‹ Prequel: We Are Young
Sequel: The Motto

Secrets

Everyone

Steve whispered in Kaya’s ear. Kaya giggled. “You’re so cute” Steve kissed right below her ear. Jayden fake-gagged. Brandon put his arm around her.

“Senior year” Steve said. “It’s almost over”

The 9 of them, the new 9 best friends created as a product of their endeavors from the school year before, sat in a circle. They all thought they were united as friends, but that’s not the case.

Jill looked over to Zack. They caught each other’s eyes for a second, but Zack turned away. Over the summer, they broke up. Jill looked to Steve and Kaya. Kaya looked so happy, Steve was so sweet to her and it showed every second they were together. Jill wanted that, Jill wanted Steve.

Liv looked over to Taylor. The summer was over and she realized her priorities, she hated fucking politics, she just loved school. Instead of being a politician she wanted to be a school teacher. Now that she had her priorities straight she wanted Taylor back.

“This is the year of all years” Brandon said. he turned to Jayden and kissed her.



“The first day of school is always rough” Zack said.

“No, it’s only rough because you have to explain to people why you’re not with Jill anymore” Kevin said. Zack shrugged. “And you have to tell people she wants Steve and not you” Zack shoved Kevin into a locker.

“Shut the fuck up” he continued down the hall by himself.

Kevin yelled: “When are you going to get over that pretentious bitch!” Zack turned around. “You knew she was no good for you, you’re better than her!”

“Then how is it that I’m so fucked up?” he asked Kevin.

Jill watched the whole interaction between the brothers from the end of the hall. She wanted to cry. Why was she so good at destroying people?

Lindsey took Jill’s hand. “This must be hard” Lindsey said. “But if you don’t like Zack anymore, there’s no point in staying with him” Jill thought about it, and Lindsey was right, but she didn’t know if she didn’t love Zack anymore.

Liv walked past Lindsey and Jill and Zack and his emotional breakdown with Kevin toward Taylor.

“Hey” she started.

“No” Taylor said. “I’m not doing this” Taylor started to walk away. Liv followed him down the hall.

“Come on…just hear me out”

“Why should I…you left me for something so stupid!” Taylor exclaimed. “I really liked you, and you stomped on my heart!” Liv sighed and let him go.



After school Liv walked to the cemetery where the potheads went to smoke in privacy. She was looking to find Taylor, she wasn’t giving up.

Taylor saw her walking through the bushes to the river bank they were sitting on. “Hey” she started.

“Go away” Taylor said. Zack gently pushed Taylor.

“No, sit” Zack said. Liv sat next to Taylor.

“I’m sorry for what happened after the spring fling” Liv said. “I broke up with you because of my image” she explained. “I wanted to be a politician”

“Why are you speaking in past tense?” Zack asked.

“Because I don’t care about politics anymore, I care about school and the students and how the benefit from education, not about politics” Liv explained. “I’ll do anything to get you back” Taylor thought about getting her back, but what happens when education and becoming a teacher was more important to her than their relationship?

Taylor shook his head. Liv, in a fit of impulsive behavior, grabbed Taylor’s spliff and had a smoke of it. She felt a little weird at first, but then it was okay.

“Please?” she asked. “Pretty please?” Taylor had to admit, that was pretty sexy. In his own impulsive fit of energy he kissed her, but he knew he didn’t mean anything of it.

Taylor knew she would leave him again, probably for the perfect boyfriend. She didn’t know what she wanted.



“Jayden!” her mother called. “Record my weight for me” Jayden ran down the stairs and saw her mom on the scale in the kitchen. They had to have at least ten scales in the house.

“Ok” Jayden grabbed the clip board off the counter. Her mom was closing her eyes. She compared the weights and wrote down the new weight on the scale. “Got it”

“How much did I go down?” her mom asked as she stepped off the scale.

“A little over 7 pounds, good job” her mom smiled.

“7 more pounds and I’m down to my pre-babies weight, it only took 17 years” she joked. Jayden looked at the scale, she randomly stepped on to see her weight, she’s gained a lot since she started dating Brandon almost a year ago.

Her mom compared Jayden’s weight from a couple months ago to now, not much of a difference. But when she compared the weight from a year ago today, that scared her.

“Jay, you gained like 20 pounds” her mom said. “You were perfect at 100 pounds”

“That’s not healthy” Jayden said. “I feel a lot healthier now, especially just in time for marching band I can grow some muscle weight” Jayden grabbed a small bag of chips.

Her mother grabbed the chips. “Fat girls don’t get to go to college. Fat, imperfect girls don’t get married and have kids one day” she said. Her mom collected all the snacks from the cabinet and threw them out. “If you want to keep Brandon around your little finger for much longer, I would suggest losing some of that weight on your thighs and your stomach…no one wants a fat girl” Jayden looked down at herself.

Her mom’s a model, if you were wondering. She did a lot of modeling for stores and magazines. She was constantly under pressure to stay a certain weight, and she wanted her girls to follow in her footsteps. Jayden wasn’t on the tall side like her mother, but she had the potential with her looks.

Jayden went upstairs and looked at herself in the mirror. She could see it, she was practically bulging out of her clothes. Maybe a diet wouldn’t hurt for a few weeks, she thought. Just a few weeks.



“You’re boyfriend slipped this letter under the door” Her mother, Claire, started. Jayden grabbed the letter. “Why does he call you Jazz again?”

“I play in the Jazz band”

“Oh, that makes sense” Claire had dinner on the table, it wasn’t much, it’s never much.

“I’m not hungry” Jayden said. “Can you save dinner for me?” Claire nodded. Jayden went upstairs to her room with her letter.

Right then and there, Jayden knew she was going somewhere she didn’t want to go with her life, but she didn’t want to turn back now.



“You can’t hang up on Kaci forever” Brandon told Christian. “You need to move on…I hate to be a douche but you do!” Christian sighed. “Dude, I fucked Kaci too!” Brandon admitted. Christian attacked Brandon. “Way before you did” Brandon pushed Christian off of him. “You’re not yourself, she ruined your life”

“She was my life” Christian said.

“Well that’s unfortunate because she was in everyone’s life, she fucked most of the school” he tried to explain. “She didn’t love you, I hate to admit this but it would have ended soon if you dated her.” Christian got up and left. “CHRISTIAN!” Brandon called. “YOU KNOW I’M RIGHT!”

Christian walked all the way home that night, it was terrible where he was living, Christian’s mom hated him for giving up on some stupid girl. Brandon was right, yes her death was sad, but he let her death ruin his life.

Ever since Christian flunked out and then dropped out his mother was less…supportive of what he wanted to do. He was practically kicked out.

Christian stopped by the pizza place on his way home. “Hey Jay” he started. His friend came out from behind the counter to sit with Christian at a booth.

“Hey what’s up”

“Nothing…I’m getting kicked out by my mom, I have no job, no money, no education” he said.

“Well, we’re hiring” Jay said. “I can totally pimp you out”

“Thanks man, I need it”

“No problem”



“I’m telling you Jay, Community College is awesome!” Brandon exclaimed. “I’m like the smartest kid in this class…it’s so cool!” Jayden giggled.

“I’m glad your having fun” she said over the phone.

“After we’re both done with college, I want to be with you forever” Jayden smiled. “I wanna be able to run away with you…which country did you want to go too?”

“England”

“Yeah, we’ll go to England. We’ll live there so long we’ll develop accents!” Jayden smiled.

“I hope so…I’m looking forward to running away with you” she said. “Forever”

“Forever”



Christian looked at his house, then back at the ground, then back at his house, then down at the ground where he kicked a rock.

His mom just kind of kicked him out. He’s 18, it’s acceptable, it’s not right but it’s acceptable. They had an agreement, Christian could flunk out as long as he got his GED over the summer, Christian gave up on that too and was looking to be a dead beat, this was the only way.

Christian pulled out the job application from the pizza shack. “I fucking need to get this job” he muttered. He put the application away. “If Kaci was here, we’d be cuddling or having sex” he said. “She’s be comforting me, or offering me a place to stay” he started to cry again.

He was never going to get over her. That’s what she wanted.
♠ ♠ ♠
and it starts again
the sequel!