Falling For Mr. Perfect (Daily Updates)

O2 My Dirty Little Secret

"MY DIRTY LITTLE SECRET"

"You're positive you had your book in detention?" Cherry asked after I called her and told her to meet me at our usual spot.

There weren't many places in our small town where we could hangout without someone yelling at us to go away. So, Cherry and I stayed hidden on the roof of our favorite ice cream place, Cloud Creamery. The giant hot fudge sundae sign blocked us from view of the street below. The owner knew we sat up there and her only request was that we don't fall off and break our necks. Which Cherry and I agreed to.

After I got my phone back from Mrs. Payne, Cherry was my first call. She beat me to our spot and had already pulled our furniture out from under the tarp we hid up there. Just two mismatched folding chairs and a folding tv tray where we piled our snacks to share.

Today, Cherry had two single scoops of ice cream from the store below us. Cherry vanilla with strawberry sauce for me and mint chocolate chip with gummibears for her. I ate mine in record speed, but Cherry let hers sit. She liked her ice cream to have the consistency of a milkshake.

"Yes, I'm positive I had it," I told her, chewing my blue plastic spoon. "Remember, I showed you the new lyrics I wrote at lunch. Besides, I never leave home without it."

If one of my parents found out the things I wrote about it'd be over for me. My lyrics were my version of diary. My songs were heavy with metaphors, but they detailed my life in away I didn't want my parents knowing about. Like the day I lost my virginity. Or how I really felt about their separation last year. It only lasted six months, but it was the best six months of my life. I never understood why they got back together.

"That was lunch," Cherry said, now. "Maybe you left it in your locker?"

"No, I didn't!" I didn't mean to snap, but sometimes her eternal optimism was too much. "I had it in that classroom. I took it out my bag, read over the last song about Daniel and was about to make some changes when--"

"When what?"

"Peter effing Conway."

Her plump lips formed an "O" shape. "Peter Conway had detention?"

"No, he just wanted me to sign up for some daycamp thing."

"At the elementary school? My brother and sister are going to be there this summer."

I sat back in my chair. "Well, I'm not. But if my parents ask, I volunteered to teach piano."

Her face screwed up in thought. "Piano wasn't an option on the sign-up sheet."

"We're getting off topic," I said, waving my hand in the air like swatting away a fly. "Peter Conway was the only other person in that room. He had to steal it."

"Why would Peter Conway steal your song book?" She sounded doubtful. "I let him borrow a pen once and he accidentally took it home. The next day he gave me a box of a hundred pens and apologized."

She had a point. Stealing, like lying, wasn't something Peter Conway did. Then again, he did talk me into being his fake girlfriend. Maybe he took my notebook as an extra incentive to keep me in check. Either way, I had to have a chat with him.

***

Cherry had to get home so I was left to deal with my new "boyfriend" on my own.