Wintercrest Academy

Dark Secrets

      Adan had tracked her location and driven all the way to find her at almost 11pm. Kaia was awed that he would go that length for her. When they got to her apartment, her Dad and Keanu were waiting downstairs in the cold. She just hugged Adan goodnight, yanked Keanu from her Dad’s arm and put him to sleep. She still didn’t speak to her Dad the following morning.

           “So . . .” Adan asks as they walk towards his car.

           “So. Yesterday, huh?”

           Adan nods, digging his hands in and out of his pockets. “What happened? I noticed tension between your dad and you. Is everything okay?”

           Adan had trusted her and Astrid with his dark secret. He’s the son of a manipulative, lying, cheating man. The gorgeous Elena woman he’d been avoiding was his father’s favourite sidepiece. It’s glaring, the fact that Adan hates his father. And his mother, because he said he'd asked her severally to leave the marriage because the man was outrightly disrespecting their vows. But she won’t leave, and Adan hates watching her pretend all is well while she drinks herself to sleep inside her large, lonely room.

           If Adan could trust her with that, then she’d definitely trust him with hers. “My mother,” she grimaces at the word. “She left about 6 years ago. With my older sister. My dad wrongly got involved with some mess at his office and they unfairly laid him off without compensation. It was . . .hard. Terribly hard. My parents . . .they started fighting often. They used to be so in love, my siblings and I used to call them peanut butter and jelly. But when my dad lost that job, it was like something broke between them. A cleft formed. My mum decided that she was fed up. My dad wasn’t getting any offers because of the drama surrounding his exit from the former job and my mum just . . .she said she wasn’t in love anymore.

           “One day, I came home from school and I saw her in the kitchen with brown boxes, packing up some pots and pans. I was happy, I thought we were moving to a new city to get a fresh start. But that was her plan. She wanted to get a fresh start. Without my dad. And that was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard in my life. There was no way I was going to follow her to a new city and leave my dad behind. She had no problem with it, and so did my older sister. I cried, and begged, and prayed. I fell sick for weeks, starved myself. Yet, they left. Without even looking back.”

           The silence that hangs between them when she’s done talking is so heavy with grief and sadness. They lean on Adan’s car, staring straight ahead, each person’s head processing so many things.

           “Little K,” Adan starts, his voice holding so much sympathy it makes Kaia almost break down. “I am . . .wow, I am so, so sorry. You didn’t deserve to see that happen. You were so young.”

           “Exactly!” she screams because Adan gets it. He just does. “I was young, Keanu was much younger. She shouldn’t have left. They should have worked it out and Dad was willing to if only she stayed back. Imagine how I felt when he told us last night that she’d be coming to town soon and would want to see us.”

           “She’s coming back? After not keeping in touch all these years?”

           “She’s been sending stupid gifts that nobody cares about. And Keanu is so excited about it. He’s so naïve. So stupid, even after I told him she doesn’t want us.”

           “Kaia,”

           “If you’re going to object, I don’t want to hear it. If she wanted us, she would have worked things out for our sakes. Look how we’re doing now. Dad had it rough all these years trying to gather some money to start the restaurant. Look how well he’s doing these days.” She sniffles and looks away before the lump in her throat and the knot in her chest merges into one and morphs into hot tears.

           “You’re right.” Adan throws a caring arm over her shoulder. “We have terrible parents. Too bad we didn’t get the option of choosing them.”

           “I know right,” she manages a laugh as she rests her head on his side. “Thanks, Adan. For listening to me. And picking me up yesterday.”

           “Anytime, little K. I can’t wait for Saturday. The gathering of the children of horrible parents.”

           She laughs at that. “Agreed. I can’t wait to meet Ava.”

           “Where are we headed? Big K’s or home?”

           He asks because he knows she wouldn’t want to be around her dad yet. He’s such a sweet soul, this one. “None of them. Let’s drive to some unknown place. Like the kids in books and movies.”

           He calls her silly but they drive anywhere. And the sound of the engine and their silence, it had never been more peaceful.

                                                                       ****

           “You were outside, at 11pm, with Kaia Mahoe.” Rosco repeats for the fifth time and it just frustrates Bren.

           “How dumb are you becoming that processing this simple piece of information is taking you forever?”

           “Who are you becoming that you’re sneaking around with Kaia at night?”

           “We’re not ‘sneaking around.’ It may sound weird, but she ran into me yesterday. While I was running.” He chuckles at the ‘ran’ and ‘running.’

           Rosco gapes at Bren like his friend is slowly losing sanity. “Ran into you?”

           Bren nods. “She was over speeding on her motorcycle and I was running. We took the same bend and boom, ran into each other. Just like that.”

           “And after you ran into each other, you just decided to be together till 11pm?” Rosco tries to make sense of the situation.

           It was much deeper than the way Rosco was putting it, but Bren didn’t have the energy to explain that. “Pretty much.”

           “So . . .you guys are like, friends, now?”

           Good question. What were they? Did they even need a definition? They’re classmates. Two very smart classmates. One knows that the other’s sad and almost suicidal. The other knows that one ran away from home, but doesn’t know why. He thinks about Adan briefly, and jealousy crawls up his chest. It dies out though. He can’t be jealous if he doesn’t even know what the heck he’s feeling just yet.

           “No. We’re not anything.”

           Rosco licks his lips Rosco style and narrows his eyes at his friend. “I don’t trust you, Kang.”

           “You shouldn’t, McKenna. Humans aren’t to be trusted.” He slings his backpack over his shoulders and gives Rosco a salute. “Track practice calls.” He saunters out of class and towards the field. There, he meets Coach and the other students on the track team. He changes into his running clothes and they start training. It’s track season and even though Bren runs mostly individual races, he’s a fast runner—the best at school—so he automatically became a part of the team.

           “Go!” Coach blows the whistle and the runners start. They run and run and when it gets to Bren, he runs past everyone and makes it to the finish line first. They practice for a while and afterwards, Bren goes to the locker room to shower.

           “Is Lance still throwing the party this weekend?” someone says.

           “Sure, man.” Another replies.

           “This week’s game is to see how many juniors we can make out with. They have really pretty girls in their class.”

           “They do. But my mind is on . . .Kaia.”

           The other one grunts. “The new genius? I doubt she’d attend.”

           “Yeah but what if she does? Think about it for a minute. She’s beautiful, and hot. If we get her, we’d be legends.”

           “I don’t know, man. She’s always around Adan anyway. They’re probably dating in secret.”

           Bren clenches his jaw, and then unclenches it. Don’t be jealous, Bren. You’re not sure how you feel about her.

           “That doesn’t matter. We’d get her a little tipsy, take her to a room. Do some nasty stuff while I film it and then send it to Shira.”

           “Woah! That’s a wicked plan.” The other boy laughs.

           “I wanna date Shira. Dating the queen bee is part of my high school to-dos, and I’m gonna do it. When she gets the video, she’d definitely fall in love with me.”

           “But Bren though . . .”

           “They’re just best friends.” He snaps.

           “Are you sure about that? I think Shira likes—”

           Bren comes out then, a towel around his waist and another drying his hair. The two boys freeze when they see him.

           “Bren, hi.” The wicked planner squeaks.

           “We didn’t know you were in there.” the other adds.

           “Sure. I didn’t know I was in there too.” He eyeballs the wicked planner. “Is being a s****l offender on the to-do list of your life?”

           The boy shakes his head fast. “No, I—”

           Bren holds a hand up, stopping him. “You’re dirty. Really, really nasty. You know what? You need cleansing, don’t you think?”

           The boys exchange worrisome glances and look back at Bren.

           “Go in. Now.” He points towards the shower and with reluctant feet, the boys step in. Bren turns on the shower and the boys instantly start squealing. “Don’t come out till you’ve been here for 30 minutes!” Bren raises his voice over the sound of the running water and puts his uniform on. He bolts the door as he goes out. Mission 1, make sure Kaia doesn’t go to whatever party they’re planning. Mission 2, protect Kaia. Cause first Mr Ariel, now this deranged sophomores, who knows what other danger could be lurking in the corner?