WANT TO KNOW A SECRET?

(25)

"Poppy?" Macy asked me as I was finishing my lunch the day after.

"Hmm?" Still feeling down and unwilling to get any type of attention, I'd made sure to keep to myself and was yet so utter an entire sentence today.

I'd been surprised when Christine McPherson and Jessica Moonson, the two girls who'd attacked me, had come to Mr. Sullivan's class with a microphone linked to the school's sound system, to apologize for attacking me. They'd then gone on to promise it would never happen again and blah blah blah...

"Did you really see your best friend jump from that tree?" The silence that ensued was deafening and after dropping my fork, I had to swallow the big lump that had formed in my throat at her question.

"What the hell, Macy?!" Keira cried out, looking positively outraged.

"Hmm... Yes, I did..." I finally answered once I was sure I wouldn't throw up on the spot if I opened my mouth. "But at the time I thought it was an accident..." I added.

"What do you mean?" I could tell she was genuinely curious.

"I thought he'd like fainted or something and then fallen down..." I muttered.

"My uncle hung himself last weekend..." was her answer and it was clearly news to everyone around the table. "I don't understand why he did it..." The normally self-assured red-headed girl sounded like the shadow of herself.

As nobody seemed to know what to say I cleared my throat, willing my meagre lunch to remain in my stomach.

"Hmm... Did he... Did he leave a note or something?" I said the first thing that came to my mind. She clearly needed to get it out of her chest. She would never have opened up that way otherwise.

"Yeah... He told my aunt that he'd had an affair with a woman from work and that even though he'd ended things with her months before, guilt was eating at him a bit more every day..." She sniffled. "Their youngest kid is only four..." Her sadness was painful to watch.

"I'm not sure I'm the right person to discuss that because I've only recently learnt that Cam had taken his life and right now all I'm feeling is angry..." I admitted embarrassedly.

"Oh, so it's normal!" She cried out with tears in her eyes.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"That anger that I have inside me whenever I think about him." She replied. "Not only for cheating on my aunt but for choosing the coward way out..."

"Some would argue that it takes some courage to knot a piece of rope around your throat and to kick the chair you're standing on, but I kind of agree with you on that one, unless someone tells me one day that Cam suffered from some rare medical condition, a deficient gene maybe, I don't know, anything to explain why he did what he did, I think I'll always be angry at him..."

"Thank you, Poppy." She said and I turned to look her way when I realized where I was. For a second, I'd just let my heart speak, totally forgetting the Royal Court around me. "Thank you so much for that..." She added, her voice breaking slightly at the end, and she stood up. "I-I'm just going to the restroom..." She muttered before hurrying away. Lana immediately went after her best friend.

"How old are you again, Martins?" Landon asked.

"Sixteen..." I said.

"Almost seventeen..." Tyler argued, and I guessed he was right since in less than two months I'd be seventeen.

"That's why you'll have to forgive me when I punch your boy..." He pointed at Tyler. "Or take your side whenever some dumbass decides to target you..."