Secret Bay High Secrets (Secret Bay High #2) Read online

  Secret Bay High Secrets

  By Blair Young

  Copyright © 2019 by Blair Young

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Chapter 1

  Sutton

  It was my first day back at school since my suspension, and, while I never thought I’d feel it, I was ready to be back. I had kept up with the lessons at home, but there was something about sitting in class and watching the teacher explain subjects that made it feel so much more real.

  Besides that, I did miss being around other people my age. I felt the need to withdraw when I was at the house, avoiding both Damon and Susan as much as possible. I was still angry with Susan about hiding things from me, and the fact she still wasn’t telling me the truth about crucial parts of my life weren’t helping things in the slightest.

  Though two weeks had gone by since I blatantly asked her why my parents had wanted me to live with her after they passed, I still harbored resentment toward her for not telling me.

  I didn’t for one second believe it was because they had been good friends. I wasn’t close with my parents, but I was around the house enough to know that I would have heard Susan’s name mentioned if she really was as good of a friend as she claimed to be.

  Besides that, I knew my mother. She didn’t have a lot of friends, and that was because of the lifestyle she chose to live. She was a stay-at-home alcoholic, and she spent most of her time on the couch watching senseless things on tv with wine in hand.

  It started early in the morning, and she kept it up until she finally passed out for the day later in the afternoon. There were some days she didn’t even make it to dinner before she was out.

  And my father, well, he was a private investigator. While that didn’t mean he couldn’t have friends, I knew that it did mean he was careful over those he chose to be in his life, and he always told me about them.

  He didn’t tell me everything about his job, he couldn’t, not with how dangerous it could possibly be, but if he had any good friends in his life, I would have at the very least known their names.

  For no other reason than to have someone to turn to in the event of an emergency. Which I ended up facing.

  My parents had both been murdered, and I had no idea who had done it or why. The police were stumped, and though they were still on the case, I didn’t have much hope of them ever actually finding the person who did it.

  They didn’t seem to take it seriously enough, and it hurt.

  Overnight, I had been ripped from the life that I’d known and placed into this new world, and I wasn’t happy about it. Not in the slightest. I spent a few days working with social workers, put my parents in the ground, and was suddenly sent to the town of Secret Bay where I moved in with Susan Buch and her foster son.

  Though from the outside it looked like a normal thing, to me, it was far from anything normal. The fact that I didn’t know this woman, and no one would give me any sort of real background about her bothered me. Coupling that with the fact that her foster son – the one I was forced to live with – was also the person I largely blamed for many of the problems in my life, I didn’t know what to do.

  It was true.

  Damon had been my crush since I was a little girl. For a couple of years, I only thought about him and crushed on him from a distance. I was only eight or nine at the time, and I wasn’t sure how to approach someone so cool.

  Then, in sixth grade, I thought I had my chance. It was a random day, a random meeting in the school cafeteria, and, for the first time in my life, he noticed me. Sure, he might have known who I was before, but, now, he truly noticed me. My 11-year-old heart could have burst with happiness, that was for sure.

  He invited me to hang out with him and his friends at one of his friend’s houses, and, there, we had our first kiss. I thought my entire life was finally coming together. Here was the boy I thought was cute. The boy who was naughty in class, but still made it so fun.

  He made me laugh, he made everyone laugh. He was so sure of himself, so confident in doing his own thing, even at my young age I couldn’t ignore it.

  But, immediately following the kiss, he turned on me. He made fun of me to his friends, and that turned into the worst bullying I felt any person could possibly endure.

  The entire school made fun of me. I had to deal with spray painted messages on my locker. I had to deal with notes in class. There were the sneers in the hall and the whispers I knew were taking place behind my back.

  There were so many names I was called, so many labels I was given. Things got worse and worse until I received a text message telling me I ought to just end it all – and it nearly worked.

  My parents were so concerned over what I had done that they removed me from the school and we moved to a new town. I didn’t have to deal with the same kind of bullying in my new school, but the damage was done.

  I didn’t trust anyone, and I wasn’t going to open up to anyone about anything. I didn’t want friends, and from the seventh grade through eleventh, I had hardly anyone in my life. When I left, I lost touch with my best friend, Molly, and I never thought I would see Damon again.

  I was glad for the latter.

  Then, everything in my life fell apart.

  My parents were murdered, and I was moved several towns over, right into the home of my childhood bully. He had also been transferred after his foster mother learned of my suicide attempt, and she felt it would be better for him to go to school in the town they lived.

  It wasn’t far from our original school, but, when I found out he didn’t live in the same town as the rest of us, I couldn’t help but wonder why he didn’t go to school where he lived. I learned as a high school senior that he didn’t even know the answer to that question.

  Though things were rough at first, I had to admit, Damon and I got along remarkably well considering our history. In fact, he apologized for all that he had done to me in school, and he let me know that he wasn’t responsible for the worst of it.

  I wanted to believe that was true, and there was a large part of me that did. But, I had to admit, it was difficult for me to fully accept that he wasn’t to blame. He had been the one to start it, after all, and though he vehemently denied he was the one who sent the text telling me to kill myself, it didn’t change the fact that the text had been sent from his phone.

  Someone in his circle had said so, and I was still grappling with the effects of it.

  Despite all the hell that I had been through, one of the biggest surprises in my life came when I learned that Damon was dating my former best friend. She, too, had left our school and had started attending Secret Bay High, and, when I moved to town, the two of them were dating.

  Thanks to the fact Damon and I connected so well, he virtually left her for me.

  And it didn’t go over well.

  Molly had been mean to me since the day I showed up at the school, and she was even more infuriated when she learned that I lived with Damon. It didn’t matter to her that I had no choice in the matter, and it only made her angrier when she learned that he and I slept together.

  I hoped she’d move on with her life, but she decided to take it all out on me. She blamed me for the fact that she couldn’t keep her boyfriend, and she got her revenge by posting naked photos of me all over the school.

  I did my
best to ignore it, but when she came at me again, torturing me again at lunch, it was more than I could stand. I had had enough, and I wasn’t going to let her push me around anymore. So, I punched her square in the face.

  Though I wasn’t a violent person, it did feel good to hit her, and to hit her hard. It felt good to see her go flying back, and though I had been suspended for two weeks, it felt good knowing she had to work hard to cover the black eye I’d given her.

  Of course, Molly’s family had come by money somehow, and she was now the pet of every teacher in school. In their eyes, she could do no wrong. Even when I went to them and told them how certain I was about her guilt for hanging the photos, I had no proof, and she got off the hook.

  I was the one suspended for the fight because I was the one who threw the first punch. They didn’t care that she had been taunting me, and they certainly weren’t doing anything to address the way she bullied me, either.

  It was all about Molly, and she knew it.

  But I was done with that in my life. Going back to school wasn’t going to be easy after being gone for two weeks, but I was prepared to see her.

  I just hoped she’d leave me alone.

  As I walked into the building, I was sure it would be a little awkward at first. After all, most of the kids in school had not only seen the photos of me naked, but they had been in the cafeteria for the fight as well. Many of them were afraid of Molly and the fact she practically ruled the halls.

  Many of them were afraid of me now, too, knowing that I wasn’t afraid to throw a fist if someone didn’t leave me alone.

  I had a feeling they were going to be a little shy at first. But, what I didn’t expect, was for no one to talk to me at all.

  As I walked through the hall toward my locker, I could feel their eyes on me. I could hear the whispers around me, but no one was saying anything. It was the first time I saw any of them in school since the fight, and I wasn’t sure how that would be handled.

  Then again, as I approached my locker, I thought about the note that I’d found there when I’d come to get my books for my suspension. Someone in the school, someone anonymous, had left a note telling me that they knew both my and Damon’s secrets.

  For the life of me, I had no idea what secrets they were talking about.

  I had asked Damon about it as soon as I was able to catch him, but he didn’t have any idea what was going on, either.

  “What secret would you have that they would know? Why would they tell me?” I asked him.

  “I have a lot of secrets,” he said with a shrug. “I don’t know what they’re talking about.”

  “It’s bothering me,” I said.

  “You’ve been going through a lot, it could be more people just trying to mess with you,” he tried, but I wasn’t so sure.

  Now, as I put my books in my locker and grabbed what I needed, I could only imagine all the kids around me that were discussing this secret, whatever it may be.

  Abby, my best friend, came running up to me and threw her arms around me. She and I had been hanging out as much as we could over the past couple weeks, but that was only around the activities she had going on at school, and when I was free enough to hang out with her.

  It was hard keeping up with everything that was going on in class when I was trying to do it all at home, which meant we didn’t get as much time to hang out with each other as we would have liked.

  But now we’d get to see each other every day. At least, at school, anyway.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said in my ear.

  “What’s everyone talking about?” I asked as I looked around. “I know it’s got to be me.”

  “You almost killed yourself in middle school?” she asked.

  “Is that it?” I gasped. It had been a long time secret I’d not wanted anyone in the school to know about, and I’d only shared it with those I was closest to. Abby nodded.

  “Whoever wrote that note is probably the one who told,” I said with a shake of my head.

  “I thought as much myself, but I still haven’t gotten any wind over who did that?” Abby shook her head.

  “Do you think Damon might have?” I asked. It had been on the back of my mind for awhile, and though I didn’t want to say it out loud, the fact of the matter was that he was one of the only people who really knew what had happened back in sixth grade.

  Since Susan made me break up with Damon and he was upset with me for going along with it, the idea didn’t seem too far-fetched.

  “I would hope not,” Abby said seriously. “When I asked him if he had anything to do with it, he was adamant that he didn’t.”

  “He was with me when he said those things about our past,” I sighed. It was all so complicated, and I wasn’t sure what to do next.

  The bell rang, and we both turned.

  “We’ll talk later, okay?” she said. “At lunch.”

  I nodded, and she vanished. It was hard getting through the class knowing that my secret was out, and I was angry knowing that there was someone else out there who was spreading rumors and intimate information about me.

  I knew it was Molly who had put up the photos. Abby heard her admit it to a friend. But, the note wasn’t Molly’s handwriting. I couldn’t exactly say that it was Damon’s either.

  But who else could be doing this to me? And why?

  Ever since I came to the school, my goal had been to make it until graduation and then get out of there. I didn’t want to make friends, and it was only out of sheer luck that I had with Abby.

  Yet, there was no changing the fact that someone was still torturing me. Just as they had done back in middle school.

  The day dragged by, and, by the time I got back home, I was miserable and depressed. Abby asked if I wanted to hang out with her, but I declined. I just wanted to be in my room. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, I didn’t want to see anyone.

  And I really didn’t want to think about how the day was.

  “Hey, didn’t see you much in the halls today,” Damon said when I walked through the door. I had avoided him, too, just as I had been the past couple weeks.

  “I kept to myself,” I said simply.

  “Well, I was wondering if you wanted to do something,” he said. He was clearly trying to reach out, obviously having heard what was floating around the school.

  “Damon,” I said directly. “Did you?”

  I let the question hang in the air. I didn’t have to finish it, and he quickly shook his head. “I never would. I never did and I never would. Really.”

  “Then who?” I asked.

  It was a rhetorical question, but he just shook his head anyway. Of course he didn’t have the answer, and I couldn’t expect him to. But, I was frustrated. I didn’t want to hang out with him, either. Though I felt he was telling me the truth about not bullying me now, all I could think about was the way he had in the past.

  All that was going on at school now was reminding me of then, and it was hard for me to get through it.

  I pushed past him and headed to my room, but he wasn’t going to give up. Damon followed me, walking into my room and sitting on the bed.

  “I really want to be alone,” I said.

  “I’m past due for a tutoring session,” he replied. I sighed. I wished I hadn’t agreed to tutor him in the first place. But, I had the highest grade in the whole class, and, unless he pulled his grade up, he wasn’t going to graduate.

  “Are you sure that’s what you’re really after?” I asked with my arms folded.

  Damon got off the bed and walked over to me, taking me in his arms. “I just want to make sure you’re all right.”

  He lifted my chin with his finger, and though I knew I shouldn’t, I closed my eyes, letting him kiss me. Leaning into the kiss even. It was so hard, with all the emotions that were running through me. I couldn’t deny that I had fallen for him, and simply because Susan wanted us to break up, it didn’t erase those feelings.

  “We could take this to the be
d,” he said softly.

  I pushed back. “We can’t.”

  “We could,” he pressed. I knew he wanted to have sex, but I couldn’t. Not with all that was going on. Not with the confusion I felt.

  I sighed. “Damon, your mom wanted us to break up, and she made it clear we aren’t going to be together.”

  “My mom isn’t allowed to tell me who I can and can’t date,” he tried, but I shook my head.

  “I want to be alone,” I said.

  He looked defeated, and I knew he wanted to say something else, but instead, he just walked out of the room, leaving me with my thoughts. A pang of guilt ran through me, but I couldn’t let myself do something I knew I would regret. I had to stand firm and focus on what was right for me right now.

  And, right now, without knowing who to trust or what was going on in my life, romance was the last thing I needed.

  But then, I wasn’t sure what I really did need.

  Chapter 2

  Sutton

  I knocked on the door and waited for Abby to answer. I could have rang the doorbell, but I’d learned knocking tended to bring her to the door more often than her parents, and I really didn’t want to talk to either of them.

  They were nice enough, but after another stressful day at school, I just wanted to hang out in Abby’s room and not have to deal with the nightmare that had become my life.

  “Hey,” she said when she opened the oak door. “You made it.”

  “Thanks for the invite,” I told her as I stepped into the hall after her. “It’s nice to get out of the house with Damon hovering like he is.”

  “Can’t get him out of your hair, huh?” she asked.

  “It’s hard since we live together. I mean, I can’t tell him to not be in the living room or the kitchen when I am, but, at the same time, it seems like he’s waiting and watching for every single time I’m out of my room, then he pounces,” I said with a shrug.

  She was one of the only people who understood the struggle I was having with Damon, and I felt comfortable confiding in her. I was angry enough with Susan myself I didn’t want to talk to her about him, but it was still hard living in the same house as someone I was avoiding.