My Dirty Little Secret

Chapter Eighteen

I combed through my hair, I was getting ready to meet Dimitri for my ‘surprise’ today. As I was combing my hair I noticed how I haven’t been getting my monthly trims, so now instead of being a little past my shoulder, It was about mid back now. So I put a note on my mirror, reminding me to get a trim soon.

I changed into a pair of blue jeans and a long sleeved purple shirt, and I left my hair out only because I straightened it.

I drove to his house with my radio blaring and when I parked, I jumped out of my car and gave him the tightest hug I could manage.

“You’re in a good mood today,” He said when I let go.

“Nope, just happy to see you.” I got on my tip toes and kissed his cheek.

“No, you’re definitely in a good mood.”

“What’s my surprise?”

He led me inside and stopped by his kitchen counter holding up a stack of applications.

I looked closer and saw they were college applications, “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered to myself.

“Surprise!” He yelled.

I rolled my eyes, “I hate you,”

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do right now.”

He slid one of them over to me, “Your mom gave these to me,” He said giving me the rest of the stack, “All of these are yours.”

I sighed, “I don’t want to worry about college right now, its only May.”

“School ends in two weeks, Elena.”

I shrugged, “So?”

“You don’t have much time, you’ve got to get at least… five in before summer.”

“You sound like my mom right now,”

He pursed his lips and went through his kitchen before pulling out another stack that was only slightly bigger than mine, “Yours?”

He nodded.

I sighed again as he rolled a pen my way.

But regardless of how I felt, I looked at the application and said, “University of Cambridge, where’s that?”

He shrugged, “Don’t know, look it up.”

“Do you plan on… going to the same college as me?” I asked with only slight hesitation.

He looked up at me, his eyes smothering me with intensity, “Of course.”

I looked back down at my application, “You know, I’m gonna rip up all the ones that you don’t have.”

He grinned, “How would you know, your stack is beyond thick?”

“And so is yours.” I said eyeing his down, “Matter of fact, it’s bigger than mine.”

“I’ve got the University of Oxford,” He said changing the subject and pushing it to the side, “I think I remember seeing that one in your stack so…”

I sighed and skipped the University of Cambridge moving on to the next one, “Tokyo University,” I said with disbelief, “Dimitri, this is unbelievable.”

“What, that your work goes worldwide?”

“You know where we should go?”

“Where?”

“The University of Rome La Sapienza, that’s the college I wanted to go too since I was a kid. It’s in Italy.”

“You? In Italy? I don’t know, it doesn’t suit you. Maybe something more like…” He thought for a moment, “Imperial college of London.”

“London? You think London is better for me?”

He shrugged, “You may catch on to that accent easier than it Italy.”

“It’s not about the accent,”

He shrugged, “Still don’t think it’s you.”

“Well fine then, where do you want to go, Dimitri.”

He smirked.

~*~

“Had fun?” My mom asked as I step through the door.

“Yeah, Dimitri and I looked at colleges,”

“Finally, did you see any you liked?”

“A few.

“Well?” She asked, “What’re the names?”

“Well, you know the college I wanted to go to since I was a kid?”

She nodded, “University Rome La something.”

“Sapienza,” I corrected her, “University of Rome La Sapienza.”

“Right,”

“Well they requested me on special terms; I don’t have to send an essay or anything. Just finish their application and go visit them.”

“In Italy?”

“The college is in Italy isn’t it?”

“I’m just… that’s pretty far from here.”

“I know, but it’s where I’ve always wanted to go.”

“Did you and Dimitri come across any closer ones…?”

“Um, the University of Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Well, those are the only one’s that I… we wanted to go too.”

“That’s it?”

I shrugged, “We stacks were huge, and we didn’t get through them all.”

She placed her hands on her hips as I continued, “But we’ll finish tomorrow.”

“After school?” She guessed.

“I’ll be home by five; also,” I picked up a lock of my hair and twirled it around, “I need to get my hair-“

“Trimmed. I’ll arrange it.”

“Thanks,” I said before heading upstairs.
~*~

Bree decided to tag along with me to the hair salon.

“You should dye it brown,”

I ran a hand through my hair and said, “I like it black,”

“Your hair has been black ever since you were born. Go red, be audacious!”

“How about this,” I said sitting down on the black leather chairs, “I’ll get temporary highlights.”

“Why temporary,”

“I’m not like you, Bree. I’m not so audacious.”

“Fine, temporary it is. What color though?”

I looked at the dirty blonde who was doing my hair, “Can you cut it right here,” I said pointing a little past my collar bone, “And put in red highlights. Temporary, please.”

She nodded and got to work.

I looked over at Bree who was sitting across from me.

“What’re you doing with your hair?” I asked her.

She went from the blonde and black style to dying her hair blue, and right now it was almost to her waist, “I’m cutting it to my shoulders and dying it pink.”

I raised my eyebrows, “You’re so… out there.”

“We go show off our hairstyles when we get done,” She said after scowling at the hair stylists for combing her hair too roughly.

“Where?”

She shrugged, “The chocolate store, you know how much I love chocolate.”

I shook my head, “Actually, I don’t. Last time I checked it was cup cakes.”

She chuckled, “I’m so over those. Twix is the new thing.”

~*~

The way Bree eats her Twix will never be understandable to me. She takes all of the chocolate and caramel off before eating the cookie that was buried underneath it all.

“You’ve always been able to… answer questions or bring up things that I thought in my head a few moments later. That was my first clue.”

I pursed my lips, “It’s suppose to be a side affect from when we… died.”

“Then why aren’t I like you?”

“I was dead longer,”

“Makes some kind of sense,” She eyed me over, “Look, what’s important is that I believe you.”

“You’re right.”

“Your hair looks nice, for the millionth time. It’s different. Those red highlights really make the black… pop.”

“It’s only temporary. As soon as I wash my hair it’ll be gone. And I wash my hair once a week.”

She frowned, “You’re so… boring.”

“I like that lifestyle.”

She got up and threw her wrapping away, “We should go shopping after exams. A new college calls for a new wardrobe.”

“And a new wardrobe calls for a job.”

“Well we should find some place to work together. It’ll be fun.”

“You’re right, it would be.”

She ran a hand through her newly cut and dyed hair. She was so extreme.

“Before they straightened your hair,” she started, “The way the red was in your curls were pretty cool,”

I shrugged, “If I get enough heat it’ll change.”

“So where should we work… McDonalds, Burger King, Subway-“

“Does it have to be a fast food restaurant?”

“Well technically Subway isn’t-“

“You can work at a fast food restaurant, I’ll figure something out.”

~*~

I applied to be a mechanic’s assistant. It was something I never thought of myself doing, which is why I decided to try it out.

We had two weeks more left of school, and then my trip with Dimitri to Hawaii.

I must say, I can’t wait. And these days will go by fast, considering the first week will be all for studying for our exams, and the last week will be to take them.

“So your mom actually agreed to send you to Italy?” Dimitri asked me on our way to school.

“Only if you come with me,”

“When will this be?”

“After summer vacation, we’ll go visit.”

“So that’s in three months,” he muttered to himself. “What do you plan on doing for all the time in between?”

“I applied for a job,” I started, “I know I’ll have to quit soon, but I thought maybe I could help my mom with my college fee,”

“Did you forget? You guys don’t have to pay, you’ve got a scholarship.”

I shrugged, “I won’t want to live in the dorms when I get there, so-“

Why did you really get the job, Elena?”

Since we were at a stop light, we stared at each other for several second before I finally sighed and said, “I don’t know,” Just as the light turned green.

“So you’re getting a job, just to get one.”

“I guess I needed something to do. I mean I know I can’t be with you twenty four seven so… “

“What made you think that? I’m not a very busy person.”

“You won’t want to see me all the time.”

“So you think,”

“No, I know.”

“I always have time for you, unless I’m doing something for you.”

He parked his car in one of the first rows, and leaned towards me before forcing me to face him, “I always have time for you,” He repeated, “And you know that. So why did you really get this job?”

I honestly didn’t know.

I stayed silent; “fine,” He muttered, “You don’t have to tell me.”

“I just don’t know.” I finally said, “Bree and I were talking about it and so I just got one.”

He studied me for a moment before leaning in for a kiss, and once it got a little to intense he pulled back, “We’re in the school parking lot, you know.”

I grinned, “So?”

“My windows aren’t that tinted.”

I chuckled, “I don’t care about what anyone else thinks, but you.”

“And I think that we should get to our first period class before the bell rings.”

~*~

It wasn’t anything fancy, well of course it wouldn’t be. It’s a car shop.

It had a building of garages and there were a few people working on cars, across the street there was a little office which I headed too.

I opened the door and smiled politely at the boy sitting in the chair. He had pale, blonde hair and the bluest eyes I’ve seen yet. He glanced up from his computer and did a double take, “Um, hi?” He said seeming to look at me in awe.

“Hi, I’m Elena-“

“The one who applied for the job?”

I nodded, “Yup,” I handed him the application and watched as he ripped it up into pieces.

“You’re already hired. No need for this,” He threw the pieces in the trash and got up strolling towards me, He wore a band name T-shirt and a pair of jeans shorts, “I’m Cristain, but you can call me Cris.”

I took in his overall appearance and he wasn’t at all bad looking, “You own the shop?”

He gave a small laugh through his nose, “No. My dad does, I’m only seventeen.”

I shrugged, “I just assumed.”

He nodded slowly, “So anyway, you can start tomorrow, if you’re not busy, at four. It gives you time to do whatever you have to do after school.”

“Don’t you go to school too?”

He shook his head, “No, I’m home schooled.”

“Lucky,”

“Not necessarily.”

“Hm?”

“When you get home schooled you don’t really have much of a life,”

“You’ve been home schooled since you were born?”

He shrugged with one shoulder, “Yeah, but it doesn’t really matter.”

I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear, “Um, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“At four,”

I gave him a small smiled before leaving.

Well, that was weird.

~*~

“You got a job at a car shop?” Bree asked with slight disbelief.

“Yeah, where did you apply?”

She pursed her lips, “Subway.”

I chuckled, “So much for working together.”

“What in the world made you apply for a job at a car shop?”

I shrugged, “My instincts, I wanted to try something new.”

“Why is your hair in a ponytail?” She said reaching up and pulling the hair tie out, “There. Show off your new highlights.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Elena,” David said from beside me, we were all sitting at the lunch table, “Your hair looks great, those highlights really made a difference.”

“They won’t be in for long,” I said.

“What-Why not?” Micah asked.

I like my hair just the way it is, “Plain black,”

“I told her to be more like me, audacious.”

I ran a hand through my hair, “dyeing you hair can damage it.”

“Well my hair is perfectly fine,”

“Well when you’re 40 and bald, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.”

She grinned.

“I’ll never get why girls can’t be more like boys,” David pitched in, “They always complain about hair. Why don’t you just shave it all off?”

I couldn’t stop the light laugh that escaped my lips, “Boys,” I muttered.

“Boys?” Dimitri finally said, I warmed up at the sound of his voice, “Boys are much simpler than girls are.”

“You’re supposed to be on my side,” I joked, “That’s part of your job.”

“Job?” Micah questioned, “Wow, she’s got you whipped.”

We all laughed, considering we knew he was only kidding.

“Speaking of jobs,” Dimitri murmured as everyone else went on with their conversation, “How exactly did it go?”

I shook my head, “Normal, well, sort of. I applied and got accepted, bingo.”

“Have you finished looking through the college applications?”

I shook my head, “I haven’t had much time,”

He sighed.

“Why are you so worried about college?” I continued.

He thought for a moment, “I don’t know. I want you to have a good future. And I’m sure your mom would love-“

“I actually vowed to myself when I was younger that I wouldn’t go to college unless it was to the University of Rome La Sapienza.”

“Really?” He asked, eyebrows rose.

“Really.” I muttered.

“Going there can definitely be arranged.” He said lightly before lacing his finger through mine.

~*~

I quickly opened the door to the office and sighed, “Sorry I’m late.”

I glanced at my watch, it was about four thirty.

“No problem, business is slow today anyway.” He was searching through a magazine and I watched as he closed it and put it aside, “Your choice, you can work out here,” he said gesturing to his seat, “Or you can go out there and assist the mechanics,”

I made a face and pointed to the desk, “I’d rather here.”

He raised an eyebrow at me, ‘Why apply to work at a car shop of you don’t want to do anything relating to cars.”

I shrugged and gave him the same answer I gave everyone else, “I wanted to do something different.”

I pulled my hair back into a ponytail, “So,” I continued, “Where do I start?”

He got up and pointed to the computer and then a stack of papers beside it, “You can organize those and put the information into the computer. Only the papers marked with a star.”

I bit my bottom lip and sat down, “Um, okay.”

He took a seat in one of the waiting chairs, “My dad’s coming.”

I sat up straighter in my chair.

A man with blonde hair like his son walked in, he has a patch of gray hair in the middle that looked silver, but it looked like a style. He had the same blue eyes and he was a really tall man. He had a friendly aura and rather pleasant thoughts. Yes, I peeped.

He smiled and stuck out his hand, “I’m Jared Wire.”

“Elena,” I said taking it, his hand was rough.

“Nice to meet you,” He looked at his son, “I take it he’s being a good mentor,”

I smiled, “He’s rather great,”

“That’s good,” He looked at the clock hanging on the wall and gave me an apologetic look, “I just came in to greet my newest employee but I should be on my way now, I’ve got an appointment.”

“Right, it was nice to meet you Mr. Wire.”

“Please,” He said while slipping out the door, “Call me Jared.”

I looked over at Cristain once he left, “He seems like a busy man,”

He rolled his eyes, “He has about three jobs. He owns this and another car shop a few hours away, and he works at a bank.”

“That’s… a lot.”

He shrugged, “It’s his life,”

“I take it your relationship with him isn’t so well.”

He gave me a small smile, “I’m not the average teen,”

“I’ve noticed; I’ve never met anyone whose home schooled for one.”

“There aren’t many of those, although the numbers are increasing.”

“So you say,”

I started to lip through the stack of files and papers sitting on the desk, “This is a lot,” I mumbled.

“Not really, you’ll get through it faster than you think.”

“I hope,”

“Oh, I wanted to tell you Happy Birthday.”

My head snapped up, “What?”

“On your application,” He started, “It said your birthday was a few days ago.”

“Oh,” I said, “Um, yeah. Thanks.”

“No problem, how’s it feel being eighteen?”

“There’s not much of a difference, really. I mean, since people keep bringing it up, it makes me feel a bit… older.”

“You’re not happy to be… legal?”

I cracked a smile, “It has its advantages. Why so curious?”

He shook his head slightly, “Nothing important, it’s just that yearning for my birthday to come as soon as possible.”

I raised my eyebrows, “Why?”

He looked at me as though it were a obvious answer, “Have you met my father?”

I made an ‘O’ shape with my lips and suppressed another smile, “so, I’m guessing once you turn eighteen you plan on moving out and away.”

He nodded, “But as for now, I’ll have to endure it.”

I nodded.

“I should let you get to your work,” He said nodding towards the stack of papers in my hand.

I looked down trying to cover the blush creeping onto my face, “Right.”

I’d been so involved in our little conversation, I forgot to start working.

“See you,” He said, “And by the way, I like the highlights.”