The Secret Keeper

And things pretty much went on like that for another month. Nothing really changed, to be honest.

Ivy and Arkarian, while still avidly interested in what was going on with Bo and me, gradually went on with their lives at work. Ivy worked at a Starbucks, and Arkarian… well, I wasn’t sure what he did, exactly, but I knew it had something to do with insurance. In any case, they went back to normal.

I couldn’t really say the same for Bo and me. We went back to school, sure. And it got around almost instantly that we at least liked each other, if not that we were dating. Evan was strangely absent, so no one ever said anything to him. At least, they hadn’t yet. I didn’t think.

I gradually became closer to Faye as the month went on. Bo still got a funny feeling about her. He could never really explain why that was; I just took that to mean that he didn’t really know himself. Even so, I found that, even though I couldn’t tell her everything, she seemed to understand when I was busy with something that had to do with Keeping, or when I had to cut sentences short for fear of saying too much. She was strangely similar to Holly, just without the blonde hair and blue eyes and any real physical resemblance whatsoever. But the personality was there.

That didn’t mean that Faye was a replacement for Holly. It was almost too much to believe that even though it had only been a month and a half since she disappeared out of the blue, no one even talks about her anymore. I still thought about her every day, wondering not only if she was alive, but what she was going through at that very moment.

Before I knew it, it was Valentine’s Day.

I wasn’t normally the kind of girl that obsessed with things like that, but Holly was, so I suppose I must have come off to others that way. Not that most people cared to get to know me that well. Even though I would have been considered popular when Holly was here, I was still that girl that sat in the corner and listened to her music while everyone else drank and had fun.

Evan had been my first real boyfriend, and even then we’d only started going out at the beginning of junior year. We’d broken up a year later. Which, okay, is a long time for a high school relationship. But I think the problem was not only Bo interfering with my life every chance he got, but also the fact that Evan seemed to, well, see us together for a long period of time. I was more of the realistic one; I knew we’d eventually break up and move on.

Unfortunately, Evan didn’t quite think so. He put up a good fight when I’d told him I wanted to “just be friends”. I won out, in the end, but I don’t really think he ever gave up on his feelings for me. (Not to sound vain.) In reality, I guess I’d felt more or less the same way.

Valentine’s Day actually had a fairly special meaning for me. Why? I was turning 18. I’d never really had to talk about my birthday without mentioning Valentine’s Day. I guess I was lucky.

“Happy Birthday, Eve!” Faye greeted me when I came to school that morning. Bo was trailing a safe distance behind me, on account of the scuffle we had had that morning.

Bo had gotten fairly agitated when I brought Evan up in some part of the conversation, although I honestly couldn’t tell you when. Everything kind of snowballed after that. It’s not that we weren’t used to fighting; we were.

We just weren’t used to being in love at the same time.

And I guess it didn’t affect our relationship too much, because it was already screwed up enough to begin with.

I smiled weakly. “Thanks, Faye.”

“I got you a present!”

I was taken aback a little. “Really? Tha-“

“What’s up?”

I clenched my teeth a little. Bo always ruined the best moments.

Faye looked at him incredulously. “Only the best day ever! No only is it Valentine’s Day, it’s Eve’s birthday!” I noted dryly that Faye was especially hyper that morning.

Bo’s eyes widened. “V-Valentine’s? Today?”

I rolled my eyes. Typical guy to forget Valentine’s Day. Then again, as long as I’d known him, Bo was never one for remembering things. So I wasn’t surprising. And we weren’t going out anyway, so I didn’t expect anything.

But why did my heart drop ever so slightly when he said that?

“Duh. Now open your present, Eve!” Faye demanded, shoving a pink-wrapped box in my face.

I took it gratefully. It was about the size of my palm, wrapped in sparkly pink paper with a bunch of hearts all over it. The paper alone made me smile.

Inside was a necklace. It didn’t have a charm on it, or anything. It was just a simple woven, braided cord. I smiled nonetheless. It had come from Faye, and I liked it.

“Thanks.”

“I-I have to go,” Bo muttered before taking off in some random direction. I watched him merge into the crowd, my heart growing heavier and heavier with each step he took.

Faye picked up on my mood. “What did he do?”

I sighed. “It’s… well, complicated.” I left it at that. Something told me that Faye wouldn’t quite understand the relationship Bo and I had. I hardly understood it myself.

-[-]-

Bo’s P.O.V.

I’d had Eve’s birthday present picked out for months. I’d had it picked out, even before all this Secret crap came up.

What ticked me off was that she had to go and bring up that bastard Evan again this morning. I don’t know what really happened, but something inside of me just… snapped.

It bugged me that he wasn’t even here anymore, and he still had the one thing I wanted most in the world: Eve. And because he had her, I didn’t. It was stupid, and immature. But love can do that to you, or so I’ve heard.

I heard the door slam distantly as I walked into the house later that afternoon. That’s how the whole day had gone; everything was like it was surrounded by a thick fog.

It’s not that I wasn’t used to Eve hating me. I mean, I’d suffered through that for four years, all for nothing. But it was different now. We were different.

Not necessarily in a bad way.

I didn’t know what was going on, to tell you the truth. I didn’t really think Eve did, either.