Chapter 36: XVI. Say That Again-2

Cece looked so conflicted and torn. Torn between telling me the truth, and no doubt following her brother's orders. Who does that? Who so loyally does what their sibling tells them to do? I mean, I know I was an only child, but siblings were rarely this obedient, right? "I don't always agree with what my brother says, Sara," Cece admitted quietly. "Well then, why did you go along with it?" I hissed. "You completely blew me off! You're supposed to be my friend." "Because I hadto!" Cece snapped back, her frustration evident. "What my brother says goes, okay?" "No, it's not okay!" I shook my head in disbelief. "It's not the fifties, Cece. We live in the twenty-first century." Did Shea really enact such a 'the man is the head of the house' mantra in his household? Man, that would never fly with me! "I know that! Of course, we do," she huffed. "It's not the same thing, its –" but she cut herself off and closed her mouth, as though she was about to say something she wasn't supposed to. "I'm not allowed to tell you. I cannot disobey, okay? I just wanted to say I was sorry. I'm sorry about yesterday. You are my friend and it killed me to be like that. I told him I didn't want to, but he made me. But don't be angry with him, if you knew … oh, Sara, things would be so much easier if you knew." I had been trying to say that for the past four damn days. "Tell me," I urged Cece. "Don't worry about Shea. He doesn't have to know you told me." Cece smiled sympathetically. "It doesn't work like that," she replied. "I wish you could figure it out." Her eyes widened suddenly with excitement. "Oh my God, figure it out, Sara!" she whispered, grinning. "Figure it out. If you find out on your own then there won't be any secrets." She grabbed my arm hard. "You have to know. Just think, it's staring you right in the face!" At that moment, Señora Gomez called on Cece for an answer as she noticed we were talking in the back row. Cece managed to effortlessly reply in Spanish and Señora Gomez continued her lesson. Cece began concentrating then and taking notes from the lesson. I, on the other hand, got to thinking. Could I really figure this out? I had already considered the obvious. Gangs, drugs, illegal activities. But it couldn't be that obvious. And something told me that if my mom knew Shea was into anything illegal that she would have turned him into the police immediately. No, this was something different. Something big. I kept looking at Cece beside me. She looked so normal. Well, as normal as someone who ought to be a Victoria's Secret model ought to look. She was perky, and cheerful, and nice … when she wasn't following her brother's orders to treat me like crap. Who does that? In fact, a whole lot of people followed Shea's instruction to treat me like crap yesterday. I was not going to be over that until I got an apology from him, ˆbut it got me thinking. What sort of power did a guy have that made him that influential? It was almost like magical mind control or something. I was leaning towards the or something. *** Shea didn't come to school all week. I didn't know if he was avoiding me, or if he was still recovering from what had happened over the weekend. Cece only told me that he was at home with their mom. Shea's ban on speaking to me had extended to the entire posse of followers that he had. People weren't avoiding me, but I still wasn't comfortable enough to sit with Shea's friends knowing that they were in on a secret that I didn't know. Not even Cece could persuade me to eat lunch with them. So I spent more time with Josh. Sometimes we ate with his friends, and sometimes we ate alone. It was nice to see that not all high school footballers were clichés. Josh was a good, normal guy, with the same college aspirations as me. His family were hard up, he had confessed to me in private, and so it was vitally important for him to secure a scholarship to pay for college. Josh studied hard, maintained a solid 3.5 GPA and he trained every other day for football. I found myself really enjoying Josh's company. It was welcome distraction to the train wreck my life had become. I enjoyed working, too, to take my mind off things. Sally was just as kind and friendly to me, something that I had been apprehensive about considering how Shea had spoken to her, but she seemed normal. When I wasn't ignoring my mom, at work or studying, I was trying to work out what the hell this big secret was. And I wasn't any closer. I had gotten to the point where I was considering hypnotism as a possible answer, and that's when I knew that I was getting no-where fast. "Are you coming to the game tonight?" Josh asked me on Friday. We were eating alone today, which meant that I had the familiar sense of daggers being sent towards my head from the direction of Zoey. If it were possible, I think she was trying to make my head explode with her mind. I had no intention of spending the night in with my mom. I had half expected her to crack. After not getting a word from me in days, I couldn't believe that she was sticking to her guns and not telling me. "I'm still not entirely sure of the rules," I admitted. Shea tried his best last week to help me but … I stopped myself. It seemed like a lifetime ago, and it was hard to believe it was only a week. Josh grinned. "We score, you cheer. You'll get the hang of the rest. The party is at Zoey's again tonight, too." If I showed up with Josh, there would be more than one person there who would be very pissed.