HIDDEN CREEK AGAIN: a hidden creek high novel

by Kidman, Jaxson

  “Out all night?”

  “At a friend’s house.”

  “Which one?”

  I raised my eyebrow. “Britt.”

  “Britt?” Mom asked. “Haven’t heard her name in a while.”

  “She was traveling with her parents,” I said. “Then she got hurt. Couldn’t surf. Now she can.”

  “Oh. Okay. Well… get to class.”

  Mom walked by me and out the door.

  I looked around the house and it felt… wrong.

  It wasn’t home. It wasn’t my home. It wasn’t anything to me.

  I ran to my bedroom to get changed.

  The entire time my mind raced.

  It was all Elijah.

  And it didn’t stop there either.

  The entire day was dedicated to him.

  No matter what I did.

  In fact, it got worse as the day went on.

  And when the last bell rang and I walked the hallways of HCH, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I exited the building.

  Kailey and Emma caught up to me right before I walked through the large front doors of HCH.

  Shit.

  “You’ve been quiet,” Kailey said.

  “You okay?” Emma asked.

  “Are you okay?” I threw at Emma.

  “Perfect,” she said with a wink.

  “What’s going on with you?” Kailey asked.

  “Things with Conor didn’t work out,” I said. “Sort of got messy last night. Probably my fault. I don’t know. I don’t really care. I’m just… dazed…”

  “Dazed,” Emma said.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Kailey said.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Look who’s here again,” she said with a nod.

  I turned my head and felt heat rush to my cheeks.

  Elijah was sitting on the railing, smoking a cigarette.

  “That’s ballsy,” Emma said.

  Elijah jumped off the railing and waved to me.

  “He’s here for you?” Kailey asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I, uh, I have to go.”

  I took two steps and Emma grabbed my arm. “You’re dazed, huh?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  She nodded and let me go.

  I felt myself ready to say sorry to them but I didn’t.

  There was nothing to be sorry for.

  At least not yet.

  Or maybe ever.

  I hurried toward Elijah.

  I felt a smile forcing itself across my face.

  And I knew in the process of that I was ruining a lot of really good friendships.

  Chapter 16

  Elijah

  It was just me and her on the beach together.

  No fucking stupid blankets and planned out picnics and all that bullshit. It was just us. My ass in the sand. Her ass in the sand. Barefoot too. Looking at the ocean together. Pointing at waves that would have been fun to try and go after. Listening to waves for a little bit. Feeling the breeze. Licking the salty air.

  But there was one problem.

  My Surfer Girl was ravaged with guilt.

  And I was going to get to the bottom of it.

  Because it went well beyond me. And if Weslee fucking Jackson was chirping in her ear about me then I was going to make it so he wouldn’t be able to talk ever again. And poor Aira would have nobody to kiss or nestle between her legs and write love letters.

  “Hey,” I said to Nova. “What’s up with your mother?”

  “What?” she asked, turning her head so fast, half her hair blew into her face.

  “Your mother,” I said. “At least I think it was your mother. I saw her this morning.”

  “Oh.”

  “She looked… weird. Covered up. Like she was trying to hide or disguise herself. Unless it was someone your father is fucking behind your mother’s back.”

  “No,” Nova said. “It’s not that.”

  “I was just joking, babe,” I said. “I wouldn’t think…”

  “Just shut up, Elijah,” she snapped.

  “Whoa.”

  “Whoa yourself. You know what? Go fuck yourself.”

  She stood up.

  “Shit,” I said. “Did I touch a nerve there? I was just asking a question.”

  “My home life isn’t your business,” she said. “Why do you have to ruin everything?”

  “What the hell did I ruin?” I asked.

  “Everything,” she said.

  She walked down to the water.

  When she was ankle deep, she hugged herself.

  I rubbed my jaw, got to my feet and approached with caution.

  If we were playing that stupid ass game hot or cold, and I was trying to get to the truth Nova wanted to keep secret, I would have been so hot my skin would have been dripping off my bones.

  I touched the small of her back.

  As I opened my mouth to say something, she elbowed me, turned, and walked away.

  “Hell no, babe,” I called out.

  I went after her.

  She started to run.

  I paused for a second, processing what was happening.

  Nova was trotting through the shallow water of the leftover waves.

  Trying to get away from me.

  Yet our shoes and phones and all that were behind me in the sand.

  I ran after her.

  “Nova,” I called out.

  “Fuck off,” she yelled.

  “Nova, wait,” I ordered.

  She lifted her middle fingers into the air and kept running.

  I sped up.

  She was fast.

  Almost too fast.

  I finally managed to catch up enough that I could get my hands on her waist.

  I pulled and she thrashed her arms and screamed.

  Like a real scream.

  Like the kind of scream if someone was hurting her.

  I quickly let her go and she tripped over her feet and went down.

  She hit the shallow water and started punching it.

  I fell to my knees next to her. “Fuck, babe, what’s going on here?”

  She turned her head and tears fell from her eyes.

  I reached for her cheeks and swiped the tears away. They were quickly replaced with more tears.

  “What the fuck…”

  Nova grabbed my wrists tight. She sank her nails into my skin. She leaned toward me and I wrapped my arms around her. I held her there, the water pushing and pulling around us.

  “I can’t help unless I know,” I whispered to her.

  Nova broke away from me, sucking in a breath. Her blue eyes shined brighter because of the tears.

  I kissed her forehead and waited.

  I had nowhere else to be in life.

  I would have waited there forever with her.

  “Elijah… I have to tell you something…”

  And the story she told me about what was happening at home was nothing I would have ever expected to hear.

  * * *

  The anger that rushed through my body was raw.

  It was so raw that I wasn’t sure I had felt anything like it before.

  I knew nothing of Nova’s parents. I never met her mother. Or her father. But to imagine what her mother must have been living through for so long… and Nova being front row to witness it time and time again…

  Questions flooded my head and I was smart enough to just keep them to myself.

  I held Nova as she wept.

  The water washing all around us.

  “You’re… you’re getting soaked…”

  “I don’t give a fuck,” I whispered to her. I held her tighter. “You stay right here with me, babe.”

  “I’m getting a little cold.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  I backed away and slowly stood up.

  I took her hands and helped her to her feet.

  She was shaking.

  From the water. From the breeze. From the truth.

  I wrapped
my arms around her again and hugged her again.

  She fell into me, right where she belonged.

  My teeth gritted hard.

  How long? How fucking long has this been happening? All those nights together for those summers… how many times did I sneak her home only to have that happening? How many times did she get to her room, feeling so good and so wild only to have to hear what her father was doing to her mother?

  I shut my eyes.

  I felt my heart slamming inside my chest.

  It was so hard and obvious Nova stepped back.

  She looked up at me and didn’t say anything.

  Instead, she put her hand to my chest. She spread her fingers wide.

  She licked her lips and eased her hand down to the bottom of my shirt.

  The touch of her hand to my bare skin almost brought me to my knees.

  Nobody else had the power she had over me.

  Her fingers gently climbed up my shirt until her hand was against was my chest again.

  Skin to skin.

  I felt her hand shaking.

  I felt my heart pounding.

  I swallowed hard and slowly nodded.

  She shut her eyes and tears rolled down her cheeks.

  I had to fix it.

  I had to save her.

  I had to protect her.

  No matter what that meant. Or what I had to do to make it happen.

  Nova started to shiver again.

  “Hey, babe, can you walk?” I whispered.

  “Yes,” she whispered back.

  “Let’s get out of here. You need to get warmed up.”

  She took her hand from under my shirt.

  I took that hand and held it with my right hand and we walked back to our stuff.

  “Damn, babe, you really know how to run,” I said, trying to lighten the mood. “You could do track.”

  She laughed quick. “No. I’m a surfer girl. Remember?”

  I stopped and turned to face her. I stroked her bottom lip with my thumb.

  “You’re my Surfer Girl, Nova… always.”

  * * *

  She hugged the towel and sat on the edge of my bed as I handed her the large orange mug.

  “Don’t mind the color,” I said. “Rosemary likes bright colors.”

  “Rosemary…”

  “Yeah. The woman Alexander married. The woman he cheated on when he fucked my mother and created this mess called me.”

  I winked.

  Nova rolled her eyes. “You’re a mess. That’s for sure.”

  I bent my knees so I could be eye level with her. “I made sure the tea isn’t too hot for you. Drink.”

  Nova put the mug to her lips and sipped.

  She was still shaking.

  For plenty of good reasons still.

  “Are we okay here?” she asked.

  “We’re fine,” I said. “I locked the door. And Annie only likes to break my balls at night and in the morning. They pay her to check on me. Waiting to see if I’m still here. Or dead. Or if I end up in jail. Whatever. I’m in the way. Which is all I could ask for right now with them.”

  “So you and your father… you don’t… talk…?”

  “Why would we? Everyone he knows professionally thinks I’m his nephew. The whole affair and have a kid out of said affair gives him a bad reputation. I think only everyone in Hidden knows who I am. It’s kind of fucked up if you ask me. But whatever. Why are we talking about this?”

  “I don’t know,” Nova said.

  “Babe, I have to ask some questions…”

  She nodded. “I know.”

  “This doctor… Dr. Harold?”

  “What about?”

  “He doesn’t say anything?”

  “No,” Nova said. “My father just pays him cash. And that’s it. He laughs it off. He makes jokes.”

  “Jokes?”

  “Like… he’ll say something about her falling down the stairs. Even though he knows there’s no way…”

  “Okay,” I said. I touched her shoulders. “Okay. I get it. He’s a piece of shit. And he’s in with your father.”

  “Elijah, whatever you’re thinking right now… just don’t. This isn’t some… I don’t know. These are adults.”

  “We’re adults, babe,” I said. “Last time I checked, we’re adults. I don’t need to pay Hank to buy me cigarettes anymore. Understand?”

  “I know,” she said. “But I mean, these are… they have money. Power. Nobody will listen to us.”

  “Just don’t worry about that part, babe,” I said. “I shouldn’t have asked anything that hard right now. I’m sorry.”

  “Elijah, wait,” she said.

  Nova reached from the towel with her other hand to hold my hand.

  She inched her body forward and slid down to the floor so her back was against the side of the bed and her ass was on the floor.

  I flopped down to my ass too.

  Her left hand and my hand were together.

  She stared at me in a way I wasn’t sure she ever had before.

  “Let’s do this…,” she whispered.

  The word this could have been three hundred things.

  And the more I thought about the word this the more I added to the list of three hundred things.

  “Babe…”

  “Why do you hate Rosemary?”

  “Who said I hate her?”

  “Well, do you?”

  “You have to get to know someone to hate them, Nova,” I said.

  “So you never…”

  “I’m the reminder of her husband cheating,” I said. “Think about that for her. What that must feel like. And she can’t do shit about it because of her status. The way people think of her in Hidden and in the business world.”

  “That’s fucked up.”

  “Really fucked up,” I said.

  “We never talked like this before, Elijah.”

  “We never had time, babe,” I said. I moved my fingers so they were interlocked with hers. “From the second I showed up, we were on a countdown to the end of summer. Why waste a second on bad life shit?”

  “Is that what we’re doing now?” she asked. “Wasting time?”

  “No, not even close,” I said. “This is not wasting time to me. Is it to you?”

  Nova shook her head.

  “Good,” I whispered.

  I broke the hold of our hands together. I used just my pointer fingers and ran it along the tips of her fingers. Nova forever had her nails chewed -or worn- down. She was never the over the top pretty girl that worried about her fingernails being painted and matching her toes and all that shit. And yet somehow it was prettier than any girl that went to some place and spent hundreds of dollars on nails or colors or designs or whatever the hell it was actually called.

  “I’m sorry I never told you about…”

  My eyes looked to hers. “Stop apologizing for shit you didn’t do, babe.”

  She nodded. “It’s been…”

  “I’m going to ask a question now,” I said. “How long?”

  “Really long.”

  “How long, Nova?”

  “As long as I can remember.”

  “Damn,” I whispered. “Did he ever… hurt you?”

  Those last two words were hard to get out.

  That truth would put me over the edge for good.

  “No,” she said. “I think he wanted to a few times but Mom stopped him. She always took it. And he went with it. Knowing there was a limit. I mean, not with her, but with everything else. He’s smart, Elijah. That makes it scarier. Even with me…” Nova swallowed hard and put her head back. I wrapped my hand tight around hers. I’m here, babe. Fuck, I’m here. “He knows how to hurt me without touching me.”

  “And how the fuck does that happen?” I asked.

  “By hurting her worse,” Nova confessed.

  I shut my eyes. “Shit.”

  “So if I try anything. Say anything. It all goes back to her. So I just have to find my way t
o accept it. And so does Mom. She does it for me. I do it for her. And we both just sort of walk on eggshells around it all. Hoping it doesn’t happen again. But it will. I think that’s the worst, Elijah…”

  “What?”

  “Waiting.”

  “Waiting…”

  “He comes home from work and has the same routine. With the way he undoes his tie and gets a drink. But it’s the way he stands…”

  Nova cleared her throat.

  “It’s okay, babe,” I whispered. “Don’t talk about it anymore. Ask me something.”

  “Okay,” she said. “Why come around? I mean… that sounds mean… but…”

  I laughed. “Why come around if I hate my father and his wife won’t look at me because of who I am, right?”

  “Well… yeah…”

  “Sometimes you just have so much pain and anger inside, babe… and you try to get it out. You try to find ways to get it out. And nothing works. Nothing ever fucking works. So you think you have to face where it comes from. Figure out why. But there is no why. So then what? You want someone else to feel that pain. That uncomfortable feeling. That… emptiness…”

  Nova put the mug of tea down and lunged forward at me.

  She threw her arms around me and hugged me like she had never done before.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Fuck yes, Elijah.”

  I wrapped my arms around her tight.

  She smelled so fucking good. She smelled like my Surfer Girl.

  “And then you meet someone who somehow matters so fucking much, it’s worth the pain just to see her every summer…”

  Nova pulled away.

  But she was still close.

  Very close.

  Her breath smelled like tea and honey.

  Her eyes raced in every direction.

  I wasn’t going to waste time with that lovey-dovey bullshit.

  I moved my right hand to the back of her head and pulled her close for a kiss.

  She melted into me and I was far from fucking done with her.

  The honey that laced her tongue was all I wanted as the kiss grew hotter.

  Nova shifted and moved to her knees, trying to be taller than me.

  “Shit,” she whispered in between kisses.

  “What?” I asked before I kissed her sweet and soft bottom lip.

  “I knocked the tea over…”

  We both looked.

  And we both started to laugh.

  “Oh fuck no,” I said. “Not the orange mug. And not the carpet. I’m sure this carpet is some fucking custom fiber shit from the Antarctic.”