Truth be Told ✔️

Chapter 21

Taylor pulled her hair into a loose side braid, because the heat of September was already unbearable as soon as we had left that car.

She looked over at me. "Oh, you mean Adeline?"

Aha. "Finally," I muttered under my breath in relief.

"What was that?" Taylor asked.

"Nothing," I assured her. "I just didn't know the Brentwood girl's name."

She frowned. "I'm surprise Kyle didn't tell you."

"None of them did." I played along.

Taylor nodded. She stared ahead for a moment as we kept walking, and then she stopped, which made me stop too. She looked very seriously at me. "It's September, isn't it?" She asked me.

I nodded. "It's the twelfth tomorrow."

She bit her lip. "How depressing," she admitted.

"Huh? What's depressing?" I questioned.

Taylor's eyes flickered over to the disappearing figures of Seth and Graham. They seemed to have found themselves in front of an electronic store, and were fixated on the Saturday morning college football game.

She then looked back at me. "It'll have almost been three years," she whispered.

Three years since what? I wanted to scream.

"You're right," I said instead. "What are y'all going to do?"

Taylor hadn't heard me. She was switching between stealing glances at Seth and watching a leaf struggle to escape the bottom of her sandal. "No wonder he's been so moody, so sensitive," she mumbled as she stared at him.

"Seth has been acting weird," I agreed, desperate to keep her on track. "But he'll tell you more than he would tell me." I leaned in with one very particular question in mind, the only theory I could come up with so far. "Is he in a gang?"

Taylor's eyes widened. "Oh god I hope not!" She squealed.

"Taylor," I hissed. "Keep you voice down, dammit, or they'll hear us!"

I whipped my head around to check on them, but it seemed they were too far away to hear us. While Graham was slowly finding himself attracted to the smell of the next door coffee shop, Seth's eyes were practically rubbing against the TV.

"Sorry, Alexa," she said. "That idea just scared me. My dad was in a gang once, for a full ten minutes, and then they kicked him out by stealing all of his money and clothes. He was devastated that he didn't even get a memorial tattoo."

I stared at her. "So Seth's not in a gang?" I asked slowly.

Taylor furiously shook her head. "Not that I've seen. Maybe one small tattoo, on the back of his ankle, but that's it." She shrugged. "Why do you think he is so protective over his stuff?"

"He's probably hiding something."

She nodded. "I think so, but he watches me so closely, so I don't think I'll ever have a chance to find out. You could, though."

I absentmindedly nodded. So many ideas flooded my brain of what exactly Seth could be hiding in his drawers and closet. He was always so secretive about the things outside of football, that it surprised me how much I really didn't know about his social life.

But then I realized the answer to one of my many questions was standing right in front of me.

"Taylor," I said, "what happened between Kyle and Adeline?"