We'll Keep a Secret (If You Keep Me Guessing)

It was dead silent as my friend, Erin, and I stood in the middle of my bedroom, facing each other. We had been best friends since we were nine-years-old, but in a matter of minutes, she was about to become my worst enemy. Neither of us moved. We just stared at one another. The look in her eyes told me that she had something utterly terrible in store for me. She raised a brow slightly and smiled. I grimaced in return.

“Ready?” she asked simply.

I sighed. God knows I wanted to say no. Nothing could prepare me for the mess that we were about to get into. I just wanted to be able to skip the whole thing, but Erin just had to be so stubborn. That was one quality that I usually admired about her, but at this particular moment, I hated it.

“This is ridiculous,” I tried to reason. “Do we really have to do this?”

Erin grinned and shook her head. “No, but you know what the alternative is.”

The alternative? Definitely not. That’s why we were standing there anyway. I shook all doubts out of my head. “Let’s just get this over with,” I caved.

“Alright. On my count. One, two…”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before spreading my feet apart and crouching a little, placing my hands on my knees.

“Go!” I heard Erin yell.

My eyes snapped open just as she charged at me. I caught her in my arms and struggled against her weight as she tried to overpower me. She wrapped her arms around me tightly and pushed with all her might, and I slid backwards a bit. I tried to force her back, but she didn’t budge. She huffed and pushed harder until one of my knees buckled and she forced my back against a wall. I groaned in pain and grabbed her shoulders and pushed her away from me.

“What, are you trying to kill me?” I asked, rubbing my lower back.

Erin let a small laugh escape through her deep breaths. “Can’t take it?”

Did she think that I was weak, that I wasn’t even close to competition to her? No way. She was a bit smaller than me, a few inches shorter and at least ten pounds lighter, so I figured that I had the advantage over her. I lunged at her and tackled her to my bed. While we were rolling around, Erin’s foot hit a small picture frame that was sitting on my nightstand, and it shattered. She grabbed a fistful of my hair and tugged slightly.

“Hey!” I shrieked. “We agreed on no hair pulling.”

“Sorry,” she huffed.

She let go and took a hold of my arms and pushed me, sending both of us tumbling to the floor. We wrestled around for what almost felt like forever until Erin ended up on top of me. She straddled my torso and grabbed both of my wrists, pinning me down. Then she started counting.

“One, two, three. I win!” she screamed as she jumped up and started parading around my room.

I stood to my feet and dusted myself off, upset that I had just lost our little tussling match. It took everything in me to not trip Erin as she moved past me. Once she stopped her celebration, she turned to me with a big, goofy smile on her face. I was so angry that I couldn’t bring myself to continue looking at her, so I turned away.

“Now, since I beat you,” she started, “you must now accompany me to Jack’s back-to-school party.”

“You cheated,” I protested as I faced her again. “In the beginning, we said that there would be no pulling of the hair, but you did it anyway. You should be disqualified.”

“Whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Don’t be such a poor sport. Why don’t you want to go anyway?”

There were plenty of reasons why I didn’t want to go, but the main one was the fact that it was a back-to-school party. I enjoyed my summer break. I had fun and made a lot of memories, so why would I want to spend the last night celebrating its end? It just didn’t make much sense to me.

Erin sighed. “Come on, Sophia. Why don’t you want to be with your friends for the last few hours of our break?”

I laughed. “I’ve been with you losers this whole time.”

“But what about Jack? You know it would mean so much to him if you showed up.”

Jack had been one of my best friends since I was seven. That’s when I moved to Maryland from Rhode Island for reasons unbeknownst to me. We went to the same elementary school. I first met him in the principal’s office. I was there with my parents, who were filling out my registration papers, and Jack had been sent there for causing disruptions in class and giving his teacher the finger. We took to each other almost immediately even though I thought he was the weirdest kid I’d ever met. Over the years, I’d really grown to love him like he was my brother.

“I don’t care about Jack’s feelings,” I said jokingly.

Erin giggled. “He would be so hurt if he heard you say that.”

I shrugged. “He’s known me for eight years. He should be used to how I am by now.”

“Whatever. Whether you care or not, you’re going. Now, we need to get you fixed up.” She disappeared into my closet and returned shortly with a purple plaid shirt and a dark pair of skinny jeans. “Put these on,” she demanded.

I reluctantly took the clothes from her and did as I was told. Once I finished getting dressed, she grabbed my hand and pulled me out of my room and into my bathroom. My face fell when I looked into the mirror.

“My hair,” I whined as I pushed the mess of thick, dark brown curls out of my face.

“I can fix that,” Erin reassured as she picked up the brush that was lying next to my sink. “Straightened or no?”

“No,” I answered.

She smoothed some mousse in my hair and ran the brush through it until it started looking decent. “Better?” she asked when she was finished.

I examined her work and nodded in approval. “Yes.”

“Okay. Let’s go now.”

“I just need to get my shoes first.” I walked back to my closet and grabbed a pair of purple and blue Vans that matched my outfit. When I came out, I looked up and noticed the broken picture frame on my nightstand. “You owe me a new picture frame,” I called to Erin.

She poked her head in my room, looked at the frame and let out a small laugh. “Fine. Now, come on.”

We made our way downstairs, and as I sat on the bottom stair and started putting my shoes on, my dad walked up.

“What was all that noise I heard up there a while ago?” he asked.

I looked up at him, not knowing exactly what to tell him. I guess Erin realized that I was stuck, so she interjected.

“We were just fooling around. It was nothing serious. Sorry if we disturbed you.”

My dad just looked back and forth at us. I knew he would believe her. He and my mom always believed Erin. They loved her. “Okay,” he said. “Where are you girls off to tonight?”

“Jack’s party,” I answered carefully. He wasn’t a very big fan of Jack and my other guy friends. He thought they were all hooligans.

“A party?” he asked. “Don’t you know that school starts tomorrow?”

“Yes, dad, but we won’t stay out too late. I promise.”

He studied me for a second and then sighed. “Alright. I want you back here by nine o’clock.”

“Nine o’clock,” I repeated with a nod. Then I reached up and kissed his cheek. “Love you.”

“Love you too,” he replied. “Be safe.”

“Will do.”

With that said, Erin and I left my house and started making our way to Jack’s. He lived a few blocks away, and we had to walk, so it was going to take us a little while to get there. The whole time, I was just hoping that nothing was going to go wrong at the party. Jack was kind of out there, and sometimes his gatherings could get a little out of control. I didn’t need to deal with that, especially since I didn’t want to be there in the first place. I prayed that for once, Jack would be able to maintain his composure, just for one night.