Secrets & Lies

Chapter 5

Peer pressure is a funny thing, you know. People say that you are free to make your own choices, live the way you want to live, but are you really? Don’t you have to conform to rules and ideas of society? Don’t you sometimes have to give into things you don’t want to?

Three girls know that like the backs of their hands. They know what it’s like to think something is wrong but not say anything. They understand how sometimes you just have to go along with things you might not agree with. Because with girls like Courtney, you don’t say no.

You just don’t.

But if somehow, somewhere, one of them had spoken up. If Lauren had gotten mad about the jab at her family’s dwindling supply of money. If Kelly had said something, anything when Courtney made her look like a fool. If Jen had mentioned that tingling feeling she continued to have throughout the night, things might have turned out differently. Lives could have been saved. Innocent people would never have gotten caught up in one of the most terrifying events in Hampton Falls’ history.