Secrets

Chapter Eight

            The next few days of school went by in a blur. Aubrey had been to every single class, laughing with her friends, but she felt like it all went so quick. It was nearing Christmas break, and all any one was able to talk about was the Christmas dance. It was odd, Aubrey usually enjoyed the school dances. She usually was the one super excited. This year, she had too much on her mind. She didn’t have time to think about the holidays. She was too busy thinking of Nate, and her sister, and her parents, and keeping secrets, and being angry. Aubrey was sick of seeing the signs all over the school. She was sick of people planning what they were going to wear. She was sick of her mother staying late after school just so she could help plan it, instead of spending time with her own daughters. Aubrey really wasn’t in the school, or Christmas spirit this year.

          Aubrey thought back to one of her first Christmas dances years ago. She had been off the walls with excitement. One of the boys from school, named Jason Wells had asked her to the dance. She had the biggest crush on him back then. He was a freshman as well, with curly blonde hair and big brown eyes. He played on the volleyball team, and was awkward, but still cute. The day he asked her, she ran and told her mom all about it. Her mother sat and gossiped with her for hours, vowing to take her out to buy a dress. The following weekend, they spent forever in the mall, finding just the perfect dress.

          The night of the dance, Jason’s older brother agreed to drive them. He had come to Shayla’s house to pick her up, where her parents spent forever taking pictures of the two of them, constantly commenting on how cute Aubrey looked for her first dance. The young teens had posed awkwardly for pictures, praying the embarrassment would be over soon. Aubrey missed how much her parents were involved in such a small event. Her mother had been just as excited as she was that she had been asked to the dance by a boy. Now, she didn’t ask Aubrey about her life at all. She didn’t ask if a boy was going to take her to the dance, she didn’t go shopping with her, and she didn’t take pictures of her when she got all dressed up. It was as if they had done it once, and that was enough. Now they were over it, and didn’t find it necessary to be involved anymore. Aubrey felt badly for Shayla. After all, this was going to be Shayla’s first Christmas dance. She doubted she would get the special treatment that Aubrey had received years ago.

          As Aubrey entered the school on a Friday afternoon, she breathed a sigh of relief. She was so ready for the week to be over. It had been such a long week. She spent almost every night holed up in her room completing all the homework that she had avoided over the weekend. Two hours of biology was not her idea of fun. Pacing down the hallways, she saw her friend all crowded together by the benches in the north hallway. Nearing them, she saw them all excited and laughing together. This was such a usual sight for Aubrey. Her friends met in the same spot every morning. You’ d have to be crazy not to see them. Sometimes, the guys were still in bed by the time they arrived at school, so they were rarely there. The girls though, they were always at school bright and early, ready to greet each other.

          “Hey Aubrey! We were wondering when you were gonna get here! We were just planning what we were all going to do this weekend!” Katie exclaimed as she grabbed Aubrey by the hand and pulled her into the empty spot beside her.

          “Oh! I’m down to do something! What do you all have in mind?” Aubrey asked, already enticed.  She really needed to get out and have some fun after she had locked herself in her room every night to do homework. She figured her best bet would be to do all her homework now, so she wouldn’t have to do anything over Christmas break. She could just celebrate the holidays, plan their New Year’s outing, and just have some fun with friends without having to worry about school.

          “Well, we thought of going shopping for the Christmas dance .There’s a ton of sales at the mall. We thought we could find some amazing outfits, and then meet up with the guys for a movie?” Marissa jumped in. She shot Aubrey a huge smile, nodding her head, as if to convince Aubrey to agree. As much as Aubrey was dreading the Christmas dance, she knew that if she said no, her friends would all begin to question her. After all, Aubrey was one of the girls that loved to shop as much as she could. They would think she deathly sick if she declined an outing like this. She convinced herself that it really couldn’t be that bad. All of her friend together, and a movie afterwards could be exactly what she needed to continue to keep her mind off things.