Behind The Screens

21 | XXXX Anonymous

Britten

"Hey, did you give anyone else our address?" Mira asked. She was walking into the room with an envelope in her hand. It was seven in the morning so I guessed she had grabbed the mail from the kitchen. I shook my head no, starting to get a little nervous. "Why?" I asked, sitting my laptop to the side of me. She handed me the envelope and I took the piece of paper out. It said:

Expect to see a nice little gift on your door step in the morning.
XXXX - anonymous

"Mira, when did we get this?" I asked. "Well I brought all the mail in last night." She responded. "Did you check it yesterday?" I nodded and started heading toward the front door. "Where are you going?" Mira asked me. I didn't respond, but instead, I opened the front door to see a pretty rose below me. It looked gorgeous, but the fact that I didn't know who it was coming from made it suspicious. There had to be a catch and I found out what it was when I picked up the rose, realizing that the thorns hadn't been cut off. It pricked my thumb and I immediately threw it to the ground. When I dropped it a small, white piece of paper fell out of the inside. I leaned down pick it up so I could read it.

My love for him was like a gorgeous rose... And you were the thorn.

Who was this person, and who were they talking about? I'd just moved here so who could possibly have anything against me already? Then all of a sudden I saw red soaking into the paper. My thumb was bleeding. "Don't worry, I'll get you a band-aid." Mira said. Then she disappeared back into the apartment.

Just as soon she left, I saw Tyler and Alex walking toward our apartment. "Psst." I whispered, trying to get his attention. It must've worked because he looked up at me, smiled with such a gorgeous smile, and winked. I couldn't help but give a silly grin. I had the best boyfriend in the world.

Before I knew it, Alex and Tyler were at the doorstep. Alex slipped his hands around my waist and bent down to kiss me. When he pulled away, he gave me a confused look. "What's wrong?" He asked me. I looked behind him and noticed Tyler had already gone inside and Mira was not back with my band-aid.

I shook my head. "Nothing." I said. "Liar." Alex responded.
"What?"
"You're lying." He repeated.
"How do you know?"
"That kiss. It was half-hearted." He explained. "Your mind is somewhere else. Where?" I shrugged. "Please believe me." I begged. He nodded. "Of course." He assured me. I took a deep breath. "I think someone wants to kill me." I could've sworn I saw a smirk on Alex's face. "Okay, maybe I'm overreacting a little." I admitted. "Good, so I can laugh right?" Alex said, already starting to giggle. I rolled my eyes. "No." I told him. "But whoever it is hates me. Look what they sent me this morning."

I bent down to pick up the rose, but carefully this time. Alex raised his eyebrows. "Wow, this is just sick! That devious little monster!" He teased. "It has thorns!" I said. He shrugged. "So?"
I groaned. "It stabbed my thumb," I showed him my bleeding thumb, then continued, "then when I dropped it, this piece of paper fell out." I held out the tiny white piece of paper, stained with a deep red. "I don't have to touch it right?" He asked. I rolled my eyes, shook my head and he started to read it. When he finished, he looked at me like he had something more to say, but instead, he just said, "Why don't we get you a band-aid?" He grabbed my other hand and led me into the house, leaving me bewildered. "Mira was supposed to get me one, I don't know what's taking her so long-" I was interrupted by a bang on the wall and someone whispered a breathy, "sorry." From the bathroom. We slowly walked toward the bathroom door and saw Tyler and Mira having quite the make out session against the bathroom wall.

We stood for a few seconds before Alex said, "how long until they notice us?" And that's when Tyler quickly flew off of Mira and onto the sink. "Oh, hey. Hey, um... Um... what's her name? Britten." I shook my head.

"Whatever happened to my band-aid, Mira?" I asked. "Oh, we don't have any." She responded, out of breath. "But..." She grabbed a few pieces of toilet paper and handed it to me. "This should work until we get some." I rolled my eyes and wrapped the tissue around my thumb. "Thanks I guess." I said.

"Okay, we came here for a reason- Tyler and Mira- so are we ready to go or not?" Alex said. "Oh shoot, I almost forgot!" Mira exclaimed. We were supposed to be getting registered at the high school today. She ran into the bedroom to get dressed and I looked down at my outfit. Black sweatpants and a concert tee from the fall festival. "Should I change?" I asked Alex and he shrugged. "It's up to you," he said. "But first impressions are everything here." I nodded and went after Mira.

"Where's your cute shirt?" Mira asked. "You know, the halter with the keyhole cut out."
"It's over here." I replied, walking toward the closet to get my cream cardigan and my light wash jeans. I grabbed the shirt and tossed it to Mira, then slipped on a red tank top and the clothes I'd gotten out for myself.

"Here, you look to plain." Mira said, handing me a gold necklace with a heart at the bottom. "Mira, it's just high school." I said.
"High school in California honey."

▪ ▪

The school was huge. It had the potential of being the high school for High School Musical, that's how great it was.

"Alex, how did you get into this school?" I asked. He looked at me with confusion. "What do you mean?"
"I mean this school looks expensive." I said, not realizing that it was technically an insult. But Mira and Tyler caught on instantly and burst into laughter. "Are you saying I'm broke?" Alex questioned, making himself look hurt. I grabbed his hand and said, "No no no, I mean, we went to a private school so I was just assuming that this was a-" I looked around again. "A very expensive private school." I finished.

Tracy finally came into the school, grabbing both me and Mira's hands. "Are you girls ready?" She said excitedly. "Fun fact," she continued as we began walking to the office. "I went to this school when I was your age. All four years. I was in the Earth Club, choir, I was head cheerleader, fun, right? I dated and married the quarterback, then divorced him because-"

"Wait, wait," Tyler interrupted. "You married the quarterback? My dad was the quarterback?" Tracy stopped in her tracks. "Ohh," she said. "I forgot to tell you about your father, didn't I." Everyone but Tyler broke into laughter, though he did have a slight smile on his face.

"Mom, how do you just forget to tell your kid about his father?" Tyler sarcastically questioned. She shrugged and we continued walking to the office.

There were a couple of other students ahead of us, so we had to wait a few minutes before registering. I decided to take that time to get some answers from Alex. I laid a hand on his arm to get his attention and he turned to look at me and smiled. "Alex?" I said.
"Yea?"
"What weren't you telling me earlier when I showed you that note?" I asked him. His smile quickly faded. I knew for sure that he was hiding something. "Don't lie to me." I said bluntly.

"Look, don't jump to conclusions because she's a very nice person-"
"She?" I exclaimed. "Yea, she." He responded, then took a deep breath. "There was a girl I dated while we were... not together."

I didn't know what to be more upset about. That he'd been able to get over me quickly and start a relationship with someone else, or that this girl might be a crazy ex-girlfriend.

"She's a really nice person, I swear, I don't believe she'd do anything to hurt anyone, so no jumping to conclusions." He explained. I just shrugged and folded my arms.

"Britten Peyton." The Secretary called. "Whatever." I whispered to Alex, then stood up with a forced smile and followed her.