The Secrets of Cedar Creek

8 : Dear Diary

           

           

"Shot gun," I call, stealing the passenger seat of Avalon's car.

Sylv rolls his eyes and sits at the back.

"Are you sure they're out of town?" I ask one last time.

"For the love of God, yes. If you ask again, I'm going to neck," Sylv grumbles.

Avalon is the worst driver I have ever experienced. She makes a rough turn and I find myself with a stiff neck and minor whiplash.

"Sorry," she hums, "I can be a sh*t driver when I'm nervous."

"No kidding," Sylv and I say in unison.

We drive for another twenty minutes in silence – occasionally grunting as Avalon attempts to 'drive' – but finally, we make it to Paige's house. Paige's home is on a street of mansions, all equally grandeur and... well... large. There's only about four or five, but it seems like the street goes on for kilometres. Paige was very modest, but her family is probably the most loaded in Cedar Creek.

We pull up on her majestic, maze like driveway and are stopped by her iron gates. "Sylv – the code," Avalon asks, pulling up beside the pin pad.

He tells her the code and we drive through, parking behind the garage. Paige's two huskies run towards us, ears and fur flapping as they pounce along the icey grass. As the three of us finally escape Avalon's death trap of a car, we give Woody and Buzz (her gorgeous huskies) some cuddles before sneaking around to Paige's back door.

Every time I see Woody and Buzz I just want to cry – God I love dogs. I've always wanted a pet but since I'm living with my Uncle and Auntie, I don't want to be a bigger hassle to them than I already am. I owe so much to them and adopting two children would be too much for me to expect from them.

Anyways... back to the mission.

As we sneak in through the back door, Sylv runs to the alarm and shuts it down. "Alright, we made it in. Now what?"

"Paige's room," I say, nodding to the stair case.

We run up the stairs on our tip toes – even though the house is empty, we are cautious. We  pause as we reach Paige's door, eyeing the wooden boundary that separates us from Paige's intimate space. The three of us were the closest people to her: her boyfriend and her two best friends. Somehow, we feel like it's our fault she's dead. Like we let her down. Now we have to make it up to her, and this is the only way how.

Sylv places his hand over the door knob and hesitates, resting it on the cool bronze knob. Instinctively I put mine on top of his for support. Thinking nothing of it, Avalon places hers on top of mine and the we simultaneously push open the door together.

The room is exactly as she left it. All the furniture is white, the walls are covered in photo frames and it smells like fresh baby powder. The make our way around the room, looking for anything suspicious or out of the ordinary. Sylv looks behind all the photo frames, Avalon goes through her closet and I sift through her desk. As I rummage through the draws and skim through her notepads, I find a pretty pink journal with a fluffy cover. There's a small pen attached to the side and a white diamond with ribbon to tie it shut. I slowly untie the ribbon and read the first page

Dear Diary...

Suddenly a door slams shut. I whip my head around to look at Sylv and Avalon.

"The cleaning lady!" Avalon scream whispers.

"Hide. Now," Sylv urges.

I swipe the diary, sticking it into my jumper and run to Avalon and Sylv, cramming into her cupboards.

We crouch down in silence, listening intently to the steady click clack of Paige's cleaners shoes.

"How long is she going to be here for?!" Avalon scream whispers again.

"F*cked if I know," Sylv murmurs.

"Surely she'll leave soon," I assure them.

The footsteps get louder and then get muffled – assumedly from the transition onto the carpeted stairway. Then there's silence. The door creaks open wider and I imagine her peaking into the room. She clicks her tongue and then sighs, the door creaks again until it clicks shut.

The three of us exhale.

We wait until we hear the front door close before we run out of the house, cuddling Woody and Buzz on the way out, and speedily driving away.

.

.

.

Avalon drops us both off at school before the final bell rings and I'm alone with Sylv in the parking lot for a moment. As I secure my helmet on my head and clip the straps, I watch Sylv's lips move but cannot hear what he's saying. I take off the helmet and rest it on the bars of the moped.

"What?"

"I said, I didn't mean that."

"Mean what?"

"That I... I said earlier that I regret..."

"Don't worry about it. I regret it too-"

"No, Rose. I don't regret it." He sighs.

We lock eyes and there's a dead silence.

"The only thing I regret is..." he pauses and looks down at the bitumen. "I promised my mum that I would protect the woman I love like dad protected her. I tried saving Paige and I failed. I failed just like my dad."

"You can't blame yourself for that – and you can't blame your dad either. It was out of your control."

"Somehow I feel like what happened to Paige is because of me." He takes a deep breath. "Paige was... fragile. She was this delicate little thing that could break by a whisper. And I knew that if I was the one to push her over the edge then I would never forgive myself – because I've never forgiven Dad."

"Sylv, stop." I grab his hand. "What happened to your mum is no one's fault. It was her decision and her decision only. What happened to Paige... now that's a different story. But we're going to figure it out together – and when we do... we'll make sure they pay."