An Old Secret

by ElectraSound-WaveDancer

You thought you could keep it a secret. You thought everything would be okay. It was such a long time ago, you thought they'd all forget. But you thought wrong. Now your dirty little secret is out for the whole world to see and you're finally going to have to answer for what you did. Will the four of you get past this, or will you crumble to ashes?

1. Chapter 1

You were sitting alone in the attic with a copy of your high school yearbook. You weren't really looking at the pictures, just flipping through the pages to hear the sound and feel the paper between your fingers. They were still yelling down stairs in the kitchen. Why did it have to be the kitchen? It was like your sanctuary; now, their battle ground. It wasn't like you didn't see this coming. Ten years of secrecy finally revealed, but all you cared about was that Rose had been kind enough to suggest a sleepover for the kids, tonight. They didn't need to be here for this. You wished you didn't either, but you knew better.

You sighed and placed the yearbook down. It was on a page with a large picture of the eight of you, long before this mess began. "Most likely to be friends forever," it read in that awful school spirit lettering. You never really noticed it before, but that image now seemed to foreshadow everything that happened between you. You, Jade, Dave, and John in the center, laughing uncontrollably to a joke you no longer remembered, Jake and Roxy with their arms dramatically raised as they tried acting out a scene in class, Rose watching with a half concealed smile, trying not to laugh. Then your eyes came to Dirk, with those sunglasses of his, smiling at all the theatrics of the group. But now, it somehow seemed less like a smile, like maybe he wasn't really looking at the group. You had seen that look several times, now, and though it took you a moment, it seemed so clear. The reason for all the shouting, the reason for the kids being sent away, the reason you locked yourself up in the attic in the first place.

You looked at that picture, then sighed again. "Guess it's time to face the music," you said to no one in particular. As you descended down the stairs, you thought about everything that had happened. The first domino falling in a string of lies; a party held just for you.