Trust Me

Chapter 6

“Ash, take this,” Aidan told me the next morning.  I rubbed my eyes and stared at him standing in my front door, the darkness outside still filling the background.  What was he doing here so early?  I had just gotten up.

“What?” I replied.  A yawn escaped my lips.  Where was my morning coffee when I needed it?

“Don’t ask questions,” he said, sounding frantic.  Even the expression on his face.  “Just take it, hide it where no one will find it, and only give it to me.  Don’t give it to anyone else if they ask for it.  Defend it with your life.”

He dropped a key into my hand.  What kind of joke was this?  Was he giving me the key to his secret drug stash, or something?  What illegal thing had he done last night that had him wanting me to hide the key to the evidence?

“A key?” I asked.

“Don’t ask questions!  I promise, it wasn’t anything illegal.  I just need you to hide that freaking key and do not let anyone else get it.  Do you understand?” he asked.  I nodded my head and looked up to him. 

What was with this guy?  We had known each other for all of 36 hours, and he was trusting me with something this huge?  Seriously.  What had him assuming that we were such great friends that he could just show up at my house at 5:30 in the morning and ask me to hide some key? 

“Yep.  See you later, Aidan,” I said, closing the door on him. 

While contemplating what the key could possibly open, I ran up the stairs to my bedroom and looked around.  It would be too obvious to hide it in my bedroom.  Every girl has a super secret safe spot in her bedroom where she hides her darkest secrets.  It’s a place that not even her closest friends would know about.  Even still, it was too obvious.  I had no idea why, but with as frantic as Aidan was being, I couldn’t stop myself from following his instructions as thoroughly as possible.  So, I opened the door on the ceiling above our washing machine and climbed up into the dusty attic.  Nothing but a couple of old chests rested up there.

I looked around for somewhere perfect to hide it, and that was when I saw it.  The hole in the rafter.  It was barely visible.  You could only spot it if you knew it was there and you were looking very carefully for it, so I really wasn’t sure how I had managed to find it.  Even still, it was the perfect size, so I slipped the key right inside.

Dust coated me from head to toe as soon as I was done in the attic that Mom and I never even bothered entering.  It called for an extra long shower to restore me to my clean, nice smelling state. 

An hour later, Isaiah, Persephone, and Brady were sitting around my kitchen table with me while we ate breakfast.  My mind was still reeling over what that key I had hidden could possibly open.  As far as I knew, I was hiding a key that locked a chest hiding a dead body.  Which made me an accessory to murder.  I wouldn’t put it above Aidan.

“Ash,” Mom called.

“Yep?” I replied, taking another sip of coffee.

“Door,” she said.

I sighed and made my way over to the door, wondering who could possibly be coming for me this time.  With the door being invisible from the kitchen table, I was left wondering.

Mom left me with Aidan to go to the kitchen, and I knew right then that she didn’t like him.  I couldn’t blame her.  He showed up randomly without me telling him my address.  He showed up the next morning without an invitation again.  He was showing more than one sign of potential stalker and major creep.

“Was your visit an hour ago not enough for you?” I questioned condescendingly, trying to get the message across that his frequent visits without invitation were not okay.