Ryker and Walker.
They were in sleeveless shirts with their hair slicked back from their motorcycle helmets. Cigarettes dangling from their mouths, their dirty jeans hanging low like they always wore them. Everyone who saw them thought they were scummy. And honestly, they were. But family was family. My deadbeat father’s even more of a deadbeat brother had two boys. Then took off. Must have been something in the water or the family genes.
The funny part was, we didn’t look that much alike. That was because their father - my Uncle East - was from one of Pop’s exes after my grandmother passed away at a really young age.
When they finally saw me, they took their cigarettes out of their mouths and just stared at me.
“Fuckers,” I said.
Jett wrapped an arm around each of them and squeezed. “Look at this. The dirtiest guys I’ve ever met.”
Ryker and Walker were younger than me by a couple years. To them, for whatever reason, I was almost like their leader. Which was fine because they did come in handy for certain things.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Jett called,” Walker said.
“And we have to talk to you about Noelle,” Ryker added.
They all went to a different school. On the other side of town. A school that was supposed to be for technical learning, but it was for those who didn’t have money or had problems. I always laughed at that because everyone in HCH had problems. But someone somewhere got to decide who had the bigger and better problems. And who had the bigger and better wallet.
“Why’d you call them?” I asked Jett.
He scowled and stepped toward me.
Sometimes he forgot that I was his height now.
“Don’t question me, Wes,” Jett said. “I’ve got Dusty on my ass over that stolen motorcycle. I wanted these guys to look into it for me. If they hear anything…”
I looked at Ryker. “What’s up with Noelle?”
“She was drunk today,” he said.
“What?”
“She had a coffee cup with her. But there wasn’t coffee in it.”
“Damn,” I growled.
“She got caught too,” Walker said.
“Harrison?” I asked.
“Yeah. He’s got her in his office. Wants someone responsible to come get her.”
“No way Cherry’s going over there,” I said. “She’s sick anyway.”
“Someone has to get her,” Ryker said. “She’s crying and everything. We saw her. Harrison wouldn’t let us near her though.”
I looked at Jett.
He gave a nod.
“Go,” he said. “I’ll smooth it over with Pop. Family first.”
Noelle wasn’t family - not even close - but I always promised to take care of her.
I looked over my shoulder and saw the shop was in full swing. Everyone was there and working.
“Go say hey to Pop,” I said to Ryker and Walker. “And then Jett will put you to work for a little bit.”
Jett laughed and slapped my back. “You’re almost as tough as the old man in there.”
Like I had a damn choice in anything.
My heart was all messed up because of Aira.
Ryland was on the verge of starting another war.
Dusty had his eyes on the shop for no good reason.
And now Noelle had herself back in trouble.
Just another wonderful day in my little beach town.
* * *
Harrison was a dick.
He loved having the power over those who had less than he did. Everything he had he inherited from his father. And after buying his law degree, I heard he couldn’t cut it as a lawyer ,so he was put in charge of what was HCWT. Which was Hidden Creek West Tech.
The damn building looked like a prison.
A one-story building that was huge with a large fence surrounding it. The only thing missing was the barbed wire and watch towers for the guards to stand with their guns.
I was well known at HCWT because I went there for two years. That’s where I got my book training when it came to working at the shop. Everything I really learned was done through actual work. But a while back when things with Ryland came to a head at HCH I had to take a little hiatus.
When I opened the door to the main office, Harrison stood at a large printer.
Wearing fancy pants and a tucked in shirt.
He looked like a pencil neck lawyer type, ready to argue the case for a murderer.
“Weslee Jackson,” Harrison said.
“Don’t worry, I’m not here to reenroll.”
Harrison laughed and dropped his folder to the printer. “She’s in my office. Drinking water. Eating animal crackers. Like a child.”
“Watch yourself,” I said. “You don’t understand.”
“What I do understand is that drinking alcohol in my school is not going to work.”
“Drinking in school? You have proof?”
I was going to call Harrison’s bluff, even though I knew what Ryker and Walker told me.
“She’s drunk.”
“Maybe she came that way.”
“She’s freshly drunk, Weslee.”
“Noelle can’t handle her liquor,” I said. “It’s my fault, really. She was at a party and it got out of hand.”
Harrison frowned. “You’re defending this?”
“Do you have proof that she drank in the school?”
“No.”
“Okay. So she came to school drunk. Whatever you need to do, do it. You know she tries hard. She’s a good student.”
“Weslee, please just get her out of my office. Right now. I don’t feel like dealing with this. The paperwork. The phone calls. The arguments.”
I walked toward the office and Harrison side stepped at the last second.
“You think all your secrets are hidden,” he said in a low voice. “But they’re not. Eventually all of this is going to catch up.”
“If that was true, you’d have done something by now,” I said. “And I’m pretty confident half of your student base comes here each day drunk. You just don’t want to deal with it and have your father step in.”
Harrison’s nostrils flared.
Yeah, he was ten years older than me, but what did that matter?
He thought he had dirt on me? His dirt was out in the open.
He moved out of the way and I went into his clean and dark office to find Noelle sitting in a chair with her head down.
“Hey, Noe,” I called out.
She looked up at me and smiled.
She stood up and fell into my arms.
“Wes,” she whispered. “You came for me.”
“Yeah, I did. You’re in trouble, No. You’re drunk.”
“Not drunk,” she said. “I was drunk.”
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Having fun?”
“You need to get home and sleep this off. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said.
I took her hand and she was able to walk out on her own. I stupidly brought my motorcycle so I was relieved when I saw she was sober enough to function as a human. Maybe she was still a little buzzed, but at least I felt safe that she’d be able to hold onto me as I took her home.
As I rode through town, I kept looking down and seeing Noelle’s hands. She wore a broken mood ring on her right pinky. She had a ring on her left middle finger with a crooked moon on it that looked fifty years old. Her nails were painted black.
She was like a pain in the ass little sister, even though Cherry and Ma (and others) had dreams of me and her together. To me, there was no chance of it happening. Even if that first kiss I kept for Aira went to Noelle. But that was a long time ago.
And now with Aira back in Hidden, things were going to change really fast.
Even at the expense of hearts that were already broken.
Chapter 9
Aira
We all ran on the beach.
Kailey was on my right.
Bouncy boobs Charlotte was on my left.
Emma was next to her.
Her body was just as tone and tan as the rest of her. Naturally beautiful in a way that made me want to go back to being a judgmental cunt.
It was kind of eerie how Weslee had predicted what would happen.
There was no mention of a run until we were at Kailey’s car.
And in a matter of ten seconds, plans were made.
Kailey took me home and we agreed to meet on the beach an hour later.
Julia was still at her bakery and I sort of felt bad that I was going running. She had mentioned before about me working with her there, but I figured if I had plans with friends, then it was cool.
It kept me busy and kept me out of my bag.
Which really hadn’t crossed my mind, even though the day was really weird.
As much as I hated to admit it, the run was actually helpful.
Yeah, I was out of breath and felt fluffy and out of shape, but the ocean was to my left, with its crashing waves and perfect water… just as long as I could focus on it with Charlotte’s chest getting closer by the second to hitting her own chin.
We all carried our phones but Kailey was using a running app to track us.
“How was the rest of the day?” she asked, taking a breath as we kept running.
“Fine,” I said. “The morning was hectic, but then it settled.”
“Yeah, well, my day was crazy,” Charlotte said. “Do guys get their period?”
Emma burst out laughing. “Ohmygod, I asked the same thing the other day. Liam was such an ass to me because I missed his party.”
“You’re with Liam?” I asked.
Emma didn’t answer right away.
Kailey elbowed me. “Emma doesn’t believe in relationships.”
“Oh?” I asked.
“That’s a nice way of saying she and Liam screw for fun,” Charlotte said.
“Hey, shut it,” Emma said.
“It’s the truth,” Charlotte threw back.
“And what do you and Flynn do?”
“Better yet, what don’t they do?” Kailey asked.
I saw Charlotte’s cheeks go red.
“Whoa,” I said. “Dirty stuff?”
“Backdoor stuff,” Kailey said.
“Bitch,” Charlotte said. “No. No way. That was Ryland’s doing.”
“You let Ryland back there?” Emma asked. “I knew you two-”
“No!” Charlotte yelled again.
“Wait,” I said. “You and Ryland were together?”
“Nobody is ever together with Ryland,” Emma said. “More like minutes wasted.”
I frowned.
Who the hell was this guy?
“I don’t get the deal with Ryland,” I said.
“No need to,” Charlotte said.
“He’s already locked onto her though,” Kailey said.
“Damn,” Charlotte said. “That’s not good.”
“What’s not good is what happened after he locked onto her,” Kailey said. “Who came to her rescue.”
“Who?” Emma asked.
“Go ahead,” Kailey said. “Tell them.”
My cheeks got hot and not just from the sun and the run. “Weslee.”
“Oh…,” Emma said.
She came to a stop.
We all stopped.
Kailey looked at her phone. “That’s good enough.”
We stood there, taking breaths.
“Weslee helped you?” Charlotte said.
“So what?” I asked. “I knew him. We were neighbors as kids. Believe me…”
“Whatever you say,” Kailey said. “Just know between Weslee and Ryland, it’s…”
“There’s a lot of broken hearts,” Emma said.
“And wet panties,” Charlotte added.
I looked at Charlotte. “Did you… and Weslee…”
My teeth clenched.
I tried hard not to imagine Weslee with Charlotte’s chest.
It wasn’t working.
I was getting jealous.
“No,” Charlotte finally said, but the gap in time bothered me.
“Okay, screw this conversation,” Kailey said. “Let’s go back to talking about guys on their periods.”
“I need water,” Charlotte said.
“How about a smoothie?” Emma asked. “My treat.”
My heart raced at how right Weslee had been.
They started debating their favorite smoothie. Avocado. Kale. Mango. Other fruits, but not too much because sugar is bad for you.
I looked out to the ocean and kept breathing to try and calm down.
I was worked up for a lot of reasons.
“You coming?” Emma asked me.
“No,” I said quickly. I shook my head. “Sorry. I mean, I can’t. I have to get back home. I have to see if Julia needs my help at the bakery.”
“Oh god,” Charlotte said. “I could never work at See B’s. The carbs would go to my ass in a heartbeat.”
“Maybe it’ll help balance you out,” Kailey said. “Since you’re so top heavy in the front.”
Emma snorted and laughed.
“Oh, I’m sorry you have the perfect body, Emma,” Charlotte said. “If I had personal trainers since I was fucking five years old, I’d look the same too.”
Now I was the one laughing.
“Are you sure you can’t come?” Kailey asked.
“I’m good. Thank you. I’m going to jog back.”
They all walked away and I stood there for a few seconds.
I bit my bottom lip.
I was lying to my new friends to see an old crush.
No harm in that, right?
* * *
I walked into town and saw the pizza place on the corner of the main street. It was a little tiny place with one of those old-fashioned boards where the menu was spelled out with plastic letters. It didn’t look like it fit in with the rich beach town, but I assumed everyone loved that it was totes vintage and all that.
The sign read Zen’s.
I crossed the street and kept looking around as though Kailey, Charlotte, and Emma were going to catch me. And if they did, so what? What were they going to do? Get mad at me? Never talk to me again?
Of course they insisted on warning me again and again about Weslee.
But I knew him.
He lived next to me.
We were friends. We were close.
He was always in some kind of trouble.
So what was so different now?
Behind Zen’s the ocean looked so beautiful. So calm and peaceful. The sun was starting to go down, which would officially end my first real day at Hidden Creek High.
I opened the door to the pizza place and a young man stood behind the counter, face down, looking at his phone.
He looked up at me. “Hey.”
“Uh, hi.”
I looked around, trying to find Weslee.
“You ordering or what?” the guy asked me.
“I don’t know. I was supposed to meet someone here.”
“Oh. Cool. Hold on.”
He walked to the back of the pizza place.
The smell was so good.
Warm cheese, a hint of garlic, fresh dough, and the intense heat of the ovens making it that much better.
I waited for what felt like an hour but then to my shock Weslee came from the back of the pizza place.
He stood at the counter and stared at me with those intense eyes.
“You showed up,” he said.
“I hate smoothies,” I said.
He smirked.
And, yes, I recounted his dimples, just to make sure I didn’t miss any from the first time.
“You hungry?”
“Yeah.”
“How was your run?”
“How did you know about that?”
“Follow me, Aira,” he said.
He turned and opened one of the ovens.
Weslee literally took a pizza from the oven and carried it around the counter.
He nodded to the back and I followed him.
Outside there were a few tables set up.
Eating pizza right next to the beach just before sunset… with Weslee…
It was almost like I was dreaming.
“What do you want to drink?” he asked me.
“Do you work here?” I asked.
“No,” he said.
He walked away before I could tell him what I wanted to drink.
I carefully looked around again, not sure what to think.
The town of Hidden was certainly full of interesting surprises.
Weslee came back and put a drink in front of me.
I took a sip and smiled. And blushed.
He remembered my favorite soda.
Anything orange.
I saw the way he looked at me too, knowing what I was thinking.
I picked at a piece of pizza, taking little nibbles as I waited for it to cool down.
There was a sense of quiet comfort for a couple minutes, but I put a quick end to that.
“What’s your deal?” I asked.
“With what?” Weslee asked.
He slid his left hand through his black hair but the beach breeze kept messing with it.
“Everything,” I said. “I’ve heard nothing good about you.”
He laughed. “You probably won’t.”
“Why?”
“Why does it matter?”
“I didn’t say it did.”
“It does matter if you’re asking,” he said.
“I’m just curious.”
“Of what? What did you hear?”
“Everyone saying to stay away.”
“And here you are.”
My cheeks raged with heat. “Yeah. Here I am.”
“Why? What are you doing back here?”
“Are you turning the conversation to me now?” I asked.
“Looks that way, Aira.”
“I’m not done with you.”
“Hope not,” he said.
He reached across the table and touched my hand.
An electric charge surged through my body.
I ripped my hand away and grabbed my drink.
I chugged the super sweet soda for like ten seconds.
Weslee refused to look away from me.
His eyes were burning hotter than the sun and hotter than the pizza oven.
So much so I started to shake a little.
HIDDEN CREEK SECRETS: a hidden creek high novel Page 6
