Better Than Revenge (Sweet Secrets #1)

by Taylor Henderson

  I frowned. It was way too early to be playing games with Brianna. All I wanted was some eggs and bacon for breakfast and I was not in the mood to be toyed with. “I know it may be hard for you, but you don’t always have to be such a bitch. I just want some breakfast. Is that too much to ask for?”

  Brianna pouted her lips and placed her index finger under her chin. To an outsider she might have looked as if she was pondering something, but Lena and I both knew that she was just mocking me. “Yes, that is too much to ask for considering that I’m hungry too. If you wanted something to eat you should have woken up earlier. And you really should stop cursing so much. Ladies don’t swear.”

  “Go to hell.”

  “I’ll see you there,” she retorted.

  The clicking of my mom’s heels stopped me from thinking of a good comeback; not that I could think of anything anyway. My mind was still foggy from just waking up, and all I could really focus on was my stomach’s gentle rumbling.

  “Here,” said Lena, sliding her half-finished plate over to me. “I’m full anyway,” she added.

  “Are you sure? I can just grab some cereal.” I felt bad taking Lena’s breakfast. She was my guest. I guess Brianna was technically my guest too, but I just consider her a freeloader.

  “I’m sure.”

  “Thanks Lenny,” I said, not hesitating to fork up some eggs and place them into my open mouth. I took a bite of the crunchy piece of bacon that sat on the side of the plate and sighed as the wonderful taste filled my mouth.

  I turned my head, waving at my mom as she strutted into the kitchen.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Forrester,” chorused Lena and Brianna.

  My mom smiled and replied with a simple, “Good morning girls. I hope everyone had a good sleep.”

  Lena and Brianna nodded, smiles adorning both of their faces although Lena’s was real and Brianna’s was strained.

  “That’s good.” As if noticing that Brianna and I were the only one’s eating breakfast, she added, “Lena, what happened to your breakfast?”

  Lena shrugged, and answered with, “Brianna must have forgotten that I spent the night because she didn’t leave me anything to eat. I’ll be fine though.”

  My mom looked horrified. “I can make some more to eat if you’d like. I don’t have to take Lilly to preschool for another hour or so.” She glanced at the watch that was strapped onto her wrist.

  Lena shook her head, holding her hands up almost as if she was surrendering. “No, it’s all right. I’m not hungry anyway.”

  My mom shook her finger at Lena, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. At least grab a banana or an apple before you leave, okay?”

  “Sure thing, Mrs. F.”

  My mom laughed at the nickname as she pulled a mug out of the cabinet and placed a tea bag into it. Using the kettle on the stove, she poured hot water into the cup before striding over to the table to place a kiss on my forehead. She smoothed my hair back from my forehead saying, “What did I say about the wet hair, Violet? You’re going to get pneumonia one of these days.”

  I filled my mouth with the last bite of eggs and slipped out from under my mom’s touch. “I’ll be fine, mom. Don’t be such a worrywart all of the time.” I went to stack the now empty plate in the sink along with my and Lena’s used forks. Shuffling back over to the table, I grabbed my unused plate and placed it back into the cabinet.

  I heard my mom’s heels clicking against the hard wood floors as she exited the kitchen, calling, “Your lunch is in the refrigerator. Don’t miss the bus!” over her shoulder.

  Lena stood up from the table, pushing her chair in behind her and walking over to the kitchen island to grab a banana. “Might as well eat this. I bet your mom took inventory of them when she walked past.”

  “I wouldn’t put it past her,” I replied, grabbing my lunch before swinging the refrigerator door shut. “Bye, Lena. Have fun staying home all day while I go to school and learn.” I strained a smile.

  Lena rolled her eyes. “You act like it’s not a Friday.”

  The scraping of Brianna’s chair gained our attention and we snapped our eyes to her. She smiled. “And Ella and I are having that party on Saturday.”

  Lena took a step toward Brianna, her eyebrows furrowed. “What party?’

  “You didn’t hear about it? Ella and I throwing a huge Halloween party this weekend. I’m shocked she didn’t tell you about it. Oh, wait, no I’m not. She’s hates you. Why would she tell you about it?” Brianna laughed despite the snarl on Lena’s face.

  “Where are you having the party at?”

  Brianna pretended to pull a zipper across her lips. “My lips are sealed. Ask Ella if you want to know so badly. It’s not like you could get in anyway. It’s invite only.”

  “Like we would want to go to a stupid party anyway,” I snapped.

  Brianna shrugged. “Blake’s going. I had to beg him to come, but it was definitely worth it.”

  “Blake doesn’t go to parties. Except for study parties,” I added.

  Brianna rolled her eyes. “It’s really sad that I know your boyfriend better than you do. He’s going to the party whether you like it or not.”

  “He won’t go.”

  “Yes, he will.”

  Lena spoke up, “Ella doesn’t even like Blake. Why would she want him to be at your party?’

  Brianna smirked. “I told her I wanted him to come. I’ve got her wrapped around my finger like a freaking rubber band. She seems like more of a sister to me than she is to you.”

  Lena flipped up her middle finger, “You really get on my nerves,” she muttered before storming from the room.

  ***

  Blake pushed his wire rimmed glasses up higher on the bridge of his nose and cracked a small smile at me. “How do I look?” he questioned.

  “Like a sexy nerd,” Lena stated in a bored tone whilst shoving a handful of chips into her mouth. “Can we go now?”

  I rolled my eyes, reaching my arm out to grip onto Blake’s tie. “Well, I think that you look very smart.”

  Blake leaned forward, placing a swift kiss on my lips. “And you look very cute in your rebel outfit-thing.”

  “I’m supposed to be Goth. Can’t you tell?”

  Lena shoved another handful of chips into her mouth and I waited as both her and Blake’s eyes roamed over my body from head to toe. “Well, you do look very…black,” Blake stated.

  “Yeah and those boots look very…heavy,” Lena added, pointing a glossy nail at my spiky platform boots.

  “Yeah, well what are you supposed to be?” I remarked snappily, pointing at Lena’s costume that consisted of Blake’s red and white basketball shorts, an over-sized white t-shirt and a red sweat band.

  Lena smiled, “I’m a backup dancer for High School Musical. Go wildcats!” She punched her fist in the air twice and spun around in a circle chanting, “Getcha head in the game!”

  Blake laughed while he tightened his tie. When he was finished, he casually slung his arm over my shoulder and smiled. “Ready to go? I can already hear the music.”

  Lena pushed in front of us and swung the door open, sprinting out into the front yard and then disappearing from my field of vision. Blake held the screen door open for me as he clicked the lock on the back of the door and then pulled it shut behind us. The brisk October air was crisp yet refreshing as it filled my lungs.

  Next door, I could see the party lights flashing from Brianna’s house and was immediately shocked at the line of people standing in the doorway waiting to get inside. Last week Brianna had started planning her infamous Halloween party. My parents had been a bit iffy about the idea of her hosting a full blown house party in her house while her parents were away, but when they received an email from Brianna’s parents consenting to the party, they allowed it to happen. Little did they know, Brianna had access to her mother’s email address and had sent the email herself. I had only found out by sheer luck; she had forgotten to exit the page and I had
seen the email for myself. So, like all good blackmail artists, I printed the screen and threatened to tell my parents if she didn’t invite me and Lena to the party too.

  So while my parents are out trick or treating with Lilly, Lena, Blake, and I are getting ready for the party of our lives. Despite my intense hatred for Brianna I have always wanted to go to one of her parties. The music is always the best and the people who attend it always have the best stories for weeks afterwards. Last year was my last time spending Halloween trick or treating with Lily, and coming home to try and ignore the party that was in full swing next door.

  Blake tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear, effectively pulling me out of my thoughts.

  “Is it sad that this is our first high school party, and we’re almost out of high school?” Blake asked thoughtfully.

  I shrugged, “It’s better than never going to one at all.”

  “I guess.”

  Blake was silent as we got into line behind a girl that I recognized from my science class last year. She was dressed very scantily as some kind of cat. If it weren’t for the tail and the ears, I probably would have never guessed. She was silently bobbing along to the music with two other girls that were stood in front of her.

  Rising up onto my tippy-toes, I tried to see down the line and spot Lena, but she was nowhere to be found. Blake wrapped his arms around my waist, and rested his head gently on my shoulder. “Knowing Lena, she probably cut to the front of the line. We’ll see her inside.”

  After waiting in line for no more than ten minutes, we were ushered through the door, only having to flash our invitations at a guy who was standing guard at the door. I recognized him instantly as one of the more beefy football players who went to our school.

  “I wonder how much Brianna spent to have security at her party,” I spoke aloud.

  Blake shrugged and leaned close to my ear so that he didn’t have to shout over the loud music, “The price of having security is cheap compared to how much she’s making by charging a ten dollar entrance fee to those without invitations.”

  I nodded slowly. “I hadn’t thought about that.” Maybe Brianna is actually smarter than I give her credit for.

  “Trust me,” he mumbled, “she truly is a lot smarter than you give her credit for.”

  I rolled my eyes when Blake voiced my thoughts. It was becoming more and more often that he said what I was thinking. Sometimes I thought that it was cute that we were so in sync but at times like this I thought that it was just plain annoying.

  “Let’s grab some drinks!” Blake screamed as he gripped my hand and pulled me through the crowd of people and toward the kitchen.

  As we pushed our way down the hallway I took notice of all of the decorations that covered the house. The entrance had plastic skeleton’s dangling from the ceiling along with a few very realistic spider webs. Black and orange balloons were tied to either side of the staircases and a few floated overhead in a ghost like manner. When Blake and I entered the kitchen, the first thing I saw were tiny pumpkins lining the counter tops. The only counter that was free of pumpkins was the center island which consisted of drinks galore.

  To my surprise, Blake grabbed two beers off of the island and handed one to me with a sly smile on his face. “There’s a first time for everything right?”

  I hesitantly took the beer from Blake’s hand. “Why not? One beer can’t really do much right?”

  “Right,” he said producing a bottle opener from the counter and popping the cap off of the bottle with ease before doing the same for me.

  The bottle hissed menacingly as the cap popped off and landed on the floor. It was cold against the palm of my hand, but with an encouraging look from Blake, I pressed the bottle to my lips and swiftly tilted my head back, chugging the beer quickly. The smell of sweaty socks filled my nostrils as the light beer ran smooth tracks down my throat. The bitter taste overwhelmed my taste buds and was generally displeasing to what I thought beer would taste like. I tilted my head down and spat the beer that was filling my mouth back into the bottle and handed it to Blake.

  “No thank you.” I gagged.

  Blake chuckled, pulling me away from the island where other party goers were beginning to crowd around as they reached for drinks.

  “You already downed more than half of it. Mine as well drink the rest!” He held the bottle back out to me and laughed when I pushed it away again. “It can’t be that bad…” he trailed off.

  “It tastes like piss!”

  “How do you know what pee taste like?” Blake raised his eyebrows suggestively causing me to laugh at the way that they pulled together on his forehead.

  “It’s what I expect pee to taste like!”

  Blake gripped my bottle in his hand and pressed his bottle to his lips, taking a gulp before lowering it. “It’s not that bad. You were exaggerating.”

  I crossed my arms and rolled my eyes playfully. “Whatever.”

  Blake’s pale blue eyes pierced into mine as he leaned forward slowly. Going up on tippy-toes I tried to close the space between us by wrapping my arms around his neck. Blake snaked his arms around my waist, still gripping a beer in each hand and effectively ruined the mood by blowing his beer-breath gently across my lips.

  Quickly leaning away, I shielded my nose from the awful smell and mumbled, “Your breath smells like sweaty-urine-covered-socks!”

  Blake pulled away, feigning hurt. “Aw, Vi, why do you have to be so brutally honest all of the time?”

  I smirked, snatching the beers from his hand and turning to run off. “That’s what you love about me!” I yelled over my shoulder as I dodged in and out of the crowd of teenagers dressed in costumes ranging from angels and firefighters to werewolves and vampires.

  I made sure to drop both bottles into an open trash bag as I ran out into the back yard. The music seemed as if it was louder in this area than it was in the rest of the house. There was a throng of teenagers gyrating to some pop song I had never heard before in the center of the yard, opposite of the small kidney shaped pool that was covered up for the fall. Closest to the house was a crowd of people counting loudly while some girl did a keg stand. I turned my head to scan the rest of the back yard when I swiveled my head back to the direction of the keg stand, frowning thoughtfully. I knew I recognized those shorts from somewhere. They were Blake’s shorts; the one’s he had let Lena borrow for her costume.

  A poke in my side caused me to jump spastically before turning to glare at Blake who in turn smiled sheepishly. He knows how ticklish I am, and yet he’s always poking or tickling me. Apparently when I jump around and act like an idiot he finds it “cute”.

  “What? I can’t help it? You’re just too adorable.” I couldn’t help noticing the way that his blue eyes danced when they caught the light.

  “Yeah yeah. You’re cuter though,” I teased, knowing that he hated when I called him cute.

  “I am not cute. I’m manly,” he huffed, flexing his arm for emphasis.

  I raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Sure cutie pie, whatever you say.”

  Blake groaned, but before he could say anything I grabbed his hand and started pulling him across the lawn to where Lena was doing a keg stand. “I’m going to need you to use you manly muscles to help me out with Lena.”

  As we neared the stand, I could hear the throng of people counting, “64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70!” Some muscle guy that I vaguely recognized yelled about how a girl had beaten his record, while others punched the air with their fists and encouraged Lena to go longer. When she hit eighty-six her body started to sway and at eighty-eight she was being placed right-side-up on her feet. The crowd had grown and people were going crazy about how Lena had set a new record.

  A skinny boy with a Dumbledore beard on held Lena’s hand into the air in victory and asked if she had anything special to say to her “fans”.

  Lena used her free hand to push back her hair and flash a large smile at everyone before throwing her hands up and yelling,
“We’re all in this together!”

  The crowd cheered, and if it weren’t for the support from Dumbledore, then I could have sworn that Lena would have fallen over sideways. When we were in touching distance of Lena, I thanked Dumbledore for holding her up and wrapped her arm around my shoulder.

  Lena's weight caused me to slouch forward uncomfortably for a moment until Blake helped me bear some it. When I wrapped my arm around her waist to help hold her up, Lena let out a squeaky, high pitched chorus of giggles.

  “Forrester, aren't you going to buy me dinner first?”

  Choosing to ignore her comment, Blake said, “I can't believe she's drunk already. We haven't even been here for an hour yet.”

  “Do you want to take her back to my house?”

  Blake shook his head causing his black hair to spill over into his face. “We can't just leave her in your house by herself. What if your parents get back and see her? Or what if she drowns in her own vomit or something?”

  “You can drown in your own vomit?” I asked amazed. “Whoa. That's pretty cool.”

  Lena groaned and wrapped her arms tighter around our shoulders. “I wanna dance!” she whined.

  Blake shook his head, “I think that's a bad idea.”

  I shrugged, “If she wants to dance then I say we let her dance.”

  “Vi, she can barely walk on her own. How would she be able to dance?”

  I laughed to myself, “Oh yeah, I forgot.”

  Lena's body swayed slightly as she urged, “Blake can dance with me!”

  I nodded, “Yeah Blake, dance with her!”

  Blake readjusted Lena so that he was able to walk with her over to the dancing area. “You should dance too. It shouldn't be hard for someone as cute as you are to get a dance partner.”

  I smiled brightly and raised an eyebrow questioningly. “Oh yeah?”

  He nodded and laced his fingers in mine as we started walking at a slow pace so that he could help Lena along.