A Pretty Little Parody [PLL]

32. Got A Secret, Can You Keep It?

Ivana wasn’t at the high school like I’d thought she’d be. I found her, unsurprisingly, in her house, which was at the end of the cul-de-sac in my neighborhood. She opened on the first knock, looking alarmed and disheveled despite it being in the middle of the day. However, since she was Ivana Toodamnsexy, she was still at least a nine out of ten.

Her eyes darted back and forth as she let me in. “Did you come by yourself?” she asked. “Your friends aren’t creeping around in my backyard, are they?”

“No,” I said, surprised that she was so paranoid. I’d never seen Ivana be anything other than languid and relaxed, so I was a little taken aback at how different she seemed. “Why are you so worried?”

“I’m not worried,” she said softly. “Just...nervous.”

I slipped off my shoes by the door. “What are you nervous about?”

She took a deep breath. “There’s some things I’ve been keeping from you, Sasha. Some things that you should know.” Then, seeing the look on my face, she paused. “We don’t have to talk out here, though. Let’s go to my room.”

Silently, I followed her up the stairs. The Toodamnsexys’ house was done in elegant shades of dark red and cream, and looked like the inside of a small imperial palace. Ivana’s room was right around the turn of the stairs. I turned the knob and stepped in hesitantly.

Her bedroom was the size of my living room (and my living room’s probably twice the size of yours--that’s how big it was) and was painted the same shade of dark red with gold fleur-de-lis wallpaper. Her bed was huge and so high up that there was a small set of steps leading up to it.

“After you,” she said.

I climbed up to the bed and almost sunk into its feathery softness. “Holy shit,” I gasped. “What’s this made out of?”

“Money,” she said matter-of-factly, all traces of her earlier nervousness gone. “So you’re probably wondering why I called you here.”

“Uh, yeah,” I said. “I mean, this is great and all, but couldn’t you just say what you needed to say in the letter?”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t want that. Your friends would’ve all figured out your secret.”

My heartbeat instantly quickened, but I forced myself to keep my voice normal. “What secret? I have a lot of those, and my friends probably know all of them.”

Pleasepleaseplease, I prayed to the God that I’d shunned all these years. Don’t let Ivana be on to me. Please, please, please let the secret be something dumb.

“Oh, I doubt they’d know about this one,” she said, her eyes sparkling with something I couldn’t quite recognize. “This one could ruin you.” She leaned closer and kissed me on the lips. “Ruin you and your little friends too.”

“Well, aren’t you going to tell me what it is?” I said impatiently, wishing that I could kick her or something.

She looked at me, annoyed. “I was getting to that. Jeez.”

“Well, could you hurry it up? I don’t have all day.” I could be really impatient sometimes; this was a trait that Eli and I didn’t quite share. I didn’t particularly care right now, though. All I wanted to know was exactly what Ivana had on me.

She laughed. “Wow, you’re actually getting worked up. All right, all right, I’ll show you.”

She pressed a button by the wall and a little table slid out. Her silver MacBook Air rested delicately on it.