Page 2 of Promised Secret
I beamed my smile at him—the one everyone calledcharming—even though I didn’t like smiling right now because there was a hole in my mouth. My tooth was taking forever to grow back.
My smile seemed to have startled him as he looked visibly more shaken. He squeaked out a “Hi,” then went back to staring at his hands on his lap. His entire body was stiff, and his shoulders hunched to make him look even smaller than he already was. He had to be younger than me.
Maybe he was one of those kids who were scared of the older ones? I puffed up my chest, knowing that as his elder, it was my job to protect him and make him feel safe.
“Do you like playing?” I asked and offered my blue-and-white police car to him. He didn’t reply or look at me. “Look, when you drive the police car, you have to make the noise or it’s not real.”
I demonstrated my amazing siren imitation and zoomed the police car from one side of the clinic to the other. He watched me with a blank stare, looking unimpressed. I used my hand to push the toy car back towardhim, stopping at his feet. The sudden action had him almost jumping from his seat.
“Don’t be scared! I’ll protect you. That’s what police officers do, you know? They save people from evil and protect the peace of the town. They’re heroes,” I stated and patted my chest confidently like I was one of the heroes I was speaking of.
One day, I would be.
The kid finally looked up at me, eyes focused on me as he took in my words. I beamed at finally getting his attention. “Don’t worry. As your elder, I’ll protect you! That’s how it’s supposed to be.”
“What if I want to be the one to protect?” he asked, fists balled in his lap. “I want to protect my mom.”
I nodded with approval. I liked people who fought for their loved ones.
“Then you protect each other. Your mom will protect you, and you’ll do the same for her.”
“But how?” he asked, sounding a bit desperate.
I thought about the question, since I’d never needed to protect mylao-babefore. He always told me to focus on my studies instead of fooling around and playing make-believe. I looked at my toy car, and the answer instantly came to mind. It was so obvious.
“You become a police officer, too!” I told him and knelt down to pick up my toy car again. I dropped the balled-up napkin in my excitement. “I’ll show you how. C’mon!”
Just this one time, I’d play the bad guy and let him be the officer so he could practice saving the day.
He looked at the hand I held out for him to take. Then, very hesitantly, he accepted it. His hand was warm in mine as I helped him stand from his seat. Good thing I was holding it, too, because he slipped on the napkin and started tumbling backwards. I pulled on his hand to keep him from banging his head and help stabilize him, but the action only caused him to tumble forward instead.
I readied myself and looped my hands around him in hopes of catching him before he took us both down, but I hadn’t expected his head to suddenly swing forward and hit mine. It all happened so quickly. Soft lips smashed against mine, and my mind went blank.
My friends said you couldn’t go around kissing because you could get cooties.Lao-batold me it wasn’t true, but still, maybe kissing did give you cooties and that was why my heart was pounding so hard it rang in my ears?
The kid pulled back, finally steady on his feet as he stared wide-eyed at me. His eyes flicked back and forth from my lips to my eyes, terror written on his face. His gaze finally landed on my lips as I felt liquid slide down them.
He kept muttering apologies as I swept my tongue over my bottom lip and tasted blood. But what’s worse, one of my bottom teeth was missing.
There was yetanotherugly hole in my mouth now.
Clay
Fifteen years old
I found my best friend studying when I entered the clinic. Dan was always studying, which was probably why he was so smart. Even though he was a year younger than me—a fact he’d loathed when he first found out—he was the one tutoring me through school.
Mom was worried when I was held back in the fifth grade, but I secretly thought it was one of the best things that had happened to me. It meant I was in the same grade and class—since there was only one class per grade here in Kither Springs—as Dan. I got to hang out with my best friend even during the boring school day.
We only started high school this year, but he already told me that in our sophomore year, he’d be spending half the day at the college in the city since he was doing something called dual enrollment.
Dan had his entire life laid out. Said he was going to get his AA when he graduated high school so he could get into medical school sooner. He was determined to be a doctor and take over his dad’s clinic.
It’d surprised me when he told me that last year, since before that he was adamant about joining the police force with me. When I’d asked about it, his reply was, “You’ll do the ass-kicking, and I’ll sit back, wait for you, and patch you up. If you really think about it, doesn’t that mean I’m the hero to the hero?”
I didn’t really understand, but I liked that he still thought of us as a unit. It was us against the bad guys and the world. I liked it even more when he said he was going to wait for me.
The adults around us often told me how cute it was that we were so close and to cherish it, since things would change once we got into college. If I were being completely honest, it’d worried me. Dan was going to be so busy with med school and his goal of becoming a doctor that he wouldn’t have time for me anymore. I didn’t want us to grow apart. He was my best friend. But hearing him say he would wait was comforting. Like no matter how far ahead he went, he wouldn’t leave me behind.
