Courtney's Secrets (The Clandestine Series)

Admit One

My anxiety rose like an air bubble, freed after being trapped under a shell on the ocean floor as I thought of my mother, Courtney, chastising me when she'd realized what I'd done. She had a long list of things I had to abstain from, such as wearing makeup, or getting my ears pierced, and she definitely wouldn't approve of the new golden highlights in my dark brown hair even if they were subtle and flattering.

I never stayed out on school nights past dinner time, but tonight I had finally done it—in the basement of my best friend Lan's house. I had been daydreaming of this for years, and thanks to Lan's Auntie Kim, it came true. I admired myself in the vanity, thinking my highlights transformed me from my former dismal sixteen-year-old self into someone classy that could pass for twenty-one. I imagined Courtney's flashing eyes and a stream of invective flying from her mouth, but I pushed the thought out of my mind. For now, I'd focus on sharing this momentous occasion with Lan who meant more than anyone in the world to me. We had been best friends since sixth grade.

Lan's house was designed to enhance good luck because everything was based on feng shui principles. Her house number 1681, was considered prosperous in numerology, and the front and back doors didn't face each other. Jade dragons stood sentry in her family's living room, and, apparently, the home maintained balance between fire and water, male and female—yin and yang. They kept enormous round goldfish with long flowing apricot colored fins, which brought positivity, in a white alabaster fountain inside their front entrance.

As a first generation American, Auntie Kim, had a slight Vietnamese accent, but Lan was second generation and didn't—unless she was mad at me—in which case, she would pretend not to know English and talk about me in Vietnamese while shooting glances that could cause anyone to spontaneously combust. Thankfully we rarely argued. Her Auntie Kim was only six years older, and was more like a big sister—an affluent one who recently got her cosmetology license. Lan and I were lucky to be her first clients. We were non-paying clients, but clients none the less.

As Kim foiled my hair, I admired her tiger lily tattoos that peeked through the slits in her orange tank top and traveled down her arm where a teal hummingbird nursed nectar. One day I was going to get a tat as beautiful as hers, but for now Courtney, kept me like a warden. I was counting down the days until I turned eighteen when I was no longer required to sleep under "her roof". Three hundred ninety-five days to go.

Lan peered at me from under the sharp edge of bangs that fell in line with her eyebrows, and her onyx hair was shiny under the eight-bulb vanity lights of the basement salon. I sat in the black leather swivel chair, relaxed.

"I hope Peyton will notice me after this." I said, immediately regretting my blabber—like diarrhea of the mouth.

The whites of Lan's eyes expanded. "He'd better stay away from you if he knows what's best for him, or I'll donkey punch him so hard his eyes will pop out. I'll tie him up, have Auntie Kim give him a very bad blond mullet hairstyle, and ship him to Carole Baskin."

I playfully rolled my eyes and tried not to smile. "Very funny."

She had a mischievousness glint in her eye. "Every girl has dated a boy she would have loved to feed to a tiger." She talked the talk but she couldn't startle a fainting goat if she popped out at it.

"He's too busy noticing other girls right now," I said, trying not to show my interest in him, but he was the kind of guy you couldn't help but notice. He was the only guy in high school who wore tight, ripped jeans, and I admired those perfectly rectangular patches of exposed skin. If I could stick my fingers into them, I might find out what the lyrics mean when Bruno Mars sings Locked Out of Heaven. At lunch Peyton hung out with a new girl every week, but he didn't date. He kept his options open. I always hoped I would get my turn, but so far, I'm not sure he remembered who I was.