The Secrets We Share

TWENTY EIGHT

Dawn

"There's another one!" I called through the house. 

The little letter lay on the welcome mat, attached to a small box, which turned out to hold a cookie. Aria tumbled down the stairs and Kat appeared beside me, holding a packet of chips. I glared at her. 

"That's your fourth packet today," I whined. 

"I'm craving them," she said around another mouthful. 

Our little trio had been spending a lot of time at my parent-free house, still hiding behind the same excuse- I needed some comforting. I knew for a fact my mum was much better now, but still not quite ready to make the journey back to Sydney, meaning I would probably be alone until approximately the second week of school began.

Recently, I'd been receiving little notes just like the one on the mat, attached to some little object, like jewellery or food. In the beginning, I hadn't touched the food, but now, after Kat had become our test subject, and had turned out fine, I gladly accepted them. The notes came almost twice a week, and kind of freaked me out- the person delivering them knew who I was and where I lived and what I liked- but my friends had told me to be reasonable and said that since my social media accounts didn't say much about me, they'd concluded it was somebody from school who may have a (slight) crush on me. 

I really felt sorry for whoever it was. 

The gifts had become a kind of joke- Aria would tease me, Kat would try to steal the object if it was food, and we had some fun guessing who was sending them to me. 

"We should call Jason to come over next time; maybe he knows who's sending them," Aria chirped as I removed the note and tossed the cookie to Kat, who caught it with the chip packet. 

The note was a usually smiley face or- in one case- a heart (which I cringed at while my friends poked fun at me), and today was no different. I dropped it into the bin, watching Kat gobble up the cookie, then return to her chips.

"Good idea," I replied, closing the front door. 

 It was kind of awkward when Jason came around, I reflected as I flopped down onto the couch. Knowing how close him and Noah were, I made a point to tune out whenever Aria whispered to him, "Does Noah feel bad after what he did?"

I didn't want to know the answer to that- or at least not right now anyway. 

"Actually, why don't I get him to come over now? If he's free?"

I rolled my eyes. Aria probably only had one reason why she wanted him over- and it wasn't because of the note. 

"Fine," I sighed. Kat balled up the packet and chucked it at Aria, mouthing "beach ball".

Ten minutes later, Jason rung the doorbell and we let Aria run to answer it. 

I fished the note back out of the bin and handed it to him, fighting a blush as he scanned the smiley-face. 

His eyes widened fractionally. "There's only one guy who likes drawing these kind of faces. I'm friends with him- sort of." 

I blinked. "You know him? You know who's been sending me these little notes?"

"Yeah. Ever heard of James?" 

"James Beckett?" Kat exclaimed. "Tall, white-blonde hair, dreamy blue eyes?"

Aria's eyes widened. "Dreamy eyes?" She mouthed to me, grinning slyly at Kat. "Do you think she likes him?"

I grinned and elbowed Kat, who tagged on with a whisper, "I used to like him. Before I realised that that was a stupid idea. Feminism all the way!"