Secret Bay High Lies (Secret Bay High - Book #4) Read online

  Then again, his parents knew the value of hard work, and for all I knew, they might make him get a job just like Susan had made me. Or, they might feel bad enough that they would spoil him. Only time would tell.

  All I knew was that I was quickly getting bored hearing him talk about how much he deserved what he had now, and how he had to make up for lost time with his childhood. Money wasn’t everything, and I would have happily traded the childhood of wealth I had with him if it meant I could have grown up in a loving home with my real parents.

  “So what about you? What’ve you been doing with yourself these past five years?” Trent asked suddenly. “I can’t believe it’s been that long since we’ve seen each other!”

  “Me neither,” I said. “It’s crazy how time flies. And nothing much. I’ve been working at my dad’s board shop the past couple months. It’s kind of nice to have something to do after school.”

  “Screw that,” Trent waived off what I said with his hand. “I’m going to put off getting a job as long as I can, if I ever have to get one. I feel like my mom and dad sort of owe me what he’s making now since they gave me such a crappy childhood.”

  “Right,” I said slowly. Now I really wanted to tell him to cool it. He was annoying to listen to, and it was just pissing me off to hear him talk that way about his parents. I was still pretty young when I was pulled out of school and transferred to Secret Bay, but I still thought that the two of them were really nice people.

  They were sure a lot nicer than my real parents were to me, and I always sort of envied him for having a mom and dad like that. But, I still hesitated to bring it up. I didn’t want to make our first conversation after five years be awkward.

  “Would you look at her!” Trent said suddenly, his eyes transfixed behind me. I turned to see who he was looking at, and I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes when I saw Molly in line to get her lunch. She was looking at us, well, at Trent anyway. She clearly made no effort hiding the fact she was ignoring me as the two of them had a flirty moment from across the room.

  I turned back to Trent. “That’s Molly.”

  “Molly, wow,” he said with a shake of his head. He let out air through his teeth, but I reached over and put my arm on his shoulder.

  “No, it’s Molly Molly. Remember? Molly from the sixth grade?” I asked. “She was the one who was always hanging around with Sutton?”

  “Sutton? The girl who tried to off herself, right?” he asked flippantly.

  “Don’t talk about it that way. It was our fault she tried to do it,” I said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Trent shrugged, and he nearly pushed me over the limit. To hear how little he cared about Sutton or what she had nearly done to herself was enough to make me want to punch him in the face, but I merely clenched my spoon in my hand and focused on the pudding. “I can’t believe that’s fat Molly.”

  “You might be surprised to see how much people have changed,” I remarked.

  “Whatever,” he said. “All I know is that I’m going to tap that.”

  “Good luck,” I muttered under my breath. “Because that’s one way to ruin your life really fast, trust me.”

  But then, maybe Molly would be the cruel dose of reality he needed.

  Chapter 6

  Sutton

  Although my day automatically felt lighter because of the fact I was now official with Damon, I really couldn’t shake the cloud that had settled over me with Abby moving. I had felt better about things the rest of the night at home, but that morning when I woke up, all I could think about was the fact the clock was ticking, and time was running out.

  No matter how much I wanted Abby to stay in Secret Bay, it was going to come down to whether her mother moved away. She wouldn’t leave her mother in such a bad state, and I knew it was wrong of me to ask her to. She and her mother were closer than I was to my mom, and much closer than I would ever be to Susan, so I didn’t fully understand.

  Still, I wanted to be there for her as much as I could, and I felt so useless. I knew I ran the risk of feeling sorrier for myself and losing a friend than I felt sorry for her and what she was going through, but, I couldn’t help it.

  Whenever something new came crashing down on me, I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for myself. I wanted to scream at the universe. Couldn’t I catch a break? I had already lost everything, why did I have to lose my best friend on top of it?

  Life wasn’t supposed to be fair, I got that. I didn’t expect it to be fair, and I didn’t want a handout, but at the same time, I would be nice if I didn’t lose everything that was important to me, too.

  It was hard for me to open up to anyone after all that I had gone through, then when I did and more stuff like this happened, I often was left wondering what the point was. Why bother trying to make friends or keep my head up when I knew I was just going to lose it all anyway?

  It was part of the reason it was hard for me to open up and date Damon. Though I knew I loved him – I’d loved him my entire life – I was afraid of losing him. In my mind, in my hope to protect myself against everything, I hoped that by refusing to date him I would have that much more protection over my heart. But, I also knew that was no way to live my life.

  If I wanted to ever move past all the pain and hardship that I’d dealt with for years, I was going to have to accept that bad things happened and move on.

  But, being in the thick of it, it was hard.

  Really hard.

  I grabbed my lunch methodically, thinking about Abby and wishing she didn’t skip school again. I made it to the end of the line before scanning the room for Damon. He was sitting at a table near the front of the room, but when I saw who he was with, I froze.

  I only vaguely recognized the kid, but there was no doubt in my mind it was Trent from the sixth grade.

  What the heck is he doing here?

  I’d never really liked him, but the one thing that really stood out to me was the memory of when I’d given my first kiss to Damon in Trent’s bedroom. It was one of the happiest few seconds of my life, but it quickly turned into one of the worst things I’d ever done.

  It was the one incident that sparked all the relentless bullying that I’d endured for years. The bullying that nearly caused me to kill myself. Trent had been right there with the rest of them in the continuous torture of me, and as I could recall, he and Damon were basically inseparable.

  And, from the look of things, it seemed that was once again becoming the case. Shoot, if the two of them were so close right after Trent showed up at Secret Bay, then it would only be a matter of time before they were right back to being joined at the hip. At least, that’s all I could imagine.

  I avoided the table, and was glad Damon didn’t seem to notice me as I slid onto a bench near the corner. The other unpopular kids often hung out there, but they had their own clique, and I didn’t have any interest in trying to join. I buried myself in my phone, texting Abby and trying to think about anything but Damon and Trent over at the other table laughing and talking with each other.

  I wanted Damon to be happy, but I hoped that didn’t mean Trent had to come back into his life. Or, if he did, that he would stay away from our house. It was bad enough dealing with Dean, I didn’t want Trent to be involved, too.

  But, like so many other things in life, I knew it wasn’t my choice, and my opinion wouldn’t count in the issue. If Damon wanted to be best friends with that asshole again, that was up to him. I would still love Damon, but it would make me count down the days to getting out of high school even more.

  As hard as it was to lose Abby, I didn’t want to deal with Trent again, I just didn’t.

  Some people were nearly impossible to forgive.

  “What’s cookin good lookin?” I asked as I walked up behind Damon after school. He was in the parking lot getting the bike ready for us to head home, but I could finally give into my need for a kiss.

  We had a hard time keeping our hands off each other since we mad
e things official, but we were still trying to keep things lowkey in the building. We had to be careful not to let the word catch fire and spread like it so often did in class, and we really had to be careful not to let Susan or Dean see what we were doing.

  “There you are. I hoped you’d come find me at lunch,” he said as he turned and took me in his arms.

  “I would have, but it looked like you were busy,” I said.

  “I’m never too busy for you,” he replied as he kissed me. My instinct was to pull back, but I ignored it. I wanted the kiss, and I leaned into it now with passion. There was a part of me that didn’t care if anyone saw what we were doing, but then there was a part of me that knew I had to pull back before it got too far.

  There were so many things I wanted to do with Damon, but now wasn’t the time or the place, and any of the teachers might see us and tell us not to do that on school grounds. They might not have as much say when we weren’t in the halls, but they could still tell us we couldn’t do that in the parking lot, too.

  And, I still didn’t want there to be a lot of gossip floating around the school, either. Molly was still intensely jealous over Damon, even though the two of them had long since broken up, and I didn’t want to give her more reason to bully me or try to humiliate me in front of everyone.

  I couldn’t hide the blush, however, and I was already hoping Dean and Susan would both be gone by the time we got home. We could have a fast, passionate love making session before either of them got back from work, I was sure of it.

  And right now, I needed it a lot more than I was letting on.

  But then, my smile faded as I realized someone had seen the entire scene unfold.

  Trent walked up behind Damon with a smirk on his face. Damon, with his back to Trent, looked at me with confusion as my face fell. He was about to ask me what was wrong, when Trent spoke up.

  “The Cow Kisser is still at it, I see,” Trent said with a laugh.

  “Shut up!” I snapped.

  So many memories came flooding back to me all at once. Cow Kisser. The terrible nickname the kids had given me right after the first kiss I’d given to Damon back in sixth grade. I could still hear their little voices saying it over and over.

  They made fun of every part of me. From my weight to my kissing to my hair and what I brought for lunch. Nothing I wore was good enough, nothing I ate was good enough, no matter how hard I tried to keep up with other kids in the gym I wasn’t ever good enough.

  Every single part of my life was meant to be made fun of, and they managed to hit it all. The more time went on, the meaner the kids got, and the more vicious the attacks became. Right up until the day when I got the text message telling me to kill myself, and I almost had.

  I dealt with my locker being painted and kids leaving mean things on the stalls in the bathroom. I dealt with the class passing notes and making fun of me, all behind the teacher’s back and daring me to tell her what was going on. I was bullied into silence and bullied because I was.

  The only person I thought was my friend was Molly, and I had since learned that she was right there with the rest of the school against me. She was the one who had started the whole thing in the first place, playing on Damon’s need to be popular and choosing to make fun of me to do it.

  She was the one who had sent the text, but the rest of the kids were right on board. I was so angry with Trent for bringing it up to me again, years later, I saw red and wanted to punch him right in the face. I didn’t care if I would get suspended again. I wasn’t going to go back to that in my mind, and thanks to him, I was there again.

  “What did you say to her?” Damon whipped around before I had the chance to react.

  “Come on, you were the one who came up with it,” he said with a laugh.

  “I’m over that! It was wrong, and I apologized, and you should, too,” Damon snapped back at him. “She’s not anything but the most beautiful, perfect woman in the world, and I’m not going to put up with anyone who says anything against her, you got it?”

  He puffed up his chest and rose to his full height, challenging Trent to try something. Trent took a step back, but I could see the arrogance in his face as he backed down. He clearly wasn’t going to take back what he said, and for all I could see, he was proud that he remembered the terrible nickname in the first place.

  I could only imagine he was going to find Molly and the two of them would reconnect somehow, laughing about it and thinking of new ways they could make my life a living hell while I was still in school. I didn’t want to worry about it, but it was impossible after everything they had already put me through.

  I didn’t trust anyone, and knowing Abby had her own problems to deal with, I wasn’t sure how I would be able to stand up to them this time if they were to start that sort of thing again. Sure, I would have Damon on my side, and I knew Susan would step in if things got too bad for me, but I didn’t want to go to them. I just didn’t want to deal with it at all. We were all nearly adults, after all, and I firmly believed it was time that they all acted like it.

  “Easy there,” Trent said. “It was only good fun.”

  “It’s not fun,” Damon growled. “Now you better get out of here so I can calm down before I do something you regret.”

  “Sheesh, settle down already,” he said as he stalked off into the parking lot heading toward a car much nicer than anything I thought he’d drive.

  “Sorry about that,” Damon quickly turned to me. “Really. The money’s going to his head, and it seems he’s not done much to mature over the past five years.”

  “It’s fine,” I said as I shook my head. “I think he’s pathetic, so it doesn’t matter what he says.”

  “I think he’s pathetic, too,” Damon said with a smile. “And I’m not going to put up with anyone treating you that way. If he says anything else to you, you come and get me, okay? I’ll put him in his place really fast.”

  “I thought the two of you were like best friends?” I asked.

  “We were, five years ago. But I’m not going to be friends with someone like that, and it seems to me he’s just getting worse. It would be one thing if he grew out of it, but it doesn’t seem like he’s got any plans to grow out of anything, and like I said, I’m not going to put up with that kind of treatment. You don’t deserve that. You didn’t then, you don’t now, and I’m not going to put up with it,” he said.

  “Thank you,” I said in a low voice. He gave me another kiss and climbed up on the back of the bike. I settled in behind him, wrapping my arms around him and laying my head on his back as he pulled out of the parking space and onto the street.

  I was still shaken with the anger that had flooded through me at the name Trent said, but I felt better knowing Damon had stood up for me like that. He had stood up against the person who had been his best friend before, and I had even thought he was going to punch the guy.

  Of course, I didn’t want Damon to get in trouble for anything, and I knew Susan wouldn’t be happy in the least if she heard Damon was getting into fights at school, but the fact that he was willing to do that for me made me trust him all the more.

  Clearly, he meant it when he said he would stand up for me. He meant it when he said he was there for me forever, and he was going to stand by my side. I could trust him to do what he said he was going to do, and I could relax. He wasn’t going to let me get bullied at school, not while he had a say in it, that was for dang sure.

  And though I liked to take care of myself, it felt good knowing I didn’t have to stand on my own two feet alone anymore. Damon was there to protect me. He had my back against anyone and everyone. Sure, there were some things that were too big for either of us to just fix, but with him there to work through it with me, I knew I’d be okay eventually.

  But, I still looked forward to seeing Abby again. I had so much to tell her after today, and I wanted to her how things were going for her and her mom.

  And, more than anything, I just wanted to see her. />
  Chapter 7

  Sutton

  By the time we pulled into the garage, I had all but forgotten about Trent and was more focused on Damon. I was still enthralled with the way he had stood up for me to his friend, and it made me feel good to know that he didn’t even have to stop and think about his reaction to that sort of a situation.

  If he thought I wasn’t being treated fairly, then he was going to step in and make sure I was. No questions asked.

  I was also happy for the excuse to hold him so close to me as we drove through downtown. Being on the back of his bike, it was a lot less obvious I was clinging to him so strongly when we were on the move. But, I squeezed him tighter than I had before, and I was eager to get behind closed doors to finally be able to kiss him again.

  Both Dean and Susan were home. We saw their vehicles up front when we pulled into the driveway. But, they were likely to be in the house watching whatever drama they were usually watching when we got back from school, so Damon and I took the chance to make out again for a few moments before heading inside.

  He had gone from hot to irresistible since becoming my boyfriend. I couldn’t keep my hands off him, that was for sure. Or my lips either, for that matter. If Dean and Susan weren’t home, I would have dragged him right upstairs and to his bedroom to make love again.

  The thought of sleeping together again was already on my mind, and I wondered how we were going to control ourselves around the adults in the house. It was hard enough being at school, and they weren’t the people we were trying to keep this hidden from.

  Then, it happened.

  The door to the garage opened, and Susan walked in. Damon and I were so caught up in the heat of the moment, neither of us heard her come in until she was right there. She gasped, turned, and walked right back into the house, closing the door roughly behind her.