Dear Diary, 

On Christmas Eve, I was out doing some last-minute shopping. I had gotten my parents the perfect gift. Of course, I won't write what it was. My parents have always gotten obsessed with the gift they would receive for the winter holiday—hounded to the point that they would break the sacred bond of trust between offspring and progenitors. 

(Just to be clear, that means, they would go as far as to read this.)

And anyway, I hadn't gotten my younger half-sister Zerlina a gift. Zer, at the beautiful age of five, told me that she dreamed of seeing a unicorn. While I did (and still do) envy such whimsy, my half-sister's beliefs in the mystical caused unease between my mother, father, and his mistress Vedette (I call her Vendetta because she has a vendetta with me.) Under Vendetta's influence, Mom and Dad agreed that Zer was too old to believe in such, and I quote, "bullshit." 

Under Vendetta, my half-siblings and I grew up knowing the truth. No corpulent man with long white hair and a beard climbed down the chimney on Christmas Eve. No mini human with wings visited us in our sleep when we lost a tooth. No giant pastel rabbit planted baskets on the table and hid colorful eggs in the yard. No sneaky man of small height with red hair and green attire placed gold coins on our pillows. 

In addition, Vendetta prohibits us from dressing up or going Trick-Or-Treating on Halloween. "It celebrates paganism," she claimed. And on Valentine's Day, you only celebrated through a conversation with God via reciting the Prayer to Saint Valentine. 

Anyways, where was I? Oh right. Christmas Eve. Against my parents' wishes, I decided to get Zer something as close to a unicorn as possible: a stuffed one. And in the biggest size possible—as big as the one featured in Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2. 

On my way to the store, I caught the strangest sight in the shadows of an alley. Against the bricks,  two figures — two shadows — intertwined and moaned. 

I turned on the flashlight of my phone and shined it over the alley. The two shadows turned into the faces of Saran and Trevon. 

"What the —" I began to say.

Trevon cut me off with the shake of his head. "Don't tell anyone, not even Vianna."

My heart began to pound. My best friend, the woman who relished in calling Trevon her boyfriend, couldn't know. My breath became ragged. "W-what's in it for me?" 

"I won't tell anyone about your secret boyfriend," Trevon said. 

I shivered in the cold air. "Your secret is safe with me." 

I know my promise means nothing if anyone gets ahold of it, but I had to write this down. A feeling of shame swells inside me. 

How many more secrets are hidden in this town?

x Ava Pitt