Love & Secrets { b.d }

2- the grotto.

"Guess who?"

My initial reaction was to stick the guy, but the voice obligated me not to.

"What the hell Brandon?" I asked while pushing his hands away from my face.

He laughed from behind me, "I wanted to talk to you."

"Okay, and a simple 'hello' wasn't good enough?"

I could feel his presence behind me grow closer, then I could feel a growing smile on my neck.

"I've missed you," his lips tickled against my neck.

He missed me? Did I miss him? I'm about to respond but the 'ding' from my phone catches my attention, it's from Rowan.

'Meet me in the bathroom by our lockers. ASAP.'

"I've got to go do something," I say while getting up from his grasp.

"Wait, can we continue this conversation later?"

I turn around to give him a shrug as I walked out the library. My guilt starts to wash over me as I realize I'm going to meet Rowan, who can never find out about this secret.

It's not like we were in love, but Rowan absolutely hated Brandon Darrow.

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"It's a prank," Hailey explains as Rowan shows her the video.

I agree, but still found it creepy that we were tagged in something like this.

"Monkey Man, that's a dumb name." Rowan says slowly.

"Probably just someone we know trying to freak us out," I suggest.

"We don't all know the same people," Rowan is quiet as she says this, obviously referring to Hailey.

I awkwardly glance between the two, than back to the people tagged in the video.

"Than why are we the only ones tagged? With only one video posted?" Rowan asks, turning to face us.

"Who cares?" Hailey sighs, annoyed.

I look one more time at the tagged people, and than turn to walk out of the bathroom.

"Where are you going?" Rowan asks me.

"To talk to whoever this Elisha chick is."

"I'll come with you, I know where she hangs out." Hailey grabs her bag and begins to walk with you, it only takes a few seconds for Rowan to be trailing behind.

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The Grotto, where all the skater kids and drug dealers hung out.

Rowan had her arm linked tightly with mine, this was a change of scenery for her. For me, this was just another trip to The Grotto.

"How do you know this place?" She asks me and I simply shrug at her.

There was no way I was letting her in on this secret.

My eyes glance around the place looking for the mysterious girl, but they instead they focus on someone else.

"You guys go ahead, I'm going to go talk to some people." I motion for them to go on and than wait until they're too engaged in conversation to pay attention to me.

I walk over to the person who previously caught my eye, Brandon.

He was smoking pot and once he spots me, a smirk appears on his face.

He offers me the joint in his hand and I take it, not from his hand but I take a puff while he held it. We maintained eye contact the whole time, keeping the smoke in my lungs before moving closer till our noses were touching and than slowly blowing out the smoke.

"That was hot," his voice is shaky and I laugh.

"Your parents out of town?

Brandon already knew the answer to that question, they were always out of town.

"When aren't they?" A smile creeps onto his face as my words leave my lips.

"I'll come over then," a smile appears on my face as well.

"Can't wait." I give him a wink before turning to find the three girls, maybe I did miss him?

I could feel the tension between Hailey and Rowan as I approached them, Elisha was no where in sight.

"Where's Elisha?" I ask to grab their attention.

"She says it's fake, so let's just go. We can all agree it's just a dumb joke someone is playing on us," Rowan explains quickly while Hailey nods her head.

Hailey walks away leaving Rowan and I alone, we lived next to each other so getting home wasn't a problem.

"Who did you go talk to?"

I freeze at the question, there was only two way this could go. Either Rowan saw Brandon and I together, and she was just testing me or she was simply just asking.

"Ash," I say quickly in response.

"The drug dealer?" Great, I didn't think she knew who he was.

"Yeah I," I stopped to think for a second.

"I knew him and Elisha hung out sometimes, so I wanted to see if he knew where she was," the lie wasn't exactly believable.

She gives me a nod and I know she believed it, Rowan was extremely easy to read.

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"Do you want to hang out later?"

I'm about to say yes to Rowan's question, but than I remember my conversation with Brandon.

"I can't, loads of homework." My lies are slipping off my tongue at this point.

"On the first day?" I can hear the confusion in her voice.

"Yeah, great way to start the school year, right?" My voice had a joking tone to it, one that causes her to smile.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Later," I climb into my room from my window.

The front door works perfectly, but what's the fun in that?

So here I laid, waiting for Brandon to appear at the window.

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