When Shelly thought about it, she realized the real mistake
was agreeing to keep the secret in the first place. That is where it all started,
with that stupid secret. Ever since she heard it, that was all she could think
of. If anyone else knew… but they would still find out, there was no way they wouldn’t
find out, unless…
Shelly walked into the living room, saw Maddy, and immediately
turned and walked out. Shelly had been avoiding everyone all day, she was
afraid of being cornered, of being questioned. How much did they know? It was
too horrible to contemplate, she ran back up the stairs to her room, where she
was safe.
She hid in her room the rest of the day, trying to keep
herself busy, but she couldn’t avoid family dinner. She picked at her vegetable
beef soup, not because she was nervous, more because she didn’t really like
vegetable beef soup. The fresh baked bread was good though, and she downed
three slices, dripping with butter. This
was why vegetable beef soup was her favorite dinner, even though she hated vegetable
beef soup. She was just savoring her last slice of bread, when she suddenly
remembered, the secret. She put the last bite of bread down on her plate. She
suddenly didn’t feel very hungry anymore.
It was then Shelly noticed her dad had left the table, she
was about to ask her mom where he had gone when he reappeared, holding a pink
cake box. I large lump formed in Shelly’s throat, and no matter how hard she swallowed,
it would not go away. Then her dad started to sing.
“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you,” he bellowed,
taking one step with each line, like he was walking down the aisle at a wedding
ceremony, “happy birthday dear Maddy, happy birthday to you.”
He finished the song and set the box on the table. “Even
though your birthday was yesterday, I think even leftover cake deserves a song,”
he said with a big dad grin.
He was about to open the lid when Shelly cried out “wait, I
have a secret!” Everyone turned to look at her. “Well, it’s not really my
secret,” she stuttered, suddenly shy, “its Eddy’s secret, he made me promise I wouldn’t
tell!”
“Eddy’s secret?” Shelly’s mom was looking at her with one
eyebrow arched.
At that moment Eddy walked into the room, and a shower of
pink vomit erupted into a puddle on the floor.
“Oh no, my cake!” Maddy cried out, as she stood from her
chair and flung open the pink box to reveal nothing more than a few stale
crumbs and some sad greasy streaky remnants of pink frosting.
“I’m sorry, Eddy ate it this morning and made me promise I wouldn’t
tell!” Shelly screamed, as she ran back up the stairs to her bedroom, with the
dog following closely behind.
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