Free Keeping You a Secret by Julie Anne Peters

downstairs. Mom slapped Neal’s leg and said, “Come on, honey. Be a good role model and help me with the laundry.”
    “Now?” Neal whined. “But he’s going to jump off the cliff.”
    “Holland will let you know if he lives.” Mom scooped Hannah off the floor.
    Thank you, I mouthed as she passed by. Neal traipsed after her, grumbling.
    I curled cross-legged on the floor next to Leah. “What’s up?”
    She exhaled a long breath. “Conner broke up with me.”
    “Oh, my God,” I gasped. I scrabbled to my knees and threw my arms around Leah, expecting her to disintegrate it tears, suffer an emotional meltdown, implode. She didn’t. Didn’t react at all. I drew back.
    “It’s not like I wasn’t expecting it,” she said.
    “Were you?” This was news to me. “I thought you were deliriously happy.” That’s what she always said whenever anyone asked. “ ‘We’re deliriously happy. We couldn’t be happier.’”
    She fondled her ring finger, which was now empty. “Things were sort of weird over Christmas. Even before that, he hadn’t been e-mailing me as often. Or calling. I think he really wanted to break up before Christmas, but he didn’t have the heart.”
    “The balls, you mean.” I shook my head. “God, Leah. You never told me there was anything wrong.”
    She met my eyes. “I was hoping it was just me. You know how I am. If anyone’s even in a bad mood, I figure it’s something I did or said.”
    I rubbed her arm. “What did he say exactly?”
    “Exactly?” She tilted her head at an odd angle. “His exact words were, ‘I’m setting you free.’”
    Oh, no. That could only mean…
    “Obviously he’s met someone else.” Leah’s head dropped.
    “Bastard. I never did like him.”
    Leah let out a short laugh. “That’s what my mom said. Not that I told her first; she was just standing there when he called tonight. You’re the first one I’ve told.”
    Whatever difference that made. “Your mom’s right. The guy’s a prick.”
    “Yesterday, he was God’s gift. Today he’s a prick.”
    “Leah –”
    “It’s okay. I understand.” She scooped up a rubber ducky from the floor and squeezed it. “It’s for the best, really. It never would’ve lasted. We don’t have the same thing you and Seth do. The fire, you know? The passion.” She smiled at me.
    The Passion. Right. Screams blasted from the TV and I remoted it off. “So, what are you going to do? Next year, I mean. You were so psyched about Americorps.”
    “Only because he was.” Leah set the duck atop a box of baby wipes. “I don’t know. Remember how you and me and Kirsten always talked about getting an apartment together after high school? Going to the same college? That was our dream.”
    Yeah, a hundred years ago. The apartment still sounded like fun.
    “Kirs has been talking about Western State. Her cousin goes there and he really likes it. Maybe I’ll apply with her.” Leah pushed to her feet and wandered over to the picture window. Drawing the sheers, she gazed out into the night and added, “Kirsten’s going to shit a brick when she hears about Connor.” Leah twisted her head around to look at me. “Maybe not. She was more in love with him than I was, I think.”
    “Kirsten was in love with his money,” I muttered. “But then, so was I.”
    “So was I,” Leah said. We both cracked up. She released the curtains and turned, folding her arms around herself. “It was nice to dress up and go out. All those society dances and fund-raisers his mother was involved in…”
    “Don’t forget the flowers and candy and crap.”
    “That too.” Her eyes shone. The light extinguished when she added, “But sometimes he made me feel like he was buying me. Like, for instance, he always let me know exactly how much he’d spent, so I’d feel obligated to –” She stopped.
    My jaw unhinged. “Have sex with him?”
    “No,” she said quickly. “No, it wasn’t like that. He never forced me or anything.