Keep it Secret (9 page)

“I say you’re hot,” said
Talon. “Plus, the entire male student body minus this idiot right
here. Although I do remember this particular idiot not being able
to speak while in your presence.” He continued as he punched
Gabriel in the arm.

“Whatever, man.” Gabriel
grumbled rubbing his bicep.

I briefly lock eyes with him,
his stare sent shivers down my spine. I couldn’t help but look down
to his lips imaging once again how good they felt on my
skin
—t
here you go
again.
Fine!
Squeezing my eyes closed I forced myself to stop fantasizing
about him slowly I opened my eyes taking a small glimpse back at
his lovely baby blues noticing my stare he blushed, not like a
girly blush but a manly blush. Ha, I got him.
How does it feel jerk!
Satisfied, I
looked away focusing on the class the entire time I felt Gabriel's
eyes on me. When the bell rang for dismissal, I bolted out of the
room not giving Gabriel or anyone for that matter time to
talk.

By lunchtime I was so
looking forward to seeing my drama free, no hassle, easygoing
cousin. Walking into the cafeteria I scanned the room for her, she
stood next to a table in the middle of the room. She threw her arms
around me once we were close enough to each other.

“Rough day so far?” She
asked sweetly.

“Nothing I can't handle. How
are you?”

“Do you remember that boy I
talked about?” She said, all in one single breath.

“Yeah...” I nodded smiling.
She’s so freaking cute.

“Well, I needed a gym credit
so I signed up for swimming. He’s the TA in my class!” She squealed
like a little piglet in mud I’ve never seen Vanessa act this way
before it was refreshing, not to mention funny as hell.

“So? Who is he?” I asked
sitting down at the table Vanessa came from. Thing One and Thing
Two were nowhere in sight
. Thank
God.

“He just walked in.” Vanessa
whispered nodding towards the entrance. Gabriel and Talon had just
entered.
Oh, no…oh, no.

“His name is Gabriel
Mason.”

Fuck. You.
Universe.

Vanessa

“Since he's the swim team
captain the Headmistress offered him a teacher aide position as
extra credit. It'll look good on his college application.” I said
sort of rambling trying not to sound like a love-crazed schoolgirl.
My mouth clamped shut my eyes locking on Ava’s in horror as I
watched Gabriel and Talon walking in our direction.

Oh my God they're coming
towards us!

“Relax, Van. Don't be so
obvious play it cool.” Ava said. Sure, I’ll do that. How the hell
do I do that? Ugh. I felt so silly being this freaked out over a
boy, was this normal?

“Hello, Ava.” Talon Hunter
said just as he and Gabriel reached our table. How did he know Ava?
I wondered if they had a class together.

“Hello, Talon, Gabriel.” Ava
greeted. “This is my cousin, Vanessa.” She signaled with her head
towards me.

“Wow. You’re related to
Vanessa Saint John? Damn, I can see that unattainability runs in
the family.” Talon said. Wait…what? I’m unattainable? Since when?
The confusion is obviously painted all over my face because Ava
gave me a wide-eyed-what-the-fudge look. I shrug involuntarily. In
response to Talon’s comment, Gabriel glances at me with a strange
look in his eyes. Like it was the first time he’d ever seen me his
stare gave me butterflies in my stomach. But these were not your
average dainty winged type butterflies these were massive winged
pterodactyl type creatures. My skull began to prickle I felt my
face starting to burn up. Dear God, this was so
embarrassing.

“To what do we owe the
pleasure, gentlemen?” Ava asked trying to distract them from my
idiotic blush. She was trying to keep the attention on her so I
wouldn't be humiliated.
She’s awesome,
right?
Before either of them could answer,
Katherine Alexander or Katy as she likes to be called walked up,
hatred spewing from her pores. My mind wandered back to her twelfth
birthday when she first gave me an equally impressive look of
dislike after I accidentally on purpose ruined her cake. But
really, it was totally an accident.

“Aren’t you guys going to
introduce me to your new friend?” She gave Talon and Gabriel a
flirty smile twirling a long blonde strand of hair with her finger.
I wonder if that actually worked on guys.

“Katy, what are you doing?”
Gabriel warned.

“Nothing, Gabe, I’m just
wondering who your new friend is. Her cheap knock offs tell me
she’s not from around here,
obviously
. Made me wonder why you're
over here slumming it?” Her tone is no longer flirty. Redirecting
her nastiness to me she said. “Oh, but wait she is sitting with
Vanessa, I guess Mr. Saint John finally picked a charity
case.”

I saw the look in Ava's
eyes, her jaw clenched she struggled to keep quiet. Luckily, her
back was to Katy so she wasn’t able to see what nasty looks she was
giving us. Like it made a difference because suddenly Ava twirled
around on her seat standing up inches away from Katy’s
face.

Oh, no.

Frantically, I stood up
terrified of what Ava might do or say. She’s always been skillfully
unpredictable.

“Hi, I’m Ava. Katy is it?”
Ava smiled in a sweet manner.

Wow. See what I mean. She
could switch her emotions off and on so quickly it was giving me
whiplash.

“Oh! That’s right, you're
the ‘black hair whore’ everyone’s talking about. Did they not teach
you class wherever you came from?” Katy was unfazed from Ava’s
obvious cold sinister smile.

“Don’t get salty with me,
Kitty Kat.” Kat’s eyes glaze over in anger. She hated when people
called her that, it was either Katy or Katherine no reference’s to
cats what so ever.

Oh, my damn. This wasn't
going to be good. Katy stepped closer into Ava’s personal
space.

Crap. Big, huge
mistake.

“Why don’t you crawl back to
the hole you came from, slut?” The cafeteria went eerily silent.
Silly as it may seem your name and reputation is everything around
here. Katy knew this, hell she probably wrote the book about it.
Starting these kinds of rumors was detrimental to my family and
Ava’s reputation. Calling her a slut was planting a seed in
everyone’s mind whether it was true or not, it didn’t matter if
someone like Katherine Alexander labeled you, it was set in stone.
Ava was going to be known as the easy girl at Eagle Academy from
now on. I needed to ask Ava what happened at that party.

“Katy!” Gabriel called as a
final warning. Ava laughed reminding me of something Hannibal
Lecter would do right before a kill. Seconds later, Ava grabbed
Katy’s neck right below her face lifting her up she threw her on
the cafeteria table. The back of Katy’s head slammed on the hard
surface causing everyone in the room to gasp in unison.

“Ava!” I yelled. Her free
hand shot up to stop me. I stopped.

“Listen, you stupid little
bitch because I’m only saying this once.” Ava snarled her face
inches away from Katy’s. “The next time you
think
you have balls and come over
here acting like you're tough shit, you better know who the
fuck
you're dealing
with. If you
ever
come near my cousin or me again, I’ll make sure you don't
have any pretty blonde hair left on that simple minded head of
yours. Do. You. Understand?” Katy didn’t say anything only groaned
in fear or most likely pain.

“Answer me!” Ava gritted
through her teeth.

“Yes!” Katy whimpered her
lower lip quivering. Ava finally let go of her neck backing away
slowly. I see the realization of what she had just done dawn on
her.

“Let’s go, Van.” She called
firmly. No way in hell was I saying no to her right now. Grabbing
her hand we hurried out of the cafeteria into the school courtyard
sitting down on one of the benches, putting as much distance as
possible between the cafeteria and us. Ava looked up at the sky
closing her eyes she held her cross tightly.

“I’m so sorry, Van. I've
embarrassed you.” She said with remorse. I ignore her apology
because deep down I thought what she did was badass. Katherine
Alexander was the worst type of high school bully, she made sure to
make anyone who crossed her life’s impossibly difficult. She
targeted every angle of your life. School, home life, extra
curricular activities, teachers, she even had her claws deep in the
Headmistress.

“Ava, what happened at that
party?” I asked moving to look at her, our knees touched as she
kept her eyes closed still holding onto her necklace.

“Nothing really I danced,
drank, partied then went home.” She answered opening her eyes
lowering her head, looking blankly at the grass in front of
us.

“I’m not siding with Katy,
but why did she call you a slut?”

“You’re trying to say
there’s no smoke without fire?”

“Not necessarily, she could
just be saying that to be hateful. Nevertheless, Gretchen and Viola
did mention that ridiculous nickname. What really happened at the
party?” I asked again.

“Nothing I wouldn't do at any
other party.” She replied vaguely. Not confirming or denying that
she was acting like a
slut
, as Katy would say.

“You know you’re my favorite
person in the whole wide world, right?” I said placing my head on
her shoulders. I just wanted to reassure her that regardless of
what she did at that party I would never think less of her. She
could erase all the books from my e-reader and I’d still love
her.

Ava smiled tightly wrapping
her arm around me. “I love you.” She whispered. Pulling away, I
smiled at her but it was short lived because Headmistress Harvey
was marching in our direction.

“Brace yourself.” I said
under my breath.

“Ms. Saint John, Ms.
Veneziano.” She said coldly. “I have reason to believe you were
both involved in an altercation with Ms. Katherine
Alexander.”

“I had a disagreement with
Katy. Vanessa had nothing to do with it but I think we resolved
our
issues
.” Ava
responded.

“Strange, no one appears to
be forthcoming about the details. Ms. Alexander also states that
there was a ‘disagreement’ but oddly enough she’s complaining about
a headache and asked to go home. She claims she hit her head on the
lunch table after picking her book off the floor.”

“Those pesky tables.” Ava
smiled.

“Hmm, well, if you two
remember any details, please don’t hesitate to come forward.” We
both smiled in agreement. As soon as she was out of hearing range I
looked over at Ava in disbelief. “Wow, that was close.”

“Yeah, I wonder why Kitty
Kat didn’t rat me out.”

That was a can of worms I
didn't want to open. What reasons Katy had for not telling on Ava
was something I didn't want to dwell on right this
instant.

“Lunch is almost over. We
should probably head back in.” I said looking down at my
watch.

Just as we walked inside the
building bodies were busy trying to get to their next class. Ava
and I parted ways with a quick hug, walking through the hallways I
thought of something funny only Ava would understand. Taking my
phone out of my backpack I sent Ava a text.

Me:
#peskylunchtables

Ava: lmao!

Me: Thought you might like
that :)

Seconds later.

Ava: Ive created a
monstr

Ava

Back inside the building navy
blue blazers spilled out of the lunchroom making their way to
class. Everyone maintained their distance in the hallway afraid I
might snap. I guess it was best for people to be afraid of me than
label me the school slut, which was probably going to be the case
thanks to Katherine Alexander, at least this way they’d leave
Vanessa alone. Reviewing my schedule I was glad to see only a few
more classes were left until the day was over.
Thank God.
Suddenly, the hairs on
the back of my neck stood up, I knew he was standing in front of me
without even looking.

“Hey.” He said with concern.
If today was an indication of how the rest of the year would be
like I should drop out now and get my G. E. D. This would have been
a lot easier if I’d learn to keep it in my pants.

“What’s up?” I said,
adjusting the satchel over my shoulder.

“Are you all
right?”

“Couldn’t be better. Why do
you ask?” It was a thoughtless question, I know, he was obviously
making sure everything was hunky-dory. To be honest Katy’s comment
alone wasn’t what made me flick on my psycho switch, it was the
straw that broke the camels back. The entire day was a disaster. I
was annoyed by the way Viola and Gretchen reacted to me, then, I
found out Gabriel was a student here, being sexually frustrated
wasn't helping the situation. I wanted him so bad. I wanted him
like I've never wanted any man in my life. Of course, because the
universe hated me Gabriel turns out to be Vanessa’s long time
crush. Vanessa implicitly claimed him. He was off
limits.