All the Little Secrets (English Prep 2)

Hayley’s head popped in between Eric and me up front. “Ollie. Her parents are home, and they’re pretty strict. I’ve met them once, and that was plenty. You can’t just walk through the front door like usual.”

I shrugged, flipping on my blinker. “Who said I’m walking through the front door?”

For a moment, she stayed quiet, but then she began shaking her head. “No. You cannot climb into her window! Her room is on the third floor! It’s not like Pete’s house when your brother climbed in and out of my window every night.”

Christian snickered. “I still climb through your window.”

Hayley turned back. “And it’s on the first floor now. Not the second. Piper’s room is way up high, and also”—she turned back to me—“she probably wants to be alone.”

There was a ding in my chest, and I almost reached out and rubbed it. “Being alone is the last thing she needs right now, Hayley. Piper’s always alone.”

“That’s—”

“True,” I finished her sentence. “It’s true. Her parents are never home, and even when she’s hanging with you or the group, she’s alone. She has secrets. And we just walked right into one.”

Hayley slowly sunk back into the backseat with Christian and didn’t say anything until we got to Eric’s.

When I parked the car, silence filled the car until she finally said, “You’re right.”

I nodded. “I know I am.”

We all sat in my Charger, letting the beat from my music ring out around us.

Hayley took a deep breath before placing her hand on the door handle. “Go make sure my best friend is okay, and then tomorrow, after lunch with your dad, we’ll all meet and figure out what the hell is going on. Piper doesn’t need to be alone, and I should know that better than anyone.”

I watched in the rearview mirror as Christian grabbed onto her hand. Hayley smiled softly at him, and they climbed out. My brother shot back through the door before shutting it. “Don't think I forgot about what you said to Dad earlier. I know when something is eating at you, Ollie, and I will beat it out of you if I have to.

“I’d like to see you try,” I answered back, playing it cool, but deep down, I was sweating like a motherfucker. Why couldn’t I have kept my mouth shut with my dad?

Hayley pulled Christian farther toward the cabin, and I waited for Eric to climb out. He kept his eyes forward, looking out the windshield. “Do you know what you’re doing, bro?”

No.

“Of course. I always have a plan. Don’t worry about it. Just keep—"

His lip curled. “Just keep my mouth shut. I got it.”

I dipped my head, and as soon as he slammed the door, I threw my Charger into reverse and headed right toward Piper.

There was no way in hell I’d be able to get her sad eyes out of my head tonight. There wasn’t enough alcohol in the world to drown that out. So, going to her was inevitable.

Chapter Twenty-One

Piper

What made parents good parents? The question was certainly subjective, but it was one that I couldn’t quite answer. Were you good parents if you simply provided shelter and food for your child? Or did it go further than that? Did it make you good parents if you read bedtime stories to your child every night and put bandages on their scraped knees? I really wasn’t sure.

I didn’t consider my parents to be bad parents, but I didn’t consider them to be good ones, either. They provided me with a house to live in, clothes to wear, a car to drive, and I had a housekeeper who stocked my fridge weekly—although, I never really saw her. They put money into my account, and even though they watched my spending incessantly, they still gave me an allowance nonetheless, so they weren’t bad parents. They just weren’t the loving kind. They never had been. Maybe that was why I had such a hard time letting other people in.

But Ollie.

He was finding his way in more and more lately, and I liked it.

When his hands wrapped around my body as he pulled me out of Tank’s trailer, I felt safe. I felt okay. Like I wasn’t alone. Seeing his face after being crammed in a bathtub, hiding, was like holding onto a lifeline. I didn’t know when it had happened, but my feelings of annoyance and anger toward Ollie had changed to something else entirely. I liked how I felt when he looked at me. I liked how I felt when he was worried about me. But then, of course, I got in my car, and everything came rushing back to me—the slimy feeling I had talking to my brother, the shame that went through me seeing Hayley looking so wounded that I hadn’t told her I had a brother and that I was struggling with something. I felt like a terrible person who kept trying to save someone who wasn’t even worth saving.

God, that made me feel even worse.

“So, yes, brunch tomorrow with your father and me before our flight? We’d like to talk to you about your college acceptance letters.”