Can I Tell You A Secret?

Chapter Ten

I expected everyone at school to know about Ava, but nobody's talking about it. If I've learnt one thing about our school,it's that gossip spread like wildfire. Basically if one person knows something, the entire school knows it.If someone knew about Ava's illness, the gossip would have reached my ears by now. I'm sitting at our table with Alice and Taryn.

"Where's Lucy?" I ask despairingly.

"I'd tell you if I knew," Taryn replies.

I glare at her.

"Whoa! Someone's in a mood today," she notes.

"I'm sorry, I haven't been sleeping well lately," I groan, burying my face into the table.

"Why haven't you been sleeping well?" Alice asks.

"I've just been stressing bout things," I say.

"What sort of things?" Taryn asks.

"It's none of your business," I snap.

I see them exchange glances.

"I'm so sorry!" I wail.

"Well, if you ever need to talk to someone about things, we're all here for you," Alice smiles softly.

"Ava's not. She's an hour's drive away," I whimper.

"I miss her," Taryn blurts out.

"We all do," I say.

We're all silent as the next few minutes tick by.

"Now, that I think about it, I haven't heard from Luce in a few days," I suddenly say.

This gets Alice and Taryn thinking again.

"Me neither," Alice says, as Taryn exclaims "this is Ava all over again."

"Let's just hope she's not anorexic as well," I say.

I'm not sure if I meant it as an extremely insensitive joke or not, but we all smile for a second before hurriedly pulling out our phones to check on our absent friend.

"You okay Luce? We're really worried about you!" I send.

"Don't waste your time worrying about me, I'm fine! I just needed an extra day of holiday," she replies almost immediately.

I feel relieved, but I have a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that's telling me that she's lying.

You need to trust people more, I tell myself. I'm sure she's not lying. Then another part of my brain says you should steal her diary. That's how you found out about Ava. The first voice says logically no. Stealing people's diaries is a bad habit. It's extremely invasive of people's privacy. You should fess up to Ava that you stole hers. Plus, who knows if Lucy even has a diary? The second voice continues to argue but what if Lucy does have a diary? And what if she needs help? You should check, just in case.

I feel like a character in a movie with two people sitting on my shoulders; one a devil, the other an angel. I decide to listen to the devil today. He has some good points. What if Lucy needs my help? I turn to my friends.

"We should go to her house this afternoon with chocolate. She might need a hug," I suggest.

"Ok," Taryn agrees.

"I'm in for it," Alice adds.

After school we walk directly from our High School to the corner shop to buy some chocolate.

"I know I've been here for months, but I still haven't gotten used to the selection of lollies you guys have in your dairies," I say as we walk in.