Six Little Secrets(38)

Good.

Megan didn’t need to try to keep her tears at bay. She’d cried enough. While planning all of this, anger was the stronger emotion. Now she ripped open the gaping wound in her heart as she relived it for them.

‘I didn’t know he was serious about going so when he asked me for a ride, I refused,’ Megan said. ‘Instead, he took the bus across town and walked to the house. When he arrived, that’s when he met Jackie.’

Megan held onto Jackie’s gaze. It was the hardest thing she’d ever done to go to school with this girl every day for six months. And to make it worse, she’d had to research Jackie’s life to find the one thing that would teach her a lesson.

Megan had been content to ruin Jackie’s face. Jackie was the first on her list. Initially, the knife had been the only option. As she’d planned the rest of the consequences, she’d come up with the temporary option to give Jackie false hope. Every opportunity for Jackie to ruin someone’s life had two choices, the easy one and the hard one. She was surprised that Jackie took the hard way out, but even though the clock almost ran out, she still suffered her consequence.

Megan knew Jackie was a virgin, she heard that from Logan directly, but that wasn’t her biggest secret. Even after watching each of her classmates fall, she still resisted her own truth. She thrived on lies, and those lies had deathly consequences.

Megan had been on the edge of her seat while everyone searched for the letters. Little did they know, Megan was going to suggest opening the second envelope at the last minute, wanting to have the deciding vote in Jackie’s fate. Jackie’s quick thinking about that exact plan somewhat backfired on Megan, giving Jackie the win. Megan hoped every painful inch of Jackie’s face helped remind her of what she’d done to ‘Jake’.

‘Do you remember the encounter?’ Megan asked. ‘I only have the gossip. But Jacob was gay, so what you made up couldn’t have possibly been true.’

The others looked at Jackie, something that Megan hoped for. Peer pressure wasn’t a bad motivator. And now that their secrets were shared, there was no reason for anyone to hold back.

‘I thought he was cute,’ Jackie said. ‘Logan and I were on the outs again, and I wanted to make him jealous. So I figured this kid would do the trick and then I’d never see him again. We went into Greg’s mom’s room. And, um, once we were inside, we started fooling around.’

‘That’s a lie,’ Megan said.

Jackie nodded. ‘I tried to fool around with him. He refused. For Logan to be jealous, I needed Jake to tell the story as I wanted. And to be honest, Jake not wanting me hurt my ego a bit. So I told him that he had to tell everyone we had sex or else I’d say he was unable to get it up.’

Megan was the only one in their family that knew he was gay. And since Jacob wanted to fit in—something she never understood—he would have done it, no matter how wrong it felt to him.

‘I bet that felt nice,’ Megan said.

‘Screw you,’ Jackie said. ‘I didn’t mean to—’

‘You didn’t mean to embarrass him? You were going to do it anyway. I hope every time you look into the mirror, you think of him.’

Jackie’s shoulders shook with repressed sobs.

Speaking of tears…

‘Let’s move on to Cece,’ Megan said.

‘I didn’t try to sleep with him,’ Cece said.

‘No,’ Megan said. ‘But you make him vulnerable.’

‘How?’ Cece asked, her eyes narrowing to slits.

‘By taking his only means to get a safe ride home,’ Megan said.

Cece’s eyes teared up, and her voice shook. ‘I don’t understand.’

Megan reached into her bag and pulled out a red debit card. The one that her dad gave both her and Jacob in case of emergencies. ‘This is what Jacob would have used to get a ride home. But for some reason, it showed up in your bedroom. Tell me, how is that?’

Cece wrung her hands in her lap and mumbled something.

‘Please speak up!’ Megan snapped.

‘I stole his wallet,’ Cece said flatly.

‘You took his wallet,’ Megan repeated, letting it sink in. ‘Do you still claim not to be involved?’

‘Why would you steal his wallet?’ Jackie asked. ‘You have a ton of money.’

‘I can’t help it sometimes,’ Cece said. ‘It’s something I need to do to feel right about myself. And no one knew him, so it didn’t seem like a big deal.’

‘That’s messed up,’ Q said.

‘Shut up,’ Cece said. ‘None of you is perfect.’

Megan waited until they stopped bickering before continuing her story. ‘Jacob didn’t know about his missing wallet until he got to the ATM,’ Megan said. ‘When he tried to get onto the bus, the driver refused him a ride. And at that point, he was too far away from the party and needed to be home in time for curfew. Do you remember the temperature that night?’

Jackie mumbled something.

‘What was that?’ Megan demanded.

‘It was cold,’ Jackie said, narrowing her eyes.

‘It was thirty-five degrees that night, give or take. Teddy, that’s where you come in.’

Teddy’s eyes were wide as if he knew he wasn’t involved. He was so wrong.