunt for a research project that isn't going to get completed, I give up on doing my homework.

Sitting up and reaching for my phone again, I scroll through my contacts until finding the correct one. Clicking it without a second thought, I send a text message as quick as possible.

Tori: Hey Jake. I'm coming to the party. See you there.

Flinging my body off of my bed, I begin searching through my closet, more specifically the far left side where I keep my dresses. A little black dress with transparency, sparkles and fringe catches my eye, and I pull it out of the mess of clothing. As I study it, I don't particularly remember buying the piece, but deciding that it looks sexy enough to make some college boys drool, I take it into the bathroom to put it on.

I had previously decided that I was going to be a well behaved student and get a quality grade on my assignments, but I've realized that I don't really care about my education that much. Attending the party will clear my mind and hopefully be more enjoyable than high school level science.

Jake invited me to the party last night in hopes that we could improve our relationship. Our extremely close bond had broken when he ran off to college in Tallahassee with high hopes of becoming a filmmaker. This decision did not settle well with many. We still have contact, of course, but we are more distant than we used to be, and we wish to turn back time and become as close as we were.

He hasn't visited Miami since he left, but a friend of his invited him to journey home and enjoy a night with his old friends. The original plan was destroyed, and it's now a huge house party that nearly everyone is invited to.

It'll be great to see him again. It's been too long for my brother and I to be separated.

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Did you expect that? You should have! Jake has actually been mentioned twice in previous chapters! We'll get to meet him next chapter, and we'll also have Tori at a college house party!

QOTC: Where do you think Hanna was? Do you believe Jay when he says she was perfectly safe?