HIDDEN CREEK SECRETS: a hidden creek high novel Read online

  HIDDEN CREEK SECRETS

  a hidden creek high novel

  Jaxson Kidman

  Contents

  Welcome to

  HIDDEN CREEK SECRETS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

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  More from Jaxson

  Welcome to

  I turned my head and Wes was already staring at me.

  In that moment - for just a second or two - I saw him as the Wes I once knew.

  But when I blinked, he was back to the new Wes.

  And one question was close to the tip of my tongue.

  You’re going to break my heart, Wes, aren’t you?

  * * *

  Written by Jaxson Kidman

  HIDDEN CREEK SECRETS

  Wes & Aira Book 1

  HOUSE BURNED DOWN? #check

  FORCED BACK TO MY OLD HOMETOWN? #check

  NEW SCHOOL? #check

  RUMORS, DRAMA AND B*TCHES? #triplecheck

  * * *

  What could make things worse for me?

  One name.

  Weslee freakin’ Jackson.

  The worst of the worst.

  The one I’m told by EVERYONE to stay away from.

  Which should be easy, right?

  NOPE.

  He’s everywhere I go.

  Stalking me? Maybe.

  Dark brooding eyes trying to devour me? All the time.

  There’s just one little thing…

  Wes’s eyes aren’t the only ones on me.

  And I think I’ve started a war.

  Oops.

  I didn’t ask to be put in this position as I find myself gravitating toward Wes.

  He says he’ll protect me from Hidden Creek High.

  But who’s going to protect me from him?

  Prologue

  (or maybe something like the end)

  This is where I ended up?

  After everything that’s happened, I ended up staring at a shiny, black coffin. Beautifully fresh-cut red roses were piled on top of it. I kept my eyes right there on the roses to help keep me from freaking the hell out. I didn’t like death. I didn’t like funerals. I didn’t like anything of it. But I was there because I was part of it all. Not just the funeral or what happened, but everything. The town. The school. Everyone inside of the town and the school.

  My heart told me to apologize. To whisper I’m sorry over and over until the pain and confusion is gone once and for all.

  But this was not my fault.

  After all the secrets that were spilled and the truths that collected like the broken hearts left by so many, what did anyone think was going to happen? The quiet little town near the beach… the one where you were either rich or poor… popular or a loser… hot or not… the town was full of secrets.

  And something in my gut told me this funeral was just the beginning.

  As much as I wanted it to be the end, I slowly started to shake my head.

  A hand touched the small of my back.

  His hand was big and strong, commanding and protective, the exact thing I needed in that moment. And beyond.

  But I know I could lose him too. Or he could lose me.

  And to think it all started with a look.

  The kind of look that was quiet and trouble.

  I knew what I was getting into though.

  It wasn’t my first time here.

  And with a town named Hidden, there was one rule you had to understand…

  Everyone has a secret.

  Chapter 1

  Aira

  I can taste the smoke. It’s not like cigarette smoke or the smoke from a fire in the fireplace. Or from a campfire. Or a bonfire. This smoke is so different. This smoke is like a deadly blanket. I swear on my life, this smoke has fingers. Long, crooked, wispy fingers. And they are really strong fingers. They grab at my shirt and pull. They grab my hair and twist worse than when I got into that fight with Amber back in eighth grade because she let the guy I liked feel her up on the bus ride home from an away football game.

  This smoke has its own life. And it brought a best friend.

  Flame.

  And together, their life is to destroy everything I know. Everything I own. Everything that has made me feel normal over the last so many years when nothing was normal. I should be walking faster, finding the exit, but I’m scared and confused. The door is hot. The window is too far up to jump out of.

  The flames aren’t crackling like they do when it’s calm and comfortable to be in front of a fire. These flames are growling. They’re making a whooshing sound, devouring all I know because these flames suck. There’s too many things I want to grab right now. Clothes. My stuff. My favorite pillow. My fishbowl with Harry the goldfish. I was the only person to actually win at that stupid goldfish game at the carnival. The one with the pingpong ball that never goes into the bowl. And now Harry was going to die.

  Oh… wait… I’m going to die too…

  My only choice is to scream for help.

  “Aira!” a voice yelled.

  I sucked in a breath, fearing it was my final breath because that’s what the smoke and the flames wanted.

  Instead, my eyes popped open and all I saw was an empty road with trees on each side. I let out a yell and put my hands to the dashboard, looking for the steering wheel.

  Only I wasn’t driving.

  And there was no fire. There was no smoke.

  I turned my head and saw Julia’s pretty face as she kept switching between looking at me and looking at the road. I guess something was written all over my face because the next thing Julia did was hurry and pull the car to the side of the road. Her old SUV squeaked and made a grinding noise as it stopped.

  I wanted to ask Julia why she drove such a junker of a vehicle. I mean, my mother and father were loaded, so why couldn’t they help their sister-in-law get a better SUV? I mean, yeah, her divorce from my Uncle Kinney was kind of weird with how it all happened. I had been so young at the time, I didn’t remember much. Only that my uncle took off and I never saw him again. The only contact he had with us were random postcards from around the world.

  Point being, Julia was the one taking me in after my house burned down to the ground, so why couldn’t she get taken care of for that?

  “Bad dream?” Julia asked.

  Her eyes were a dark green color. She had her hair pulled back as though she did it without looking in a mirror. She was always so pretty, and she still was, even with bags under her eyes from working so much and so hard. She ran a bakery in town and said she was never happier in life.

  “It happens,” I whispered back to her.

  “Was it about the…”

  “The fire?” I asked. “Yes. All my bad dreams are about the fire.”

  Julia let out a soft sigh. “You poor thing.” She reached across the seat for me.

  I sunk back a little. “I’m good. The dream always end
s.”

  “I think it’s important you talk to someone, Aira. I know your parents are a pain in the butt over stuff, but you trust me, right?”

  I swallowed hard.

  Face it, Julia was so cool. I mean, this version of Julia was very different from the one I knew when I used to live in the town of Hidden. Julia had been young and pretty and she smoked and made it look really cool. My parents weren’t exactly a fan of hers either for that. Or for the fact that she had a couple tattoos. Oh, and she used to have black streaks in her blonde hair and a nose ring. Julia was afraid of nothing in life and that always made me want to be like her. It was fitting that she and my Uncle Kinney got together because they were adventurous. Yet, something had always been off about them.

  Why was my mind thinking about all that crap?

  Because you don’t want to face the truth, Aira.

  I shut my eyes.

  “Okay,” Julia said. “You know this is the best thing for you, right?”

  “Of course I know that,” I said, opening my eyes. “I can’t be back there. I can’t look at what used to be my house. It’s nothing but jagged pieces of a black wood.” I swallowed hard. “They’re still looking for things. Mom just drinks wine and hides her tears. Dad is off thinking he’s going to rebuild the house. Bigger. And then buy everyone a new car or something. And I’m definitely over being called the fire girl in school. Did you know that one of the firefighters that showed up was a volunteer from my school? Some rich kid wanted to be a firefighter. Except… he went to school and told everyone what he saw. That I was in a panic. That I was in nothing but my bra and panties. That I was mumbling about my Stephie doll…”

  “You still have that?” Julia asked with a grin.

  “Yes,” I said. “That a problem?”

  “I think it’s amazing. I still have my blankie.”

  I laughed. “Really?”

  “Hell yeah, girlfriend. That’s our memories.”

  I frowned. “I didn’t get my Stephie doll out of my room, Julia.”

  “Oh,” Julia said. “I’m so sorry, Aira.”

  “It’s fine. It happens. I guess as long as I’m safe, right? I made it out alive. So did Mom. And poor Dad wasn’t even home at the time. I can’t image that. He was away on a business trip and gets the call his dream house is on fire with his wife and daughter inside.”

  “It’s a fucking tragedy, Aira.”

  My eyes went wide. “Oh?”

  “I won’t play the tip toe game with you. How’s that? It’s a fucking tragedy that your house burned down. What you had to endure is wrong. And you know what? The fact that your parents moved you away from this town is wrong too. How’s that? Because they wanted to massage their ego. Because your father had an investment or two take off. How fucking stupid, right? Let’s go buy a gigantic fucking house and screw everything up.”

  I laughed.

  Julia put a hand to her mouth. “I should shut up.”

  “No,” I said. “This is great. Keep going. I love this side of you. You remind me of the old Julia.”

  “She’s still here, Aira. Believe me.”

  “Hey, want to hear a story?”

  “Sure.”

  “That guy who was a firefighter…”

  “Oh, right. Was he good looking?”

  “He looked like a featherless bird with glasses,” I said. “Pencil neck… and probably a pencil dick too.”

  “Not good,” Julia said. “You need girth to feel good.”

  I snorted and felt my cheeks getting warm.

  I wouldn’t know, Julia. I’ve never…

  “Sorry again,” Julia said, touching her lips.

  “He told everyone he comforted me,” I said. “I lost my shit on him.”

  “Meaning?”

  “I beat him up.”

  “You beat him up?”

  “I mean… I beat him up. Like…” I showed my right fist and curled my lip.

  “Really?” Julia asked.

  “I confronted him right in the hallway and he started blinking with his eyes and making a camera sound. He said he was developing the images of me in my undies.”

  “He said the word undies?” Julia asked.

  “Totally did,” I said.

  “Ew. What a fucking idiot.”

  “So I swung. And I just kept hitting him. I took him down. He started to cry. And then he pissed himself.”

  “What?”

  “Swear. That was the only reason I stopped hitting him.”

  Julia put her hands out and bowed forward at me. “You are my hero, girlfriend.”

  “That was also the same day I found out that Jesse made out with another girl at a party the night my house burned down.”

  “Ouch,” Julia said.

  “So that was a bad day for a lot of people. That’s when my parents decided not to let me go back to school.”

  “Well, you’re with me now, Aira. I’m not your parents. But that doesn’t mean I won’t have rules or expect things from you. You should consider talking to someone about what happened. This is a big change for you. Coming back here. You know you have to get back to class too.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “You’re also going to work at the bakery with me.”

  I bit my bottom lip. “Okay.”

  “Just trust me. This will be a good thing.”

  “If you say so.”

  I turned my head and looked out the window.

  Julia started to drive again. The engine in her SUV growled like it wanted to die. I was used to a vehicle that ran smooth and quiet, with soft, leather seats, and a custom entertainment system. The only choice I had then was to stare at the road.

  If I shut my eyes again, I’d dream about the fire.

  And the fact that I lost everything I owned.

  But at least I was going back to a familiar place.

  When we drove by the pristine wooden sign that announced our arrival to the town of Hidden, I bit my lip again, desperate to find a piece to tear at.

  I smiled for a second, thinking about the time the sign was spray painted with the letters W, O, R, E. With the H in HIDDEN left untouched. So it spelled WHORE.

  The boy who did that had to run for his life from the cops as they chased him all around town.

  That was the day I thought he was going to kiss me.

  We were still waiting for our first kiss.

  Chapter 2

  Aira

  I could never get used to calling Julia Aunt Julia. And we both agreed she was just going to be Julia for the rest of our lives.

  I was shocked by her house.

  If that’s what you wanted to call it.

  Living in a small beach town was a strange thing sometimes. There were houses and developments outside the shore points that were built as mansions. And each one had a massive balcony that faced the ocean. I had been in most of those houses in my life. In fact, I grew up in one of them. Then at the age of eleven my father decided the house was too small and wanted to go bigger. He wanted me to have a better education in a town where lines didn’t cross.

  Which meant he didn’t want me associating with anyone unless they were filthy rich.

  But the beach town setting was interesting because there were parts where large houses stood right there on the shore. Large windows, bottom floor to top. Whoever owned those houses didn’t live in them though. No way. Those were money makers. Just keep renting them out over and over, cashing checks and making money.

  Julia didn’t have any of that though.

  Far from it.

  I felt like a bitch when she pulled into the gravel driveway and I saw her house.

  It looked the size of the changing room outside some of the large houses on the beach. It was nothing but old dirty wood, the entire thing looking so dated.

  “It’s not much,” Julia said. “But it’s on the beach. And nobody bothers me.”

  There were dunes on each side of the house with tall grass blowing in the
beach breeze.

  I got out of the car and looked to the backseat. I only had a few bags with me.

  I was going to get more stuff over the weekend though.

  Julia led the way into the house and the first thing I did was smile.

  Of all things…

  The house was cozy, though There were no defined rooms except for the bedrooms and the bathroom.

  One bathroom.

  That was new for me.

  The kitchen was wide open into the dining room area into the foyer into the living room. Of course the living room had the largest windows in the house, which was where I went to look at the ocean.

  Waves gently crashing to the shore, pushing forward, pulling back out, only to repeat it over and over. The ocean didn’t have to worry about fires. Or worry about losing everything. Or watch its mother get drunk to hide her pain. Or watch its father act tired and worried, obsessing over money.

  My right hand started to shake and I touched my bag, knowing I had everything needed to calm my nerves.

  “The view is worth everything else,” Julia said.

  She stepped next to me.

  “It’s fine,” I said.

  “It’s not. You’re used to a lot more, Aira.”

  “This is better than nothing,” I said. “Better than ashes.”

  Julia touched my back. “You can always-”

  I turned and walked away from the window.

  Okay, fine, Julia and I had a moment in her car before. We laughed and bonded or whatever, but that didn’t mean we were suddenly best friends. I appreciated what she was doing for me but I was going through my own shit too.

  “Your bedroom is back here,” Julia called out.

  I froze in place. “Right.”

  “So here’s what I’m going to do now,” Julia said. “I’m going to run to the store. Get some food and supplies for us. It’ll give you a chance to settle and unpack. Maybe you’ll want to go for a walk on the beach. Take in the air. Really think about things for a minute.”