River of Lies by Sammy King

ecstasy. She told me how it made her dance all night.
    “Mon can you keep a secret?” she asked.
    I nodded, as she leaned in close to me.  We were sitting out on the back lawn; Dad and Dylan were inside watching the football.
    “I had sex with another guy and his girlfriend. On the ecstasy it was amazing. We were completely inhibited; it was just bodies on top of bodies”
    My mouth dropped open, as fury built up in my mind.
    “Tilly how could you do that? How could you treat Dylan like that? After you fought to get him back” I spat at her.
    She dismissed me with a wave of her hand.
    “I think he’s been fucking Shelly anyway” she said.
    I frowned at her and shook my head.
    “I don’t think he has been Tilly, he has hardly seen Shelly, and besides, Shelly is never away from Michael” I said.
    She just shrugged, and when she stood, she reached out her hand to help me up.
    “God girl you hardly eat, but you’re getting podgy, how’s that possible? So are you going to keep my secret or what?” she said, as she dusted off the legs of her pants.
    “Yes I’ll keep your secret” I said.
    That night I watched as Tilly cooed all over Dylan, as if nothing had even happened.
    “Did you ask your sister if she is feeling better?” Dad asked Tilly.
    Tilly lifted her head off Dylan’s shoulder to give me a sarcastic irritated smile.
    “How are you feeling, precious sister?” she asked pedantically.
    “Fine” I answered bluntly.
    That night I lay in bed, and rubbed my belly, imagining what our baby would look like.  I hoped it was a boy, I hoped he had Dylan’s dark hair and dark eyes with my nose. I tried to think of names that I liked.  My thoughts slipped to Tilly’s affair. I didn’t know whether it would hurt Dylan to know that Tilly had been unfaithful, I didn’t know whether I should just tell him, and let him have a reason to break up with her. I must have drifted off, because the next thing I remember, my alarm was going off to get ready for school.  It was the last week before the Easter holidays started.
    The week was pretty non eventful, Dylan and I did what we had done, he would drop me off at school and then pick me up, we would go find some place to hide, and make love in the back of the car. My stomach was still flat, so it was easy to hide that I had a baby growing inside me.  In our times alone, Dylan and I would talk about baby names, he wanted a little boy too, but he wanted our son to have blonde hair like mine and blue eyes that sparkled. We both liked the name Mitchell, but we weren’t firm on it.
    When we got home on the Thursday, before Good Friday, Shelly and Michael were parked in the driveway. Michael was standing on the front step while he talked to Tilly; Shelly was sitting in the car. As I walked past the car, Shelly reached out and took my hand.
    “Hey girl, how you feeling since being sick?” she asked.
    “Yeah I’m fine now thanks” I said looking up at Tilly, to work out what her and Michael were talking about.
    Dylan had gone up to join them, and I could see them deep in discussion together.
    “What are you guys doing?” I asked.
    Shelly shrugged, as she lit a cigarette, she took a long drag and passed it out the window to offer me a drag; I shook my head, as she blew the smoke out the side of her mouth.  She shrugged and took another long drag.
    “Dunno, thinkin’ about goin’ down the river for a paddle” she said. “Was gonna ask Dylan if he wanted to come too”
    I got an uneasy feeling, but pushed it aside thinking it was nothing more than jealousy, but the words of Tilly’s death threats kept ringing in my ear.
    “Alright, well I’ve got some stuff to do, have a good one Shelly” I said, as I tapped the window sill and walked away.
    When I got to the front door, Michael rubbed my head as I pushed past Tilly into the house. They had all stopped talking when I got to the step. I stood in my bedroom door, and strained to hear what they were saying,