The Secrets of Cedar Creek

43 : Friendly Neighbourhood Pyro

His lips meet mine, harder this time. He runs his hands down my arms, down to my waist, under my shirt. Everywhere he touches burns. I feel anticipation building up inside me.

My hands snake around his neck, holding his face to mine, pulling him impossibly closer. I just want more – I need more. I need to be completely bare against him, completely with him.

Every part of me wants to rip off his clothes and f*ck him right here on the hospital bed. My conservative side screams 'germs!'.

My fingers trace his chest then move down to his stomach, then down to the hem of his pants. His hand tugs at the bottom of my shirt – but just as he is about to slide it off, the light unexpectedly turns on and a nurse rushes in.

"No wonder your heartbeat went up," she says with a sassy attitude.

We pull apart, embarrassed of being caught.

I look over and don't know how I didn't see he's attached to a f*cking heart monitor.

My cheeks flush red, though I'm sure they were already considerably so.

"Get you out of here," she continues, "visits are over and I'm pretty sure you two ain't married."

She shoos me off before I have the chance to say anything. I text him when I get outside but he doesn't answer. Of course he's fallen back to sleep. Typical Sylv. Always napping.

.

.

.

The next day, I'm alone in the war room working on 'C' theories. I have Paige's diary in hand, scanning through it – writing down every possible 'C'. I even jot down people who don't even have 'C' in their name. I even put down f*cking Jeffery just because I saw them talking once in English.

I doubt it, because at some point, whoever this 'C' is, they were her bodyguard. I'm not sure if that's metaphorical, or it actually means babysitter. I'm lost.

Maybe I should tell Tallon. He might have other sh*t on her that I've never even thought of. But the fact that her pregnancy didn't show up in the autopsy means that there's someone on the inside covering things up. Maybe the autopsy guy was bribed – or maybe the person who writes the reports. I don't know.

Then Sylv's face flickers across my thoughts. Sylv. Kissing him last night felt... so right. Like I should have been kissing him this whole time. Kissing Sylv is as magical as Butterfly Falls – or maybe I've always loved Butterfly Falls because that's where Sylv and I always ran off to. Our families took us the first time. I'm not sure how old we were, but we were younger. We didn't talk much back then, we were always shy. I was new to Cedar Creek and my only friend was Tom – back when he was my neighbour.

Tom always said that Sylv was a 'sprouter' which meant he'd get hot as he grew up. Tom said his crush liked Sylv – the three of them went to school at Boullevard at the time, the only other school in Cedar Creek.

All this history – it all leads back to Sylv. How I need to be with him. The guilt is still there – but I don't think I can live my life knowing he's out there and I'm not with him. Will I ever feel like this with anyone else?

Maybe it's because he saved me. After Avalon and Paige told the principal about Scott, I was so crushed. I hated them for a while – even though I knew what Scott was doing was wrong. I think I knew he was manipulating me... I just wanted the attention.

Then there was Sylv. At first, I had sworn to never fall for another boy again. I didn't know how to trust someone again after my first love was so toxic. But this was Sylv – we were becoming friends and we got along really well. And things just escalated because it felt natural and right. He didn't force me into anything I wasn't ready for. He didn't make me think he loved me to get in my pants.