Can You Keep A Secret?

Chapter One Hundred and Eight

-Brooklyn's POV-

When I was ill, the threat of being stalked and beaten up took up a lot less headspace than it probably should've, pushed to the side by the simple repeating thought of "I feel sick, I feel sick, I feel sick." Now that breathing didn't hurt so much and I could sit up without getting a head rush and eat without being ill, the fear came creeping up into the back of my head. Sometimes I forgot about it, like when I was laughing with Jack, or scrolling through twitter, but the moment that I moved my arm and caught sight of one of my bruises, I was reminded once again.

In the midst of the alternating hot and cold streaks of the fever, the only place that I wanted to be was home, but now I wasn't sure. On one hand, I was tired – I wanted to be with my family again, be in that familiar house and neighborhood. On the other, I didn't know what awaited me there. What if whoever it was was still watching me? What if he took it as a sign that I was trying to reconnect with Stacey? Even worse, what if I did see Stacey?

I thought of waking up next to her in the morning and how sweet her kisses tasted, but then my mind wandered over to how cold her voice had gone in that last phone call. I thought of how the remains of the milkshake had still felt sticky in my hair during our first kiss, how she'd given me her bracelet – I still had it on. I knew that I should probably throw it away, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. How would I be able to avoid her if I saw her? Despite everything, I still wanted to make my final plea. Self-preservation was often thrown to the wind when you added love into the mix. The thing was, I had no idea where to go from here – it was the sort of crazy shit that you saw in movies, and I was probably the character that you yelled at for being so stupid, even though the danger was staring him right in the face.

As if on cue, my phone began to ring – I'd been zoning out, twisting the bracelet around my wrist. Expecting it to be my mum or something, I didn't think twice when I grabbed it – But the photo and name on my screen were not that of my mum's. The photo was of Stacey and I eating ice cream – She was looking at the camera, and I was looking at her. I could lie and say that I'd never gotten the time to change it, but the truth was that I hadn't wanted to. It reminded me of our last good day together, when the weather was warm with a soft breeze, and I had thought that our time would have no end. The dessert had been sweet, but she was sweeter.

It took all of my willpower to complete the simple action – tap "deny" – and, even then, I was left staring at my phone, wondering what the heck I just did. I thought about the boy telling me to stay away from Stacey, or else. I went to turn the screen off, but before I quite made it there, a new text message lit up my screen – "Please call me. It's important."

My heart pounded, and I looked around at the others, almost as if I expected one of them to leap up, saying "No! Don't do it!," but they just kept doing whatever it was they were doing. My phone rang once again, and I wasn't strong enough to resist the temptation twice. I picked up the call, hands trembling slightly as I put it to my ear.

"Hello?" I asked, trying to hide any nerves or hope that were present.

"Hi," She said, and one word shouldn't have caused as much emotion as it did.

"So..." My voice trailed off, unsure of what to say now that I had the opportunity to. I waited for her to fill in the gap, and she did, but the words that she said made my blood go cold.