Page 59 of Little Buried Secrets

“Right after the party. My friends saw him following her around that night. Guess he even tried to kiss her.”

“Did you confront Isaac about it?”

“I saw him a few weeks after we broke up. He said something about it not being his fault that I couldn’t keep my girl, and I decked him.”

Sebastian decked him, which told me he had issues controlling his anger. Then again, so did I when the situation warranted it.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this before now?” I asked.

“Look, I’m all over the place. I’m doing the best I can. When I thought I had a shot at winning Margot back a week ago, I started picturing what our lives could be like in the future. I just wanted to be with her. I didn’t care about anything else. Sounds stupid, right?”

“What’s stupid about it?”

“You probably think I’m too young to know what I want in life.”

“I wasn’t. I was thinking about the man I’m with now and how I felt about him when we first met. I was in college. Back then I pictured life with him in the same way you did with Margot. He pictured life with me too, but neither of us admitted it. We didn’t see each other again for over twenty years. A few years ago, we reconnected. We’ve been together ever since.”

“Wow.”

“I’m sorry your second chance was taken from you,” I said.

We came to a stop on Rae’s driveway, and Sebastian turned toward the house. He stared at it for a long time and then said, “I have so many memories here.”

His breathing quickened, and he wiped his eyes, turning away from me as he tried to control his emotions. For a moment it seemed like he’d calmed himself down, and then he bent over, resting his hands on his knees as he said, “I can’t stop thinking about what she must have gone through that night. I bet she was scared. Scared and alone. I’d give anything to turn back time and stop it from happening.”

I grabbed a tissue from inside my bag and handed it to him.

He wiped his eyes and his nose. “Sorry.”

“There is no need to apologize,” I said. “You’ve been carrying a heavy weight. It’s good to let it out.”

As his breathing steadied, he said, “Are you going to talk to anyone besides Isaac?”

I wanted to tell him about Coach Warren, if for no other reason than to see the look on his face when I did. People’s expressions had a way of giving even more information than words did sometimes.

“I’m going to speak with Coach Warren,” I said.

Sebastian screwed up his face, confused. He, too, seemed unaware of Margot’s feelings toward the coach or the reason why she’d quit the volleyball team.

“Why do you want to talk to the coach?” he asked.

Given he appeared to have no knowledge of Coach Warren’s alleged behavior toward Margot, I decided not to say much.

“The coach spent a lot of time with Margot and the other girls on the team this year,” I said. “Maybe he knows something we don’t. Is there anyone else you think I should talk to at school?”

“I can’t think of anyone.”

“I imagine the press conference was hard to watch,” I said.

“It would have been a whole lot easier if my mom hadn’t come into my room while it was on. She’d been watching it in the living room, and she started crying and decided we should talk about it. When I told her I didn’t want to, she got on a Zoom call with her friends. They were all crying and talking about what they should do … like there was anything they could do, and I just wanted to get out of there.”

“I know you’re trying to be strong for yourself and everyone around you, Sebastian, but it’s okay to allow yourself time to process what’s happening,” I said.

“Every day I wake up thinking things can’t get any worse, and then they do. I’ve been worried about Bronte and Rae, and I just wanted to be here.”

I turned and saw Danny driving toward Rae’s house. Bronte was next to him, snuggled up against his arm. He pulled to a stop in the driveway, and they both got out.

Danny looked at Sebastian and said, “We should order some pizza.”

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