Dirty Little Secret

***NOTE: Thanks to anonymous for correcting my mistake! Obviously, I shouldn't go into anything involving Drugs if I go into Forensics. Thanks again and sorry about the mistake!***

"What?" I exclaimed. I was so loud that a couple of people looked over at where we were standing. He put a hand over my mouth and shushed me.

"Do you want everyone to know?" he asked, annoyed. The bell rang, signaling that it was time to go to class. "We'll talk later. Meet me at my car." He walked away as I stared at him with my mouth hanging wide open.

How could it be possible that Haylie was doing drugs? She didn't have any of the clear signs of a user. She looked a little worn out, but I had assumed that it was due to cramming for finals. Am I that ignorant?

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"Tell me everything," I said to Adam. He took a deep breath. Adam looked so nervous, his fingers were absentmindedly tapping against the steering wheel. He was reluctant to speak. He knew how I felt about drugs. It was a deal breaker for me. My view of Haylie had instantly changed the minute I found out. I wanted to slap her for being so stupid.

"I had gone over to her house a couple days ago," he said. "I opened the door with my key and I let myself in. The second I stepped foot into her house, I knew. I knew she was smoking pot. Her house reeked of it."

"How did she get it?" I asked him. My body felt completely numb. I didn't know what else to say. I was still getting over the initial shock. It was like I didn't know who Haylie Conner is. She wasn't the girl I thought she was.

"I don't know," he said. "I took her out to dinner. At the place where you saw us. It was perfect. It was intimate. No one would overhear our conversation and Haylie couldn't cause a scene. I asked her why she was smoking pot." He paused.

"She said that it relaxes her," he continued. "It helps her deal with the whole Steve situation and being alone."

I didn't know what to say to that. I bursted into tears. Adam pulled me into his arms.

"Don't cry," he said, softly. "I hate seeing you cry." I sniffled.

"What else is she doing?" I managed to say. I had my face buried in his shirt.

"She admitted to taking prescription drugs," he said. "She said she tried Ecstasy. I'm worried that she's going to start the hard stuff. Cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, meth."

Hearing Adam say that made me cry harder. I didn't want Haylie to become a drug addict. She had such a bright future ahead of her. She's only in high school. There's still prom, the senior trip, graduation, summer, college. There's still college!

"What do we do?" I mumbled into his shirt.

"I was talking to her and she says she has no intentions of giving it up," he said.

He had stopped talking. I looked up and saw that he was looking out the window. I saw what he was staring at. Haylie was standing in the parking lot smoking a cigarette. I couldn't believe she was just standing there, smoking. She was looking around, making sure that no one saw her. I threw the passenger door open and marched over. I saw Adam shaking his head out of the corner of my eye. I tapped on Haylie's shoulder and she jumped 5 feet into the air.

"Oh, it's just you, Court," she said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Are you ok? Have you been crying?"

"Don't give me that crap, I know your secret," I told her.

She was speechless.

All In My Head

I was on my way to the school library to do some studying for my finals. I had decided that this was the perfect place to hide. I'm pretty sure that Haylie has never set foot in a library and that Adam was too busy filling his empty stomach to realize that I was hiding here. I knew that I had to confront them sooner or later, but I'm choosing later. On the bright side, I'm getting some studying done.

As soon as I stepped foot in the library, I saw Sarah sitting alone at an empty table. I wasn't really surprised. Separating Sarah from a library is like separating peanut butter and jelly. It cannot and should not be done. She waved at me and motioned for me to take a seat at the table she was at. I smiled and walked to her table.

"Hey, fancy seeing you here," she greeted me in a whisper. I smiled.

"Yeah, I have to study for physiology," I told her. She nodded, understanding how much I needed to study for the class. She had taken the course last year.

I felt bad for not telling Sarah about seeing Haylie and Adam together, but there was no need to spread around rumors on something that I haven't confirmed to be true. I didn't want another incident like the one I was in. I had asked around and no one knew how the rumor started. They didn't know how it had erupted into such a circus. When I heard about Tiger Woods and his situation, I instantly felt bad for him. I knew, to some extent, how he was feeling.

I opened my physiology book and started to make flashcards. Five minutes into studying, I looked up and saw Sarah waving at someone. I looked over to where she was looking at. I saw Adam standing at the doorway. Oh no. He walked over and sat down next to me.

"I feel like you've been avoiding me, Courtney," he whispered to me. "What's wrong?"

Sarah looked uncomfortable. She didn't do well in stressful situations involving people.

"Um, I'm going to go," Sarah said, softly. "I'll talk to you guys later." She picked up all of her books and walked away. I gathered my books and walked out behind her, with Adam following me.

"I'm not avoiding you," I told him. "I've just been busy. I've had a lot of stuff on my mind."

"You know you can talk to me about anything," he said. "What's wrong?" I took a deep breath and sighed.

"Well, I saw you and Haylie out the other day," I told him, quickly. "Together. Like a couple. I mean, I can imagine why you'd want to keep it a secret and not tell anyone, but I'm your best friend and it hurts me that you can't tell me something like that." I took a breath. Adam looked at me like I was crazy.

"Oh!" he said, realizing what I was talking about. "You're talking about the dinner I had with Haylie."

"Yes," I said, nodding.

"I didn't want to tell you this," he said. "I thought I could handle it myself."

"What is it?" I asked him. He took a deep breath and paused. He opened his mouth and the words came out.

"Court, Haylie's doing drugs," he said, softly.