Where Secrets Lie Read Online Free PDF

asked one afternoon in September when they stopped into the coffee shop together.
    “ What guy?”
    “ That guy, behind the counter.”
    “ You mean Seth?”
    “ You know him?”
    “ I just know his name, he wears a nametag.”
    “ I don’t like the way he looks at you.”
    Sara knew Seth looked at every girl the exact same way and also flirted with each and every one of them.
    “ He’s harmless,” she said.
    Nonetheless, Sara remembered Brian’s reaction and never mentioned it to him, or anyone else, when she began talking to Seth. The way she looked at it, she wasn’t doing anything wrong, and she wasn’t about to let other people’s negative perceptions rob her of their friendship.
    After all, it was Brian whom she was crazy in love with, and Brian was the only one she wanted to be with. However, she couldn’t see why that meant she wasn’t allowed to have a friend, regardless of their gender. Besides, Seth made it clear, he wasn’t the relationship type.
    “ Monogamy is unnatural,” Seth said.
    Sara arched her eyebrows. “Seriously?”
    “ Please don’t use the example of certain animals that mate for life. Animals function on instinct. Humans function on brainpower.”
    “ That’s not the part of a guy’s anatomy I would say prevents monogamy.”
    Seth laughed. “Yes, women often make that point, but I think it has more to do with the human brain, which is too complex for us to be satisfied with the same stimuli for long periods of time.”
    “ So you don’t believe in relationships?”
    “ I believe in having interactions that aren’t burdened by the false perception they’re going to last, or that they only have value if they do.”
    At the time, Sara wondered if his philosophy extended to friendships as well. In true ‘Seth’ fashion, she decided not to worry about it. Instead, she enjoyed riding the wave they were on.
    ~
    Sara stood by the window in her father’s study and waited for Brian to pick her up for school. Although this was a familiar ritual, Sara drummed her fingertips on the edge of the windowsill while she scanned the street looking for his car.
    The breakfast sandwich she was supposed to be eating sat in front of her untouched. It represented a compromise she worked out with her mother. Lee insisted both girls eat a hot breakfast, but Sara was adamant she did not have time, so Lee concocted a bacon and egg sandwich that Sara consumed on the go. She was surprised to discover she actually liked the sandwich, but this morning even thinking about eating it caused her stomach to rebel. She pushed it farther away to distance herself from the aroma.
    Sara knew Brian would sense something was bothering her no matter how hard she tried to hide it, but she still vacillated about whether she should tell him today or wait.
    Maybe she should go to the doctor first to make sure, but then her mother might find out, and Sara didn’t want Lee to know before Brian did. Besides, the test she took at home wasn’t complicated. It was hard to imagine there was any chance it was wrong.
    How was she supposed to say it though? Should she just blurt it out, or was there a way to lead into it gently? Whenever she thought about how the conversation would go, all the questions he was sure to ask surged through her head and caused her to reconsider whether she was ready to tell him.
    When they went to the creek today after school, they would have plenty of time alone to talk, and perhaps being in the place that had been so magical for them would somehow inspire the words that eluded her now.
    Brian’s car turned onto her street. Sara grabbed her breakfast off the windowsill and hurried to the front door.
    ~
    In springtime, winter runoff from the mountains made the creek’s water level high and its temperature frigid. When you got close, you could feel the coolness rise off the water into the air, so Sara and Brian sat well back from the rocks, and they each cradled a large coffee to warm their