HIDDEN CREEK AGAIN: a hidden creek high novel Read online

  “Nothing,” Kailey said. “Who doesn’t love the grandma looking wheels?”

  “It does the trick,” I said. “I can put my boards up on top. It runs great. I can take it right on the beach. It’s vintage. It’s got personality.”

  They all started to laugh at me.

  This was another reason I wanted to come out here alone.

  But screw it.

  I loved them.

  They were my best friends.

  Even still…

  When I saw something sailing through the air from the corner of my eye, aimed right for Charlotte, I kept my mouth shut.

  Let someone else get hit by something out of nowhere.

  * * *

  Charlotte screamed and her hair and face were instantly blue.

  Everyone else jumped and yelled too.

  Not me.

  I saw Flynn throw his fist into the air.

  I wasn’t sure what he thought he was going to get from it.

  “What the fuck…” Charlotte turned. “I hate you!”

  Flynn fell to his knees in the sand and grabbed for his chest.

  Leo side eyed him, shaking his head.

  As Wes walked by, smoking a cigarette, he swung his hand and slapped Flynn at the back of his head.

  Wes tossed his cigarette away, trading it for Aira.

  Probably a good choice.

  His two favorite addictions were cigarettes and Aira.

  Wes picked her up like she was a feather and spun her around. Aira screamed, her hair spinning with her body. They laughed. They kissed.

  I looked at Emma.

  We both wanted to throw up.

  Fucking love. What a joke.

  “What the hell was that?” Kailey asked as she wiped blue specks off her arm.

  “Snow cone,” Flynn said as he wiped the sand off his knees.

  Charlotte pushed at his shoulders and he pretended to stumble back. He grabbed her arms and pulled, knowing she could never keep her balance.

  The two were then in the sand, Charlotte on top of him.

  “I hate you,” she said. “Look at my hair.”

  “Snack time,” Flynn said.

  He sat up and put his face into Charlotte’s hair and made chewing noises.

  “Stop it, jerk,” Charlotte said.

  “You’re right,” Flynn said. “I have something much better to play with.”

  He made a move for her chest and that was enough for me.

  I turned and looked at the water.

  “Fucking weirdos,” Leo said.

  “You can say that ten times again,” Emma said.

  “What the hell are you all doing down here in this weather?” Wes asked.

  “Came to find Nova,” Aira said.

  Wes had his arm around Aira tight, keeping her close and protected.

  Leo and Emma were their usual distant selves. Part of me wondered if they weren’t secretly fucking each other when none of us were looking. Then again, they were too moody to be having good sex.

  Charlotte and Flynn were off in their serious world of whatever they thought a relationship was.

  “I bet I can guess why you’re out here, Nova,” Wes said with a grin.

  “Say it and I’ll shove my surfboard up your ass,” I said.

  “I’d like to see that,” Emma said.

  “Figured you would,” Wes said. “You’re into that crazy shit.”

  Emma fake laughed and waved her middle finger at Wes.

  “I was just surfing,” I said. “Bad weather, big waves. Why not?”

  “Alone?” Leo asked. “That’s kind of dumb.”

  “Oh, thanks for that,” I said. “Are you my father now? You want to come follow me and keep me out of trouble?”

  “Whoa,” Wes said. “Easy there. What if something happened to you?”

  “You’re worried about it?” I asked.

  “We all are,” Aira said. “Nova… ever since-”

  “I think I just felt rain,” I said. There was no rain. “We better head back in case it thunders. You don’t want to be on the beach when it’s storming, right? Can’t imagine getting struck by lightning.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Emma said.

  “We can go back to my place,” Aira said. “Julia isn’t home.”

  “Party time,” Wes said.

  “I’ll just head back home,” I said. “I’m tired.”

  “We’ll come with you,” Aira said.

  “Why?” I asked. “You want to watch me sleep?”

  “You know, the way he has been talking about you…,” Wes said with a grin. “I mean… I wouldn’t mind seeing you two snuggling together.”

  “Asshole,” Emma said.

  “Okay, fine,” Wes said. “You three.”

  Aira elbowed Wes in the gut and he jumped back and coughed.

  “Ignore him,” Aira said. “We don’t want you to be alone. Not with… you know… back in town…”

  I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”

  “It’s not whatever,” Emma said. “You could talk to us. You should talk to us. Let us know how we can help.”

  “Yeah, Nova, listen,” Wes said. “All funny stuff aside, fuck that guy. Okay? He thinks he’s going to raise hell over Ryland. Try me. We had nothing to do with what happened. And when he realizes that, he’ll go away.”

  “Maybe for good too,” Aira said. “I mean… unless you want him back for the summer…”

  Anger bubbled in my stomach and my heart.

  “Whatever,” I said. “I’ll go to Aira’s. Fine. Just need someone to follow me to my house so I can drop off my grandma wheels.”

  “Why?” Emma asked.

  I looked her dead in the eyes.

  Behind me I heard Charlotte giggling as Flynn tickled her.

  The ocean crashed with another massive wave.

  Why? You baseball bat swinging moronic bitch…

  Why?

  It was simple.

  If the waves weren’t going to help me chase away the memory and reality of Elijah, I needed something else.

  I curled my lip and answered Emma’s stupid question.

  “Because I’m going to get wasted… and forget about everything…”

  Chapter 2

  Elijah

  Everything they hated was everything I was and wanted to be. The word hate didn’t scare me at all. I had grown up in a world of hate. In fact, I was conceived out of hate. But that was a whole other story. This wasn’t exactly about my existence, even though me being in Hidden was a big fucking deal. No matter where I went, the tension was high. Even when I was alone I could feel the tension. I made everyone uncomfortable, and I didn’t even have to say a word.

  All it took were two text messages to get things shaken up.

  A little heads up warning to Wes.

  And a little what’s up warning to Nova.

  I needed a ride that was going to make it very clear that I was here and I was going to be sticking around for a bit. I was given a wave goodbye and a pat on the shoulder with a good luck even though I had some classes to finish up. Amazing what a reputation could do for a person. It was easier to have me leave and let me finish my classes when I wanted to than to have me stick around and do what I did best. I also had the chance to hang around Tech, which was the cheap version of HCH. It made me laugh when I heard that because I figured there was no way in hell anyone was going to willingly let me in the sacred hallways of Hidden Creek High.

  The car was a deep shade of red, almost black in the right kind of light. It was quiet, fast, the windows blacked out, and I knew damn well the cops in this town were going to hate the car and hate me inside of it (and inside the town). But oh fucking well. Here I was.

  And even with the shitty, cloudy sky, I parked the car on the side of the road and climbed out. I took a deep breath of the damp air. I wasn’t near the ocean, but it still had that beach smell to it. A smell everyone was probably damn used to, but if you didn’t live near the beach, you’d pic
k up on it in a heartbeat.

  I decided on a smoke to help me think.

  I leaned my ass on the hood of the six-figure car, not giving a shit if I dinged it or scratched it or marked it up.

  Let’s be honest for a second here, Alexander footed the bill for the car. And he was going to keep footing the bill for whatever else I wanted. If he didn’t, his bastard son would raise so much hell, it would look really bad for him and his trophy wife. They wanted their perfect life to continue. Grieving the loss of their only son. Living in a state of mourning that he could use for his own benefit. And why not? I didn’t blame him for that. Dead son. Better business. Have at it, Dad.

  But the last thing he wanted was for me to blow our cover.

  Sure, there were a lot of us in Hidden that knew the truth. Of who I was. Where I came from. And even why I was back in Hidden. I usually only showed up during the summer months. Hence the nickname Summer Boy.

  I fucking loved Nova for calling me that.

  And I started the whole nickname game by naming her my Surfer Girl.

  We were each other’s crazy summer secret, even though we were in the open about it all.

  Back on track, anyone in the professional realm knew me as a family member to Alexander. I was a nephew. Yeah, that was always the story. I was his nephew. And I lived somewhere in the Midwest. So I would come out in the summer to spend time near the beach.

  What. The. Fuck. Ever.

  It worked.

  I kept my mouth shut.

  I mooched off the man who was my father.

  I kept to myself… for the most part.

  When it came to Nova, there was no holding back or keeping to myself.

  But the line had been drawn from that first summer.

  I wasn’t going to be calling her throughout the year. Whisper sweet words over the phone, flirting with her, guiding her into temptation, fooling around over the phone.

  Nah.

  I had my needs. I had other arrangements.

  So did she.

  But come summer… it was all us.

  It was well known that if you were in my arms, you had until May to get your shit together and get ready for a heartbreak. Because there was no way I was going to fuck up my summer routine. No way I was going to miss out on my Surfer Girl.

  I took a deep drag of my smoke and stared at the side of the road.

  The exact spot where my brother had died.

  Or somewhere right around the spot I was at.

  He’d been shot back at the house. Then he had taken off down this road. Crashed. And died.

  Now, living in the shadow of our father, the list of people who wanted to shoot him was really fucking long. The list of those who wanted to shoot to kill him… maybe that list was a little shorter. Maybe.

  I pushed from the car and walked off the road. There was some gravel. Some dirt. Some grass. Some trees.

  I slowly nodded.

  I wasn’t grieving.

  I wasn’t in mourning.

  Instead, I was enjoying my smoke.

  I finished the smoke, dropped it to the ground, and stepped on it to make sure I didn’t set the trees on fire.

  It made me laugh.

  It was a little ironic because I was here to set some fires.

  * * *

  I folded the piece of paper and slipped it into the nightstand drawer.

  I sat on the edge of the bed said good morning to the world with a smoke.

  Alexander hated that I smoked in his house.

  So did Rosemary. But she prided herself on avoiding me. The less words, the better. Even eye contact. It amazed me how fast she looked away. Maybe because when she saw me, she saw her husband inside another woman. Blowing his load in the heat of an angry moment, making everything just a little more twisted.

  Who ever said being rich was easy, right?

  I guess Rosemary was my stepmom. How about that?

  Plenty of thoughts that were inappropriate decided to float through my mind. So much so that I almost decided to lean back on the bed and take care of a little personal business.

  That came to a quick end with a knock at the door.

  “Mr. Elijah?” a shaky woman’s voice asked.

  That was Annie.

  They paid her to talk to me. To bother me. To make it so I didn’t have to talk to them.

  Them being Alexander and Rosemary.

  Angel investors, extraordinaire.

  Father and mother to Ryland.

  I growled under my breath, pissed off that I had all these crazy images in my head and no chance to take care of them.

  The door slowly opened.

  Annie was short, round, with dark hair, brown eyes, a big smile, and looked like your favorite single aunt. The one who didn’t know how to take care of kids so she would shower you with gifts to make up for it.

  She waddled a little as she hurried for my bed.

  “Get up,” she said. “I’ll make the bed.” She snapped her fingers. “Cigarettes? In your room?”

  “Something wrong?” I asked.

  “You can’t smoke in here.”

  “I guess I forgot.”

  “You better remember. Before your-”

  The figure lumbered in the doorway.

  He stood there adjusting his cufflinks. His tie undone.

  “Put the cigarette out,” Alexander said to me.

  Aw, Dad, come on… all the cool kids do it…

  I took a drag of my smoke and blew the smoke up into the air.

  “Oh, my oh my,” Annie whispered.

  She blessed herself.

  She put her hands together.

  She started to pray.

  For me?

  I grinned.

  Alexander didn’t.

  “Don’t forget what’s really happening here, son,” Alexander said.

  “And what’s that?”

  “You’re here to settle yourself,” he said in a cold, monotone voice. “You’re on borrowed time. When I give the word, you’re out of here. Don’t confuse that with me groveling. I have nothing to get on my knees for.”

  “Just think, if my mother only got on her knees, I wouldn’t be here,” I said.

  Annie let out a whimpering cry sound. Her eyes were shut tight.

  Alexander curled his lip.

  I turned and grabbed the cup of coffee off my nightstand. Annie had brought it to me a little while ago when she first came into my room to wake me up. I stuck my hand under the covers and pitched a tent, telling her to get out of my damn room. She saw the pointed bulge in the covers and gasped.

  I dropped my cigarette into the coffee and handed the cup to Annie.

  She opened her eyes and stared at me.

  “Thanks,” I whispered. “You’ve been a great help this morning. You might want to change the sheets. Busy morning for me.”

  Annie looked scared.

  I walked toward the doorway and Alexander blocked the way.

  I was taller than him.

  I was bigger than him.

  His bank account didn’t mean shit to the size of my fists.

  “Where are you going?” he asked me.

  “I’m going to school,” I said. “Going to get me an education. Make you proud. I mean, it’s only fair… I’m the remaining son.”

  Hurt spread across Alexander’s face but he stepped out of the way. He was smart. It was better to just shut your mouth and let me do my thing. Because I could have stood there all damn day and thrown jabs.

  Because the truth was pretty easy to follow here.

  I wasn’t back in Hidden to avenge the death of my brother.

  I just wanted everyone to think that.

  I was back in Hidden because of a note sent to me.

  Because I needed to make sure the bullet meant for me was never going to come my way.

  * * *

  I stood behind the chair and stared at Harrison.

  He was a skinny little runt, but he was in charge of Tech.

>   The real name of the building was Hidden Creek West Tech.

  HCWT

  The building looked like the kind of place you’d see in some sci-fi horror show where they would be conducting experiments on humans or trying to contact aliens before all hell broke loose.

  His fancy clothes were a little baggie for his skinny frame.

  There were degrees hung up in his office.

  Apparently this guy was a lawyer turned principal.

  In the past I had heard rumors of his old man helping to purchase degrees and status.

  How sad.

  “You’ll find everything you need here,” Harrison said. “As far as finishing your classes. We have plenty of programs you can jump into. But quite honestly, we’re close enough to the end of year I’m not sure it’ll matter. But feel free to jump into any class you want. Or just lay low and make my life easy.”

  “Now what would be the fun in that?” I asked.

  “Right,” Harrison said. “Before you get comfortable, you need to head down to the main building.”

  “Hidden Creek High?” I asked with a grin.

  “Counselor down there needs to speak with you,” Harrison said. “Miss Carson. Just to talk about…”

  “Yeah,” I said. “My brother’s tragic and untimely death. His murder.”

  I wiggled my fingers.

  Harrison pursed his lips. “I see you must miss him greatly.”

  I grabbed for a tissue on Harrison’s desk and dabbed the corners of my eyes. “I haven’t slept in days…”

  “Yeah, right,” Harrison said. “Go see Miss Carson and then get your ass to class.”

  Harrison flicked his wrist with a piece of paper for me.

  The paper fell right to his desk.

  I kept grinning.

  “That’s your schedule,” he said.

  “I figured,” I said.

  I swiped the paper off the desk and left Tech for HCH.

  Harrison must have called to say that I was on my way because another guy in a suit was waiting for me out front of the prestigious looking building.

  “I’m Principal Henders,” the man said.

  “I’m Elijah,” I said.

  “So I’ve heard. Follow me.”

  Walking into the building, one thing came to mind.

  Nova.

  My Surfer Girl.