One Tiny Secret

Chapter Three

Sitting in the waiting room of the auto shop after school, I find myself unable to take my eyes off the friend request that Parker sent me. I still haven’t clicked accept or ignore, and frankly I’m getting tired of thinking about it. In my mind, there’s a lot riding on this decision. On one hand, if I click accept, Phoebe will see that in her feed, and I don’t even want to imagine what would happen then. But if I click ignore, then I’ll be saying that I don’t care for Parker, which really isn’t true. Yes, there’s resentment there, but unfortunately, other emotions are also present.

“Dani, Lexi’s ready. I wanted to give her another quick check…on the house, of course,” Kevin says with a grin, drawing my gaze to him instead of my phone.

Yes, I named my car Lexi. I just said it one day and the name stuck.

“Thanks, Kevin. You always treat my girl so well.”

Kevin and I have known each other for as long as I can remember. He was a part of my original trio, which included Janice. We kind of drifted apart after Janice was taken out of school. There was also an awkward moment when he confessed his love for me in the eighth grade. Though I did love Kevin, I could never say that I was in love with him. It sucked to have to tell him that, and I kind of regret how I did it, because we didn’t talk for, like, a whole year afterwards. I’m glad that things have settled into a more comfortable place between us. Kevin’s a great guy.

“No problem. It’s the least I can do,” he replies. “Besides, it’s not like I get to work on a nineteen ninety Honda Prelude every day,” he continues.

I giggle. “Hush your face. Lexi may be old, but she’s a classy gal. She just needs a little TLC every once in a while.”

“Riiiight. Well, your dad already took care of the bill, so here you go.” He hands the keys over to me. “She’s out front if you want to go see her.”

“Thanks. I think I will.”

I run my fingertips along Lexi’s shiny(ish) blue hood before rushing to fling open the door and jump inside. Sticking the key in the ignition, I turn it, then smile when the engine starts up.

“Ah, you’re a lifesaver, Kevin,” I exclaim, pounding on the steering wheel. “I was getting a little tired of my dad saying that it was time to let my girl go.”

He laughs. “Well, maybe it is.”

“Oh, no…not you too?” I groan.

“Hey, I just call ’em like I see ’em. I haven’t seen anyone drive around a Prelude in a couple years. They’re kind of a dying breed, Dani.”

“Well, Lexi gets me where I need to go, which is all that counts in my book,” I reply, turning my attention back to my car.

“Yep, and I guess I’ll keep fixing her,” he comments with a cheeky smirk. “She’s probably only got about two more years left in her, anyway.”

“Okay, Dad,” I quip while rolling my eyes and closing the car door. He just laughs.

“So, Dani?” I hear him ask through the closed window.

“Yeah,” I reply, rolling it down.

“Are you going to Gunnar’s party tomorrow?”

“Shhh! Not so loud.”

“Sorry. It’s the first time I’ve ever been invited. I didn’t realize there was a protocol.”

“It’s okay. It’s my first time going too, but the party’s kind of a secret, and I’m trying to stay off my dad’s radar.”

“Understood. Hey, I saw the flyer you made up. It looks awesome. But then again, you were always great with designing stuff like that.”

“I’m going to kill Gunnar. He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone I did the flyer,” I whisper.

“He didn’t tell me. I knew just by looking. It had you written all over it.”

“Oh...thanks. Hey, I’d better get going. I’m doing some last-minute Halloween decorating around the house with Pops, and I’m pretty sure if I’m not home soon, he’ll send out a search party.”

I see the disappointment on his face because of my response and feel horrible about it. His light hazel eyes seem to lose a little of their luster, and I want to just give him a hug, but I don’t want to send any mixed signals.

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?” he asks.

“Yeah, definitely. I’ll be dressed as Little Red, in case you were wondering.”

“Classic. I like it.”

As I drive away, I see him in the rearview mirror watching me leave. The sight of him kicking around some dirt makes me feel worse about how I handled our little chat. It sucks when somebody likes you and you can’t like them back in that way. That’s probably why we haven’t been hanging out as much as we used to. And things change when you go to high school…people change.

To take my mind off Kevin, I roll down all the windows and turn up the radio while letting the cool fall air flow through the car. I love fall in the Northeast, especially while driving through the neighborhoods. People really go all out for Halloween. Our house, on the other hand, is the only one on our street not decorated yet. Halloween is only a week from tomorrow. To say the least, I feel ashamed.

When I pull up to the house, my dad’s car isn’t in the driveway. He’s probably buried himself in work again at the station for the nth time this month. I bet he’s left me a note on the fridge and twenty bucks for a pizza. My father’s a creature of habit, which makes him easy to predict. I guess in some ways, that’s a good thing.

I was right. I find twenty bucks and a piece of paper stuck to the fridge with a cute little happy face magnet. The note reads:

Had to go back into work. Will explain later. Sorry about the decorations. Pizza is on me.

I notice several open boxes of Halloween decorations sitting on top of the kitchen table. I guess he made an attempt to decorate the house before he went back into work. I have this gut feeling that thoughts of Mom combined with those decorations were too much for him to handle.

I begin to dig through the boxes, removing all the little knickknacks my mom collected over the years. As I start to place them around the house, I feel strange doing this all by myself. It just doesn’t feel right. A sense of apathy toward the whole thing suddenly hits me.

“I think I need music,” I say.

I remember that Dad connected our surround sound system to Pandora radio a couple of weeks ago, and decide to switch on the Halloween station. One of my favorite songs, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, comes through the speakers.

“Ah, just what I needed.”

I’ll be honest…decorating while trying not to break out into the zombie dance is kind of killing me.

I barely hear my phone ring over the music and rush to the kitchen counter where I left it. Just before I answer, the caller hangs up. The number comes up as unknown. They don’t leave a voicemail, so I assume it’s a wrong number. I set the phone down and head back into the living room to finish putting up the remainder of the decor.

When I feel like I’m at a good stopping point, I take a little break. Collecting the twenty dollars from the fridge, I grab my phone and dial for pizza. I figure I’ve got at least twenty-five minutes to kill before the food arrives, so I decide to sort through the box of my old stuff upstairs. I know if I don’t go through it soon, Dad will keep pestering me about it until I do.

There’s an old framed family photo on the wall right in front of me as I reach the top of the stairs. For the past year, every time I reach the second floor, I stop right in this spot and just stare at it for a moment. It’s a reflection of what I believed was a happier time for our family, but now I’m pretty sure it’s just a constant reminder to my dad of Mom’s cheating. He claims he likes to keep it up because I look nice in the picture. Personally, I think he’s still in denial about the whole thing.

Flopping down on my bed, I begin sifting through the open cardboard box sitting on the floor in front of the nightstand. Underneath some of my school stuff from middle school, I see the walkie-talkie again and take it out. As I begin to walk toward the window to look over at Janice’s room, I hit the switch on the side of the device to check if it still works. Nope, batteries must be dead.

I turn it over and open the compartment where the batteries are housed to see what size it takes. AAA. Scurrying over to my desk where I sometime store batteries, I open the top left drawer. Sure enough, I find a package of AAAs. After putting in the batteries, I hit the button on the side again and hear that old familiar electronic crackle sound. Oh, how I’ve missed that sound. I’m not sure why I even replaced the batteries. Janice’s walkie-talkie has to be dead by now too.

Just for shits and giggles, I take a chance and talk into it.

“Janice?”

I try to remember the nicknames we used to call each other over this thing. It suddenly comes to me. “Marshmallow, this is Mint Chip. Over.” There’s no reply.

“Well, I guess it was worth a shot,” I say, and toss the walkie on the bed.

The doorbell chimes. My stomach grumbles in anticipation of the pizza waiting for me at the front door, and I hurry down the stairs to meet it. With the delivery guy paid and food in-hand, I run back up to my room to stuff my face. The moment I enter through the doorway, I hear a muffled static noise coming from the bed. I see the walkie-talkie lying there face-down. The noise sounds again and I’m sure it came from the walkie this time.

I put the pizza box on the desk and pick up the hand radio. Pressing the button, I talk into it. “Janice? Is that you?” There’s a moment of silence followed by another static noise. “Janice?”

“Marshmallow here.”

I run over to my window and look out across the way. She’s standing there with her curtain drawn, staring back. A smile lights up her face the moment she sees me.

“Oh my God!” I exclaim. “How’ve you been? It’s been forever since we last talked. I wasn’t sure if your walkie was even still working.”

“Mom told me that you never wanted to talk to me again. That’s why you haven’t heard from me,” she replies.

“Why the hell did she tell you that? I never said anything even remotely close to that.”

“Well, you know how she is. Actually, she’d probably kill me if she knew I was talking to you right now.”

“I’ve been wanting to apologize for how things went down between us. I’ve felt horrible ever since…” I trail off. After a moment, I continue, “You were my best friend, Janice.”

“I know, Mint Chip. You can’t really blame yourself, though. My mom had a huge hand in this too. She’s had me locked up in here for what seems like forever, and to say the least, I think I’m getting cabin fever.”

An idea enters my head the moment the words cabin fever leave her lips. “Hey, I know this is going to sound crazy, but there’s this Halloween party tomorrow night. Want to come?”

“I don’t know, Dani. I’m not sure anyone other than you would want me there.”

“Oh, come on. That’s so not true. It’ll be like old times. We’ll have lots of fun—promise. Kevin will even be there.”

“Kevin? Wow, I haven’t seen him in a while. I’m still not sure, though. The old times weren’t always so great, Dani. That’s why I ended up homeschooled in the first place. And Mom really hates everything about Halloween. Like I said earlier, she’d probably kill me for even talking to you right now. Imagine what she’d do if I snuck out to a party with you.”

“I guess you’re right. Maybe we can start out with something a little lower key than a secret party.”

After a long pause, she says, “Well, I guess I could just tell her I’m going to the library to read. I spend a lot of time there, anyway, so that might actually make for a good alibi.”

I can almost hear the wheels in her head turning as she works out the scheme. “Wow, Janice. I didn’t know you could be such a rebel.”

“Have you not heard what I’ve been saying? My mom is keeping me prisoner here, and I’m starting to go crazy. I’ll take any excuse to get away from here.”

“Well, work out the details and let me know what you come up with, okay?”

“We’ll talk later. I think I hear Mom coming up the stairs.”

“Over and out, Marshmallow,” I say.

“Over and out, Mint Chip.”