A rose should be red: Part 1 - Secrets

by Akaku Red

  Well, it wasn’t necessary since we had both stopped talking.

  Just after a while though… Dean took a paper and wrote down a number.

  “Here! Call me, text me anytime you want! I will be there for you, and we should keep each other updated about Alice.”

  He winked and passed me the paper.

  “I will. The same goes for you.”

  I let the number slip into my pencil case and started following the lesson.

  The days passed by.

  Dean and I started chatting every day, sometimes he would call me at night just to talk about the past — Linette wasn’t really fond of him.

  She didn’t like him around me, but she tried to stay patient, even when he spent the breaks in school together with us on the rooftop. Amy and Charlotte liked Dean, they didn’t know about his funny and gentle side, which was why they were surprised by his behaviour around us.

  Tyler was sulking these days. I couldn’t think of any reason why he would behave like that, but Linette seemed to act like Tyler, both of them were the mood wreckers …

  It was a bit complicated, but I thought it would change soon.

  My mother returned from Denmark, and our reunion was everything.

  After having been separated from my mother for an entire week, I really felt sad but also happy to finally be able to hug her again.

  We were inseparable!

  Every day we would eat together and watch movies until late at night.

  We had missed each other a lot, and we wanted to catch up on lost time…

  Bob Morgan also visited us often.

  And somehow … I had the feeling that my mother and Bob were getting along very well, even though they teased each other a lot— but it was funny and cute to see them acting like teens!

  Months passed …

  I got used to my environment and got used to my new gorgeous friends.

  Amy, Charlotte, and Linette meant everything to me.

  I feel like an average girl, having fun with her friends.

  School was good, and Dean changed a lot.

  He got more friendly, stopped cutting classes, and even stopped giving the teachers a hard time.

  We also became closer through time, but we couldn’t find Alice, nor did we have a clue about her whereabouts.

  Dean even started searching around schools in London, while I tried to find the letters.

  Sadly, we both couldn’t find a trace.

  Linette tried everything to help me, but eventually she started to change my mind after all those failures.

  She wanted me to think about other stuff, nearly making me forget about Alice.

  To tell you the truth, if it hadn’t been for Dean, I nearly would have given up on my search…

  I was also forced to stop for a month because of the suspicious man.

  Charlotte and Linette persuaded me to stop since it was dangerous to stroll around the city.

  Even Dean wanted me to stay at home and to stay safe since the man hadn’t been caught.

  So, I needed to wait before I could continue with my search.

  The seasons flew by.

  At the beginning of August my mother needed to go on a business trip again.

  This time, she needed to fly to the other side of the world… Australia.

  For two weeks!

  I sighed.

  She will be far away from me.

  I was sitting on my seat in class and looked out the window.

  The teacher talked about the exponential equation, but I wasn’t listening.

  I was too deep in thoughts.

  Normally, Dean would poke me to follow the lesson, but he wasn’t here.

  Two days ago…

  ‘I think I have a clue where Alice could be. I need to check it out. I will get back to you!’

  This was the last message I got. I had texted him back, asking him if he was okay, but he hadn’t replied. It was crazy.

  And I was afraid. Normally, he would respond in no-time, but now it had already been over two days and the creepiest thing was that he also hadn’t reappeared at school.

  The school bell made the teacher stop talking.

  “Make sure to do the homework. I will collect it tomorrow. Have a nice evening!”

  Thank god the lesson was over. I wanted to hurry home since it was my last week with my mother.

  “Jenny, let’s go. Elise is surely waiting!” Linette said with a beaming smile on her face.

  She was happy that class was over because she hated maths.

  “Do you think Elise also invited Bob over?” she asked.

  I got up from my chair and collected my calculator and papers.

  Today, my mother had invited Linette, Charlotte, and Amy over for dinner.

  I didn’t know whether Bob was invited, too.

  “I think this could be the case, but I am not sure,” I said with a little smile on my face.

  “Either way, we will be having a lot of fun,” she said and jumped over to my side. I looked out the window, saw the sunny weather and students who rushed out of the building with a big smile on their faces.

  Well, it was understandable since it was Friday. School ended earlier today and above that, we also had beautiful weather.

  Linette and I were the only ones in the room because we weren’t rushing like the other students.

  We left the classroom but stopped before we could reach the stairs because we had bumped into a person while chatting.

  Linette apologised and pulled me away to keep going, but three girls blocked our way.

  Stacy, Anette, and Jessica!

  These were the cheerleaders from the school, and also the girls on my first days who had troubled us before.

  Cheerleaders weren’t really needed since they weren’t as relevant as in America, but these girls thought they were the rulers in school.

  All these months they had been trying to bully me… But Charlotte, Amy, and Linette had always helped me out.

  Since yesterday it had gotten worse because Dean wasn’t there.

  “Sorry? Use your eyes stupid bitch!” Anette said.

  “Oh, isn’t it Linette the pig and the disgusting bitch Jenny?” Stacy noticed.

  “Yeah, they are!” Jessica confirmed with a judging expression.

  “We already apologised.”

  I muttered and tried to pass them with Linette beside me, but they didn’t want that to happen.

  “You think you can get away after stealing Dean from Jessica?”

  After all this time, they still wanted to hurt us for this stupid reason?

  “Oh… Did Dean permit you guys to act again?” Linette nagged.

  “Shut your ass! Do you think Dean can do anything? He is not here! And also, we haven’t done anything, yet,” Jessica said with a big grin on her face.

  “He didn’t say that we couldn’t touch you, Linette, so you should watch what you are saying. Stupid girl!”

  She flicked her brown hair behind her and clicked her tongue.

  “Oh, so what? You think I am afraid of you?”

  Linette wasn’t backing away which made the girls really mad.

  “You think you are cool Linette?”

  “At least better than you!”

  Jessica moved closer to Linette with her hands balled into fists.

  But I didn’t let that happen.

  I pulled Linette behind me and took the punch before it could hurt her.

  It hit my cheek which jerked my head to the side.

  The familiar feeling of being beaten… brought back old memories, but I forced them back.

  Today was different, I wasn’t the girl from back then.

  For the first time in my life, I didn’t feel useless.

  I didn’t want to be the scared little girl anymore, I wanted to be a friend who could be relied on.

  The punch hurt a bit, but I didn’t care.

  I looked deep into the furious eyes of the girl in front of me.

&n
bsp; “I don’t know what you guys are thinking! What do you even get from this? Is it fun to hurt people? Do you feel proud?”

  My voice was low, but it was stable without any stuttering!

  “Is it fun? Do you feel good? If you want to beat up somebody, then hit me. But don’t lay a hand to my friends, they didn’t do anything!”

  Linette grabbed my wrist to pull me back, but I stood still and gestured her not to do anything.

  Jessica was really close, I could even hear how hard she swallowed.

  Yet, she didn’t look like she was regretting anything.

  But the other two, Stacy and Anette, looked at me with pure shock written on their faces.

  “You know what? FUCK OFF! I am not in the mood to talk to you. You are not worth my time! Disgusting bitch!”

  Jessica spat in my face and knocked her shoulder against mine to pass by me.

  The other two girls followed. They were heading to the classrooms…

  I looked down on the floor.

  My arm was shaking as I lifted my hand to wipe the spit away.

  “Jenny,” Linette muttered. “Are you okay?”

  I nodded slightly.

  “We should get going…”

  “I CAN’T BELIVE IT! She is disgusting and so ugly! Just because Dean broke up with her it doesn’t mean that she can treat us like this. This is pathetic!” Linette said out loud, just for the girls to hear.

  She was provoking them… and then everything happened fast.

  “Dare to say it to my face!”

  I turned around just to find Jessica running back towards us. She screamed and cursed out loud, shoved Linette to the ground. I took a hard push from Jessica.

  Forgetting the stairs behind me!

  I fell down the steps and hit the wall with my back first.

  The collision was hard and violent, which made me gasp from the pain.

  My body slid down to the floor.

  “JENNY!” Linette screamed.

  She ran down the stairs and knelt down next to me with tears in her eyes.

  “Oh my god! Oh my god!”

  The other girls looked at me with their eyes wide open, but they didn’t bother coming. They turned and ran away.

  “OH GOD!” Linette said, her tears falling.

  “Oh my god!”

  My scars ached.

  My head felt dizzy.

  I couldn’t believe that Jessica would dare to do this…

  When I fell, she had smiled, I saw it with my own eyes. She had smiled crossly, as if she had waited for this moment to happen, as if she wanted me to be hurt really badly — luckily, the staircase was parted. If the wall hadn’t been there, I would have died from the fall since we were on the fourth floor.

  Well, now I was lying on the ground facing the third level, twenty-one big steps were above me, which I had flown down unwillingly. Thankfully, I hadn’t hit my head first.

  I felt how something warm was dripping down from my nose.

  “Ah!” I gasped.

  “Oh my god! Your nose is bleeding.”

  My back! My head…

  It felt like thousand knives were being pushed in and out.

  Linette grabbed her phone out of her bag.

  “I will call the ambulance!”

  “NO!”

  “NO ARGUING! We can’t leave you like this!”

  I shook my head even though I got even dizzier from it.

  “If you call the ambulance, people will talk about us. I don’t want to be the talk of the town again. I want to live a normal average life, please.”

  I was glad that no other student was around since nobody wanted to waste their time after school. Linette cried while giving me her summer scarf to stop my nosebleed.

  “Okay, then we need to get to a hospital!” she said. “What if you have concussion?”

  I pressed the scarf on my nose, not really listening.

  Linette ducked her head under my arm and tried to lift me up, but I couldn’t really move.

  My whole body hurt.

  “Jenny!” Charlotte and Amy appeared.

  “I can’t believe it! This bitch Stacy was right!”

  Amy got to my other side and gave Linette a hand with helping me up.

  “Stacy told you about it?” Linette asked with an angry tone.

  “Not everything! When we waited for you guys to show up, she passed by us. She looked like she had murdered somebody…”

  Amy took her turn to press the scarf against my nose since she noticed my heavy shaking.

  I didn’t feel good at all— somehow, I felt sick.

  Linette touched my back to help me move downstairs while Charlotte took the lead. She wanted to be my shield in case I fell down.

  “She told us that an accident had happened, and you fell down the stairs. Then she ran off. We came to look for you guys,” Charlotte explained. “I will kill this bitch,” she promised, but I shook my head.

  “N-No, you can’t. We shouldn’t act like them, I don’t like this!”

  My voice was shaking.

  “OH MY GOD! YOUR BACK IS BLEEDING!”

  Linette suddenly screamed out loud when she shifted to change position. Her fingertips were covered with my blood— I turned pale.

  “Let me see!”

  Charlotte wanted to pull up my shirt, but I gathered my strength together and protested.

  “NO! Don’t!”

  I shook my head.

  “Please.”

  My fear made me blind.

  I was afraid. Nobody should see my scars.

  “Jenny, we need to check this.”

  Amy talked to me cautiously and with a gentle voice, but I knelt down, covering my whole body.

  “No! You can’t!”

  My tears dropped.

  I cried heavily.

  ‘Disgusting bitch.’

  ‘Die. you ugly thing.’

  ‘Nobody likes you!’

  ‘Everybody will leave you!’

  ‘There is no one in this world who would accept such a disgusting thing like you.’

  I covered my ears, even though the pain made me shiver hard, but it was nothing compared to the excruciating pain in my soul, which would always remind me that I could never change, even if I tried! — I was a nobody with selfish dreams and hopes.

  The marks would always remind me of who I really was.

  A disgusting thing!

  “You need to explain everything to me.”

  Tyler’s beautiful voice had appeared, but I thought it was just my imagination until strong arms wrapped around me.

  “I will take you to the hospital.”

  His gentle voice couldn’t be a dream, he was there and was carrying me in his arms.

  We hadn’t seen each other for a while since my mother had been taking the time to drive me to school and back these days— so, to see him again was … really nice.

  But right now, I was tired and weak, my eyes were closed … but I felt safe now.

  Tyler’s scent made me calm.

  As we reached the car, Tyler and Charlotte were discussing about whether to bring me to a hospital or not.

  Well, they didn’t ask me, I hated the hospitals and also … If Jeffrey saw me again …

  This wasn’t good.

  “Please, I beg you! No hospital, I am fine.”

  I muttered while Tyler lowered me carefully into the passenger seat.

  Charlotte, Amy, and Linette took the seats behind.

  “Please,” I pleaded. Jeffrey shouldn’t see me like this again, it would only prove … that I was still weak.

  “We can’t leave you like this. You fell down an entire level. The crash sounded bad, and you are bleeding.”

  Linette was crying loudly, but I couldn’t see her since it was hard for me to look behind me.

  “I-I am used to even worse things,” I confessed.

  In the past, I had lain in my own blood for days… Nobody had helped me— and I still managed to survive. />
  Tyler grabbed my hand, just to hold it tight, while the others gasped in shock. Amy was the only one who didn’t know anything about my past, yet she didn’t question my confession.

  “P-Please, just let me get home. Elise will take care of me.”

  Tyler had an inner struggle with himself… but in the end, he respected my decision and drove me back home.

  Upon arrival, we were received by Elise’s shocked face.

  While Tyler helped me inside, Linette explained the situation to Elise.

  Well, my mother was furious and very mad.

  I barely managed to make her stay by my side since she wanted to go to the school and make Jessica suffer. Luckily, Tyler, Charlotte, and Amy could hold her back in the end. Elise cancelled the dinner for that night and made the girls and Tyler get out of the house.

  Then she helped me take care of my wounds.

  I felt better once I was clean again. I laid down in my soft bed on my stomach.

  Elise was more than gentle. She was making sure I felt better.

  And after some time, I slept peacefully next to her.

  Chapter 16

  The pain got worse on the second day, but it got better after the following days.

  Yet, I couldn’t attend school for some time…

  Charlotte and Amy told me that Dean was still missing… Apparently, it was nothing new to them.

  They thought it was normal for him to disappear since he did that frequently.

  Even though they said that, I was still worried, because he still hadn’t responded to any of my texts or calls.

  The situation was creeping the hell out of me, and I couldn’t do anything about it.

  Well, Linette also told me that he often did things like this, disappearing for weeks and coming back as if nothing happened.

  I just hoped he was okay.

  The week flew by like a train.

  My mother took care of me every day.

  But today was the day when my mother needed to leave for Australia, and I needed to stay with Tyler.

  Before we got to the airport, Jeffrey, Elise, and I met in a little cafe.

  They started chatting and talking about me.

  While Jeffrey took the part as the jealous mother again, Elise was the teasing one, but at the end of the day, they got along with each other.

  “Could you spare me some time tomorrow?”

  Jeffrey asked after arguing with my mother over the fact that I needed to stay with Tyler again.