A secret is a secret | ONC 2024

07 | The call

"Hey, Beck, I am back, are you ready for the movies?" I walked into our dorm room, closing the door behind me.

I placed my house keys down on the entry table and I turned around. I saw Beck being surrounded by my boyfriend and Cyrus. The three of them were sitting down at the bar stools in front of the kitchen counter.

For some unknown reason, they were looking at Beck's phone. Her phone was in front of her and the screen was pitch black.

I walked into the kitchen and stood on the other side of the kitchen counter. I placed both of my hands down on the counter as I looked at the three of them, with a questioning expression. "Okay, what's wrong?"

Of the three of them, Alfred stopped looking at Beck's phone and started looking at me. "Hey, Lena. Beck had received a call from the police department about thirty minutes ago."

His response to my question transformed my expression into a panicked one. "What? Why on earth did they call you?"

This time Beck switched her attention from her phone to me. "They didn't say a lot over the phone, but they said that I needed to go to the police station tomorrow to talk about a case."

I looked at her as my panic expression didn't fade away. "Oh, god. They did say, which case?"

She slowly nodded at me before she spoke. "Yes, they did. Lenora is the case about the accidental death of that young man, the same one who showed me early this week."

I looked away from her and started pacing around the kitchen. "Oh my god, this is not good. What if they found something that ties us to the case? I mean, that's a possibility because we were there. I don't want to go to jail!"

My boyfriend quickly stood up from his chair and appeared at my side in a matter of seconds. "Lena, baby, we don't know why Beck was called by the police. Maybe, the police are calling all the guests that were staying in the hotel before they fully closed the case."

I stopped pacing around the kitchen and stood in front of him as I looked at him. " I guess that makes sense, Alf." I looked away from him and stared back at Beck again. "Beck, did you make sure to eliminate any trace of us on that beach?"

"Alfred is right, the police like to cover all of their bases before permanently closing a case. Since the hotel we stayed at is near the beach, they are probably going to ask the guests if they saw anything." Beck looked at me as she stood up from the bar stool and walked toward us. "Lenora, to make your worries go away. Yes, I did make sure to eliminate any trace of us from that beach."

"Beck, do you need a lawyer?" Cyrus stood up from the bar stool, walked toward us, and joined us in the kitchen.

"Cyrus, thank you for the offer. But I can call my uncle, he is a lawyer and he will come with me to the police station tomorrow." Beck responded to his question as she looked at him over his shoulder.

"Oh yeah, I had forgotten that he was a lawyer." Cyrus told her as he looked back at her.

"Cyrus, for a matter of fact, my uncle is a good lawyer." Beck said as she looked back at me.

"I hope our secret doesn't go out." I voiced my concern with panic coming out of my lips.

"Lenora, don't worry, I am not going to share our secret, my lips are sealed."

✘✘✘✘

It was the next day, I was sitting down on the couch in my boyfriend and Cyrus's dorm room. My phone was in the middle of the coffee table. Both Alfred and Cyrus were in the kitchen making a late lunch for the four of us.