The Secret

Chapter 20

All through the rest of the week, all I could think about was that text. Now its Saturday morning and the first thing I do is look at the text. I keep thinking it's some type of code or there's some alternate meaning behind it. Maybe there's a clue in the words that hint where Maddy is. I'm insane. There's nothing in this text. I drop my phone on the bed beside me. I grab my hair in my hands and pull at it feeling frustrated. I've had a headache ever since that search party that the school had put on. I'm pretty sure it's not going to go away anytime soon. Not only am I keeping myself up at night because of Maddy but now I'm paranoid over Jax. I know I shouldn't be, I can't help it. I haven't seen him since he stayed over for the night. Maybe he ditched town because of me. I laugh. I wouldn't blame him.

I finally get up out of bed and I'm shocked to look over at my alarm and see that the time shows twelve p.m. I put on my Nike slides and head downstairs. As I near the bottom of the stairs, the doorbell sounds. My heart leaps at the thought that It could be Jax. I call out to my mam that I've got the door. I skip down the stairs and open the door with a smile plastered on my freckled face.

"Oh." I say, my smile fading.

"Hey, girlie." Kiera, my mams best friend says. "Why the long face?"

"Hey, sorry I just thought it was someone else."

"Your boyfriend?" her eyebrows shoot up.

"My mam told you." I sigh.

"Of course she did." she laughs and walks into the house. Before she walks into the living room, where my mam is sat, she turns around and points a finger. "Be safe." she winks and leaves me standing in the hallway. My cheeks heat up at what she's implying. I recover quickly and I walk into the kitchen to make myself some breakfast.

After I ate my toast I shoot a quick text to Haley.

Hey, you doing anything today x

Yeah, sorry I'm going out with Luke xx

I shudder, I'm still not used to that. I send a short reply back. After a few minutes of debating what to do, I finally decide to go outside in the garden and lie down in the sun. I'm trying to make the most of the heatwave that has blessed us with its presence.

After I stay under the sun for a few minutes, I decide to go back inside, realising that it's too hot and I'm definitely not interested in looking like a tomato. My head is still wrapped around that stupid text. This headache is getting ridiculous. I grab a paracetamol out of the medicine cabinet and I swallow it with a glass of water. My phone pings, indicating a new text. It's from Esther. She's asking if I want to go to the beach. I agree and I get dressed into some shorts and a baggy t-shirt with the I heart NY logo printed onto it. I grab my phone and my purse which contains a few notes and coins. I hop down the stairs and walk into the living room. Kiera and my mam are sitting on the sofa watching something on TV.

"I'm going to the beach with Esther." I say to my mam.

"Ok, do you need anything?" she asks.

"No, I'm good."

"Ok, have fun."

I walk out the front door and a car stops at the end of my driveway. The window rolls down and I see Esther in the driver's seat. I walk over and hop into the empty passenger seat.

"You ready?"

"Yeah, let's go."

We arrive at the beach around fifteen minutes later, and it's packed. There are swarms of people heading to the same entrance that leads to the beach. It took us a while to find a parking space. We ended up turning back and parking on the main road. We both got out of the car, Esther hauls a beach bag over her shoulder.