The Diary of Secrets

A Story by McKenzie

I got into a mess. A big, hot mess. And now my friends are mad at me. But did I really do the wrong thing?

Dear Diary,

How do you get out of a big mess with your friends? I’m sort of on the verge of freaking out. Well, maybe I should explain to you how I got into this jumble. It’s kind of a long story, so I’ll try and cut out the boring parts.

It started off in math class last Tuesday. This is, or was, one of my favorite classes at school since it’s one of the only ones that has all of my friends in it. We sit at a table to ourselves: me, Ellie, Pearcelynn, Ruby, Sage, and Moriah. Great group, huh? Anyways, we were in class doing our assignment, and the girls and I were talking about our plans for the homecoming dance coming up. We were all so excited and trying to figure out where we were going to eat, where our pictures were going to be taken at, dress colors, you know, the important stuff. Since none of us could find dates, we decided to make a pact to go as an “only girls” group. Here is where things start to go wrong.

After math class was history, which none of my friends are in. Don’t worry though, only the cutest guy at school, Zach, is in there with me. We actually sit next to each other! Crazy, right? I’ve had the biggest crush on Zach since the third grade, but to be honest, everyone in my class has had the biggest crush on him also. I was always too afraid to ask him out in case he had a girlfriend, which wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.

About halfway through class, Zach starts talking to me. Like, actually talking to me! We talk about history class, the school lunch “food”, and eventually start discussing homecoming. As we were talking, he never brought up the fact that he had a date. Later, I finally asked.

“So, uh, who are you going to the dance with?”

“Well, I was just gonna go with some of the guys.”

What? How does the cutest guy in school not have an actual date to the dance?

“Who are you going with?” he asks.

Don’t blow this, don’t blow this, “Oh, ya know, just some friends.” Phew.

“Hey, if you want, we can go together.”

Huh? Zach Goldenburg wants to take ME to the dance? This is the best day ever!

“Oh, really?” I squeal.

Squeal.

Did I really just do that?

“Oh, uh, I mean, yea, sure. I’m cool with that.”

“Great! Here, let me give you my number so we can text when and where we are going to meet.”

His number! Best. Day. EVER!

But not really. It starts to go downhill quickly as I remember what my pact was with my friends. “Only girls” group. Why did we have to pick that name?

The next day in math class, I start panicking while the rest of my friends are talking more and more about the dance.

“I made reservations at 6 to the new Italian restaurant on Main Street,” says Ellie.

“Oh yum!” Monica said.

“We can take pictures at the lake next to the restaurant!” exclaims Pearcelynn. “I can call them after school to confirm.”

“Sounds great!” Ruby and Sage say.

Ellie looks at me. “Is something wrong, Bella? You’re oddly quiet.”

Uh oh. Time to think fast. “What? Oh, uh, yea. I’m fine. That plan sounds great.”

“Awesome!” Ellie says as she whips out her phone to show people her pink and blue sparkly dress.

Zoom forward a couple days and it is now Saturday. The day of homecoming.

Oh great.

Usually I’m so excited for the dances at school. I love getting dressed up, taking pictures, eating with friends, and leaving my heart out on the dance floor.

That’s not the case for today.

My mind is racing. What do I say to my friends? How do I let them down gently? How do I break the news to them? Do I really want to go with Zach?

Wait a second.

What am I thinking? Of COURSE I want to go with Zach! But how do I tell my friends? I grab my phone and start writing.

"Sorry girls, I can’t go with y’all to the dance tonight. I got asked out by Zach Goldenburg!"

Nah.

"Hate to break it to y’all, but I got asked out by Zach and can’t go with y’all."

I can’t get myself to press send. We made a pact for “only girls”, how am I supposed to break that? Instead, I decided to tell them a different story, and hit send.

"Hey girls! Sorry, I can’t go to the dance tonight. I have the flu and can’t go. Have fun tho! Love y’all!"

Great. Now I’m lying to my best friends that I’ve known since kindergarten. But really, it isn’t that bad, is it? I mean, I got asked out by the guy of everyone’s dreams! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Here is our plan: Zach is going to come pick me up (romantic, right?) at 5:45 to go to the Flower Batch for pictures. Then, we are going to Peace & Cuisine for dinner, with reservations at 6:30. Afterwards, we will go to the dance at around 8 o’clock for about an hour, then to the after party that Zach’s older brother is hosting.

Great plan, huh?

I get all ready to go, with my hair in loose curls, my pink dress with white ribbons, white heels, and my white puffy purse bought just for this occasion. He pulls up outside my house and I open the door and-

Woah.

I think I just swallowed my gum.

He looks so handsome.

And then I decided to choke on my gum.

Just my luck.

“Are you okay?” Zach asks as he’s running over to me to help me out.

I cough it down. “Uh, yea, sorry about that,” I say. “You look amazing!”

“You too!” Zach pulls out a bouquet of flowers (pink and white to match my dress) and hands them to me. “These are for you. I picked them out at my grandma’s flower garden earlier today.”

What should I do? Tears start to form in my eyes. Am I really crying right now? I push them back down. “Aw, thank you Zach!”

“Shall we go get some pictures taken?” he asks.

“Yes we shall,” I say as he locks his arm in mine and leads me to his car.

The pictures taken were so nice, and we just look perfect together! His suit and tie match my dress in contrasting colors so the pictures look amazing. I’m thinking of blowing one up the size of my bedroom wall to put up.

Is that too much?

Once we ordered our food at the restaurant, I saw something odd. As the waiter is walking away, I see a hint of someone’s pink dress with blue sparkles.

Oh no.

Oh dear.

This isn’t happening.

Ellie, Pearcelynn, Ruby, Sage, and Moriah are sitting down on the opposite side of the restaurant.

They’re here?

I thought they were going to eat at the Italian restaurant!

I start panicking, but I don’t want Zach to see me sweating my butt off on what is happening right now. I listen to him talk about football while I figure out a plan. My plans are:

A: Run out the door as casually and nonchalantly as possible.

B: Slide under the table and hide there forever.

C: Live it out and look the other way so my friends don’t see me.

I think the only one that wouldn’t make me look like a weirdo would be Plan C. So, I just keep looking at Zach with a little head tilt and make sure to not look at the girls.

Once we have eaten our food, Zach says, “Shall we head over to the dance? It is 8 o’clock now, and I want to see how good you can dance.”

“Oh, uh, yeah” I say as I awkwardly stand up. “Let’s go.”

We pay up at the front desk and guess what?

He paid for my order.

What a gentleman.

We leave and head to the dance and luckily there are no sight of the friend group here. Phew! We live our best lives out on the dance floor. And then, something crazy happens.

They start playing the slow dance song.

Oh dear.

Zach turns to me. “May I have this dance, Bella?”

Hands turn sweaty, my mouth gets dry, and I think I need to pee.

“Yes,” I replied.

Solid.

We danced and danced and I felt like I was in heaven. This has to be the best day ever.

Best week ever.

All of a sudden, the world stops.

Literally.

The song stops.

Zach takes a step away from me, looking at me like I had three heads.

“Huh?” I say. Zach points behind me, and I already know who it is.

Ellie.

I turn. “Oh, hey Ellie…”

“Bella, what on earth are you doing? You’re supposed to be sick right now!”

Gotta think fast. “Oh, uh, I mean, I’m not Bella? I’m… uh… Stella, yeah! Bella’s my cousin, and-”

“I can’t believe you lied to me!” Ellie cried. “What kind of friend are you if you’re going to break the pact?”

“I’ll give you two some space,” Zach says. “Bella, I’ll be at the punch table when you're done.”

“Okay,” I say, possibly in a flirtatious way.

“Okay, you have some explaining to do,” Ellie confronts. “Why is Zach all up in your business, and why did you lie to us? Secrets don’t make friends, Bella.”

“Okay, okay,” I say, giving up. “I’m sorry, and I mean it. It’s just, well, Zach asked me if I wanted to go with him to the dance during history class a few days ago, and-”

“A few days ago?” Ellie cuts me off. “Bella, you’ve been keeping this a secret for more than a day?”

“Well, I thought if I told y’all the truth, you wouldn’t be my friends anymore. But this is sort of a once in a lifetime opportunity. Ellie, if you were in my shoes, wouldn’t you do the same?”

Ellie sits and thinks for a moment. “I mean, maybe?”

“See! It’s hard, and I really didn’t want to break the news, but I couldn’t give this up. How can I make it up to you and… wait, where’s everyone else?”

“They’re over at the punch table,” Ellie says.

Uh oh.

The punch table.

Zach’s over there.

I hope they aren’t breaking this for me.

“How can I make it up to you?” I beg. “I’ll do anything!”

“Maybe talk to me another day and I’ll see,” she says as she walks to her friends.

Zach comes back over to me. “Everything okay?” he asks, seeing the obvious look on my face.

“Uh, yeah. Shall we keep dancing?”

“I was hoping you would say that.”

The whole night I felt like an idiot. Why in the world would I lie to my friends? Why not just bring up the idea of just one guy? They would’ve been happy for me then, but instead I had to keep it a secret.

Secrets.

I hate secrets.

That Monday came around, and we were all in math class. One of the classes of the day I was dreading.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey,” said Ellie.

None of the other girls looked hurt as much as Ellie. I felt really bad.

“I’m so sorry girls. I should never have done what I did, and I feel terrible. I know you may never forgive me, but I just want to let y’all know that I will never do something like that again. Secrets don’t make friends.”

The girls all look at each other.

Then they start to smile.

And laugh.

Wait, what?

“Bella!” Ellie says. “We never were actually mad. We were the ones to set you up with Zach so you would have a date! We felt bad that you never have had a boyfriend and were always crushing on him, so Monica talked to him during science class about asking you out!”

“It’s true,” Monica adds.

“I just didn’t understand why you didn’t just tell us, that’s all. I was never truly angry at you, Bella. Trust me. Can we be friends again?” she asks as she holds her arms out.

I can’t believe what I’m hearing! “BEST friends!” I say, laughing, as we do a group hug.

So, diary, let the truth be told. I HATE secrets! No one should keep secrets from anyone. It only ends you up in a big hot mess. I’m just glad they set me up, and now me and Zach are officially…

DATING!

EEEK!!!