Hidden Valley (D. SWING)

XXVIII. Sins

"I'm so happy we're on break after this."

Marlene's smile fades as she notices the small furrowing of Don's eyebrows. His distracted gaze leaves him staring at the pencil on his desk. His mind has yet to have been able to rest. Soon, he should be out of his sling and cast... Javon's got another couple of weeks after his broken hand earned him a cast of his own.

"You're thinking about Thanksgiving again... aren't you," she questions, placing her hand on Don's arm.

Don shrugs her hand off him. "You weren't there. You wouldn't get it, Marley."

"Right, but Letty and Cyn were..."

Don's head turns to face Marlene, her jealousy as apparent as possible. "What's that supposed to mean?" When shrugs, trying to retreat from her slip up, but it was too late. She's already got his attention. It's what she wanted, his attention, just not this kind of attention from him. "I don't want to tell the story, I don't even want to think about it." He begins feels bad, understanding how hard it is for Marlene to help him if she doesn't have the full grasp of the details of what happened on Thanksgiving.

Bits and pieces have been floating all around their inner circle... none of them being the full truth.

The adults conversations turned into shouting as the defensive end of the allegations quickly became offended at the simple idea of having to defend their young. Meanwhile, the teens all stood in Ananda's backyard, most of them were silent as a select few hollered back and forth.

"You mean to tell me that every fucking body knew what was going down except me," Javon finally screamed. He found himself walking up on Don as they began to have their own separate showdown. "Don, you supposed to be my best fucking friend! We brothers!"

Don calmly replied, "Your sister didn't want anybody to know. I can't do—"

"We supposed to be brothers!"

Having enough of his best friend yelling in his face, Don hollered back. "She didn't want me to tell you!" Javon displays a grimace of confusion and disgust. "You got to take that up with Cynthia! I can't expose no shit like that. That's her business! Dalvin didn't even tell me and Paulette and Tasha n'em wasn't even 'posed to know, J! I ain't got no control over this!" Don's rare use of profanity always made it clear just how angry he is.

"I don't give a fuck! You know some shit like this happened, you supposed to tell me! No matter what! She was my sister before she was yours and she gone be mine after you gone!" Javon's brown face began to turn an even shade of red. Originally, it was only his nose that had the red tint and that was due to the cold weather. Now, his anger had given him a brand new skin tone. "That's fucked up, D!"

Don shakes his head at the constant replays of that entire afternoon. He glances back up at Marlene. "I'll tell you later, but... for right now, let's just not even talk about it." Marlene silences herself. Don turns in his seat, facing only her. "Can I take you out tonight?"

As if he'd never hurt her feelings at all, Marlene's face turns a bright area. Her skin is flushed with heat upon the enhancement of her blushing. "Yes, you can."

Don smiles. "Cool."

The two have been dating for a majority of the first semester. Unfortunately, he attempts to take the extra step of proposing that they make their relationship official, something happens to ruin his confidence or the circumstances of their relationship. Regardless of how stressed out he is at the moment, they're finally a stable place within their budding relationship. Don made the decision this morning that he'd ask her to be his girlfriend tonight. After that, he'll tell her the full story of Hidden Valley's biggest tragedy. It'll be her first secret to be kept as his girlfriend.