deadly secret

Chapter 7

"Okay, so what did he say?" Casey asks. "I want everyone word". Were sitting in one of the tables at Happy Cones, the ice cream shop down the street from our school. "Oh my god, wait" she says, just as soon as i open my mouth to speak. "Did you see Matt Lancaster?" I look around the booths.

"Not here" she says, "In the hallway, while you were talking to that Stefan guy. He was totally into the scene. It looked like he wanted to talk to you. He was so close to tapping you in the shoulder, but you turned the other way", i looked at her and said "I didn't notice". Casey sighs, "Leave it to you to miss a hottie like him. If you don't go for him, I totally will"

"He's all yours" I say, taking a bite of my chocolate chip ice cream. "So what did he say?" she asks, "Matt?", "No that Stefan guy" she said and took a bite of her vanilla ice cream. "Not much. Just that it wasn't him, that i have him confused with someone else" I explained, "See i told you" she says.

"But he's lying" I continue. "I know it was him", "Why would he lie about something like that?" she says and looks at me. i shrug "Maybe he's one of those super private people, maybe that's why he took off after he saved me in the first place", "Doubtful" she says. "I mean, think about it, if you were accused of murder, wouldn't you welcome an opportunity where people could see you saving someone?"

"Sounds pretty serious" Tyler says, sneaking up from behind me. Spoon and straw in his hand, he pulls up a chair and takes the liberty of grabbing from our desserts. "Word's out that you were harassing Killer Boy after school today", "Where did you hear that?" I ask, knocking his spoon away. "People" he smirks. "What people?", Tyler's smirk grows into a big smile, exposing the tiny chocolate chip in his front tooth. "Everybody's talking about it"

"Your lame" Casey says. " We've only been out of school for an hour", "Doesn't matter" He continues, "I have ears and eyes"

"Stalking the girls softball team again?" Casey asks, "You know how weird that is, don't you?", Tyler shrugs. "My vote is that you forget about Touch Boy" Casey says, pointing at me with her straw. "Unless of course you want to end up being the next victim of the week" Tyler adds. "Better start wearing clean underwear. You never know when you might end up lying half naked somewhere"

"Good advice" Casey nods. "I'm nobody's victim" I say, "You can victimize me" He gives his spoon a good lick. "Whatever" I say ignoring him. "Forgetting Stefan is a whole lot easier said than done. I saw the scar" "Wait, what scar?" Casey asks. I tell them about the scar i saw on Stefan's forearm earlier, how i recognized it from the day he saved me.

"Do i smell a scandal coming on?" Tyler asks, making his voice all deep. Casey sniffs in Tyler's direction. "That isn't scandalous, its venomous" Tyler takes a large sip of her frappe in retaliation. "Forget him, Hannah" Casey says. "I mean, yes, he saved your life, it was very generous of him. And yes, he's totally hot, which further complicates things, but closure is way overrated, in my opinion, anyway". "Maybe you're right" I sigh, sinking back into my seat. "No 'maybe' about it. Preoccupy yourself with someone yummier" she insists.

"Like who? Jack or Matt?" i said, "Well, since you bring them up..." I roll my eyes in response. "Oh, but that's right" she continues. "Jack was no good, as i recall. He called you all the time, gave you sweet little gifts-", "Made you homemade chicken soup when you were sick" Tyler adds. "It wasn't that good" remembering the soup. "Whatever" Casey argues. "Jack was nice" I say to be clear, "But there comes a point when nice is too nice- too clingy, even before we started dating".

"Right" he says. "What you need is a malicious killer" On that note, I excuse myself from the table and leave, since I promised my mother, I'd help her with dinner tonight anyway.

I get home and see my mom in the kitchen. "Where making summer squash pasta with soy butter and basil sauce, date-nut logs, and fresh kale-rot juice" my mother announces, just as soon as i enter the kitchen. "Kale-rot?" She nods and pulls one of my bowls that i made in the class. "It's made with carrots and kale", "Sounds delightful" I lie.

My mom's sort of a health freak, from her henna red hair to her organic cotton sneakers. As a result, my dad and I end up at the drive through of Taco Bell at least twice a week."Come on" she says, " I wanna hear all about your first day of school. Any cute guys? Inspiring teachers? How was your lunch?", "Negative, Not really and not great" I say. "Now, there's a healthy attitude", "I'm exaggerating" I slide onto a stool, "Well, sort of".

"Do you want to talk about it?", "Maybe another time" I say, thinking about Stefan. She starts making the food with her eyes teary. "Mom?", "Aunt Lisa called today", she says, in an effort to explain her tears. "Oh" i say, She wipes her tears, trying to regain composure. "It wasn't anything bad. She just sounded kind of off, that's all". "Aunt Lisa sounded kind of off".

"She's working now" she continues, "Trying to stay busy, to get her life back on track. She goes to a therapy group twice a week and painting classes every Saturday afternoon". "Then what?" Mom shakes her head. The corners of her mouth frowned. And for just a second she looks like she's going to lose it all over again. "She's fine" She says finally, "I'm sure of it!" she says and goes to her room.

I take a stack of plates and start to set the table. And that's when i notice a large manila envelope addressed to me, sitting on top of my mom's paper work. I pick it up, noticing right away that it wasn't even mailed. It has no postage, no postmark. Still i rip it open and pull out the contents.

It's a photo of me, standing outside of school this morning, I can tell by my outfit. Someone's printed it on a glossy paper and drawn a bubbly red heart around my body. I flip the picture over in search of a name or message, but it's blank. "Did somebody drop this off for me today?"I ask my mom when she enters the kitchen, and she shakes her head. "It was in the mailbox, with everything else", "And when did you pick up the mail?" I ask, wondering when someone would have had the time- between the end of school and now- to develop a picture and drop it off at my house.

She pauses from kale-rot juicing to look up at me. "Around five, just before you got home. Why, what is it?" I flash the photo at her. "Probably just a joke". "Looks more like a secret admire" she says winking at me.

I roll my eyes and run my fingers over the picture, thinking about this morning in front of the school, and trying to remember who i saw hanging around. "Hannah, are you okay?" My mother pushes. "Did something happen at school?" i shrug, tempted to tell her about Stefan, about all the rumors i hear about him, but it seems to preoccupied now.

"Just a usual first day back stuff" I return the photo to its envelope and head to my room to give Casey a call. There may be no return address, but a stunt like this definitely has her name all written over it.