Secret Bay High Issues (Secret Bay High - Book #5)

by Blair Young

  Though, with the way he was so good to me, I had a feeling it wouldn’t take much for him to like the town. After all, Damon made it clear there was just one thing on the planet he needed to make him happy, and that one thing was going to be moving to Massachusetts next year.

  If he was with me, he was happy.

  And, I fully believed, no matter what happened, even with the college, if I had Damon in my life, I could by happy, too. He was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, and I fully planned to do it.

  He was my partner, my love. Damon was everything to me, and no one could take that from me.

  I’d almost like to see them try.

  Chapter 14

  Sutton

  I felt good about Damon’s offer to take me to see the school, though I had to admit, I didn’t think he was going to make the announcement as he did.

  He wasted no time in letting either of the adults know of our plans, waiting until dinner on Monday to let them both know we were going to be gone that weekend.

  “You’re what?” Susan asked in surprise as she looked from Damon to me and back again. “What?”

  “I said I’m going to take Sutton to see the college this weekend in Massachusetts,” Damon said as he stabbed at the spaghetti with his fork. “I know you were going to, but since Dean doesn’t have the time to go and I do, I want to take her. I’ve been meaning to get back on my bike anyway, and I finished with the last of the repairs this afternoon.”

  They were speechless. At first, they exchanged a glance, then Susan cleared her throat. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable with the two of you going to Massachusetts together, alone.”

  “We can’t be together and alone at the same time, Mom,” Damon said. “And what’s the difference if you were going to leave me alone and go with Sutton? I’m almost an adult, just like she is, and we can handle it. What’re you going to do when she goes off to college next year anyway? It’s not like you can be there to tell her what’s right and wrong every time she breathes.”

  “You know what I mean,” Susan remarked.

  “I think you’re going to get into nothing but trouble,” Dean said. “It’s a bad idea for you to go, and I think this whole thing should be called off.”

  “But the hotel has already been booked, and the reservations have already been made, and our place on the tour is already paid for. It would be a royal waste of money to just ignore the trip because of a brief change of plans. It doesn’t really matter who takes the tickets or fills the seat in the restaurant as far as the hotel is concerned, we’re going,” Damon said with a shrug. “And you can like it or hate it, but that’s up to you. I want to take Sutton on a trip, and what better trip than to see where she’s going to be living next year?”

  Both adults still seemed rather on edge and far from thrilled with the idea, but Susan was the first to come around.

  “I think Damon’s right. We aren’t going to be there to tell them what to do all the time, and this would be a good chance for the two of them to stretch their wings while we know they’re going to be coming home at the end of the weekend. I’ll allow you both to go, as long as you keep in touch through text,” she said.

  “Really!” I exclaimed. I had a feeling it was going to turn into a fight, and it was likely that we were going to be told that we weren’t going no matter what, but Dean didn’t have a good reason to argue, and Susan was ultimately the one in charge of the two of us.

  It was up to her whether we were allowed to go or not, and Dean clearly found it better not to argue. He was getting things his way by not letting Susan go, so he might as well let the two of us go and have her to himself all weekend.

  “Alright,” he said at last. “But like your mother said. You are going to check in regularly with text messages. That’s when you get to stops in towns, when you make it to the hotel, when you get to the tour, you get the picture.”

  “I can do that,” Damon said with a smirk. I got the impression he wasn’t going to be as good about keeping in touch as he was making it sound right now, but I didn’t care, either. That was up to him. I was just happy that we were going to be seeing the campus. I would have enjoyed the trip with Susan, but I knew I would have more fun with Damon.

  After all, he was out to have a good time himself, and he would take me along for the right. And I also missed being on the bike. Going out sounded like a lot of fun. Especially knowing how far we had to go to get there. North Carolina was about twelve hours from Massachusetts, and we’d be out under the open sky the entire time.

  It would be a nice break from all the other stuff that was going through my mind, that was for sure. Few things could clear a head like the fresh air whipping through your hair.

  And boy, did I look forward to the drive.

  Damon and I both packed light for the trip. Susan had told me that most of the things we would need would be taken care of at the hotel and in the restaurants, so we really only needed to take along a change of clothes or two.

  I knew she wasn’t thrilled with the fact that we were going to be sharing one hotel room, but she knew it was also pointless to book another when we were going to be unsupervised anyway. We would most definitely be sharing a room regardless of how many she paid for, and it was better for her to save the money.

  Not to mention she was still feeling guilty about not being able to take me to see the hotel herself, so she slipped me her credit card. “I’m trusting you not to go overboard with this, but do have some fun while you’re up there.”

  “Thanks,” I said. I almost called her ‘Mom’, but I stopped myself. It meant a lot to me that she had arranged this entire thing, and it did also have an impact on me that she would be willing to let me go with Damon so I would get a chance to take the tour. But, even that wasn’t quite enough for me to call her anything but Susan.

  Especially with my newfound suspicion in the back of my mind. Though it was hard for my brain to reconcile the thought that someone who was so caring toward me and Damon could be capable of helping with a murder, I didn’t want to let my guard down.

  There were still too many questions that had to be answered before I could say for sure whether she had something to do with it or not. And until I had answers, I was going to be on my guard.

  But, once we were out on the road, I could finally let go of all those thoughts that were circling around in the back of my mind. It was just me and Damon and the wide open road in front of us. Massachusetts lay ahead, but we were still free to be ourselves. No adults there to tell us what to do or say or how we should act.

  No one to judge us for anything that we were doing.

  We only had two days to make the most of it, but I had a feeling it was going to be two of the best days I’d ever had. Though Damon and I were doing what we wanted most of the time at the house anyway, it was a lot nicer to be able to be ourselves. We didn’t have to hide or pretend anything, and we didn’t have to give our current situation another thought.

  Right now, we were two people who were in love, on our way to see what the world had to offer, and I couldn’t wait to see what Damon thought about the campus. Perhaps it would be enough for him to be convinced to give college a shot himself.

  I had a feeling part of the problem he had with college was the fact that he hated high school, and that was the only school that he had ever really known. On campus, things were different, I just knew it. And perhaps when he got a taste of that, he would see for himself what he could do.

  Just as I thought, Damon didn’t do much to keep Susan in the loop as to where we were or what we were doing, so I took it upon myself to make sure she knew we made it from one stop to the next okay. I didn’t text her when we got to every town, but I let her know when we were getting gas, and I let her know when we got to the hotel.

  The last thing I wanted was for her or Dean to get the cops involved and check up on us. I felt that we were adults, and we were able to do what we wanted, when we wanted. it was an attitude
that I’d only adopted since I started hanging out with Damon, but it was one I wanted to be more comfortable having.

  Never again did I want to deal with Dean talking to me like I was his property. I would tell him straight that he wasn’t in charge of me, Susan was. I would listen to what she told me to do, and he could take up his problems with her. If she was going to let him call the shots, that was on her, but I didn’t have to sit through him yelling at me or hitting walls because he was mad.

  Damon told me he didn’t want me to put up with that sort of thing anymore, and I was going to do my best to make him proud. He wasn’t afraid of anything, that was for sure, and I wanted to be more like that. Over the years, I had become so afraid of so much in life, it was hard for me to really life my life the way that I wanted.

  And I was done with it. I was nearly out on my own, and after all that I had gone through, I wanted to be stronger for it. I didn’t want to keep hiding or waiting for someone else to come pick on me. I wanted to be bold enough to take life by the horns and do what I wanted.

  And I would.

  After settling into the hotel, Damon and I fell on the bed with a grin.

  “Well, we have the tour first thing in the morning, and we’re going to be heading home later in the afternoon, but tonight, we have the town to ourselves,” he said with a grin. “What do you want to do?”

  “There’s a preview going on on campus,” I told him. “I read about it in the brochure. Here it is.”

  I pulled the brochure out from the backpack and opened it on the bed. He looked over the activities, then he grinned. “I bet you if we get onto campus for this we can find ourselves a party at one of the frat houses to hang out at. That’s the whole reason why some people come to college in the first place.”

  “I’m sure that’s not the only reason,” I said with a laugh. “This is a pretty expensive college to come to if you’re just going to party your way through the four or six years you plan to attend.”

  “Not all kids want to go to college, but there are still parents who insist that they get a good education and make them come anyway. I mean, think about all the spoiled rich business kids who came out of Harvard but really didn’t give a dark when they were here,” Damon said with a shrug. “Those are the kids who show up to class because their parents are paying for the whole thing and insist that they make a name for themselves to make their parents proud.”

  “So essentially, the equivalent of what you’re going to be next year,” I teased.

  Damon gave me a look, but laughed. He shook his head. “I told you, I’m not going to go through with this whole college thing. I mean, you have to go through twelve years of it your entire childhood, then they tell you that you have to pay a lot more money so you can go a lot longer? Why would you do something like that to yourself?”

  I laughed. “So you can go places in life.”

  “I’m going places,” Damon said with a smirk. “I’m going to follow you right up here to Massachusetts and watch you get some sense knocked into you through your first semester up here.”

  “That makes me think you’re implying I’m not going to make it through,” I said with a pout.

  “No, nothing like that,” I said. “I for sure think that you’re going to do anything you put your mind to. But, I’m just saying when you get through the initial shininess of college, you’re going to realize that this is just a bigger, more expensive version of high school.”

  I punched him playfully on the arm. “I think it’s going to be a lot more fun than high school.”

  “Only one way to find out. Let’s go to that party,” Damon said as he rose from the bed. I grinned. Perhaps this would be a good way to show him that I was going to be a lot more outgoing in college. I certainly wasn’t the kind of girl who wanted to go to a party, and it seemed like a dreadful idea to go to a party that we knew no one, but then, Damon wanted to go, and he wasn’t one much for parties these days, either.

  And, like he said, this could be a lot of fun. We had come to see the campus, but it was also a good time to do what we wanted without having to deal with Susan or Dean, so a party sounded like a great way to blow off some steam without them lecturing us about it or giving us a curfew.

  With a grin and a shrug, I simply agreed. “Why not?”

  Chapter 15

  Sutton

  We both got dressed to go to the party quickly. We didn’t want to be out too late, not with the tour first thing in the morning. Part of me wondered if the tour managers had done that on purpose – to weed out the people who were too hungover from a night of partying to join the tour.

  Though Harvard let students in based primarily on money and grades, I knew that conduct had something to do with it, and I was going to behave. Sure, I knew the reputation a lot of college parties had, but I was determined to not be one of the drunk girls who was making a mess of themselves and posting it all over the internet.

  I was going to be normal and conduct myself perfectly. And, I wasn’t going to be shy.

  Think about it. You can be whoever you want up here. No one knows you. This is just what you wanted. You can be free spirited and fun, you can be outgoing, you can be bold, you can do anything.

  You don’t have to carry around the burden of being that girl who nearly died in the sixth grade. You don’t have to be the picked on girl who everyone either makes fun of or feels sorry for.

  You don’t have to be the girl who’s parents were murdered, or the girl who was adopted, or the girl who’s in the foster care system. Up here, you are the girl who wants to come to this college next year, and you’re going to work your fingers to the bone to get here.

  You can stand out from the rest of the group, even at this party you’re going to. There’s no reason to think that you’re anything but one of the girls – another student who’s going to walk those halls and the sidewalks on this campus like a boss.

  Plus, you’ve got Damon. He’s not going to let you do anything stupid tonight, so just cut loose and have a good time. He’s there for you, you can have some fun and not be so uptight with him having your back. Just have fun.

  The campus wasn’t far from the hotel. I knew Susan had done that on purpose. But, it worked out for us now. Neither of us were planning on getting drunk, but what was a college party without booze? I didn’t have to even wonder if there was going to be alcohol present, but we both had to be careful.

  Though the other adults are the party were all in their early twenties, we were still in our teens. We didn’t want the campus cops to come and find out we were underage drinking. At the same time, Damon had just put his bike back together. The last thing he wanted was to risk wrecking it or getting arrested for driving after drinking.

  That was the last thing we needed to deal with. Dean already seemed to think that we were going to get into some sort of trouble up here, and while we were determined not to just because we wanted to enjoy the time we had away from them, we also didn’t want him to be right.

  Whether we were nearly adults or not, we didn’t want Dean to think that we couldn’t be out and behave. After all, we were going to be contributing, functioning members of society sooner rather than later, and there was a time when we had to be able to handle that on our own, whether we had any alcohol or not.

  I was surprised how easily we were able to get into the party. It was at a large frat house, and there were more people there than I thought would be. The place was packed, but it didn’t seem that a lot of the people who were there knew each other.

  I introduced myself and Damon to a small group of people who were near the door, and it wasn’t long before we were introducing ourselves to more and more people. The introductions were floating around the room, and the more people I heard share their names, the more I felt like I fit in.

  There were a lot of new people there. Many of whom looked to be close to my age. I wondered how many people were going to be going on the tour the next morning, and how many were up
there now just for the sake of the party.

  It wasn’t long before the young men and boys around my age started hitting on me. That was something new I didn’t expect, and I had to admit, I wasn’t quite sure how to react. When I was in the sixth grade, I was still pretty chubby with a baby face.

  I didn’t really grow out of that until I was a sophomore in high school, but by then I was so used to being teased for how I looked, it was hard for me to think that anyone would ever think of me as attractive. Then, when I realized that the boys did think I was cute, I was so reserved I didn’t want to go out with anyone.

  Even when I was living in a different town and going to a different school, I couldn’t shake how much I still cared about Damon. I had a crush on him long before he knew, and long, long after. It had only come back full force when I saw him face to face at the beginning of the year, and even now with all these different cute boys hitting on me, it didn’t matter.

  I only had eyes for Damon, and he only had eyes for me. He stayed glued to my side most of the night, only stepping out of the way to let someone pass through the crowded room. He made sure he was the only one who got me drinks, and he made sure I held onto them all through the night.

  Of course, I wasn’t the only one who was being hit on. There were a lot of girls who were paying special attention to Damon. Though he didn’t seem to notice, I could tell exactly what they were doing, and I had to admit, I didn’t appreciate it.

  He was clearly with me, there was no denying that. Anyone who looked in our direction could see that he had his hand on my back, and he wasn’t going to let me out of his sight. But, that didn’t stop them from flirting with him, or from doing things to try to get his attention.

  Some would laugh a little too loud, some would act a little too sweet. There were those who would be a little too helpless and ask if he would step up and help them. And there were those who were just trying to get his attention in any way that was different from the rest of the girls who were in the house.