I am so so so sorry! I know that it's been about two months since I posted the first chapter, and really, I don't want to give you excuses because they won't be good enough. Nothing can justify waiting so long to post, and I apologise. Please enjoy the new chapter.
They drove back to school in utter silence at the end of lunch. Nick had been oddly quiet, while Miley was almost scared to ask what was bothering him. He was so tense that she was just waiting for him to explode.
Suddenly, Miley's words came out like lava from a volcano, completely unstoppable. "I can't take this silence," she blurted. "What's going on with you? You've been freakishly quiet ever since we got back in the car."
"I just have a lot on my mind," he replied quietly.
"Like what?"
Anything to put her off the actual problem, he thought. "Like you," he replied. It wasn't necessarily a lie, but it was better than the whole truth. He was thinking about her, so it wasn't like he was being dishonest, although his thoughts weren't related to her directly. He was thinking about how to keep his secret from her, and about how to keep her happy, and about how much better her life would be if he could keep that one secret from her. He was, of course, considering his secret, which in turn led to thinking about the effect it would have on her life if she knew.
"You're the sweetest boyfriend ever, do you know that?"
Nick looked away and pulled into his usual spot in the student parking lot – if only she knew. "I'll meet you here after school and I'll give you a ride home, okay?"
"Ice cream?"
He couldn't help but smile. She was like a little kid when it came to ice cream. "Always," he replied.
She squealed excitedly. "Ah! Best boyfriend ever!"
He smiled once more and kissed her cheek, not looking her in the eye. "I'll meet you here," he repeated.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
He watched as she climbed out of his car and walked across the parking lot towards Demi, who was waiting by the entrance. She looked so happy that he knew at once that he was right in keeping his secret from her. The events of that night were better kept a secret. They would break her heart otherwise.
He got out and locked the car. He leaned against it and observed the last-minute lunchtime rush. Cars swerved in to their spaces in an effort not to be late for class. People were laughing and shouting as they crossed the concrete to the main building. Teachers yelled for people to stop running in front of oncoming cars. It was the usual afternoon chaos.
Nick pushed himself off the car and slowly walked across the lot to the back entrance.
Joe approached him at once. "Hey, man! What took you so long driving back?"
"I got here like five minutes ago."
"Oh, making out with Miley in the backseat, huh?" Joe asked with a wink.
Nick didn't laugh at his friend's teasing. "I'm not in the mood for this today, Joe," he muttered, leading the way through the doors and into the bustling hallway.
He furrowed his brow at Nick and sighed. "What's up with you today? You were weird at Giuseppe's too and now you're being all moody like one of those vampires out of that Twilight crap that Demi made me watch."
Nick looked around. "I need to ask you something," he whispered softly when he was sure that no one was close enough to hear them.
"What's going on?" Joe asked worriedly, noticing his friend's edginess.
"Are you playing some kind of joke on me? Because if you are, I've worked it out and it really isn't funny, Joe," Nick warned, his voice low.
"Dude, trust me, I haven't played any jokes on you lately, not since I got that boyband's CD stuck in your car stereo. What's going on?" Joe grabbed Nick's arm to stop him from walking any further. "Nick, you're scaring me here. What's going on with you?"
"Do you remember what I told you about the night of Jackson's accident?"
Joe chuckled slightly. "Of course I remember. We were talking about it this morning."
"I think somebody knows."
"What do you mean by 'somebody knows'?"
"I got a note in my car. They said that, if I do what they say, Miley won't find out." Nick fished around in his pocket and pulled the note out for Joe to inspect. "I don't have many other secrets, so I'm guessing that it's the Jackson thing. What am I supposed to do? I can't just give in to what this person wants, but Miley cannot find out about this, Joe."
"Okay, calm down. Everybody has secrets. Are you sure it wasn't one of the guys from the team?" Joe asked. "Maybe they're just screwing with you. This person probably doesn't even have a clue what happened that night."
"This thing is for real, Joe. I'm sure of it."
"How do you even know that it isn't someone playing some kind of sick joke, though?"
"I have a feeling."
"Is there proof?"
Nick stopped in front of his locker and sighed. "I don't need proof. This thing is giving me a bad vibe. I just have a feeling that this is for real. This isn't just some high school joke, dude." He entered his combination and opened the door. "People don't just write notes like that for –"
Nick stopped mid-sentence. He froze completely, staring at his locker with a look of horror.
"You okay, buddy?" Joe asked worriedly.
Nick slowly lifted his hand and reached in to the locker, moving so slowly that he looked like some kind of zombie. He extracted an average-sized photograph of Jackson. He turned the photo over to find a message scrawled on the back in block capitals, just like the note he had found in his car.
I WASN'T KIDDING. I DOUBT THAT YOUR GIRLFRIEND WANTS TO BE WITH SOMEONE THAT HAS DONE WHAT YOU'VE DONE.
Joe snatched the photograph from Nick's hand and scrunched it up into a ball. "Forget this note," he hissed, looking around to make sure that no one saw it. "This person is just trying to mess with your head."
"They're doing a damn good job."
Joe threw the photo in the trash, grabbed Nick's arm, slammed the locker shut and stomped down the hall, pulling Nick through groups and around corners. They eventually reached the library, where they were to spend their study period. Joe led Nick to the back of the library, where they sat down at a table in a deserted corner.
"They're only doing a good job if you let them do a good job," he said quietly. "Right now, Nick, you're letting them screw with your head."
"It's hard not to let them screw with my head when they're leaving me threatening and anonymous notes about my girlfriend," Nick snarled. "It's alright for you, man! You haven't got a secret as big as this to keep."
"No, I just have to keep yours."
Nick threw open his History textbook to distract himself from the reminder of the fact that he had burdened Joe with the information about the accident as well, and that he wasn't the only one that was dying to tell Miley the truth. He looked around nervously. "We don't know who has been listening to us and when," he said to stop the conversation from turning into a proper argument. "I mean, how does somebody just find out something like that?"
"Well, when was the last party you got drunk at?"
"I guess it was about a month ago. What has that got to do with anything?"
Joe sighed and leaned forward. "We all know that you don't handle your alcohol well," he whispered. "You get too honest and you tell people things that are better left unsaid. Like, remember that time the first time we ever got drunk that you told Selena that she needed to lose a few pounds? She went on a full-on diet after that for six weeks, and you didn't even remember saying anything to her. What if you told somebody that night about what happened and you don't remember? What if that person has been waiting until now to use this against you?"
"Why would someone wait for something like that?"
"It's almost the anniversary. Maybe whoever this is wants to add salt to the wound. Maybe they realize just how much you have to lose," Joe explained.
"I have just as much to lose now as I did a month ago."
"Maybe so, but with the accident fresh in everybody's minds, everyone knows that Miley is going to be pretty emotional, so what better time to make you lose the most important person in your life than the anniversary of her brother's death?" Joe dropped his pen and looked around nervously again. "What if this person really does know everything, Nick? What if they know that this information really can ruin everything for you?"
"Maybe I should just go to the cops," Nick said, vocalizing his thoughts.
"No, calling the cops is NOT a good idea. Do you not watch television, Nicholas? The bad guys just get angrier when you involve the cops! Besides, you can't tell the cops about this person without telling them about the accident, and you cannot afford for them to do that."
"I can't just sit here and stew over it," Nick snapped. "The longer I leave this, the more time this person has to think about what damage they can do." He hesitated, then stared up at Joe. "You've changed your tune. I thought you thought it was just someone screwing with my head."
"I was only trying to calm you down," Joe replied simply, taking a sip from his bottle of water.
"So you think that this person is for real?"
"Maybe they are and maybe they aren't. All I know is that you need to figure out what you're going to do about this before you get any more messages from this person. I mean, are you going to do what they say?"
Nick took a deep breath and buried his face in his History book. "Do I have any choice?"
Thank you to everybody who reviewed. If you haven't already gotten in to it, please check out my other story, A Thousand Miles From Home. I promise that I will try as hard as I can to get the next chapter out way sooner. Hopefully you enjoyed this :-)