Secrets & Lies: Two Short Stories(29)

I held up the folder. “I brought you some stuff from biology. Can I come in?”

She nodded and stepped aside so I could enter the house. She shut the door, then led the way down a hallway to her bedroom. The walls were covered with posters from different anime series. I recognized a few from when Nathan was in high school. I guess they were still popular.

She sat on the edge of her bed and took the folder from me. I watched as she opened it up and started flipping through the pages inside. “Wow,” she said. “There’s a lot.”

“Yeah… but I put a copy of my notes in there, too. So hopefully those will help.”

“Thanks,” she said.

“So…” I realized I was wringing my hands and stopped, shoving them into my pockets instead. “How are you? When are you coming back to school?”

“I’m… better,” she said. “I’ll be back next week, I think. But I’ve decided to quit cheerleading. It’s just too embarrassing.”

“Did you hear about Justine?” I asked.

“Yeah. Principal Roth called my parents. They wanted to press charges, but I told them not to. It would just make going back to school worse.” She shut the folder and put it aside. “I just can’t believe it was her. She’s always seemed so nice.”

“I know. She’s not who I thought she was, either.”

“How did she even know?” she asked. “Why would she put the camera there?”

“That’s… That’s actually something I came to talk to you about.” I looked down at my feet. “I told her. One day at lunch, we were talking and it was just stupid and I told her about walking in on you in the locker room. I’m sorry.”

“You… You did it?”

I nodded slowly, then looked up. “I didn’t know what she was going to do, though.”

“Oh my God,” Elsie said. “I should’ve known.”

“W-what?”

“I should have known you were behind this,” Elsie said. “You’ve always been jealous of me.”

I had no idea how to respond to that.

“You’ve been jealous of my gymnastic abilities in cheerleading. And that day when you walked in on me, you were obviously jealous of my body.” She stood up and put her hands on my hips. “I mean, of course you would be. You don’t have boobs yet.”

I felt like I’d been slapped in the face. Twice.

“And you were worried Justine might start to like me more,” she said. “So you told her stories about me. Both of you knew I was hotter and funnier and that more boys liked me, so you teamed up to embarrass me. Oh my God, that’s the only reason she hung out with you, isn’t it? She’d never actually be friends with you.”

Wow. That stung.

“Elsie, that’s not… Look, I just came here to apologize.”

“Not accepted,” Elsie said. “You little wannabe. You know what? I’m not quitting cheerleading. I’m going to stick around just to make you and the rest of those girls look bad. I’ve been holding back, you know. Just so you all didn’t seem so stupid out there. Not anymore, though. And don’t expect any help when you screw up your next cartwheel.”

“I… I should go.”

“You should,” she agreed.

“Anyway, I’m sorry. Again. For telling Justine about… Okay, well, ’bye.”

I got out of the house as fast as I could. I still felt shocked. Dazed. I hadn’t expected Elsie to be happy with me or to forgive me right away, but I hadn’t anticipated that, either.

“How did it go?” Nathan asked when I got back in the car.

“It was… weird,” I admitted. “Turns out she’s just as much of an arrogant social climber as Justine said.”

“Really?” Nathan asked. “Wow.”

“Are you sorry you made Justine turn herself in?” Whitley asked. “Do you think Elsie deserved it?”

“No,” I said. “No matter how stuck-up she is, no one deserves that kind of bullying. So… I’m glad I did what I did.”

“Good,” Whitley said. “Now can we stop talking about high school drama and go see the movie?”

“Nice, Whit,” Nathan said.

“What?” Whitley asked. “This whole thing is giving me serious flashbacks to last summer. Not something I want to relive.”

“Whitley’s right,” I said. “Let’s go. All the secrets are out. I’ve apologized. I’m done. Enough drama. I’m ready to have a little fun.”

“I think we can make that happen,” Nathan said as he pulled out of Elsie’s driveway.

Just then, I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket. I pulled it out and saw a text from Brody. I grinned, glad to have found at least one person in all of this who was truly “worth knowing.” I kind of hated the way Justine had used that phrase, but I knew what it meant now. The people who made you smile. Who liked you for you and not the clothes you wore or the clubs you were in. Friends. Real friends.

“Hey,” I said, looking up from my phone. “Can we make one more detour? Brody wants to come.”

Whitley laughed and Nathan groaned. Loudly. But he took the turn I pointed to, toward the Frasiers’ house.