Trust Me

Chapter 9

I can’t keep spending so much time with you.  Isaiah, Persephone, and Brady are starting to get suspicious of where I’ve been disappearing to.

After about a week of being a horrible person, the guilt started to fade.  Aidan and I had been hanging out after school, but all of my friends had started asking where I was disappearing to.  We always rode home from school together and hung out in the afternoons, but with my riding home with Aidan and our secret afternoon time together, I was starting to raise suspicion.  I was stupid to think I wouldn’t.

All right.  We’ll find some other time to hang.  What are you doing at two this morning?

I giggled and glanced at the clock on my wall.  It was five in the afternoon.  That was plenty of time for me to go and hang out with my friends, assuming Persephone didn’t want me to spend the night at her house afterwards. 

Apparently hanging out with you.

While I waited for my phone to go off again, I quickly got to getting ready for my night on the town with Isaiah, Persephone, and Brady.  We had decided for our Friday night that we would go to dinner at a locally owned restaurant called Fiona’s, see a movie, and then hang out at the local coffee shop and listen to whatever band they had playing there.  As long as I was home by midnight and it was legal, my mom didn’t care what we did.

I opted for a pair of skinny jeans, a black cami, and a pink, plaid button-down to go with my Converse. 

Great.  I’ll see you at 2.

Isaiah’s black Chevrolet Impala pulled into my driveway, indicating it was time to go.  I stuffed my phone in my pocket and my cash in the other on my out of my room.

“Bye, Mom!” I exclaimed while flinging myself down the stairs and out the door.

Being Isaiah’s girlfriend gave me dibs on the front seat, meaning the Persephone and Brady spent a lot of quality time in the back seat any time Isaiah was driving.  I’ve seen them do everything from playing Mad Libs to making faces at people we drive by to throwing popcorn out the window at various targets. 

“So, it’s October,” Isaiah commented after we got started down the road.  “Which means two things.”

“Oh, and what would those be?” I asked.

“Well, let’s start with the obvious one that happens in two weeks.  Homecoming.  Will you be my date?” he questioned. 

“Of course!  You’re my boyfriend!  Who else would I go with?” I pointed out.  He smiled and continued speaking.

“Great.  The second thing is this trip my family takes to the beach every year for a week in October.  We go down to Florida and stay with my grandparents, and this time it just happens to be the week before homecoming,” he explained.  I couldn’t tell whether I was upset or relieved.  The unsettling thought that I actually might have been relieved crossed my mind, and I started to feel a little sick all over again.  I really should’ve just broken it off with him.  I couldn’t keep up the charade forever.

“Really?  Y-you’re going to be gone for a whole week?” I questioned.

“Yeah.  I’m sorry.  But, I’ll see you as soon as I get back, and everything.  And I’ll call you and text you while I’m there.  I promise,” he assured me.  I nodded my head and rested it against the window. 

We pulled into the parking lot at Fiona’s, and for a brief second, I could’ve sworn I saw a red pickup truck that I had been in a few times before pulling out the exit on the other side of the property.  Putting it off as just imagining that it was his truck, I got out of the car and followed my friends inside.