The Secret

 

     I don't normally write short stories or flash fiction but here's a piece I wrote awhile ago that I thought I would share. Feel to comment.

 

 

 

The Secret

 

I stop copying the equation Mr. Rinaldi is still animatedly writing up on the board and explaining with more fervor than should be allowed after lunch. Not really his fault. He is actually a good teacher but calculus, or any other class for that matter, right after lunch is a challenge. Some students are still swept up in the conversations started at lunch but didn't come to a satisfying conclusion due to the shortness of time. Others suffer from food hangovers and find the only cure is to sleep it off. Quite a few, like me, are just plain distracted.

Laying my pencil down, I slip my phone out of my pocket, using the desk to hide it from view. I tap the screen and bring up the text I have probably viewed at least a dozen times since it came in shortly after I left A.P. Physics this morning.

Meet me at our regular place after school. Please, Lexi. I'm sorry.

Movement to the side catches my eye and I quickly close the screen and stuff my phone back in my pocket. I glance over and see Nikki leaning back in her desk and Jasmine leaning forward to whisper in her ear. I watch but their eyes never flick my way. I slowly release my breath and pick up my pencil. It wasn't about me.

I resume copying the equation. Math had become nothing but signs and symbols to explain things that simple numbers could no longer do. Complicated curves and twists whose mysteries and frustrations could be represented and solved with the formulas that graced Mr. Rinaldi's white board every day.

As I watch my pencil fill my notebook page, I wonder if there is a formula that could make sense of my situation and provide me an answer for what I should do about the text.

I glance around the class. Nikki and Jasmine aren't the only ones busy exchanging secrets as I see papers passing between desks and fingers discretely tapping on phones. After watching everyone for a few seconds I begin to change my mind. They are all smiling. Secrets don't make you smile.

Class comes to an end which leaves me with one more to get through before the end of the school day, and I still haven't decided about the text. As I walk down the hall the phrase, "Hey, did you hear...," stops me in my tracks and I listen long enough until I feel it's safe to move on. Gossip is simply a secret that escaped. Someone wasn't careful or, worse, they shared.

Secrets and friends are incompatible. You have to choose. It's either your secret or them. You can't have both. I've seen people who've tried and it isn't pretty.

I enter my economics class and take my regular seat somewhere in the middle. Not long after, Rachel enters and slides into the seat next to me.

"Hey, Lexi," she greets me brightly. "Some of us are going to the yogurt shop right after school. You want to come?"

"Sorry. I have a ton of homework and I got to work tonight." My lie comes out smooth and the act is starting to feel more natural.

Rachel puts on a pretty pout. "We never see you much. This is supposed to be our senior year. Time to have fun. Remember?"

I give her a smile. "Try telling that to my teachers."

She shakes her head sympathetically. "I told you to take an easier load, especially since you kept that job from the summer."

"Next semester will be better," I say as Ms. Miranda calls the class to attention.

"Promise?" Rachel whispers to me.

"I promise," I whisper back as I open my book and force myself to concentrate.

The clock seems to work against me as the hands speed closer to dismissal time. When the bell sounds, I say goodbye to Rachel outside of the classroom since I am heading the opposite way from her.

I know what I'm going to do about the text. My lie to Rachel and the fact I am heading toward the block of science classrooms indicate my choice. Then again, maybe I really knew all along what I was going to do.

Entering one of the physics classrooms, a quick look tells me no one is there so I make my way to the supply room. I try the handle. It's unlocked. Slipping inside, I turn on the light, closing the door behind me. I stare at the containers lining the shelves in front of me holding magnets, resistors, metric weights, and a myriad of other physics lab supplies. My excuse as to why I'm here is well rehearsed and always at the tip of my tongue in case someone comes in. I've never had to use it.

A few seconds later I hear the knob turning but I don't turn around. The door softly closes and I feel a familiar set of arms encircle my waist. "I wasn't sure you would come," he whispers in my ear, sounding thankful and relieved.

"I wasn't sure either," I whisper back as I lean against him.

Suddenly we tense as we hear the classroom door open, his arms drop away from me.

"Yo, Mr. Stevens. You here?" a student says rather loudly.

He turns from me, opens the supply room door a bit, and calls out, "Yeah, I'll be right there." He looks back at me. "Will you wait?"

I simply nod and watch as he slips from the room and shuts the door.

Yeah. I have a secret.