Secrets Are

Book 1: Secrets Are Deadly | Chapter 4

"Yeah, we'll be easier to find if we just stand there. Everywhere else is crowded," Brooke said before I could reply back to Ryan. He nodded his head and then joined Kate and Ben in line as Brooke and I turned to walk over to the exit, which we had to walk through the crowd to get to.

When Brooke and I reached the exit, we stood off to the side of the doorway so we wouldn't be in the way of anyone coming out. I'm sure we would have gotten bumped into quite a few times standing there, which is why we chose to stand off to the side. I turned to face Brooke so we could talk to each other and pass the time until the others were finished in the haunted house. She did the same and moved a little closer so we could both hear each other better since the noise around us would make it hard to have a conversation.

"So, is it a little weird that Ben wants to hang out with you? He said you guys found each other while he was searching for one of his other friends and hung out with you until Tyler found the both of you. Then he went off with you to get some food after the whole thing with Tyler. I'm sure he had already eaten today, but he still went with you," Brooke said watching me. I wonder if she had been waiting to ask me about Ben wanting to hang out with me.

"It is, but he said he had fun hanging out with me before Tyler came along so I guess that's why he came with me to get food. He wants to hang out again, which I'm not sure is even going to happen," I replied shrugging my shoulders. I had tried to figure out why Ben wanted to hang out with me again, but I hadn't really come up with anything. I still couldn't tell if he was actually telling the truth when he said he had fun hanging out with me and wanted to do it again or if he was just being nice by saying those things to me.

It was only a little weird to have Ben want to hang out with me because we've never hung out before even though there's been plenty of chances over the years. He's been to my house many times and I've been to his many times as well. It was weird how all of the sudden he was okay with hanging out with me. I was starting to feel like he was just being nice since I'm his best friend's little sister and he didn't want me to be alone or get lost.

There had been times when he had been protective of me like Ryan was. Although it wasn't as much as Ryan usually was, I had always thought he was being protective of me for Ryan.

I'm sure Ben didn't want to lose his best friend by not protecting his best friend's little sister. I also thought that he was being protective of me because he saw me as a little sister since we had grown up together. I had to have been obnoxious as a little girl since I always was trying to get someone to play with me if I couldn't play with Kate. Being the only girl in the family had been hard sometimes when no one was there to play Barbies with you. I couldn't always convince Hayden to play with me and I could never convince Ryan to play with me.

"Why are you sure you two aren't going to hang out again? Do you not want to hang out with him again? Ben's pretty fun to hang out with," Brooke asked glancing at these guys who were passing by us and being obnoxiously loud at the same time. They were getting several annoyed looks from parents as well as Brooke.

I looked over at them just in time to see that there were five of them and they looked younger than me. I couldn't tell if they were in middle school or in high school though. They looked like they could be freshman, but they also still looked like they could be in the 8th grade.

"I'm just not sure if he actually wants to hang out with me or if he's just saying all those things to be nice to me because I'm Ryan's little sister and he didn't want me hanging out by myself just in case Ryan decided to blame it on him if something happened to me. And I won't believe we're actually going to be hanging out again until it happens or maybe until I actually get to know him. We've known each other for all our lives and today is the first day we've ever really hung out so it's a little weird that my brother's best friend wants to hang out with me all of the sudden. I'm sure he's got better things to do," I said after she had looked back over at me.