Dirty Secrets

Part 74

During their morning commute to the hospital, a sullen Lyla stared blankly out the window. "Well, today is gonna pretty much suck," she sighed.

Darcy fed the end of a Strawberry Twizzler into her mouth and offered the bag to her friend.

"No, thanks," Lyla said. "Friday. This shoulda been my last day. My friends, Shaniece and AJ are done today. Not me."

"It's only for one more week," said Darcy. "But, yeah. It still sucks." She paused. "Everything happens for a reason."

That triggered Lyla. "I hate that!"

Darcy didn't expect such an extreme reaction to her throwaway remark.

"Like my mom was supposed to get cancer and die?" Lyla fumed.

"Sorry." Darcy reached for her friend's hand. "That's not what I meant. At all."

Lyla retracted her hand, then drew a Twizzler from the bag straight to her mouth.

Trying to calm the waters, Darcy asked, "So? You catching up with your schoolwork?"

"What?" Lyla's phone rang. She didn't recognize the number, so she didn't answer.

Darcy looked flustered. "If you need help with Chem or anything..." 

Her phone rang again.

"Don't answer that," said Darcy, her face noticeably paler.

"Hello?" Lyla took the call.

"Uh, Lyla?" said a voice she didn't recognize.

"Yeah?"

"Hey, this is Wes."

Darcy tightened. She bit her lip.

"Darcy gave me your number," he said.

Lyla aimed fiery eyes at her friend.

Darcy winced.

"Just wanna say hi real quick," Wes continued. "You still there?"

"I'm here." She took a big bite of her Twizzler.

"So listen. That was totally a sketchy move on my part. Having Darcy ask you to the dance instead of me asking you. That's not me. I'm not a sketchy--"

"I just don't want to go," Lyla said. "Nothing personal. I just don't want to go."

"You're really putting me in a bad spot."

Lyla bristled. "To be honest, calling the day before the dance feels super desperate."

"Hey, look. I just thought we could have a good time. You and me and Darcy and Julian."

"So, Wes. Did you actually tell Jack you could get him..." She stopped herself. "Get something for him?"

"What?"

That drew Darcy's attention.

"Did you?" Lyla growled.

"I don't know what you're even talking about," he said.

"Oh, really?"

"I gotta go." He hung up.

She yanked the Twizzler out of her mouth, chewing slowly as she stared down her best friend.

Darcy apologized. "Okay. Obviously, I wasn't thinking. The three of us were hanging out at lunch, me, Julian, and Wes. And he said he wanted to call you and...I guess I caved to peer pressure." 

"You guess?"

Darcy took a quick look at her fuming friend then immediately directed her eyes at the road. "There aren't enough apologies in the universe." She gulped down her regret.