I yawn and turn around, pocketing my phone before it dies. I have no idea what lies behind that hidden door.
But as soon as the sun rises, I’m going to figure it out.
Chapter Twelve
Aunt Kate comesover bright and early on Saturday morning. Normally I’d be happy to see her, and thrilled that she brought us a huge order of bagels, five flavors of cream cheese, and coffee from The Pure Drop coffee shop in town. But this morning is not a normal morning because I got home so late last night.
It was so late, in fact, that my cousin had fallen asleep watching Netflix on her computer and the volume was on so she didn’t even hear me get back to our dorm. I quickly changed clothes and went to bed exhausted at four in the morning, only to get woken up a few hours later.
As far as Belle knows, I went to the party last night. I don’t want to tell anyone what I actually did, because now, in the bright sunlight of a fresh new day, with the smell of coffee and fresh bagels in the room, it feels really dumb to have spent hours wandering in the gardens, thinking I’d found a secret door. It was probably just a storage shed for rakes or something.
I yawn and thank Aunt Kate for the surprise breakfast. She asks how school is going and I lie and tell her it’s going well. She then asks Belle the same thing, and she gives the same answer. But Belle doesn’t seem like she’s lying to appease her mom. Despite doing all her school work in our dorm, I think Belle truly believes things are going well. She’s been cooped up in her dorm for so long that she no longer thinks it’s a problem. I want to ask my aunt what will happen when Belle graduates this summer. She might be able to take college classes online, and then even get a job online after that, but that’s no life to live. I want her to see the beauty the world has to offer. Now that Belle and I are friends I want to take her to the gardens, or to Malibu to hang out at my pool, or on the beach. She’ll never get to do any of that if she doesn’t find a way to go outside.
Just like every time I think of this problem, I know it’s not the time to bring it up. So I eat my breakfast and participate in the fun small talk, and don’t say anything that will rock the boat.
My aunt leaves a short while later with a list of things Belle needs from the store, like shampoo and hair ties. It occurs to me that I haven’t left the campus myself since I got here. All the things I’ve needed so far, I just ordered from Amazon and had shipped to the school. In a weird way, I’ve become a hermit, too. Only it’s the school grounds holding me inside instead of the dorm.
“I’m going outside,” I say, standing up and reaching for yesterday’s school uniform. It’s a weekend, but the stupid rules say we still have to wear them on campus.
“Where are you going?” Belle asks. She’s still in her pajamas, which is what she wears just about every day.
“I don’t know. Just out. I might call an Uber to take me somewhere.”
“Cool,” she says, seeming disinterested.
I tug on my clothes and run a brush through my hair quickly, before pulling it up into a bun. “You should come with me.”
She chuckles. “Haha,” she says sarcastically.
“I’m serious.” I stop at the door and turn to face her. “We could walk in the gardens.”
“I wish I could,” she says, and there’s a finality in her voice that tells me to leave it be. So I do.
I have every intention of walking to the main entrance and calling one of those Uber rideshare things to take me into town, but once I pull up my phone to download the app, the GPS app is still loaded from last night. I see the marker I saved that’s deep in the gardens, and a curiosity starts tugging at me. Was that really a door? What’s inside of it?
I need to know.
Turning into the gardens, I skim the pathways for any students and I turn away when I see some. I follow the marker on my GPS, but I can’t exactly walk straight to it because of the pathways.
My heart beats faster as I approach it, and some of the pathways seem vaguely familiar. With the sun shining brightly overhead, everything looks different. It’s beautiful out here, lush and green even though we’re in the start of February. The flowers are a beautiful array of pinks and reds and whites.
My heart almost stops when I turn a corner and see an old wooden bench. That’s the bench I sat on last night. Running up to the opposite wall, I stop right in front of it and stare up. It looks just like any other garden wall—covered in ivy with thick green leaves.
I press my hand to it, almost expecting last night to be a dream. I almost wish it was, because if last night didn’t actually happen, then Declan never betrayed me.
My hand touches the soft, slightly chilly wood surface beneath the vines. This door is real. And Declan is still a jerk.
I feel around, the wooden surface easy to see between the vines now that it’s daylight. I reach the spot where the wood ends and the brick wall begins. I move my fingers down, down, until they hit an old rusted hinge.
I move to the other side of the door, looking for a handle. There has to be one.
And there is.
My heart pounds as I uncover an old metal handle, vines wrapped around it. I grab it and pull. It doesn’t even budge. It doesn’t groan or creak or wiggle at all. It is completely stuck.
No, not suck. Locked.
I brush away some of the vines, careful not to pull apart too many which would reveal this location to anyone else who happens to walk by.
