Secrets |Toby Cavanaugh|

Chapter 7

I stood in front of the mirror in my room, wearing a black dress that was bejeweled on the top and flared out at the bottom. On my feet, I wore black heels. For makeup, I did a smokey eye shadow and light pink lip gloss.

"Should've worked out a bit more, Gracie. And here I thought you wanted to be thin for your date." Ali whispered in my ear as she stood behind me and I glared at her in the mirror.

"You look beautiful." Mom said from the doorway.

"Thanks, mom." I smiled, turning away from Alison and the doorbell rang, "There's my ride."

"Should I get a picture of you girls?" Mom asked, coming down the stairs with me.

My eyes widened, "Oh, no, that's okay, mom. Look, I'm already late." I kissed my mom on the cheek, "Bye!"

After slamming the door shut I grabbed Toby's hand and led him to the car that was parked on the street.

"What was that about?" Toby asked as he turned the car on.

"Doesn't matter." I smiled, putting on my seat belt.

"See? You're ashamed of him."

When we arrived at the school I began walking towards the front doors, but Toby stayed behind me.

"You know, they're showing a Fritz Lang double feature at Rosewood cinema tonight. If we leave now, we'll only miss the credits." He said.

I let out a small laugh and looked down at my dress, "I might be a little overdressed."

"This may sound stupid, but I've never been to one of these things before." Toby said.

"What are you so nervous about?" I smiled, walking up to him. "Meeting up with my friends?"

"Who think I'm a freak."

I shook my head, "Not all of them. They'll get over it. Because they want me to be happy. It's just a party. If we get hungry, we'll eat some chips, have some punch..."

"Punch, really?" He smiled. "Are we gonna jitterbug, too?"

"You don't have to dance."

"Good. Cause I don't." Toby said.

"I'm okay with that." I laughed before grabbing his hand and dragging him towards the door.

We stood in the entrance of the dance, holding hands, and I saw the girls staring at us. I squeezed his hand lightly before walked over to them.

"Hi, guys." I smiled and they all stared awkwardly at Toby.

"Um, I'll go get us some drinks." Toby told me before walking away.

"You're here with Toby?" Spencer hisses at me

"Either you've got some genius plan of sleeping with the enemy, or you've lost your mind!" Aria whispered.

"You don't even know him." I barked back.

"What is there to know? Who else could've helped Jenna? He has every reason to hate us." Spencer responded.

"But he doesn't."

"Grace, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a frickin' duck." Hanna replied.

"I thought you'd understand, guys. Looks like I was wrong." I pushed past them and went up to Toby.

"Don't walk away from your friends because of a boy."

"Says you." I hissed at her,

"You okay?" He asked when I found him,

"Perfect." I smiled, taking the cups away from him and kissing him on the lips.

When I pulled away I looked over at the girls and saw them watching us.

"Wanna go play some games?" He asked, breathless.

"Sure." 

After playing multiple carnival games and Toby winning me a few stuffed animals, he invited me to the chem lab upstairs where it was quieter. We sat there for a few minutes, talking about random things until I blurted out a question that has been bothering me for a while.

"Why do you like me?"

"What?"

"Why do you like me, Toby? You know what me and my friends have done, and yet, you're still nice to me." I said.

"I guess it's because I've also done things that I'm not proud of." Toby closed the door, "We've all got secrets, Grace."

My phone began to rang and I dug around in my purse to find it.

"Can you please not answer that?" Toby begged.

"Why?"

"Because I'm trying to find a way to tell you about what happened last summer." He answered. "I want you to hear it from me."

"Okay." I sighed, putting the phone down. "I'm listening."