Ocean of Secrets

My father was sitting in the living room when I finished my shower, and I stopped in to say good morning. His eyes were glued to the newspaper as always, but he put it down at the sound of my voice. “Going somewhere again?”

“Yeah,” I suddenly realized that my dad was angry his eyes were black and dark circles had formed beneath them, “I’m going out to lunch with Bridget.” I saw his muscles tense up, “And then I’ll be back and we can do some of my school stuff.” I tried to force a smile onto my face, but it didn’t work.

“Well don’t be too long,” He raised the newspaper again. “We have a guest coming over for dinner so we have to do all the work before then.”

I wrinkled my nose in disgust and walked back to my room. What did he mean by we have a guest coming? He’s not going to try and set me up with a guy again is he? I pushed open my bedroom door and was welcomed by the sight of Bridget sprawled out on my bed with a magazine.

“What took you so long? We’ve got like twenty minutes to get there now.” I looked at the clock and mentally slapped myself for stopping to talk to my dad.

“We can’t be too long Bri cause my dad wants me to do some school work with him. He has a guest coming for dinner, and we have to be done before then.” I looked in the mirror at my wet, red hair and then turned my gaze to Bridget’s reflection. “How do I look?”

She stood off of my bed and walked over to me and began to inspect my outfit. “Your hair needs done so you’d better hurry, but everything looks fine. Don’t try to look too good though cause I want this date to go well for me.” A smile flickered on her face and for a split second her eyes became cold. I almost wondered if I imagined it.

“Alright,” I shrugged off the thought, “You can go wait in the car. This shouldn’t take too long.”

I quickly dried my hair after she left, and then plugged in my hair-straightener. I curled my lashes and swiped some mascara on my eyes while I waited for it to heat up, and then ran it through my hair a few times until it looked somewhat straight. Looking at the clock I saw that we had ten minutes left to get to the café, and I knew that if I didn’t hurry that Bridget would kill me. So, I unplugged my hot-iron and then rushed out of my bedroom door just in time to run into my little sister.

Belle fell to the floor and I felt a tug in my chest. “Are you okay?” I looked down at the small four-year-old. She looked nothing like me with her golden hair, and dark skin. The only thing we had in common were our blue eyes and I secretly envied her. Someday in the future she was going to have guys flocking to her side.

“Yeah,” Belle’s tiny voice reached my ears and I stretched out my arm to help her up, “Where you going?”

“I’m going out with Bridget for lunch.” I smiled at her when she grabbed my hand and pulled her up into my arms. “She has a date and doesn’t want to be alone with him yet.”

“Why not?”

Her naivety was adorable, “She’s nervous and needs a friend.” I walked into the living room and set her down on the chair my father had been occupying moments before. “Sometimes boys can be scary.”

A giggle erupted from her mouth and her tiny hands moved to cover it. “That’s silly sissy.”

I chuckled along with her, “I guess it is.” I took a step backward, “Well she’s waiting outside for me so I’ll see you later, okay?” I didn’t want to leave my sister here alone to fend for herself, but I had to get going or Bridget would be angry with me.

Belle nodded her head excitedly. “Daddy has a boy coming to eat dinner with us, so come back soon.”

My fingers went numb and a sense of dread coursed through my body. My father had a blind date set up for me. “I promise I’ll be back before that,” I smiled one last time at my sister before leaving the house. I wasn’t going to let some jerk walk into my home while I wasn’t there.



“That’s bull,” I had just finished explaining to Bridget what Belle had told me, and her fingers went tightly gripping the steering wheel. “He should let you find your own guy. He’ll probably end up like the last one and try to get into your pants before he leaves the house. Your father sure knows how to pick ‘em. I hope Belle doesn’t have these problems when she gets older.”

“If he did this to her I would kill him.” I remembered the first guy that my father had welcomed into our home and what a jerk he was. “If Belle was ever hurt by anyone I would put their head on a silver platter.”

Fury coursed through my blood and I let out a long breath of air. “Calm down or you’re going to scare Malachai. That black aura of yours is freaking me out.” A smile tugged at my lips, but I was still angry. If my father even hurt Belle on accident I would never speak to him again.

“You can’t see auras Bridget.”

“How the Hell would you know? You don’t have my eyes!” Her words were followed by an outburst of giggles and I felt my anger dissolve a bit more due to her silliness.

“I’m not an idiot, and you’re not psychic. That’s how,” My muscles relaxed themselves and I decided to enjoy the time I was about to have with Malachai; even if it was supposed to be Bridget’s.