SCHOOL, SEX AND SECRETS
CHAPTER 1
“Tell me something that you’ve never told anyone else,” I said to John, as we laid in his bed.
He looked at me. “You want me to tell you a secret? Is that it?”
“Yeah,” I replied.
He stared back at me with a look that was almost unexplainable to me because it was a look that he’d never given me before. It was that kind of look like he knew that I knew about a secret that he had, and I was trying to get it out of him. “I don’t have any secrets, Vanessa, besides the one that I’m in with you.”
I continued to stare at him because I didn’t believe him.
“What, Vanessa? I told you I don’t have any secrets besides the one that I’m in with you. You’re looking at me as if you’re waiting for me to confess some deadly secret to you — but that’s not gonna happen.”
I tried not to look surprised at what he’d just said to me because he didn’t even realize what he’d said. I started to believe that he did have a secret that he didn’t wanna tell me about and it very well could’ve been a deadly one, but then again, I’ve been wrong before. “Come on, John. We all have a secret that we’ve never told anyone. We’re both eighteen so we’re adults — you can tell me,” I said with a grin, as I tried to get it out of him.
“Well, I don’t, Vanessa,” he stressed. “So if you don’t mind, I would appreciate it if you don’t ask me anymore, okay?”
“Okay,” I replied with a fake smile. Suddenly, his bed got very cold, and I felt very uncomfortable being in it with him.
“And what does our age have to do with it? Secrets are ageless, and like I said, I don’t have any.” He shook his head as he turned away from me. He looked towards his nightstand and picked up his phone that was sitting on top of it. He took one look at it and let out a loud groan, and then pounded his right index finger on a button and threw it back on his nightstand.
I sat up in his bed. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he angrily replied. He got out of bed. “I’ll be right back.”
I nodded as I watched him leave the room completely naked. I had to admit that his body was beautiful, but his attitude was anything but that at times. I sighed while I still remained in bed as I stared at his posters of the human brain plastered all over his walls, and these posters were appropriate since he told me he wants to be a neurosurgeon. I slowly turned and looked at his phone that was still on top of the nightstand. I had to admit that I was very curious to see who it was that’d called or texted him that suddenly made him very upset. I scooted over to his side of the bed as I kept my eye on the door. I turned towards the phone and picked it up—
“What are you doing?!” he asked me.
I dropped his phone! “Um . . . nothing,” I replied as my voice trembled.
He walked towards me. “Then why did you have my phone in your hand?”
I sat stiff in his bed. “I . . . I’m sorry. I was just checking it out because it’s a nice one,” I pitifully lied.
He gave me a cold stare as he snatched his phone off of his nightstand and then looked at it. “You were trying to see who called or texted me, weren’t you?”
“No, John, I wasn’t,” I lied again.
“Don’t insult my intelligence, Vanessa. You know damn well that I’m too fuckin’ smart for that shit. You don’t have any business whatsoever looking at my phone to see who calls or texts me — you’re not my girlfriend.”
“Sorry, John,” I replied with my head lowered.
“But you know if you were, I would allow you access to some things as well as tell you some things that I’ve never told anyone else. You know that I’ve been wanting us to become an official couple, but you still don’t want to.”
I looked at him. I sighed since I was tired of him always bringing this up. “John, like I’ve told you several times, since we’re seniors this year, I just think it’ll be better if we just stay single. I mean, what would be the point of getting into a serious relationship now with each other? It’ll be different if we were freshmen or even last year when we were juniors. We both agreed that we could see each other in secret like this while openly seeing other people, but getting into something serious with each other is something that we weren’t gonna do. I just think that we should stick to what we agreed on.”
He sighed as he got back in bed with me. “Yeah, we did agree to it. I won’t bother you anymore about it.”
I nodded with a smile, but something told me he wasn’t happy at all that I hadn’t changed my mind.
As we stared at his TV that was on mute since he always liked it this way while we had sex, the doorbell rang followed by a few hard knocks — we jumped up out of his bed!
“Who the hell is that?!” I asked while I put my bra and panties back on in record time.
“I don’t know since I’m not expecting anyone,” he replied while he slipped on his jeans after putting on his underwear. “Stay right here, okay?”
“Okay,” I replied while I finished getting dressed.
He put on his top as he quickly left the room. “OKAY!!” he hollered as the doorbell rang again.
Since there was a direct view from the stairs to the front door, I slowly walked out of John’s bedroom and stood around the corner. I peeked as discreetly as I could around the corner as John opened the door.
“Hey, man! What’s up?” John said.
I gasped. I didn’t know why it was such a surprise to see one of John’s good friends here, but I was surprised because Brad Johnston was not an ordinary guy — he was the poster boy for having it all. He was eighteen and a senior like John and me, stood six-foot-five with short and shiny dark hair, gorgeous skin, a beautiful, muscular build, and with that said, he was one of the most gorgeous and most exotic-looking guys that I’d ever seen — absolute, unreal sex appeal that was stimulatingly magnetic in every way. I knew that if I’d petitioned for the phrase aesthetically sexy to be added to my favorite dictionary app on my phone and gave a picture of Brad as an example, I would collect the required number of signatures needed in record time. But Brad wasn’t just aesthetically sexy, he was student body president, a star football player, and the wealthiest at our school, but most of all, he was a genuinely nice guy. He was definitely the type that every girl at our school had a crush on at one point, the type that most girls fantasized about being with, and definitely the type that could pick and choose who he wanted as a girlfriend — and he chose her freshman year. Lisa Trenton was eighteen and a senior like me, and she was the luckiest girl in Rosemont High School history for landing the most desirable guy in our school’s history. No other girl could get close to Brad when she was around . . . but she wasn’t here right now and wasn’t with him all the time because it was known that he cheated on her a lot.
I continued to stay where I was at as I could hear John and Brad talking and laughing in the kitchen as it was obvious by the cracking sound of cans opening that they were having something to drink as well. I could hear them coming back into the family room that was at a not-so-far distance from the stairs. I knew that if I came down the stairs that Brad definitely couldn’t miss me, but I was wondering why John didn’t want him to know that I was here since he didn’t at least come back up here to get me or call me down there; it was as if he forgot that I was here.
I crept down the first few steps to see if I could get a better look. They were sitting on the couch watching a football game, and now I was for sure that John forgot that I was here. It was obvious to me that he didn’t want Brad to know that I was here, so I decided that I would stay where I was unti
l he left because now I really wasn’t sure if I wanted Brad to know that I was here and I didn’t know why.
I admit that I couldn’t take my eyes off of Brad as I stared at the back of his head; even that was beautiful. I was lucky that I was in a seventh-period Contemporary Issues class with him, but my personal issues with him were not contemporary because I had permanent, secret romantic issues with him that ranged from very sweet to downright erotic, and I was hotter than the Mojave Desert for just a taste of his love — just like all the other girls at my school. I fantasized a lot about him in secret, but it was just that — a fantasy, because a lot of girls had some sort of sex fantasy about him at one point, and I was no different than any of them. But it was definitely a reality how much I thought about him and what it would be like to be in a romantic relationship with him even if it was in secret, and I thought about this more than I ever wanted to admit that I did — and I didn’t wanna admit this to Ava, who’s my best friend, and I didn’t even think about admitting this to John. Even though Brad and I never really talked in class or even at school, we would say hi to each other in class and in the halls, but that was as far as the conversation went between us — but our eye contact with each other went as far as the eye could see, and even Ava talked constantly about the way Brad and I would stare at each other at school, but it meant nothing since he was with Lisa.
I continued to stare at the back of Brad’s head as I slowly tried to take a step down to the next step for an even better look. I moved my left foot down towards the next step as I continued to stare at the back of his head as him and John continued to watch the game, but my foot missed this step and I went tumbling down the stairs!
After crash-landing at the bottom of the stairs, I moaned in pain as I laid in a fetal position. I opened my eyes to find John and Brad right in front of me as they stared at me with great concern.
“Are you okay, Vanessa?” John asked me, as him and Brad helped me off the floor.
“Yeah . . . I . . . think so,” I squeaked out while they led me over to one of the couches in the family room.
“I didn’t know you were over here,” Brad said with a grin.
I looked at him, and then at John.
“Yeah, we were just studying for Calculus class since we have the same teacher even though we’re not in the same class,” John lied.
Brad nodded as he grinned; I knew he wasn’t buying it.
“You want something else to drink, Vanessa?” John asked.
“Yeah, just some water,” I replied. I continued to sit on the couch as I tried not to show how embarrassed I was about my fall, but I especially tried not to show how much pain I was in.
John left to go to the kitchen.
I looked at Brad — he smiled at me; I smiled back. I shook my head. “Gosh, I’m so embarrassed. I was actually taking a break from studying because I was tired of trying to figure out a problem so I was actually coming down here to get something to drink,” I lied. “That was an embarrassing fall so please don’t tell anyone about it.”
“Your secret is safe with me,” he replied with a smile.
I smiled back at him as John came back in the room with a bottle of water and some pills for me. “Thanks. What are these for?”
“You’re gonna be in some pain because of your fall. Are you sure you don’t wanna go to the hospital and get checked out to make sure you didn’t sprain or break anything?” John asked.
“No, that’s okay. I’m not gonna be suckered into any hospital bills. I’ll be fine. Um, I better go now since it’s getting late,” I said.
“I’ll get your bag,” John said, and then went upstairs.
I looked at Brad as he stared back at me.
“Maybe we should have a study session for the class that we have together,” he suggested with a smile.
I smiled back as I tried not to show him that his smile was driving me nuts in the best way possible. “Would Lisa allow that?”
He grinned. “Probably not.”
We laughed.
John came back downstairs with my bag; he put it on his shoulder as he walked over to me. “C’mon, I’ll help you to your car.”
“Okay,” I said, and then slowly got up.
Brad looked at his phone, and then got up as well. “I better get going, too. Lisa just texted me and wants me to meet her at her house.”
We all walked out of John’s house and into the garage as they helped me to my car since it was parked in it. John always wanted me to park my car in his garage just in case someone from school rode by and saw my car in his driveway so I agreed to it since after all, we were in a secret relationship and knew all too well that if someone saw my car parked in his driveway that the last thing that they’d assume was that we were studying, and they would assume right.
Brad opened my car door for me, and John made sure that I was comfortably inside. “Thanks, guys. See you both at school tomorrow,” I said with a smile.
“Okay,” they both replied with a smile.
John walked back inside his house as Brad walked to his black luxury SUV.
As I drove home, I called Ava to let her know about my fall down the stairs at John’s house, and that Brad was there when it’d happened and that he didn’t even know that I was there until it had. As I talked to her, I received a call from a number that I didn’t recognize. I told her that I wanted to see who this was since I didn’t recognize the number, and then hung up with her and clicked over to the call. “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Brad.”
I tried not to gasp! I couldn’t believe that he was calling me because this was the first time that he had.
“Uh . . . hi, Brad. Didn’t we just see each other at John’s?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, we did. I just wanted to see how you were since that fall because that was pretty bad—”
“Yeah, it was,” I interrupted him. “Like I said several times, I’m really embarrassed about it, okay? I don’t wanna talk about it.”
“Okay, we don’t have to. So . . . what’s the real reason why you were over at John’s?”
I gasped! I knew that he didn’t buy it for a second that we were studying because the truth be told, we never studied together. “That is the real reason, Brad,” I lied for what it seemed like the hundredth time tonight.
He chuckled. “Okay, Vanessa. Well, I also called you because I just wanna talk to you some more. I know that we never talk at school or in the one class that we have together, so I was wondering if you have a few minutes?”
I have all the time in the world, I thought. “Yeah, I have a few minutes. What do you wanna talk about?”
“Um . . . well . . . I’m right behind you just so you know, so you can pull into that parking lot of that fast-food restaurant coming up on your right if you want,” he informed me.
I gasped again! I couldn’t even hide it! “Oh, okay,” I calmly replied.
Seconds later, I pulled into the parking lot of the fast-food restaurant where there were very few cars in it since it was a weeknight. I parked in one of the parking spaces and Brad parked right next to me. I nervously got out of my car as he got out of his.
We walked towards each other as he smiled at me.
“Hey,” he said while he continued to smile at me.
“Hey,” I replied with a smile, as I still tried to hide how much pain I was in from my fall down the stairs because the pain pills that John had given me hadn’t worked yet. “Um . . . I thought you were going to Lisa’s?”
“I was at hers before I went to John’s,” he confessed.
“Really?!” I asked, as if someone had never told me a lie before.
“Yeah, really,” he replied sheepishly.
We stared at each other in an awkward silence.
“So . . . why did you park your car in John’s garage if the only thing that the two of you were doing was studying?” he asked.
“Because that’s the last thing that someone from our school who just happened
to drive by would think was that we were studying. I agreed to do it because we don’t want people to get the wrong idea,” I lied for what now seemed like the millionth time tonight.
“I understand,” he said while he slightly grinned at me.
I felt very awkward and embarrassed because I knew that he knew I was lying. “So, what do you wanna talk to me about?”
He stared at me, and then broke out into a full grin. He looked up to the sky and then looked back down at me. “I know I shouldn’t be asking you this . . . but . . .”
I continued to stare at him as I started to look confused. I had a feeling that he was serious when he said that he shouldn’t be asking me what he wanted to ask me. “Ask me what? What is it?”
He continued to stare at me. “I wanna know if you would like to come over to my house tomorrow after school . . . alone?”
I stared at him in a stunned silence. It was one thing for a guy to invite you to come over to his house, but it was another thing to be invited by the most desirable guy ever and asked to come alone. And it was a whole other thing for a guy to invite you to come over to his house alone that you constantly fantasized about — that level was in a class of its own. But I knew that he was with Lisa — everyone knew that — and that he cheated on her. And I also knew that he just wanted to do with me what he’d done with every girl that he’d cheated on Lisa with — and I wasn’t having it. “Brad, I don’t think that would be a good idea,” I very reluctantly told him.
He grinned. “Why not? Because I’m with Lisa?”
“Yes,” I replied without hesitation.
He sighed as he looked up to the sky; he looked back down at me. “I’m gonna tell you something that I’ve never told any girl, okay?”
I gave him a look of suspicion because I just couldn’t believe that he was gonna tell me something that he’d never told any other girl — it sounded like he’d said that line a million times. “What is it?”
“That I’m very serious about wanting to get to know you this year since this is our last year in high school . . . if that’s okay with you.”
School, Sex and Secrets (School, Sex and Secrets #1) Page 1
