Conspicuous Secrets

Chapter Thirty-Five

I walked in the grocery store, followed close behind by Gavin. After arriving home from the trip earlier that evening, we realized we had no food in the house. That called for a grocery run. Fortunately, now that Gavin was earning quite a bit of money from his street fighting, we didn't have to calculate exactly how much we were spending. It felt nice to not have to worry about going completely broke after buying a few groceries.

After grabbing a buggy and getting a sense of direction I made my through the different aisles, heading toward the things I knew I needed in the back of mind first. "I'm going to go get soap," my brother told me as I grabbed a gallon of milk out of a fridge.

"Grab me a tube of toothpaste while you are on that side of the store."

He nodded and said, "sure thing," before walking away.

While my brother was gone, I managed to grab all the dairy, fruit and meats we usually got on our grocery runs and was making my way through the canned food. As I grabbed a couple cans of mixed vegetables, I heard footsteps approaching. "Gavin, I—," I started, but stopped when I looked up at him.

My brother rubbed the back of his neck in annoyance as I stared at the smiling figure beside him. "Look who I ran into...quite literally."

The one and only Miles Anderson was standing beside him. His light blond hair was laying quite messily and without his usual hair gel which took me by surprise at first. Dark half-moons cupped the bottoms of his bright green eyes and a large, oversized hoodie hung from his torso, matching the color of his eyes. He looked tired, to say the least. Seeing him like this made him seem creepier somehow. The usual look in his eyes still sent chills down my spine.

I groaned in disappointment and turned back to the shelf of cans in front of me. "What do you want, Miles?" I asked, tossing a couple of cans of beans in the buggy.

I watched him shrug out of the corner of my eye. As I continued down the aisle, searching for more things we needed, he followed me and my brother. "I don't want anything. I'm just not wasting this opportunity of running into you unexpectedly at the store," he said in return.

"Please go away," I told him, turning down another aisle. Noticing how my brother was staying silent, I quietly wondered why.

"Nah, I don't think I will," he replied, observing our surroundings. "Hey, have you told your friends your secret yet?" he asked my brother and me.

Glancing at Gavin, I watched him share a look anger. "What do you think?" he growled at Miles.

The Anderson boy chuckled. "I think that you should tell them soon."

My brother gave me a knowing look, which I rolled my eyes at. He had been trying to convince me to tell them for days now. "Why?" I asked, grabbing a box of noodles off the shelf and throwing it in the cart.

"Because either way, they are going to find out sooner or later," he told us. "How they react to that news will depend on how they find out. And how they find out is your decision. Are you going to tell them? Will I? Either way, the danger they will face is going to be on you."

I stared at him, my glare getting colder. "If you tell them before we do, I swear—."

"The only way I'm going to tell them is if I think you are waiting too long."

I stopped walking and turned around to face him. Getting up in his face, I spoke bitterly, "This isn't your secret to tell. You have no right to tell him what's going on in our lives. If you tell them, the danger they get mixed up in will be on you, not us. We are trying to keep them safe."