"You still remember that?"

Chapter 17

Kierra's POV

For the rest of the drive to Celine's, Chase remained silent and I could tell he had a lot on his mind so I didn't try to bother because I also had a lot on my mind.

There was the issue with Celine, whatever past she and Chase had, and most prominent on my mind, Ethan. I wondered what he was doing at the moment.

Was he at home or at football practice or maybe he was at Liliana's? I heard that she was feeling too well hence her absence from school today.

I thought back to my run-in with Ethan in the bathroom and the brief moment he had his arms wrapped around me and felt my face flush just thinking back to it.

I knew that I shouldn't be having moments like that with Ethan but I couldn't really stay away even if I tried and I wasn't even trying. I didn't want to either.

Just my luck to fall for the one guy who was out of my league.

"Hey, we're here," Chase said as he pulled up not too far away from Celine's residence.

"Oh, okay. Thanks for dropping me off by the way," I said, grabbing my backpack and opening the door of the car. However, before I could get off, Chase grabbed my wrist, forcing me to look back at him.

"Be careful," he said simply before letting go of my wrist and giving me a little smile.

"Yeah. I will." I got out of the car and slowly began walking towards the house which looked even more imposing than I remembered.

Back when we were still friends, I only came here a few times because Emily preferred us hanging out at her place so we just did. I wasn't very familiar with Celine's place but I did remember a secret entrance that she told me about a while back.

I decided to use that since the gate was guarded by a security guard and Celine probably wouldn't allow him to let me in.

I went around back and found the entrance which was just a hole in the fence covered by the hanging vines that decorated the whole fence. Thankfully, the hole was big enough for me to crawl through and once I was in, I managed to sneak inside the house without the guard noticing me.

Once safely in the house, I walked aimlessly around for a bit, unaware of where anything was and there was no sign of Celine either. It didn't even seem like there was anyone home and I couldn't help but feel like I was a creep just walking around someone else's home uninvited.

However, just when I had decided that it was probably best that I leave, I heard sounds coming from upstairs. It sounded like yelling.

Unable to help my curiosity, I ascended the stairs and traced the yelling to a room. The door was ajar so I peeked in and saw Celine arguing with her mom who had two suitcases beside her.

"Celine, what is the matter with you?" her mom was saying. "I let you do pretty much everything you want, you have everything you could need at your disposal, and yet, you find it so hard to do this one thing for me. Is it that hard? Huh, Celine, is it?"

"Really Mom? Everything I need? Do you mean money? Yeah, I know. We have a lot of that but is that everything to you, Mom? You and Dad are always off somewhere and you're never available for me.

How many times do I have to tell you that I can't go there alone?"

"She's your sister, Celine! What is so hard about going to see her?"

I was a little caught off guard by that statement. Since when did Celine have a sister? For as long as I've known her, she's been an online child. Sister? What sister? I was a lot more curious now.

"I don't care. I don't want to go there and you can't make me!" Celine yelled before storming away from her and heading right towards the door which was exactly where I was.

I didn't know what to do so I panicked and tried to run down the stairs before she could see me but it didn't work, of course, and she saw me.

"Who's there?" she called out, causing me to pause. Since she'd seen me anyway, I slowly turned around and flashed her a nervous smile.

"Hey Celine," I said with a little awkward wave.

"Kierra? What are you doing here?" she asked, obviously very surprised to see me. At that very moment, her mom walked out of the room as well and was also quite surprised to see me.

"Hey... You're one of Celine's friends, right?"

I glanced at Celine, unsure of how to answer that question. We were definitely not friends anymore but she didn't know that and she didn't need to know too.

Since Celine wasn't making any moves, I looked back at her mom, faked a smile, and said, "Yes, Ma'am. I'm Kierra."

"Oh yes, Kierra. I haven't seen you in forever. How have you been?"

"She's been fine, we've all been fine. Kierra was just leaving and so were you if my memory serves me right. See you whenever you remember you have a daughter, Mom. Come on!" Celine said as she marched over to where I was standing, grabbed my wrist, and pulled me away.

I saw a hurt look on her mom's face as we walked past her and I wanted to say something but I decided not to say anything so as not to anger Celine.

Celine eventually stepped into a room with me right behind her and closed the door behind us.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, wasting no time as she turned to face me.

"I– I came to see you," I mumbled, twiddling my fingers.

"Why? How did you even get in?"

"Huh, through the secret entrance you showed me," I answered, glancing up at her to see her reaction.

"You still remember that?" she asked, her voice sounding a little softer than before.

"Yeah. I'm sorry for sneaking into your house like this, Celine but I needed to talk to you. Why did you want to talk to me today? Does it have anything to do with your sister?"

She instantly scowled again as she said furiously, "That is none of your business! And what exactly made you think it was right to eavesdrop on a private conversation?"

"Okay, okay. You're right. I'm sorry that I eavesdrop and I won't ask any questions that you're ready to answer again but whatever favor you needed before, I'll help you out, okay? Just say the time and place and I'll do it."

"Why would you want to help me after everything?"

"Let's just say, I'm bored," I chuckled and she did the same.

"Does Emily know you're here?"

"Not exactly," I replied and for some reason, she seemed rather concerned.

"Of course. Are you guys even friends, Kierra? Emily's just using you."

"Don't say that!" I yelled, jumping to my friend's defense. "I couldn't exactly tell her that I was going to see the girl who stole her boyfriend, could I?"

Celine looked like she'd not been expecting my outburst but she recovered quickly and shrugged.

"Whatever. Let's go." She began walking out of her room and I followed her. We walked out of the house and out the gate together and it was while we were standing outside that she said to me, "Meet me in the parking lot after school next week Wednesday. Don't be late or whatever. I don't care." And she turned and headed back into her house but not before glancing at Chase's car which was parked not too far away.

"So how'd it go?" Chase asked as I got into his car.

"Pretty well, I guess," was my response. I still had no idea what Celine's secret was but at least, I had something to look forward to.