A Deep Dark Secret Read Online Free Page A

passing a slip of paper to Marcus, with what she was sure was Nikki’s phone number, and then the boys said their good-byes.
    “Oh my God,” Nikki began. “Marcus is so outrageously fine, and I could tell from the moment I walked over to them that he wants me bad.”
    “He definitely does, girl,” Shelly agreed.
    “And what about Kyle?” Ashley said. “Darren and Jason look okay, but they’re not nearly as fine as Kyle. And Jill, girl, he was practically drooling all over you.”
    Shelly gave Ashley a high five, and said, “I know that’s right.”
    Jillian downplayed their observation. “Whatever.”
    “You know it’s true,” Nikki chimed in. “Which is the reason I wanna know why you lied when he asked you for your phone number.”
    “I’m not thinking about that boy.”
    Nikki laughed. “Well, you sure don’t sound very convincing. And I don’t understand what the big deal is anyway because asyou can see, I gave Marcus my phone number and e-mail address faster than he could ask for it.”
    The other two girls seemed to be just as excited as Nikki, and there was a part of Jillian that wished she could feel the same way. But she couldn’t. Not with all the madness she’d been experiencing with her father. She knew it wasn’t normal for a twelve-year-old girl to not be overly excited about some cute little boy who was interested in her, but truth be told, she really didn’t know how she should feel about boys or how she should act when they approached her. She did like Kyle but at the same time, she knew if she started talking to him, there was a chance he might try to pressure her into doing certain things—the kind of things she and her father engaged in at home on a regular basis—and she would never be able to handle that. So, to her, it was just best to keep her distance from Kyle and any other boy at her school. It was best to keep to herself as much as possible before someone peeped out her secret. The deep, dark, and very dirty secret she and her father had been keeping for years.

Chapter 4
    J ILLIAN GRABBED HER BROWN NYLON BOOK BAG AND BROWN leather shoulder purse off the car seat. “Thanks for the ride, Miss G.”
    “No problem, sweetie. See you tomorrow.”
    “I’ll call you later, Nik.”
    “Okay, talk to you then.”
    Jillian stepped out of the vehicle and then waved good-bye to her best friend and her best friend’s mom, Miss Gordon. But as they pulled away and she turned and saw her father’s SUV inside the garage, her heart plummeted. She wasn’t sure where her mother was because normally she was home from work whenever Jillian arrived later than usual. Her father was sometimes already home by five o’clock as well, with him working what he called flex hours, and this was also the reason Jillian had made sure to sign up for one of the key clubs and yearbook staff, and why sheoccasionally volunteered at a nearby nursing home. This way, she was guaranteed not to make it home before her mother on at least two days per week and would have much less of a chance of being home alone with her father. But today, for some reason, her mother wasn’t there yet, and now she wished she’d asked Miss G if she could go home with them for a while. Miss G got off work around four, so she’d told Jillian’s mom that on the days the girls had extracurricular activities, she had no problem at all with picking them up. Jillian’s mom had been very thankful for this and in return, she helped out with the cost of Miss G’s gas each week. Actually, Jillian was somewhat shocked that Nikki had even considered joining either of the groups she was involved in, but it hadn’t been long before Jillian realized it was all because Nikki had seen a couple of cute boys in each of them. Then, as far as the nursing home went, Jillian was sure that the only reason Nikki had wanted to volunteer there was because her grandmother was one of the residents.
    Jillian walked inside the house, looked around, but