Page 19 of That Secret Something

My heart stuttered, and I cursed inwardly, feeling heat flush to my cheeks. Damn Rebecca. How was she always so cool and collected about things? The woman was danger personified. Plus, she’d never explained why she was late in the first place. She’d had an interview, but for what? And why couldn’t I mention that to Lily? I should be angry with her. Not feeling this ache between my thighs.

I removed the cloth from my head and inspected it. The blood had dried, so in my non-existent professional medical opinion, I was fine to take a few steps away from Rebecca and scan the chaos for my best friend. I needed Lily to stop me from doing something I’d regret.

I balled the cloth up tight into my hand, using it as a stress ball. Oh god. Please don’t be dead.

Just when I was about to start worrying about having to plan her funeral—if Sally asked me, I couldn’t say no, but I really didn’t think I could do it—Lily stepped into my eyeline. Relief flooded my senses for all of two seconds before I saw the anger in her features.

“There you are!” She flapped her arms in the air with a big huff. Her brown hair was stuck up at the back and her red lipstick was smudged at the corners of her mouth. Her dress, once crisp and white, now had a tear at the bottom and dark smudges on the sleeves. There were strange splatters on her arms, too. Is that…cream? Lily’s eyes found Rebecca, and she bared her teeth. “And you! Where the hell have you been?”

She stomped past me and poked a finger into her sister’s chest. She might be a good few inches smaller than Rebecca, and not the most athletic of the two of them, but I wouldn’t bet against Lily in a fight.

Rebecca opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Lily cut her off with her hand.

“No. No. I don’t want to hear it. I asked one thing of you, Rebecca. One thing! And you couldn’t do it.” She turned to me. “I don’t want to talk about it. Can we please just go home? I heard the police are going to be here any minute.”

The drive home was strained, to say the least. I kept my eyes on the road and my hands firmly on the wheel, swallowing the urge to ask Lily why she smelt like curdling milk. It was strange for Rebecca to be so quiet, too. I peeked at her in the rearview mirror. She was staring out of the window, resting her head on her fist. I wished I could ask her what she was thinking about that made her look so…sad. It didn’t sit right with me to see her like that.

Lily let out a long-extended sigh.

I chewed my lip, deciding to bite the bullet. “Are you okay? What happened in there?”

“It was…carnage.” She puffed out her cheeks and pulled at the torn folds of her dress. “The crowd caught wind that there was an exclusive guest arriving. You know that good-looking man from that cooking show?”

“Richard Michaels from Baking Babes?” I asked, thinking about how Grandma used to drool whenever he came on screen. She didn’t even like baking, but she watched it religiously—which meant I had to, too. We used to spend a lot of time together after school if Mum was working late. I missed Grandma a lot.

“That’s the one.” Lily deflated, pulling something sticky out of her hair. “He’d arranged to make an appearance, offer out some goodies, talk about what made good wedding cakes, etcetera. Then they announced he was going to give one couple the chance to have their wedding cake made by him.” She inhaled a shaky breath. “And all hell broke loose.”

I grimaced. Maybe my prediction of the bridepocalypse had been right, after all.

“Are you okay?” I reached a hand out to her.

She squeezed it gently before letting go. “Yeah. I just saw some things, that’s all. There was so much screaming and pushing. One woman set fire to her bra. Then when Richard was escorted from the building, they fought over the cake displays, sending them everywhere.”

“That sounds awful.” Though Grandma would’ve found it hilarious.

“I saw that bloody cloth when you got in the car,” Lily said. “What happened to you?”

The memory of Rebecca’s body pressed against mine flashed behind my eyelids. I gripped the steering wheel. “We…” Almost kissed. “We were caught up in it, too.” That wasn’t exactly a lie. “Just not as badly as you by the sounds of it, but I’m okay.”

“Hmm.”

I prayed Lily wouldn’t ask any more questions. I’d never been good at lying, and Lily had a sixth sense for detecting any of my bullshit. I think that’s how she’d helped me come out when I was younger. She knew something was troubling me before I’d even had the chance to process it myself.

We didn’t speak for the rest of the drive. Every time a thought about Rebecca flew into my mind, I squeezed the wheel until my knuckles were white. I really needed to get back on the dating scene. Rebecca and I were never going to be a good idea. It would be the first thing to tip Lily over the edge, and we’d barely even started with the Lawson wedding. Plus, Rebecca didn’t seem the type to want something serious. Out of all her previous girlfriends, she’d only had two that I’d known about; neither had lasted long—and both ended badly. Lily had told me a few tales about Rebecca’s love life at university, before the jealous side of me had managed to steer the conversation in another direction. And who knew what she’d got up to around Europe.

I wasn’t the type to just fool around. I needed to know that things had a structure and to understand the dos and don’ts. I liked routine. The grey areas around just hooking up only ever ended with someone getting their heart broken. And out of the two of us, it was fairly obvious it would be me who’d be in for the giant heart-stomping.

“Thanks for today, Jess. I appreciate it,” Lily said as I pulled up outside her house. The evening dusk was settling, colouring everything in a dusty darkness. Lily stepped out of the car, illuminated by the yellow streetlight above. “I’ll text you, okay?” She closed the door and walked up her driveway with a slight limp.

Rebecca climbed forward into the passenger seat, giving me a jolt. I’d almost forgotten she was there. And now we were alone. Again. Luckily, the drive to the Lawsons’ house wasn’t far, just the next town over.

“That was brutal,” she commented, arranging her long limbs in the footwell and clicking in her seatbelt. “She wouldn’t even look at me.”

“Well, you did turn up hours late.” I pulled out onto the road, happy I had something to do to occupy my hands.

“I know, that was shitty. But I did have a good reason.”

“And what was that again?”

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