His Deepest Secret

The clock was taking forever to get to the simple number three. Charlotte could not help checking the time every few minutes just in case it happened to skip forward an hour. She was excited to go to the party later with Alissa, and school would not hurry and be over with. It was fifth period, and thankfully, Anderson was not in his seat. Charlotte did not have to deal with him today and that meant she probably wouldn't have to see him at the party, either. After all, he was sick, as the rumors say.

"Did you tell your mom?" Alissa formed the words with her lips from all the way across the room and breathed them out to Charlotte when she had finally gotten Charlotte's attention.

Charlotte nodded. "Meet me at the flagpole!" she responded back, relying on Alissa to understand what she was saying by reading her lips.

It was Tuesday, and Mrs. Heinagan did not hesitate to painfully tell her students everyday that the due date for the explanations were coming up. It's not like the students already knew the due date. Sarcasm is implied there.

"Yep," Alissa lipped back.

Charlotte reverted her focus back to writing the rough draft to her essay

---

"FINALLY!!!!" Alissa yelled from across the green lawn of the front of the school

"HELL YEAH!" Charlotte yelled back, both walking to meet at the flagpole that was not too far for both of them.

School was out. And this meant it was time to get to Alissa's house and start figuring out what to wear.

"Let's go chica," Charlotte winked to Alissa. They walked down the hill together towards Alissa's house, which was only a mile away. Her parents did not want her wasting gas to their car when the school was so close. It was fun though, because the two of them made it fun. They liked to try to find people who thought no one could see them in their cars and were going to town picking their noses.

"Ready to tear up my closet?" Alissa laughed. The two were both very lucky and had high metabolisms. They weighed the same, which was 110. Both would share clothes like no tomorrow because their style was exactly the same.

"Hell no....YES!"

They both ran up the stairs to Alissa's bedroom, excited to change into their best attires. Both went through everything in Alissa's closet until an hour later, when they had both found exactly what they wanted to wear.

"How do I look?" Alissa flashed a smile. Alissa and Charlotte were not the typical kind of people; they didn't dress in short dresses or mini skirts when going to parties. They were not like that. The two of them liked to dress more like tomboys or punks, while maintaining being girly.

"Swell darling! And me?"

"Beautiful! Now let's go! I want a beer." Alissa grabbed her keys and left her bedroom with Charlotte right behind her.

"I love you Mom! Be back later!" Alissa yelled to her mother in the kitchen.

"Be back by twelve! Love you too!"

"Twelve thirty Mom?"

"Fine." Her mother was busy trying to concoct a new recipe for her restaurant she and Alissa's father owned.

Alissa smiled to Charlotte as she skipped out the door.

"Spaz," Charlotte muttered.

---

The music could be heard from down the street that the two were driving down. The house was not hard to miss; there were already teens falling over in the lawn from being so drunk already.

"Yep, we've found the right place," Charlotte said.

Knowing there would be no places to park, they parked down the street some and walked the rest of the way. Alissa pulled up to the curb and turned off the car.

"Let's go dude. By the way, I'm drinking. You're the designated driver." She flashed a smile at Charlotte as they got out of the car and began walking.

"Not like I drink, anyways." Charlotte didn't want to touch alcohol. She hated the smell. She hated how it made people act. She hated the taste.

"AYYYY SEXAY LADAYYY!" Someone was doing Oppa Gangnam Style on the lawn of the jock's house.

Charlotte laughed and hopped up the steps into the booming house.

"Where are the drinks?" Alissa asked some random dude.

"Over there by the keg man," he replied, smiling at her.

"Thanks!" Alissa took Charlotte's hand and led her through the grinding bodies to the living room where the keg was barely visible. There were so many people crowded into such a small room. Charlotte almost lost her grip on Alissa's hand.

All the cheerleaders were dancing on the couches with the jocks cheering them on. People danced around them, trying to get noticed by the jocks, whom they think are like gods, and the cheerleaders, who won't ever give anyone the time of the day if he did not have a Letterman's jacket.

Charlotte looked over to see that Anderson was here at the party, but he wasn't cheering the cheerleaders on like the rest of the jocks. He was leaning against the wall, drinking out of a red plastic cup. His eyes were on everyone else, just watching them instead of joining them.

That's peculiar.

He was supposedly sick. Charlotte knew she was right, he did fake being sick. He is probably trying to avoid doing the project with her, and if that was the case, she would definitely confront him and call him out on it tonight.

"Hey, hand me one?" Alissa asked a girl who grabbed the red cups. She handed her one and they both filled their plastic cups up with beer. The smell bugged Charlotte, but oh well. "Let's dance!" Alissa smiled brightly and took Charlotte to the middle of the room and began dancing, forcing Charlotte to dance with her. Charlotte was enjoying herself, until a random guy began dancing behind Alissa and stole her away. She didn't have anyone to dance with, so she felt slightly awkward. Alissa was grinding against him, having fun teasing him as he danced behind her, holding her hips.

"Hey!" A random boy who looked really cute appeared in front of Charlotte. He had huge brown eyes and shaggy dark brown hair.

"Hi," Charlotte said back, shyly smiling.

"What's your name?"

"Charlotte. And yours is?" she asked back.

"Sullivan. May I dance with you?"

"Oh, I uhmm..." she muttered, looking down at her feet.

"Or we could just go into the kitchen and get some pizza?" he offered, noticing how shy and uncomfortable she got with the idea of dancing. Charlotte looked back up at him with a smile on her face and nodded. He held out his elbow for her to grab onto as they made their way towards the kitchen. On the way, she peeked over at Anderson, who had been looking at her just seconds before she turned. Eye contact was made, and it was not the comfortable kind. Amusement crossed his face and he displayed a smirk as she looked at him, wondering why he wasn't slapping some cheerleader's butt and practically dry humping her on the dance floor like the rest of the retarded jocks were doing. How was he the most popular?

Sullivan and Charlotte finally made it to the kitchen, where stacks of pizza boxes were spread out. Charlotte hopped onto the counter and sat down.

"Pepperoni?"

She nodded and he grabbed two pieces for himself and one for her.

"Thank you." She gave him a small smile.

"So where is your boyfriend at?" Sullivan asked.

"I don't have one," she muttered, taking a bite of her pizza.

"How does a beautiful girl like you not have a girlfriend?" Benjamin's face was truly shocked, but Charlotte did not know this boy and therefore did not know if he was being serious or trying to get into her pants, which she wasn't down for.

"I...don't know?"

The two flirted back and forth, passing time by without even realizing it.

"Hey, I'm going to go to the bathroom! I'll be right back. Wait here for me?" Charlotte asked.

"Yeah, go ahead." Sullivan could not help but feel attracted to this girl with long brown hair and sparkling blue eyes.

Charlotte leaped off of the counter she had been sitting on. Her butt was numb from sitting so long. She made her way through the crowd to the bathroom upstairs. Like at every party, there was a long line. People were probably puking their guts up. Charlotte did not want to wait, though. So she walked down the hallway to find a bedroom with a bathroom. Luckily, the first door she tried did not have any teens going at it and had a bathroom.

She walked into the dark room and towards the door leading to the bathroom. As she turned the handle, she heard puking, but it was too late. She did not realize someone was in here until she opened the door.

Anderson was sitting by the toilet, looking extremely pale, throwing up repeatedly.

"Oh shit! I am so sorry!" Charlotte felt bad for walking in without knocking.

Anderson did not even turn towards her, but whimpered as he clutched the toilet.

"Are you okay? How much have you had to drink?" Charlotte could not help but walk over to him, roll up some toilet paper, and hand it to him.

"Go away." His voice was raspy as he began to dry heave. "I drank too much, obviously."

His voice was not slurred, though. Charlotte peered into the cup he had beside him. It was orange and fizzing.

He lied. He did not drink any beer. He was drinking orange soda.

"You've got to be shitting me, dude. Your orange soda is right beside you." Charlotte did not mind calling people out for lying.

"Just go the hell away, alright?" he said softly.

"No. Tell me what's wrong?" She was genuinely concerned now that she realized he must really have not been faking sick. He looked fine earlier during the party.

Dry heaves began to start again and he embraced the toilet until they passed over.

"I don't feel well. Stomach flu."

"Then why the hell did you come, you retard?" She shook her head. "Get up, I'm taking you home."

"Just go the hell away, Charlotte. I mean it. I don't want to be anywhere near you."

Those words hurt Charlotte a little bit, but she would never admit that.

"No, get the hell up and let's go. I'm taking you home whether you like it or not." Charlotte reached into his pocket and grabbed his keys. He was too weak to fight back fast enough. She helped him stand up and began walking out of the room with him. The whole time they walked, he was clutching his stomach in pain.

Yes, she hated him. Yes, he loathed her. But Charlotte was different when she saw someone in pain or something was wrong.

Sullivan walked out towards her.

"Need help?"

"Please," Charlotte grunted, thankful that Benjamin saw her trying her best to help Anderson stand and walk to her car.

Sullivan threw Anderson's left arm over his shoulder and helped him to stand and walk better. Charlotte felt immediate relief as the two walked Anderson slowly to Anderson's truck. The two put him in the passenger seat and shut the door.

"Thank you so much, Sullivan," Charlotte said. "You don't know how heavy he is to me."

"No problem. I couldn't just stand there and not help. Plus I uhh...wanted to ask you for your number." Sullivan's face flushed pink. It was evident that he was nervous.

"Oh." Charlotte got a little shy hearing him say that. "Yeah, hand me your phone?" She smiled. He handed her his phone. She typed in her number and her name and handed it back to him.

"Thank you," he said. A huge smile was splayed across his face.

"You're welcome. I'd better drive him home now. I'll hear from you sometime?" she asked.

"Definitely." He waved at her and walked back towards the party.

She walked around the front of the truck and hopped into the front seat.

"Keys?" she asked.

Anderson groaned, but he knew he could not drive home himself. He handed her his keys willingly.

"Where do you live?"

"Grand Street. House number 7398."

She knew exactly where that street was and began the fifteen minute drive there. Once she got there, she got out and helped Anderson out. She saw his lanyard and grabbed it, raising it up to Anderson's face with a questioningly look.

"That one."

She put the key inside the lock, turned it, and helped him walk inside.

"Upstairs?" she asked.

He nodded. Getting him upstairs was hard, but she did. He told her where his room was and she got him there. She couldn't find the light switch so she just helped him to lay down in his bed without caring about the lights.

"I feel so dizzy..." he murmured right before he laid down in bed.

"Do you have any medicine?"

"Yeah, on the dresser."

Charlotte grabbed it and a water bottle that was thankfully there beside it. She wasn't one to be nosy and medicine was personal, so she did not look at what it was, but handed it to him. He took the medicine and put the water bottle on his nightstand.

She sat cross-legged on the floor, dialing Alissa's number.

"Hello?" Alissa slurred.

"Heyyyy...you are drunk aren't you?" she asked.

"Tommy gave me a ride home."

"Nevermind then. Goodnight Alissa. Love you!" she said.

"Love you too. Bye," Alissa said and hung up.

No ride for her.

Anderson was looking at her.

"What?" Charlotte asked.

"I still hate you."

"Whatever. I still hate you. And I don't have a ride-"

"Thank you for what you did." Anderson's face was filled with sincerity.

"Uhm... yeah... You're welcome." She felt awkward.

Anderson sleepily closed his eyes and fell asleep within a few minutes. Charlotte sneaked over and stole a pillow he was not using and laid down on the floor. She was stuck here. There was school tomorrow. She needed to sleep. He should be able to give her a ride tomorrow, anyways.

She closed her eyes, feeling awkward being in the room of a guy she hated most. But for tonight, she was doing the right thing.

Tomorrow, everything would be back to normal.