WANT TO KNOW A SECRET?

(5)

"Sit..." Christian pointed at our untouched plates before sitting in front of us next to his sons. "Eat." He then said and Nathan resumed eating hungrily.

Hasn't the food gone cold by now? I wondered and was tempted to take a bite just to check.

"So..." Christian said hesitantly. "That was my now ex-girlfriend, and I'm very sorry for..." He paused. "Well, for what happened earlier." He said quickly. "She won't be a problem anymore."

Good freaking riddance! I thought.

"Now..." He started again and I immediately knew I wouldn't like what he had to say. "I've just spoken to Bryan..." I grimaced. "He told me that he barely showed you round before he had to leave with Bianca."

I shrugged.

"He was also surprised your father hadn't come to get the two of you..." Nathan almost choked on the piece of bacon he was chewing at that last comment. "Poppy, what's going on?"

I opened my mouth to answer him but nothing came out.

What was I supposed to tell him?

"We can go back to our old house if you want..." I muttered uncomfortably.

"Your mother's sold it, didn't she tell you?!" He may have been surprised but I was flabbergasted.

I glanced at Nate and when I saw how tensed he was, I knew that the news had affected him too.

A thought occurred to me then: We had nowhere to go if things didn't work out with Bryan.

"When is the last time you saw your father?" He asked next and I knew we were trapped.

If I answered truthfully, he'd know my mother had lied to his cousin and if I lied, Nate and I would have to spend the week somewhere else.

I had no friends left and Nathan's friends had turned their back on us when they'd found out about our betrayal.

Their words, not ours.

We'd had a long conversation after leaving Marty's place at the end of which Nate assured me that even though he'd miss all his friends, he was ok as long as we were together.

They'd been so nice about it, he couldn't really be mad at them. Steve had even shared a couple of tears before hugging Nathan. They'd pointed out that things were bound to change anyway. Nathan, being the athlete he was would want to play basketball for Rochester Private. Remaining friends would mean that anything B-ball related would be off limit. The same went for all the prank wars between the two towns. Nobody would trust them – or us – if people knew we were still hanging out... To cut a long series of arguments short, they knew that their friendship was doomed and would rather end it in a civilized way than more brutally later.

I'd decided not to intervene even though I totally disagreed with their perspective on things. I was naïve enough to think that a true friendship like theirs could survive anything. To be honest, I secretly believed that it actually would in spite of their decision. Only time would tell if I was right.

If only they knew the reason behind our moving out. We'd purposefully left the Van Houten out and they were so shocked to hear the news that they never asked.

So yeah, we had nowhere to go really.

I had already used up most of my meagre savings on food and entertainment meant to cheer Nathan up, I didn't have enough left to pay for a hotel, not even the creepy one at the interstate exit.

"Poppy?" Mr. Van Houten's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

"We haven't seen him since the day before he left us..." Nathan's tone was laced with anger and I instinctively reached for his hand. He squeezed it twice, his code to let me know he was ok.