Sixteen and Dead

Viii. Juliet

The dinner with Xavier is nice; but in all honesty, the only thing on my mind is the picture I saw of my father. What could it mean?  I don't know what to do. . . how to react. . .

"Hello? You there?" Xavier waves a hand in front of my face. I smile at him and assure him that he has my attention. But I just can't help but drift off to the overwhelming urge in the back of my mind to find out more about that picture and my dad. 

We finish our dinner and chat a little about his family and school. He subtly asks about my family but I quickly change the subject. He gives me a strange look, as if he knows what I'm thinking. . . as if he knows everything. 

"Are you okay Juliet? You seem a little off tonight" He asks.

"Yeah! I'm totally fine, I've just been feeling a little sick today for some reason. Maybe its best if I go home." I stand up.

"Oh. Well okay, I'll walk you home."

"No!" I say, a little too harshly. "It's okay." I assure him with a smile. "I wouldn't want to get you sick."

"Okay, well I had a great time. I'll call you?" He says.

"Yeah, definitely! Thank you so much for dinner. It was lovely." I lean in for a hug and he quickly returns it, wrapping his arms around me and putting his chin on top of my head. 

"Bye Xavier." I wave. He waves back and watches me leave as I make my way towards the elevator and the doors close behind me.

-

I get back to my apartment and get straight to work. I do all the research I possibly can on the Secret Society and I have no luck.

Since I'm a former member, I know how secretive they are with everything. They don't have anything online about them. I know all their secrets as well, kind of contributing to the fact that they want to kill me. No members are allowed to leave because of all the information they know. And if they try to leave, then they're killed. 

Also, the fact that I stole a bunch of money might of ticked them off even more. I'm surprised they have never found me. 

I've been staring at the photo of my dad for over twenty minutes now. I just cant figure out what he's doing there. I never knew my dad at all. Whenever I had asked my mom about him, she got annoyed and told me he was "A no-good liar". Not that she was any better. Most nights I would come home and find  her passed out on the couch, a half-empty bottle of vodka in her hand. 

When she died from an overdose a couple years ago, I was lost. I had just turned fourteen when she died so I had to go live with my aunt. She was gone a lot. Out of town mostly. So I learned to take care of myself. But my aunt had a lot of money issues and found it difficult to pay the bills most of the time.

Sometimes we would go days without any power, until she got enough money to pay for electricity. She took me in when I had nobody, so I felt I owed her and I turned to selling drugs to help pay the bills. When she asked where I was getting the money, I had told her I got a job at the library.  

I was hanging out with a bad crowd at school and they got me into the whole dealing thing. Originally it was just pot that I was selling to some stoner's at my school but then I started to meet new people in the business and I started selling prescription medication and more hard drugs and after a year or so of selling; I met Feldro. I moved out of my aunts house and went and lived with Feldro for awhile. He took me under his wing and I almost felt like he was a father figure. Then he obviously started screwing me over, so that was the end of that.

If my father had been apart of the Secret Society, I definitely would of known. Surely Feldro would of known him if he was a member. 

I suddenly feel angry towards my mother for not ever telling me anything about my father. Even if he was a bad man, I still would of liked to know at least something about him.

All I know is that his name is Simon. When I was younger I came across a photo of my dad and mom from when they were dating before I was born. At the bottom of the photo in sharpie was "Alison and Simon 1989". I fell in love with the photo and had it by my bedside table before my mom found it and hid it. 

Looking at this newly found photo in front of me of my dad and the Secret Society. I can't help but wonder about all the secrets in my family that I don't know about.