As Long As I Remember

Maria's Little Secret

"Maria hid out at my house."

It was supposed to be a statement, but came out as more of a question. I grab the tattered notebook out of Chrissy's hand and double check the address.

Christina is just silent.

"What the hell ?!?? Chris, did Maria ever mention this to you?"

If looks could kill, I would be dead meat.

"NO MATT! She actually didn't! God, I can't believe she snuck out of Hawk. She told me every freakin' thing about her life except this! We were best friends and she didn't tell me the biggest secret of her life!"

Alright then. This is obviously a touchy subject.

All of sudden, Chrissy is on the floor, bawling her eyes out, muttering incomprehensible things to herself.

"Chris, it's okay, alright?" I say soothingly while trying to get her to relax.

All we need right now is for her brain to go on overload and for her to have another seizure.

I pull her into my lap and hold her tight in my arms, rocking the both of us back and forth. Her shoulders finally stop shaking and she looks up at me. In between sniffles she says, "Thanks," and gives me an adorable little smile. I give her a light peck on the lips, and then pull the both of us up so we are standing on my feet.

"Alright, I think we should head to my house. We can get supplies for our trip to upstate NY."

"Okay."

I take her hand and begin to walk down the main road towards my neighborhood. After a while, she speaks up again.

"Can we try to find the secret entrance she used to get into your house? She might have discovered more and left it there!"

"Sure, anything for you!"

She just looks down and blushes. We walk for a long time, until we reach my neighborhood. Christina's jaw drops as she sees the size of the houses on my block.

"I knew you were rich, but I had no idea you were, like,  rich, rich!"

I just shrug. "Yeah, whatever."

I'm not really in the mood for talking, so I say no more. This is the first time I'm going home since my parents passed away, and I'm a little, okay, more like a lot, terrified. I might freak out because of all the memories I have with my parents in that place. I tense up as we approach my front door and Christina gives my hand a reassuring squeeze.

"It'll be okay."

I turn the knob and the door swings wide open. Slowly, I step into the large foyer. Christina follows me quietly. We walk through the living room and dining room before we finally reach the kitchen. The whole time, I have an eerie feeling. Like somebody is watching us. I notice a lot of things out of place.

Stop being so paranoid.

But as we walked in silence throughout the rest of the house, collecting supplies we needed, I couldn't shake the feeling we weren't alone.

I take Christina's hand, half because I wanted to protect her, and half because I was scared.

We finally make our way through the whole house. We both let out sighs of relief once we reach the backyard.

"Did you get the feeling we were being watched?"

She nods in agreement. "Can we do a quick search for Maria's secret entrance?"

"Yep."

So we search. We look behind bushes and chairs; we even checked the pool like some entrance could magically appear in the water.

"Let's look under the deck." I crouch low and start crawling aimlessly in the dark, Christina right behind me. Then I crawl right into a wall. Or at least I thought it was a wall.

"I hit a wall, Chrissy."

"Are you sure its a wall and not a door?"

Running my hands up and down the thing in front of me, I notice there are what feels like wood grains.

"It might be a door! It feels like oak."

Then my hand hits a knob.

"Found a knob, Chrissy! We're going in!"

I turn the knob, and as we crawl forward we end up in a large crawl space. There's an old, lumpy mattress with blankets in one corner and a desk in the other. A couple old lamps on the floor light up the space enough for me to see it's about 12 feet by 8 feet, and the ceiling is low, about 6 feet.

Then I see the lumpy mattress start to move.

And then it starts to talk.

"Maria, is that you? Where have you been?" The figure pushes the blanket off, stands up, and turns around.

"O. You're not Maria."

We all stare at each other. I push Chrissy behind me.

"Who the hell are you?"

"The name's John. And you are?"

"Matt. Matthew Hawk."

All the blood drains from John's face. "O. You aren't supposed to know about this place! Crap! Maria's gonna kill me."

Christina speaks up. "Maria's dead."

Silence.

"Wha.. Wha.. WHAT? NO! She isn't dead! Who the hell are you anyway? How do you know Maria? How did you find this place."

Christina tells him everything that happened in the past few days.

"Crap."

Is that the only word in his vocabulary?

"What did Maria do here, John? And how did you find out about this place?" Christina is trying her best to brave.

"Me and Maria go way back. I was an orphan kid once. I couldn't take it. Hated it. Tried to kill myself one day. Hawk kicked me out. That was when I was 18. I was rummaging through this house's trash can when I saw something weird moving under the deck. It was Maria. I have no idea how she found out about this place, but she told me to use it whenever I needed. I never knew what she was doing here, but it was something important. She kept everything locked in that desk over there. I never did find the key."

"And that's all you know?"

He hesitates. "...Yes."

Christina quirks an eyebrow. "Really?"

Silence.

"What aren't you telling me, John?" she says patiently.

"Crap."

Again with the crap!

"John!" Christina yells, losing her temper.

"I got her pregnant, okay?!??? We were dating, and it just happened. The next thing I know, Maria leaves me a note saying she's pregnant and I'm the dad!"

Christina gasps, and this time I'm the one to say,

"Crap."

A/N: ....... WHAT?!??!??? WOAH!!!!!! alrite so big twist here, we learn Maria was pregnant! I didn't see that one coming! ;) so what did you guys think? let me know in the comments! and VOTE PLEASE! also, sorry for the use of 'hell' and 'crap'. im just trying to really express what the characters are going through, not using mild language to be cool or whatever. so yeah LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK :D VOTE/ COMMENT!

every read makes me smile!!! love you guys so so so so much!! -marierosa13 **Philippians 2:1-4**