Secrets & Lies: Two Short Stories

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For Lisa D,

who always wants to read more.

Thank you.

“I have a surprise for you!”

It was the first thing out of Jess’s mouth when I stepped off the bus. Not
hello
or
I missed you
or
how was your trip?
Nope.
I have a surprise for you!
I won’t lie; it made me nervous. After four hours on a crowded and slightly smelly bus, I wasn’t sure how ready I was for one of Jess’s surprises. My instinct told me it would be pink, frilly, and require me to be much more upbeat than I was feeling just then.

But I guess that’s what I should have expected when I asked her to pick me up from the bus station at the beginning of winter break. After my first semester at college, I was ready to come home.
Of course
I’d missed Jess, and even her constant enthusiasm for everything, but I wished I could ease back into it slowly.

Surprises were not “easing.” Pink, frilly, Jess surprises were
definitely
not “easing.”

“What is it?” I asked, trying not to sound hesitant. I didn’t want to be a tool after not seeing her in person for almost four months.

“You’ll see. It’s in the car. Let’s get your suitcase.”

The driver unloaded all the bags from a compartment under the bus. It didn’t take me long to find mine—no one else’s bag had been bedazzled with
CASEY
BLITHE
across the front. Actually, the bedazzling on my luggage was one of Jess’s “surprises” last summer. It had bugged me at first, because she hadn’t exactly asked my permission and sparkles weren’t usually my thing. But I’d grown to appreciate it. At least it made finding the luggage ridiculously easy anytime I traveled.

Jess led the way to the car, and I followed behind her, dragging my suitcase and trying to prepare myself for the peppiness Jess’s surprise might necessitate.

Her car was a rickety old thing she bought with tip money from the waitressing gig she got after graduation. It was sky blue and covered in scratches, and the windows sported a dark peeling tint job. The thing was on the verge of automobile death, but I was still envious of it.

Between classes and cheerleading, I didn’t have time to earn any money.

While Jess started the ignition, I waited for her big reveal. “So,” I said. “What’s the surprise?”

“It’s in the backseat,” she said. “Take a look.”

I turned to glance over my shoulder. I expected to see a fuzzy pink sweater or giant stuffed animal in a Santa hat or—

“BOO!”

I screamed, both startled and ecstatic. Because lying in the backseat, laughing her ass off, was my best friend.

“Bianca!”

“Hey,” she said, still trying to stifle laughs as she sat up. She groaned and rubbed her lower back. “God, Jessica. Did you install the rusty, uneven springs back here or were you lucky enough to have the car come that way?”

“It came that way.”

“Come on, Jess,” I said. “You know B’s used to a much more comfortable backseat when she’s with Wesley.”

“Actually, the Porsche’s backseat is too small for that. We just lay back the front seats—”

“Ew, guys!” Jess whined as she backed the car out of her parking spot.

“I’m kidding,” B said, leaning forward between our seats. “Wesley didn’t even bring his car to New York. It would have been a waste of space and money.”

“Speaking of New York,” I said. “What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t back until next week.”

“I lied. My plane got in yesterday. Jessica and I thought it might be fun to surprise you.”

“Actually, I’m glad you did.” I gave her the best hug I could, considering the seat belt holding me in place and her being behind me and all. It was one-armed and awkward, but it was good enough. “OMG,” I said, spelling it out with a happy sigh. “I’ve missed you guys so much. Skype is seriously not enough.”

“We’ve missed you, too,” Jess said. “It’s been really lonely around here without you guys. It kind of feels wrong, you know?”

After graduation, B went off to college in New York, and I went to school a few hours away. Jess stayed close, though. She went to Oak Hill Community College, commuting from her parents’ house every day. Sometimes when I thought of her at school, I’d envision her driving past our old hangouts by herself, and it always left me feeling homesick. I can’t imagine how it made her feel.

“Well, we’re here now,” B said. “And we’ve got a whole month to drive each other crazy.”

“Speaking of driving people crazy… Bianca, don’t kill me,” Jess said.

B narrowed her eyes. “What did you do?”

“Now don’t get mad because it’s going to be awesome and fun and you’ll be really glad afterward even if you are not excited right now and—”

“Jessica.”

“I kind of told Angela we’d go to her party tonight—all of us.”

B groaned and flopped back into her seat. “Ugh, Jessica. Why didn’t you warn me?”

“Because I know how you feel about parties and I knew you’d find a reason not to go if I gave you too much notice. But it’ll be so much fun! The three of us at a party! And everyone’s back for winter break, so there will be plenty of our friends there.”

B just grunted.

“I actually think that sounds awesome,” I said.

“Of course you do,” B muttered.

“The party’s tonight at eight. I figure we can go out to dinner first? Then maybe change at my house?”

“Sounds good to me.” I looked over my shoulder. “B… you in?”

She sighed. “If I have to be.”

“Great!” Jess exclaimed. “Then it’s settled. Tonight we’re going to
par-tay
!”

***

The party got boring fast.

Half an hour in, and I found myself sitting on the kitchen counter, drinking a beer and watching a few drunk boys play an impromptu game of hacky sack that was sure to end in disaster. Jess had run off, chasing Harrison Carlyle, who still preferred boys. The girl would never learn. I’d spent some time with B and Wesley after that, but I was starting to feel a little like a third wheel. At first it had been okay, chatting with some people from high school. But with most of them, I just realized why I hadn’t bothered to keep in touch over the past few months.

It was weird. Six months ago this party would have been the best thing ever. But now it just sort of felt like a rerun of my life. And reruns are the worst.

I finished my beer and skirted around the hacky-sack boys, heading for the cooler on the other side of the kitchen. I bent down and dug through the ice, looking for another can.

“Would you mind grabbing me one, too?” someone behind me asked.

“Yeah, sure. Just a second.” I found two cans of beer and straightened. “Here you go—OMG, hi.”

Toby laughed. “Hello, Casey.”

“I… wasn’t expecting to see you here,” I admitted. “You kind of surprised me.”

I hadn’t seen Toby Tucker since he gave the valedictorian speech at graduation back in May. He mostly looked the same—the same glasses, the same out-of-place-looking blazer. But he had a much better haircut now. Still, he didn’t look like the kind of guy you saw at a house party.

Toby dated B for a very short time senior year. I’d been really disappointed when they broke up, actually, because he was such a great guy. After graduation, he’d gone off to Harvard, and everyone just sort of assumed he’d be running for president one day.

“How are you?” I asked. “How’s school?”

“Pretty good,” he said. “Challenging, but that’s not a bad thing. And you?”

“It’s cool. Way cooler than high school.”

Toby nodded. Then, somewhat awkwardly, he asked, “Um… can I have my beer now?”

I looked at the can in my hand. “Oh, right. Here.” I handed it to him, shaking my head. “Toby Tucker drinks. Not gonna lie, it kind of weirds me out.”

“Only occasionally,” he said, popping the top. “And when I have a designated driver, of course.”

“Careful there. You sound a little like a PSA,” I teased. “So who’s your DD? Did you bring a girlfriend home from the Ivy League?”

“No, no. My DD is Jeanine McPhee. Her parents bought the house next to my parents’ so it’s just sort of convenient. And she never drinks at all, so it just worked out well that way.”

“Oh, Jeanine. I should probably say hi to her or something.”

“Yeah, I’m sure she’d like that. She—”

“Incoming!”
one of the drunk boys yelled just as the hacky sack came flying at us out of nowhere. It smacked into Toby’s hand, spilling the contents of his can all over his too-dressy blazer.

“Oh, fuck,” I said.

“Oh, dude,” one of the boys called. “Sorry about your jacket.”

“Great,” Toby muttered. “I’m drenched.”

“Come on.” I took the empty can from his hand and tossed it in the recycling bin. “You’re going to smell like beer all night, but we can at least dry the blazer off so you’re not dripping onto the carpet. I knew the minute those dumbasses started playing in the kitchen that something bad was going to happen.”

He followed me to the bathroom. I knocked a couple of times, then reached for the knob. It wasn’t locked, but it should’ve been.

Two people were seriously going at it. The girl was sitting on the sink, her skirt hiked up to the very top of her thighs. I didn’t recognize them, so I figured they were some of Angela’s friends from OHCC.

“All right, kids. Go do the baby making somewhere else. Some people actually need the bathroom,” I said.

Reluctantly, they left the bathroom, both cursing me in voices just loud enough for me to hear over the buzz of the party. I just rolled my eyes and gestured for Toby to go inside ahead of me. Then I shut the door behind us and started riffling through the cabinet under the sink, hoping to find Angela’s hair dryer.

“You really don’t have to help me with this, Casey,” he said.

“I don’t mind. It gives me something to do. Before I ran into you, I was getting pretty bored.”

“I can’t imagine this is much more exciting.”

“Here it is!” I said, triumphantly holding the hair dryer over my head and standing up. “And are you kidding? Fixing wardrobe disasters—even a little one like this—is anything but boring for me. Now take off your blazer.”

He grinned and raised an eyebrow. “Are you getting fresh with me?”

I laughed. It was weird seeing Toby Tucker be so… relaxed? Funny? He’d always seemed so easily embarrassed. The boy who’d blush at any mildly suggestive comment. Not anymore, though. A semester at college had really loosened him up. I liked it.

“You know it,” I teased. “Now strip.”