HIDDEN CREEK AGAIN: a hidden creek high novel

by Kidman, Jaxson

  Kailey grabbed Nova and started to inspect her like she had been in an accident.

  I gripped my steering wheel tight, knowing what they were all thinking. What they were all assuming. The reputation I had made known since arriving in Hidden to figure out what really happened to Ryland. And my plan then had been to get close to Nova again. But not like this. This was crazy different.

  And even those with her… those best friends… they didn’t know the truth.

  Once Nova was inside HCH I hauled my ass up to Tech. All I had to do was show up and pretend to give a shit. That kept Harrison off my back. And that kept my father away from me too.

  When I got to Tech I ended up in the bathroom, sitting on the sink, lighting up a cigarette, and carefully opening the piece of paper that brought me back to Hidden.

  There was no limit on how many times I’d read the letter.

  No limit on how much time I would need to piece the puzzle together to figure out what was really happening. And it wasn’t even about why. It was about when.

  The bathroom door opened with a heavy thud to the tiled wall and I jumped from the sink to the floor. I quickly put the letter away and kept my hand behind my back.

  Walker and Ryker appeared and they froze when they saw me.

  “Where are your boyfriends?” Walker asked.

  “Not here,” I said.

  I took a drag of my cigarette.

  “What’s behind your back?” Ryker asked.

  “Want to find out?” I asked. “Take another step toward me.”

  Ryker curled his lip. “I don’t know what your deal is. Or why you jumped in when things were being handled with Nero.”

  “I’m all about fairness,” I said. “You guys jumped him. You could have waited.”

  “We could just jump you right now,” Walker said. “Teach you a lesson. Get Nero pissed.”

  I flicked my cigarette into the sink but still didn’t move my hand from behind my back.

  I stepped toward Walker and Ryker.

  Walker jumped back and grabbed Ryker.

  “Forget it,” Walker said. “He’s not worth the effort. Trying to chase down the ghost of his brother. Never going to happen.”

  I inched closer to Ryker.

  “You don’t have anything behind your back,” Ryker said.

  “Prove it,” I said. “Do something about it. Show me that I don’t have anything behind my back.”

  Ryker’s lip lifted. “You need to know where to stay. Where to stand. Who to stay away from.”

  “And if I don’t, I learn valuable lessons in life. Glad to see you’re the cousin who got the brains and the balls. Your brother must have been made with some of the left over jizz from your father’s load, huh?”

  “Fuck you,” Walker said.

  He lunged at me.

  I got out of the way and Walker breezed right by me and almost ran into the wall.

  “Are we done here?” I asked.

  Walker slapped the wall and looked at me.

  I moved my right arm and he jumped toward Ryker.

  Without hesitation, Ryker grabbed Walker and walked him to the bathroom door.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Ryker growled.

  “He’s fucking psycho,” Walker said.

  I grinned.

  I brought my right hand from behind my back.

  My empty right hand.

  If I was psycho, at least it was working.

  Because scaring the hell out of Wes’s cousins was just the start of my day.

  * * *

  I waited outside HCH for Nova.

  When the entire group came out of the building, things were instantly tense.

  Wes and Aira dry humping each other through the doorway.

  Flynn behind Charlotte, trying to look like he knew what to do with Charlotte. It made me feel bad for both of them. Flynn was out of his element and Charlotte hadn’t come yet with him. The loner Leo was the one who saw me first. Quickly elbowing Wes. They froze. And behind them walked Kailey, Nova, and Emma.

  I folded my arms and waited to see how things would play out.

  When all eyes went to Nova though, I told myself to stand down.

  So I showed my hands. A sign of peace. Or something.

  Nova said something to everyone and started to walk toward me.

  But she wasn’t alone.

  Kailey and Emma were right behind her.

  Kailey looked nervous. Emma made a fist with her right hand and punched it to the palm of her left hand.

  I smiled.

  “Hey, babe,” I said. “Sorry to cause tension here. Just wanted to check on you. See how your day went.”

  “It was fine, Elijah,” Nova said.

  A flicker of a smile crept up on the right corner of her mouth.

  She secretly loved this stuff.

  The flirty eyes. The wild tension. Stuck between violence and something steamy.

  It worked for me.

  I reached for Nova. I looked at Emma. “Is this okay? Can I touch her?”

  “Asshole,” Emma muttered.

  I took Nova’s hand and kissed it. “Missed you today, babe. Are you sleeping over again?”

  Nova’s face blushed a little. “Very funny.”

  “Next time we’ll help her out,” Kailey said. “Maybe you should delete her number from your phone.”

  “I can do that,” I said. “But her number is forever in my heart.”

  “Oh, barf,” Emma said. “What the fuck…” She looked at Nova. “Are you buying this shit?”

  “No,” Nova said. She pulled her hand away. “I’m not buying any of it.”

  “Oh yeah?” I asked, grinning. “Then maybe you could return the clothes you stole from me. Then again…” I looked at my right hand. At my pointer and middle fingers. “I don’t think I can ever forget last night, babe…”

  Nova threw a punch at my shoulder. “Asshole.”

  “Are you a parrot?” I asked. “Copying Emma.”

  “Excuse me,” Nova said. “Fucking asshole.”

  “There, that’s better,” I said. “You three better get back to King Wes before he throws a tantrum.”

  Kailey grabbed Nova’s right hand. Emma grabbed Nova’s left hand.

  I smiled at her and winked.

  She bit her bottom lip.

  It was all a little game.

  No hard feelings.

  Then again, watching Nova walk away… something was getting hard…

  And not just my ability to look away.

  Nova was swallowed up by her crew as they all walked away, not even looking back at me for a second. Trying to make me feel invisible. Which was hard to do because I had lived invisible my entire life.

  Then again, the only person that looked back was the only one that mattered.

  Nova glanced over her shoulder at me.

  I kissed the two fingers that had been inside her beautiful body and blew her a kiss.

  She hurried to kiss the air back at me.

  I leaned against the railing and let out a sigh.

  I needed a cigarette.

  * * *

  I sat on the hood of the car, smoking, watching the ocean.

  Nero had his bus backed up with the back open, music thumping from the inside. It was his normal crew - Lars, Paxton, and Turner - plus a bunch of girls. Damn pretty girls too. Girls that weren’t from HCH. Or Tech. He called them acquaintances and they were there for two reasons.

  To drink.

  To hookup.

  Some pretty little thing with jet black hair and dark brown eyes walked up to me. She wore some kind of sweatshirt with the neck ripped open so far it exposed her shoulder. Way too much of her shoulder. It served as proof that she wasn’t wearing anything under that sweatshirt. Not to mention the sweatshirt was cut halfway up her body.

  “You’re the new bad boy I heard about,” she said.

  “Oh yeah?” I asked. “Who’s talking?”

  “Everyone.” />
  “Doubt that,” I said.

  “Can I have a drag?” she asked, nodding to my cigarette.

  “Sure,” I said.

  I handed her the cigarette and watched her smoke it.

  She put her head back and made an O with her lips and puffed the smoke.

  I jumped off the hood of the car and stood a few inches from her.

  She looked at me.

  “That’s not the best thing I can do with my lips,” she said.

  “I bet,” I said.

  “Let’s go for a ride.”

  I reached out and touched her face. I slowly nodded. “Enjoy the cigarette, babe.”

  I walked away and around to the back of my car.

  She called me an asshole, which seemed to be something going around.

  There was no way I was going to put myself into a position to hurt Nova. Not on some cheap one night girl from another town.

  I folded my arms, my back to the beach.

  “Jesus, man, are you that much in love?” Lars asked as he stood next to me.

  “What the fuck do you want?”

  “You know what that one can do?” he asked. “She’s the craziest of them all. Parents forced her into gymnastics since she was really young. The moves. The way she bends…”

  “Experience?” I asked.

  “No,” Lars said. “She picks and chooses. But I’ve heard stories. You’re tossing away something crazy.”

  “Want me go put in a good word for you?” I offered.

  Lars laughed. “Fuck you, Elijah.” Lars then offered me a drink. “You need one of these. Maybe two. Ten. Fucking fifty. Whatever it takes to clear your head and realize what-”

  “No thanks,” I said.

  “You’re turning down a drink.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” I said.

  “What the…”

  I turned and faced Lars. “Say one more word and I’m dropping you.”

  “Try it,” he asked.

  I brought my right hand back.

  Nero jumped in and yelled, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa…” He looked at Lars. “Take a walk, man. Let me talk to Elijah.”

  Lars nodded and backed off.

  “Not in the mood,” I said.

  “I can see that,” Nero said. “Need something?”

  I didn’t get to answer the question.

  My phone buzzed with a text from Nova.

  Need u

  “Shit,” I said. “I have to go.”

  “We’re just getting started here,” Nero said.

  I grabbed his shoulder. “Trust me, man, I have to go.”

  “Chasing Nova, huh?”

  “Don’t make me punch you, Nero,” I said.

  He laughed. “If you need anything let me know.”

  I jumped into my car and watched Lars talking to the crazy black haired girl. She was still smoking my cigarette.

  That was the fucked up part of life.

  One version of Elijah could have stayed on the beach and had that crazy black haired girl.

  Another version was speeding away, wanting to go save the girl he loved.

  Knowing I was driving full force into a hellish danger that was nothing I ever thought I’d face coming back to Hidden.

  I was on the hunt for a murderer.

  And now I was going to take on an abuser.

  Just thinking that word made everything bigger in my head.

  Driving faster than I should have been, trying to come up with a plan that would actually work. To save Nova and her mother.

  I raced up the driveway and left my car running as I climbed out.

  I thought about my father. The bullshit. Me being the bastard. My mother trying to squeeze every possible penny out of him. I thought about Rosemary. Caught in the middle of her husband’s affair. Losing her only son. Having me show up.

  The front door opened and Nova came running out toward me.

  She jumped into my arms, her vulnerability so raw, it cut through my heart.

  “Please,” she whispered.

  “Again?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  I broke away from her and Nova grabbed my hand. “She packed a bag, Elijah. She wants to do this.”

  “I’ll find somewhere to go,” I said.

  “She has somewhere to go. I can get her out of the house. I just need…”

  I nodded.

  She needed someone to face her father.

  I curled my lip and barreled through the massive front door and into the vast foyer of the fancy house.

  I looked at her mother.

  Without her big ass sunglasses on her face, the evidence was clear of what had been done. She stood there, an adult woman, looking scared and weak. A leather bag at her feet.

  “Mom, we have to go right now,” Nova said.

  When Nova touched her mother, her body jumped with fear.

  It took a few seconds of gently whispering to get her to move.

  “I’ll be right there,” I said to them.

  “This is what you want to do?” a voice boomed from the steps. “Take all of this then!”

  Some kind of glass bowl thing came flying down the steps and shattered to the floor.

  “Fuck,” I growled.

  I jumped to the bottom of the steps and saw Nova’s father standing there.

  “Go,” I ordered to Nova and her mother.

  They actually left the house.

  Her father came rushing down the steps, carrying dresses. Dragging them down the steps. I wondered how many times he’d dragged his own wife down those steps.

  “Who the fuck are you?” he yelled at me.

  “It stops here,” I said. “It stops now and forever. You’ll never hurt them again.”

  He laughed at me. “You’re a kid.”

  “You’re an abusive piece of shit.”

  “She forgot her dresses,” he said. “How’s she going to find someone to take care of her old, worn out ass? Does she not remember how much I paid for these?”

  He shook the dresses and then threw them at me.

  I punched them out of the air and then watched as he jumped from the third step toward me.

  In the air, teeth gritted, eyes wide, drunk, pissed off, looking for a fight.

  At least this time he was fighting another man.

  I swung and hit him midair in the jaw.

  He flailed his arms and hit the marble floor and went down to his knees.

  I turned and kicked him in the ribs. Hard.

  He let out a breathless yell.

  So I kicked him again.

  And again.

  He fell to his side and curled up, showing his hands.

  Trying to beg me to stop.

  But I couldn’t stop.

  I felt my knees starting to bend. I was going to drop down on him and make his face match his wife’s face.

  Before I could do that, someone jumped on my back.

  Arms around my neck, pulling at my throat.

  I turned and swung the person around, getting them off my back.

  It was Nova.

  She stumbled back and stared at me, her eyes wide, full of tears.

  “Nova…”

  “I want to leave,” she said. “I never want to come back here again.”

  I hurried toward her and wrapped my arms around her. “Let’s go.”

  I walked Nova from the house and looked one more time at her father as he writhed on the floor.

  Her mother was in the backseat of my car.

  Nova sat in the passenger seat.

  I drove away.

  I checked the mirror more than a few times to make sure her father wasn’t following us. But why would he? A guy like that who did what he did… he wouldn’t have the balls to follow us.

  From the backseat I heard the sound of Nova’s mother starting to cry.

  I looked at Nova and gave a nod.

  She turned in her seat and reached for her mother.

  They hugged each other and
I could feel the fear radiating from her mother.

  She was shaking.

  She was a mess.

  A complete fucking mess.

  My heart ached in a way I wasn’t sure it could.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I said.

  Such a cliché thing to say but it only made sense to say it.

  Nova moved her right hand from her mother’s back and touched my hand. I turned my hand so we could interlock our fingers tight.

  I squeezed.

  She squeezed.

  I kept driving in silence with no direction.

  “Hey, where am I taking this party to now?” I asked.

  Nova’s mother broke their hug and wiped her eyes. “She’s the only person I could call who would understand.”

  “Just tell me who and where,” I said.

  Nova and I were still holding hands.

  “Cherry’s house,” her mother said.

  I looked at Nova.

  She swallowed hard.

  Sadness washed over her face.

  We were going to Cherry’s house.

  Where Noelle lived.

  Where Wes and his crew liked to hang out.

  “Okay,” I said. “I know how to get there.”

  And just like that I was going from one personal war to another

  Chapter 19

  Nova

  There wasn’t a time in my life I felt poor. That wasn’t some cocky thing to say. It was just my life. There was always a home, cars, money, all that stuff. But there was never real love or real family. Everything had been staged my entire life. And I picked up on it when I was too young.

  As I stepped out of Elijah’s car with nothing but myself, I felt poor.

  But at the same time, I felt loved because Elijah was right there to take my hand again.

  The front door opened and out ran Cherry.

  She was vicious looking.

  Short, round, and ready for a fight.

  A dish towel over her shoulder, she hurried down the steps, trying to go faster than her age allowed her to move.

  “Leslie, get over here,” Cherry ordered.

  Mom got out of the car and suddenly looked like a teenager. Like she had been out all night and got herself into some trouble. Like she was kicked out of the house for being stupid and needed somewhere to sleep. Guilt written all over her.