The Secret Keeper

“Eve. I need to talk to you.”

I turned around slowly, to see Evan standing behind me. I was walking home, alone, and trying to keep from crying again. I can’t say I was doing all that well.

“About what?” I asked under my breath, barely above a whisper. I was officially done for the day; I really wasn’t in the mood for this.

He took a step closer. “I… have something to ask you…” He reached up and scratched the back of his head. He looked… nervous. I raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

“What is it, Evan?” I asked softly, putting a hand on his shoulder. I just couldn’t be mean to him. Every time I looked into those blue eyes of his, shivers ran up my spine and made me think better of whatever remark I was about to make.

“I… Well, I talked to the new girl, Faye, today and she said you were going out with Bo. And I saw you two kiss at lunch today… Can you tell me what’s going on?” He looked into my hazel eyes, his icy blue ones burning with such intensity that my knees suddenly felt like they weren’t there anymore.

I shook my head numbly and took another step toward him. “Evan, I’m dating you, not Bo. I have no idea why, but he told Faye at lunch today that I was his girlfriend and then kissed me to prove it.” I took yet another step, so that I was now within a few inches of his face. “You have to believe me, Evan,” I breathed, my eyes watering up again.

He smiled sadly. “Of course I believe you, Eve.” Slowly, he leaned down the remaining inches to my mouth, and kissed me softly.

Every part of me was on fire. I wanted, more than anything, to wrap my arms around his neck and keep him there forever, but this was just a make up kiss. And then suddenly, I realized something that took my breath away.

I’m in love with Evan.

And I was. I couldn’t explain it, but for some reason I just felt this connection with him that I hadn’t felt with anyone else. And I liked it.

I smiled into the kiss. Ah, what the heck. I flung my arms around Evan’s neck and pressed my body to his. He chuckled a little before snaking his arms around my waist. I couldn’t help feeling that this was the happiest I’d been in days.

-[-]-

Bo’s P.O.V.

“So anyway, I just think that things would go a whole lot smoother if I weren’t seeing anyone…” I ran a hand shakily through my hair.

Faye gave me a pouting look before sighing and biting her lip. “You’re right. It was stupid of me to ask…”

I smirked slightly. “It’s not stupid. Maybe we can try it out later, but for now…”

Her head shot up. “Really?”

I nodded. “Sure. Maybe. Right now I have to go find somebody. See ya.”

I walked away from Faye before she had a chance to say anything more. I really wasn’t going to give what I’d said to her a second thought. At the moment, I had something very, very important to tell Eve.

I finally decided to tell her how I felt about her.

It was stupid, I knew, but I had to give it a shot. Who knows? Maybe she felt the same way about me.

As I walked out the school’s front doors, I glanced around, looking over the student body of Witch Hazel High. There were the little group of cheerleaders trying not to get wet with the snow, and the group of jocks trying to… well, pelt the cheerleaders with snowballs. Then there was the skater group, looking out of it, as usual. There were the Changed kids, all hanging out on the steps and generally not talking. At all. It was creepy.

My gaze froze. There was some couple near the wall between the campus and the street, shoving their tongues down each other’s throats. I gagged a little. Couldn’t they wait until they weren’t in a public place? I know that sounds a little hypocritical, but I can’t stand PDA. But I had my own reasons for kissing Eve earlier.

As I got closer, my heart squeezed tighter and tighter in my chest. The girl that was doing the kissing looked so familiar. Dark brown hair, pale skin, birthmark on her neck…

My world pretty much came down around me. It was Eve, making out with that bastard Evan. I couldn’t believe it.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I spun on my heel and sped toward home. There was no way I was about to let Eve know how that affected me.

-[-]-

Eve’s P.O.V.

“Eve? Is that you?” my mom called as I walked into the house.

“Yeah,” I called back as I glided into the kitchen.

She looked over at me with sad eyes. What was going on? “Go check on Bo. He came storming in today and wouldn’t even look at me. I think something’s wrong.”

“Ok…”

I headed down the hall toward Bo’s room. What could be wrong, other than the fact that he randomly kissed me out of nowhere this afternoon?

As I neared the door, I heard the music playing softly from the other side.

“When I first saw you standing there
You know, it was a little hard not to stare...”

I smiled a little as I recognized the song. “All or Nothing” by Theory of a Deadman, Bo’s favorite song. I knocked on the door softly. “Can I come in, Bo?”

I heard him shuffle around. “I don’t care.”

Hesitantly, I eased the door open. Bo was sitting on the opposite edge of his bed, his elbows on his knees, staring out the window blankly.

“Are you ok?” I whispered. I wasn’t sure if he heard me.

He did. “No, I’m not ok, Eve.” He whipped around to face me. “You have no idea what’s going on with me. Don’t even try to understand.”

I stepped back a little, taken by surprise. “I might, if you’ll tell me.”

He sighed, and ran his fingers through his hair. He opened his mouth to say something, then decided against it and flopped back on his bed, his head sinking down into the pillow. He covered his eyes with his hands and mumbled, “It’s… complicated.”

I don’t know what came over me. Slowly, I crawled into the bed next to him and propped myself up with my elbow. “I’ve got time,” I whispered in his ear.

Bo peeked through his fingers like a five-year-old. I smiled.

He took a deep breath. “Eve, I… I… You know how you asked me who I was in love with today, and I didn’t answer?”

I nodded.

“Well, that’s because… because…” His cheeks flushed red, blushing madly. It was adorable.

“Because that person I’m in love with? It’s you.”