‘It was Greg Winter’s party,’ Jackie said. ‘It was at his father’s house on the town line.’
Megan snapped her fingers. ‘I knew there was a brain in there somewhere.’
Jackie flipped Megan off.
‘Jackie, we come to you first,’ Megan continued. ‘You might not remember his name, but you should remember meeting my brother.’
‘I don’t,’ Jackie said, her eyes darting to each member of the group.
This girl was daft. ‘What is a nickname for someone named Jacob?’
It took the cheerleader a minute, but Megan noted the exact moment where it clicked for her.
Jackie’s mouth fell open. ‘Jake.’
‘Jake,’ Megan said slowly, dragging the name over her tongue—ever since they’d met, he’d always been Jacob to her—‘as his new friends called him, was invited by two football players at our school. As a joke. My brother wanted desperately to fit in, so he went.’
Jackie covered her mouth with her hand. Her eyes welled with tears.
Good.
Megan didn’t need to try to keep her tears at bay. She’d cried enough. While planning all of this, anger was the stronger emotion. Now she ripped open the gaping wound in her heart as she relived it for them.
‘I didn’t know he was serious about going so when he asked me for a ride, I refused,’ Megan said. ‘Instead, he took the bus across town and walked to the house. When he arrived, that’s when he met Jackie.’
Megan held onto Jackie’s gaze. It was the hardest thing she’d ever done to go to school with this girl every day for six months. And to make it worse, she’d had to research Jackie’s life to find the one thing that would teach her a lesson.
Megan had been content to ruin Jackie’s face. Jackie was the first on her list. Initially, the knife had been the only option. As she’d planned the rest of the consequences, she’d come up with the temporary option to give Jackie false hope. Every opportunity for Jackie to ruin someone’s life had two choices, the easy one and the hard one. She was surprised that Jackie took the hard way out, but even though the clock almost ran out, she still suffered her consequence.
Megan knew Jackie was a virgin, she heard that from Logan directly, but that wasn’t her biggest secret. Even after watching each of her classmates fall, she still resisted her own truth. She thrived on lies, and those lies had deathly consequences.
Megan had been on the edge of her seat while everyone searched for the letters. Little did they know, Megan was going to suggest opening the second envelope at the last minute, wanting to have the deciding vote in Jackie’s fate. Jackie’s quick thinking about that exact plan somewhat backfired on Megan, giving Jackie the win. Megan hoped every painful inch of Jackie’s face helped remind her of what she’d done to ‘Jake’.
‘Do you remember the encounter?’ Megan asked. ‘I only have the gossip. But Jacob was gay, so what you made up couldn’t have possibly been true.’
The others looked at Jackie, something that Megan hoped for. Peer pressure wasn’t a bad motivator. And now that their secrets were shared, there was no reason for anyone to hold back.
‘I thought he was cute,’ Jackie said. ‘Logan and I were on the outs again, and I wanted to make him jealous. So I figured this kid would do the trick and then I’d never see him again. We went into Greg’s mom’s room. And, um, once we were inside, we started fooling around.’
‘That’s a lie,’ Megan said.
Jackie nodded. ‘I tried to fool around with him. He refused. For Logan to be jealous, I needed Jake to tell the story as I wanted. And to be honest, Jake not wanting me hurt my ego a bit. So I told him that he had to tell everyone we had sex or else I’d say he was unable to get it up.’
Megan was the only one in their family that knew he was gay. And since Jacob wanted to fit in—something she never understood—he would have done it, no matter how wrong it felt to him.
‘I bet that felt nice,’ Megan said.
‘Screw you,’ Jackie said. ‘I didn’t mean to—’
‘You didn’t mean to embarrass him? You were going to do it anyway. I hope every time you look into the mirror, you think of him.’
Jackie’s shoulders shook with repressed sobs.
Speaking of tears…
‘Let’s move on to Cece,’ Megan said.
‘I didn’t try to sleep with him,’ Cece said.
‘No,’ Megan said. ‘But you make him vulnerable.’
‘How?’ Cece asked, her eyes narrowing to slits.
‘By taking his only means to get a safe ride home,’ Megan said.
Cece’s eyes teared up, and her voice shook. ‘I don’t understand.’
Megan reached into her bag and pulled out a red debit card. The one that her dad gave both her and Jacob in case of emergencies. ‘This is what Jacob would have used to get a ride home. But for some reason, it showed up in your bedroom. Tell me, how is that?’
Cece wrung her hands in her lap and mumbled something.
‘Please speak up!’ Megan snapped.
‘I stole his wallet,’ Cece said flatly.
‘You took his wallet,’ Megan repeated, letting it sink in. ‘Do you still claim not to be involved?’
‘Why would you steal his wallet?’ Jackie asked. ‘You have a ton of money.’
‘I can’t help it sometimes,’ Cece said. ‘It’s something I need to do to feel right about myself. And no one knew him, so it didn’t seem like a big deal.’
‘That’s messed up,’ Q said.
‘Shut up,’ Cece said. ‘None of you is perfect.’
Megan waited until they stopped bickering before continuing her story. ‘Jacob didn’t know about his missing wallet until he got to the ATM,’ Megan said. ‘When he tried to get onto the bus, the driver refused him a ride. And at that point, he was too far away from the party and needed to be home in time for curfew. Do you remember the temperature that night?’
Jackie mumbled something.
‘What was that?’ Megan demanded.
‘It was cold,’ Jackie said, narrowing her eyes.
‘It was thirty-five degrees that night, give or take. Teddy, that’s where you come in.’
Teddy’s eyes were wide as if he knew he wasn’t involved. He was so wrong.
‘If you need help remembering,’ Megan said, ‘I spoke with your cousin, Declan. He remembered a “young kid” asking for money from the both of you. But do you recall what you said to Jacob?’
‘No,’ Teddy said, shaking his head.
‘Exactly. You said no. You refused someone who needed help. He only needed a couple of dollars for the bus. You couldn’t even spare that,’ Megan said.
Teddy hung his head. ‘I barely remember him at all.’
Cece gasped, now fully sobbing even though her part of the tale was over. Megan was on a roll now, and there was no stopping her.
‘That’s when we come to you, Q,’ Megan said. She couldn’t linger on the fine details any longer. She was done with them and wanted to move onto the finale. ‘Jacob saw your garbage can. The one you soaked with gasoline and lit up. Did you even see him? Did you see the way his hands moved over the flames because he was freezing? And how the fire exploded shortly after, throwing my brother to the ground? At that point, the coroner mentioned that Jacob suffered from second-degree burns on his hands. And the flames burned his eyes. Enough for him to not see the car coming straight at him as he stumbled into the road.’
Q cursed then said, ‘This is all circumstantial. You’re crazy, Holly—Megan, whoever the hell you are!’
‘I have proof of every instance,’ Megan said. ‘I did my homework months before coming to this school. It makes me sick to see people like you go on living your lives when you could have been nicer to someone who needed help. One act of kindness and my brother would be with me today. I wouldn’t be here and neither would all of you.’
‘Did you set us up to come to detention?’ Jackie asked.
‘Of course,’ Megan sai
d. ‘It was easy enough to get into your locker, Teddy.’ Megan was unable to hide her smile. Getting them all into detention the same week had been her favorite part of all this. ‘I tipped Principal Killian about Cece skipping school. During the fake fire alarm fiasco that Q took the blame for, it was incredibly simple to swap your test for one that looked like you cheated, Jackie.’
‘I could get kicked out of school!’ Jackie exclaimed.
‘You didn’t set off the fire alarm?’ Cece said to Q.
Q didn’t defend himself. Megan knew he’d take the blame for it, especially when it had to do with fire.
‘What did you do to Zoe?’ Teddy asked.
Zoe’s eyes widened with fear.
Megan looked at Zoe. ‘We’re getting there. The driver of the car is up next. I never blamed him for hitting Jacob. It was dark, and Jacob fell into the street after being burned and blinded. At least that’s what the coroner said.’ She shot a look in Q’s direction. ‘The running away is what gets me. What motivates someone to fatally injure someone else and then flee the scene? You must be thinking alcohol, but you’re wrong. It’s much worse than that.’
Megan smirked and lifted her chin, indicating the doorway. ‘And here comes lucky number five, right on time.’
CHAPTER NINETEEN
ZOE
Saturday
Zoe swallowed the lump in her throat as Mr. Curtis entered the room. A thin sheen of sweat covered his face, and his eyes were wild.
Mr. Curtis was the one who killed Jacob? That wasn’t true. It couldn’t be, could it? No matter what Holly said about the rest of them, Mr. Curtis would never hurt a child like that and just leave him in the road to die.
They all rushed over to him, and he backed away, holding his hands out in front of him as if he were scared of them.
‘Mr. Curtis,’ Cece said. ‘Holly has done terrible things to us today.’
‘Slow down,’ Mr. Curtis said, shaking his head. ‘What’s going on here?’
‘She set me up in the theater,’ Q said, raising his bandaged hands for emphasis.
‘She’s crazy!’ Jackie added.
‘You need to call the police,’ Cece said, whirling around to accuse Holly.
Zoe’s heart dropped when they all turned to see that Holly was gone.
‘Where is she?’ Q asked, rushing over to her seat. His eyes darted across the room.
Zoe’s stomach dropped. How had Holly disappeared that quickly?
‘Her timing is impeccable,’ Teddy noted, sounding a little impressed.
‘Shut up!’ Jackie said. ‘Mr. Curtis, she made it look like I was cheating and did this to my face.’ She lifted the hat, revealing the skin rash.
‘I-I don’t have time for this,’ Mr. Curtis said, barely looking Jackie in the eyes. ‘I have to go.’
Had he heard what they were saying? He had a stake in this whole situation, but Holly must not have told him all of them were involved too. Well, at least the rest of them. Zoe had no idea what she’d done to be roped into the group.
‘Listen, uh, I need to go home. It’s a family emergency,’ Mr. Curtis said, rubbing his hands against his shirt. Dark circles stained the fabric under his armpits.
Zoe blinked. All of his strange behavior that day made sense. While Zoe thought the phone rang for the librarian, it was for him. Was that his task? She thought he was just as upset as she was about spending detention with all of her classmates, but he had suffered at Holly’s hand, and she completely missed it.
‘What about detention?’ Teddy asked.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ Mr. Curtis snapped as he strode by them. He rubbed his hands against his jeans while his other hand rubbed his chin. ‘We all need to leave, now. I’ll mark you down as being here for the day. You’ve served your time.’
Zoe wanted to say something to Mr. Curtis. She wanted to scream and make him listen. If Holly’s claims were true, he’d done this to himself. The teacher who was so well respected at school was accused of murdering a teen in cold blood. What else was Holly going to do to him?
Should Zoe warn him?
She opened her mouth to say something, anything to make him stay, but nothing came out.
Teddy touched her arm, and he shook his head, silencing her. ‘We’ll clean up, Mr. Curtis.’
‘I’m trusting you all to be out of here in ten minutes. I’ll inform Victor to lock up behind you,’ Mr. Curtis said. ‘See you all Monday.’
When he left, Teddy gathered up his part of the chain and set it on the table.
‘Why did you stop me?’ Zoe asked.
‘Because he’s in the middle of his task, obviously. Megan will give him what he deserves.’
‘He couldn’t have done this,’ Zoe said. ‘Murdering a kid? That doesn’t seem like something he would do.’
‘Why do you care?’ Jackie asked. ‘He probably did do it. Megan did a lot of research. She was right about all of us. Not everyone is as they seem.’
Zoe knew that first hand.
‘What do we do, now?’ Cece asked. ‘We should call the police about that psycho.’
‘And risk our involvement? You saw her cell phone. I may enjoy pissing off my parents, but I’m not about to get arrested for anything that she’s found out about me.’ Q asked. ‘Hell, no. We’re keeping our mouths shut. All of us.’
No one asked Zoe about her involvement with Jacob. And she began to worry about that. Was this a part of Megan’s plan? On the intercom message, the voice said ‘six’. They mistakenly thought that meant Zoe and Holly, but Zoe knew it was her and Mr. Curtis. Her secrets had caught up with her, even though the rest of the kids had no idea what went on in Zoe’s life.
‘I can’t believe we just let her go,’ Cece said. ‘There has to be something we can do.’
‘There’s nothing,’ Jackie said, defeated. ‘We move on with our lives and hope that Megan can move on with hers.’
‘I don’t believe that,’ Cece said.
‘If you tell anyone about this, then everyone will be exposed,’ Q said. ‘You’re going to keep your mouth shut.’
Cece wrinkled her nose.
‘We all have to promise,’ Teddy said. ‘If my mom finds out, she’s going to be so disappointed.’
‘And my reputation will be ruined,’ Jackie said.
‘No way am I getting kicked out of this place when I only have one year of Hell left,’ Q said.
‘Cece?’ Teddy said. ‘You need to keep this a secret. We all do.’
‘This will only work if we all agree,’ Q said, eyeing Cece.
Cece’s eyebrows drew together. ‘I’m already screwed. There’s no way I want anyone else to know about this.’
‘Then it’s done,’ Q said. ‘Let’s finish up and get out of here.’
‘Fine,’ Cece said. ‘Whatever.’
‘I don’t know what I’m going to do,’ Teddy said. ‘The transfer went to some website. I wonder if Megan routed the money to her account.’
‘I wouldn’t put it past her,’ Q said. ‘I’m going to destroy her at school on Monday.’
‘Do you think we’re ever going to see her again?’ Zoe asked.
Q let out a sigh then shook his head. ‘She’d be asking for it if she did.’
‘I’m scared to go home,’ Zoe admitted. ‘What if something horrible is waiting for me there?’
‘She’s gone now,’ Teddy said. ‘I think you should count yourself lucky.’
Even though everyone promised not to tell about what happened that day, Zoe wasn’t at ease with how it ended. A lightness in her stomach twisted around her insides just like they did when she rode a roller coaster. The inevitable drop loomed in the distance. And she had no idea when it was coming.
Zoe went to the librarian’s office and grabbed the large cardboard box that held all the slips. She brought it back into the room and placed it on the table. Q stood there, useless without his hands. Everyone else picked up the slack, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. As if
leaving the scene of this terrible game would help them forget. But no one would.
‘I’ll finish up,’ Zoe said. It was the least she could do for them after the trauma each of them had gone through.
‘Are you sure?’ Jackie asked.
‘Yes, I can lock up too,’ Zoe said. ‘And I’ll let Victor know we’re done in here.’
Cece didn’t need another second to think about it. She practically bolted from the room.
Q and Jackie were right behind her, walking out, side-by-side. Something that Zoe never thought she’d ever see.
‘I’ll help,’ Teddy said. He reached into the box, brushing her hand.
Zoe sucked in a breath. ‘I don’t want to suffer like everyone else, but why wasn’t I targeted? What was the point of me being here?’
Teddy placed his hands on the side of the box and shrugged. ‘I have no idea. But you should feel grateful. To be honest, I never thought you did anything anyway.’
Zoe considered him.
‘I know we haven’t been close in a while, something that I do think about a lot, but you’re still a good person. And you’ve managed to stay that way even after what happened to your dad.’
The corners of Zoe’s mouth tugged down involuntarily. She wasn’t going to cry in front of him. She slid the box off the table and brought it back to the office.
With a moment to herself, she took a breath, still feeling the prickling sensation on the back of her neck as if someone was watching her. She shook it off and placed the box down on Mrs. Jenkin’s desk.
She was about to leave when a red piece of paper caught her eye. Zoe choked on her next breath. She touched the slip. Her name was on one side. She didn’t try and question how Megan placed it there without anyone seeing. She flipped it over, and there were only two words written. ‘Walk home.’
A slow breath escaped her lips. She nodded and placed the box down, shoving the slip into her pocket.
When she came out, Teddy was waiting for her. ‘Do you need a ride?’
‘No, thanks. I’m going to walk home.’
‘I’ll see you Monday?’
She nodded, hoping she’d be able to keep that promise.
Six Little Secrets Page 12