The Secrets We Keep

The Twenty-Fifth Chapter

Hayden

The high I'm feeling wears off the moment I wake up in bed gasping for air. The same dream I've been having for the last few days is what forces me awake. I sit up in bed and reach for the bedside lamp. Immediately, my room is bathed into a warm glow. 

I press my hand to my chest as I try and remember the dream. I'd been so scared and I'm pretty sure I'd been calling out to someone, but now that I'm awake, I can't even remember what words I'd been saying. 

My eyes go to my bedside table and I find myself opening the drawer and pulling out Amelia's diary. 

Today was good. Fun, really. But I can't get distracted right now. Amelia's dead and she deserves to have her killer brought to justice. 

I flip through the pages again and remember the entry before the torn-out pages. Mr. Johnson. He'd touched her but is he the one that killed her?

-

Over the weekend, I do some research. I look up Johnson online and try to find anything I can about him. He's worked at Excelsior since he started teaching in his twenties. It's a dead end. If he'd had an interaction like he had with Amelia with another female student, I'm sure I would've found something by now. 

I sigh as I lean back on the couch. What the hell did those missing pages contain? And do they still exist, hidden somewhere? Or have they been destroyed?

I move my laptop off my legs when I hear my phone vibrate on the coffee table. 

Unknown: It's weird that we did what we did yesterday and yet have never exchanged numbers. 

My eyebrows scrunch together as I try to make sense of the text. When I realize who it is, I grin. 

Me: And I'm guessing (like the freak that you are) that you already had my number saved from after the day you first met me. 

I vaguely remember him saying that was how he found out my address, from the file in the admin office. 

Nathan: Guilty as charged. What are you doing today? I want to see you.

Me: Can't. Sorry. I have a training session at the dojo and then I'm going out to see my grandparents out of town. 

Nathan: What about tomorrow?

My grin widens as I read the words a second and then a third time. Play it cool, Hayden. Don't let him see how much you like him. 

Me: God, you're like so obsessed with me or something. It feels good to have this kind of power over someone. 

I stare at my screen nervously until he responds. Maybe that was too much. I sound kind of full of myself.

Nathan: So don't abuse the power and put me out of my misery. 

Me: I'll see you at school. 

I'm scared if I see him too soon after yesterday, I'll ruin what we have brewing. And don't they always say absence makes the heart grow fonder? 

Nathan: There are too many people at school. I want you all to myself. 

I'm blushing as I put my phone down. The man's got game, I'll give him that. But I won't give in so easily. 

-

Something occurs to me as I walk into my first class on Monday morning. It was something Christopher said to me in one of our detentions.