School, Sex and Secrets (School, Sex and Secrets #1)

by Sheila Michelle

  “But it obviously was his since she told you that she wasn’t seeing or having sex with anyone else,” I said.

  “Yeah, it was his. He killed her simply because he didn’t wanna be a father and have the responsibilities of having to raise a child and pay child support while he was going through college and medical school. Natalie told me that she would only get from him what she knew she was owed and wouldn’t bother him about anything else, but he obviously didn’t wanna have to deal with her or their baby at all. John is very selfish; it’s no wonder why he never had a girlfriend all these years in high school. I guess all the girls knew that something wasn’t right about him and stayed away from him,” Marie said.

  Brad and Ava looked at me. I tried not to look like I had a secret relationship going on with John, and at the same time he had one going on with Natalie. I was glad that I never got pregnant by him because if I did and didn’t do what he wanted me to do with the baby, then I would be right where Natalie was.

  “So it sounds like Natalie was killed for just standing up for herself,” Ava said.

  “Exactly,” Marie replied. She let out a deep sigh. “So, how the hell are we gonna get John’s DNA?”

  “That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out, Marie, because as you know now, he’s not gonna voluntarily give it to the school and especially not to us. But we’re gonna get it from him — if there’s a will there’s a way,” Brad said.

  “Absolutely,” I replied with a nod.

  “I know there is. I’m just not gonna be able to sleep good until I know that we have John where he belongs. I’m too much of an emotional wreck right now to try and get it from him because if I do try, I’ll end up killing him myself. I can’t believe that he sat there in your house, Brad, and let me yell and scream at Marc for doing it; now I feel like a fuckin’ fool for yelling at Marc like that,” Marie said.

  “Don’t feel that way, Marie, because we all thought it was him because after all, Natalie’s phone was in his drawer, plus, he’s her ex. John knew exactly whose drawer to plant that phone in and he did exactly that,” Brad said.

  “Does Marc know that it was John who killed Natalie?” Marie asked.

  “Not yet. We’re not gonna tell him because we don’t want him killing John, which he has the potential of doing. We’ll tell him once we get John’s DNA, so just act as normal as you can around John and Marc, okay? We’ll take care of the everything,” Brad said.

  “Who’s we?” Marie asked.

  “Vanessa and me,” Brad replied.

  I nodded with a smile at Marie as she looked at me. “And please act especially normal around John because it’s all a matter of time when he’ll know that we’re on to him because he knows that everyone’s been eliminated but him. He’s very smart, Marie, as you know. So like we all said, we don’t wanna try and take anything with his DNA on it when he’s around because then he’ll know that we know it’s him for sure.”

  “Yeah, you’re right, he’ll know. This seems so unreal, you guys. Well, thank you all so much. I’m just so glad I have people like you all who care about seeing that Natalie gets the justice that she deserves. I want John in jail ASAP when you get his DNA from him, but please be careful,” Marie said.

  “We will,” Brad and I assured her.

  “Oh, one more thing, Marie,” I said.

  Marie looked at me. “What is it?”

  “Does John know that you knew about him and Natalie?” I asked.

  Marie sighed. “I don’t think so. Natalie never told me that John knew that I knew about the two of them, so I really can’t say for sure. I’m just assuming that she didn’t tell him that I knew about them since their relationship was in secret. Why?”

  “Just wondering,” I replied with a smile. “But still, act normal around John as if you didn’t know anything about their secret relationship.”

  “I will,” Marie said. She continued to stare at me . . . and then broke down and cried.

  Brad, Ava, and I looked at each other.

  “Marie, what’s wrong now, honey?” I asked. I walked over to her and sat by her.

  “Vanessa, there’s something else that I need to tell you and I can’t leave this house until I do,” Marie informed me through cries.

  I gasped! “My goodness, Marie! What is it? You can tell me, honey.”

  Marie looked at me as tears streamed down her face. She let out a long sigh. “Vanessa, I really hate to tell you this, but it was Natalie who was sending you those secret texts.”

  I gasped in shock as well as Ava, but Brad looked confused since he knew nothing about them. “No way, Marie! No fuckin’ way! Are you sure it was her? I mean, it was really her? How do you know for sure?!”

  “Because she told me,” Marie informed me.

  “Holy shit!” Ava said. “I have to admit, this is a huge shock. I mean, Natalie’s dead, so there’s no way that you’re gonna be able to confront her about it, Vanessa.”

  I shook my head as I tried to control my emotions. “But why, Marie? Did she tell you why she was sending them to me?”

  “Because she wanted John to herself, and you posed a huge threat to her, just like how you posed one to Lisa. She was really stalking John, and that one day she sent you that very first text — it was after school when you were over his house — she just began stalking him because she had a feeling that he was secretly seeing someone else, even though he told her that he was only seeing her. She said she saw you driving up in his driveway and then drove your car into his garage as if you lived there. She said she couldn’t believe it when she saw that it was you. She knew that you were secretly seeing him because she told me that he made her do the exact same thing when she came over his house. And then Brad showed up at John’s house that same day — I’m assuming that you just happened to stop by unannounced?” Marie asked Brad.

  “Yeah, I did,” Brad said, and then let out a sigh.

  “That’s what Natalie said that she’d thought, too. Well, she told me that she was gonna confront John about you being at his house, Vanessa, but instead when you left his house, she decided to follow you to see where you were going . . . and she noticed that Brad was following you, too. She said she couldn’t believe it when she saw the two of you pull over into the parking lot of that fast-food restaurant and talked . . . and then she said you two held hands. She actually said that she was so shocked at what she was seeing that she forgot to get pictures and video of it. She said she wanted to call Lisa right away and tell her, but she decided against it since she didn’t wanna upset her. She told me later on that night that she decided on a whim to send you a secret text on an old, disposable phone that she hadn’t used in a year since she obviously didn’t want you to know that it was her since after all, you knew her number. She told me exactly what it said — something about her seeing that you had a secret, too. She told me not to say anything to you about it, but I told her that what she was doing was very childish and if she thought that you were seeing John in secret — which she did — and she had a problem with it, then she should confront you about it, as well as him, but she obviously never did.”

  “She didn’t,” I confirmed to Marie. I let out a long, loud sigh.

  “I told her that she didn’t have any proof that you were secretly seeing him, and that day you were over his house you could’ve been just studying together or something, but she was sure that you two were doing anything but that,” Marie said.

  Ava and Brad looked at me.

  I let out another long, loud sigh. I decided to tell Marie that I was in fact secretly seeing John, and at the same time that Natalie had been. “Natalie was right, Marie. John and I were doing anything but that. Like her, I was seeing him in secret at the same time she was, obviously. I’m just really stunned that it was her that was sending me those secret texts the whole time; I was sure that it was John, and I even accused him of it more than once. Wow. She really wanted him that bad . . . and he ended up killing her. I mean, I did brea
k off my secret relationship with John two days later, and as you know from what Lisa said that one night that her and Brad broke up, that I was in one with Brad as well. But I couldn’t carry on two secret relationships with two guys who were very good friends at the time, so I decided to end the one that I had going on with John, but at the same time, I did feel bad about how I continued to see Brad in secret because of Lisa. I have to admit, Marie, that even though Natalie’s dead and was your best friend, I’m finding it hard to see her in the same light that I did before you told me this. I thought she was my friend, and I had no idea that she liked John that much. I mean, I suffered from anxiety, depression, fear — you name it — because of what she was doing to me. By no means am I glad that she’s dead, because as you saw that day when Brad told us that she was, I broke down and cried with you and Ava. But it’s like now I find out how she truly felt about me and all because she wanted John; someone who clearly wanted her out of his life forever and succeeded at getting her out of it all because she was gonna be forever bonded to him — and he didn’t want that secret.”

  Marie stared at me. I could see it all over her face that she was struggling with what to say. “You have every right to feel the way you do now, Vanessa. And I felt that I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t tell you all of this. Everything she told you about what Lisa did to you was true, but what she didn’t tell you was something that’s gonna shock you so embrace yourself,” she warned me.

  Ava and Brad gasped as they stared at me.

  I tried to embrace myself as Marie had told me to do. “What didn’t she tell me?”

  “That the night when Lisa tried to run you over . . . that she was in the car with her,” Marie replied with her head lowered.

  “She wasn’t, Marie!” Brad shouted in shock.

  “No fuckin’ way! How could she?!” Ava said.

  I sat in shock. I couldn’t believe what I was just told. “So she wanted me dead, too, huh? And I thought that Lisa was the only one who did.”

  “She didn’t want you dead, Vanessa. She said that she just wanted you hurt really bad so John wouldn’t want you anymore,” Marie said.

  “And that’s exactly what she said that Lisa said to her about Brad not wanting me if I was crippled for life. Honestly, Marie, I don’t know who or what to believe anymore,” I said.

  Marie sighed. “I know, Vanessa. I’m sorry that she never got a chance to confess to you that it was her who was sending those secret texts to you, but she told me that she wanted to tell you it was her.”

  I shook my head. Since I now knew that it was Natalie that was in the car and the one who had sent me the secret texts, I wanted to know was she the one who was always leaving a rose in my car. “Um, was there anything else that Natalie was doing to me besides sending me those secret texts?” I asked Marie.

  “Yes,” Marie said.

  Ava and Brad gasped!

  “I can say it with you. She was the one breaking into my car and putting a red rose in my vase, right?” I asked Marie.

  “Right,” Marie confirmed with a sigh.

  Ava and Brad gasped once again.

  I shook my head. “So I take it that John was giving her a single red rose like he was giving me when we were secretly seeing each other?”

  “Exactly, Vanessa. But when he continued to secretly see her, he also continued to give her a rose each time they secretly saw each other. But after she found out that he was seeing you two at the same time, she told me she was gonna start putting the roses that he gave to her into your car since it seemed like he liked you more than her. She also did it because she told me that she wanted you to think that it was John doing it and wanted to make it seem as though he was obsessed with you and therefore making you end your relationship with him so she could have him, but you did end it for other reasons.”

  I stared at Marie. I just couldn’t believe all of this. “Well, you’re right about that. I did end it with him and I’m glad I did. Damn, I can’t believe this.”

  “And you all aren’t gonna believe this, either, but I have something to tell you all about the day that Natalie was murdered,” Brad said.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  Ava and Marie stared at him.

  Brad sighed. “Speaking about red roses? There was a red rose found on the ground at the crime scene. They told me not to tell anyone about it since they didn’t wanna make that known to the public. Now since we found out that John gave Natalie and Vanessa a red rose while he was secretly seeing them, it gives us all the more reason to believe that he killed her.”

  “Exactly!” Marie said.

  I stared at Marie as I nodded in agreement. I wanted to tell her that it was obvious that it was Natalie who texted me that day that she was murdered. “Um, and also speaking about that day, since it was her who was the secret person who was texting me, she texted me on the day that she was murdered,” I informed Marie.

  “I know,” Marie informed me with a huge sigh.

  Ava and I gasped in shock! Brad shook his head.

  “She told me that she was gonna tell you that it was her that day, and I thought that she had because she told me that she was sending you a text to tell you to meet her somewhere, obviously on the basement floor, right?” Marie asked me.

  “Exactly right. Do you know why she didn’t show?” I asked.

  Marie let out another sigh. She lowered her head. “She told me that she received a text from John at the end of second period, telling her to meet him third period at their usual spot because he wanted to talk to her about her being pregnant and all. She didn’t tell me whether or not she was still gonna see you that period or not, but it was obvious that John came first to her, and maybe thought that you would wait for her or something when she was done talking to him.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I sighed. “Well, I did wait. In fact, I waited for about a half hour. When I concluded that this person was full of shit and wasn’t gonna come after all, I decided to leave. And Marie, I need to tell you something, but before I do, please remember that I didn’t know that it was Natalie who was sending me these secret texts.”

  Marie gasped! “What is it, Vanessa?”

  I took a deep breath. “When I left the room that I was waiting in, I heard a loud, crashing sound behind me; it scared the shit out of me. I turned around and walked towards the door and was about to open it to see if someone was in it, but before I did, I heard another loud, crashing sound so I ran away from it and looked back once, but no one came out of it.”

  “Oh, my God!” Marie said. She started to cry. “You think you heard Natalie in there with John?!”

  I sighed. “Marie, I can’t say for sure since I didn’t hear any voices or anything, just those horrific sounds. Just remember, I didn’t know that it was her who was behind these secret texts, and now you tell me that she went to see John third period instead of seeing me. She would probably still be alive if she saw me instead because I would’ve tried to talk to her about not seeing him anymore since he wasn’t worth it, and he showed her in the worst way possible just how much he wasn’t worth it because he killed her. And yes, I would’ve told her that I used to see him in secret, too.”

  Marie continued to cry. “I know, Vanessa. And I know she texted you before she got that text from John, but still decided to see him first instead of seeing you. The timing was just absolutely horrible — just horrible!”

  Ava and Brad nodded in agreement.

  I nodded. “But nevertheless, she could’ve confessed to me that she was the one that was sending me those secret texts at any time; now I wish she did. What was weird was that I hadn’t received any texts or roses in my car from her for weeks, so it was obvious that she found out that she was pregnant during that time and was more concerned about that than harassing me with texts and putting roses in my car vase. I have to admit, the texts slowed down a lot, but then they completely stopped after she was killed, and so did the roses. I honestly couldn’
t make the connection. She was the last person I would’ve thought was sending them to me.” I let out another sigh. “I’m still having a hard time coming to grips with this being her who was sending me those texts and wanted me hurt bad or possibly even killed because she wanted John, just like Lisa wanting to keep Brad. Damn, I just can’t believe it. And she said that Lisa was always the sneaky one.”

  Marie held my hand. “I know, Vanessa, but as you now know, she was just as bad. Could you please find it in your heart to forgive her? Honestly, I think she really started to feel bad that she was texting you like that because she was seeing what it was doing to you. I even said that what she was doing was stalking you, but she said that she wasn’t; she was obviously in denial and didn’t wanna believe that she was stalking a girl like the way she was stalking John. She was really messed up, Vanessa, and she tried very hard not to show how much she was. I hope she is at some peace now, but I don’t think she’s gonna be until we get John’s DNA so he can be put where he rightfully belongs. Like I said before, she wanted to tell you someday that she was the one behind those texts because she felt bad about them as well as the roses, and that John wasn’t worth it. Unfortunately, he proved to her that he wasn’t worth it by killing her, and that’s the worst way that you can find out that someone isn’t worth it — when it’s too late. He’s the worthless one, Vanessa. I honestly think that Natalie finally came to her senses about him, that’s why she wanted to come clean with you and tell you that it was her and that she was sorry.”

  I started to cry. I wiped tears from my eyes. “It seems like it. But I’ll have to think about forgiving her, Marie. The bottom line is that she never got to tell me that it was her who was behind everything so I’ll never know if she would’ve said all of the things that you’re saying for her — but since you were her best friend, I can’t disagree with you that much.”