Who Will Tell First
Dean slammed the front door open, the wood frame rattling against the drywall. He stumbled over the entryway rug, his boots catching the edge as he hurled a glossy paper flyer onto the living room floor.
“I’m not doing this!” Dean yelled, his voice cracking. He trembled inside his black leather jacket, his icy blue eyes wide with panic. “We can’t keep going on like this. Act like nothing happened. What we did to h…”
Rocky lunged forward, clapping a thick, brown-skinned hand over Dean’s mouth. “Shut up! Shut the hell up!”
James stepped between them, his six-foot frame towering over Dean. He placed two heavy palms on Dean’s shaking shoulders. “Man, you gotta calm down.”
“Get off me!” Dean ripped away from his grip.
Suddenly, Bo moved. The largest of the group, Bo closed the distance in a second, gripping Dean by the throat and slamming him backward against the wall.
The impact sent two framed family photos tumbling off the drywall, glass shattering on the hardwood.
“Listen to me you son of a bitch!” Bo growled, pressing his forearm against Dean’s windpipe. His pitch-black hair fell over angry, dark eyes. “You better keep your mouth shut! Or I will kill you! You hear me! We were just kids, that night just got of control and we weren’t thinking, we were kids.”
Dean choked, pushing feebly against Bo’s muscular chest. “That is no damn excuse!”
Rocky stepped in, pulling Bo back. “Dean… you act like you weren’t a part of it. You joined in too, right along with us. I didn’t see you stopping yourself and questioning back then if it was wrong.”
“And that makes it worse!” Dean screamed at the top of his lungs, the sound tearing from his throat. “The worst thing you could ever do to a person. Someone we were supposed to care about. Our friend.”
Dean fell to his knees, burying his face in his hands as chest-heaving sobs took over. The room fell dead silent.
After a long moment, Dean tightened his jaw, wiped his tears from his face with the back of his sleeve, and threw one final, haunting look at his childhood friends.
Without a word, he stormed out, the front door clicking shut behind him.
The remaining three men stared at each other.
Bo wiped a layer of sweat from his forehead. “You don’t think he’s gonna say anything to anyone, do you?”
Rocky replies, “I don’t know. Each year he gets worse. This year, especially.”
“This happened years ago, and most of us do not remember all the details. We have moved on with our lives. Dean will mess everything up if he opens his mouth.” Bo’s voice rose in panic.
“He is right, though. We did a terrible thing years ago; there are moments my dreams make me pay for it and eat me alive,” James explains as he shakes his head.
“I have a wife and kids. I can’t let this get out. We were all drunk out of our minds and on other s**t. Our minds weren’t clear.” Bo shrieks out.
“But damn, Bo! Like Dean said, does that make it right what we did? And to whom it was is even worse.” James snaps back.
Rocky placed a calming hand on James shoulder, “Come on man, don’t get worked up. Bo is right; we need to stay calm. This will blow over. Dean does this every year, and then he says nothing. Just let him be; he always works out his demons.”
“Exactly,” Bo agreed, “Things were going fine until Dean brought this up. We just need to remain cool. It will blow over.”
James took a deep, ragged gulp of air, looking down at the reunion flyer on the floor. The smiling faces of their old classmates stared back at him. “This won’t blow over man, this is the year it catches up to us.”
I really enjoyed Chapter 1 of Smiling Faces. The opening immediately creates a strong sense that something is seriously wrong beneath the surface of this longtime friendship group, and that tension kept me curious throughout the chapter.
The suspense works especially well because the full truth isn't revealed right away. Instead, we're given pieces of the past through the characters' reactions, arguments, fear, and guilt. That made me keep wondering what exactly happened that night and why the secret has remained buried for so many years.
I also liked how differently the characters respond to the situation. Dean's guilt and emotional struggle make him stand out, while the others seem much more focused on keeping the past hidden. That contrast creates a really interesting moral conflict between them.
The dialogue is intense and direct, especially during the confrontation. You can feel how much history and resentment exists between these friends without needing a huge amount of exposition. Their conversations make the secret feel increasingly dangerous.
And that mystery is definitely the biggest hook for me. The idea that these friends have spent decades smiling, attending reunions, and living ordinary lives while carrying something terrible from their youth creates a really unsettling question: How long can a secret stay buried before it finally catches up with everyone?
Chapter 1 definitely left me curious about what happened all those years ago and what will happen when the truth finally comes out. 👀📖
Great start, author! I'm definitely interested to see where this mystery goes. ✨
So I realised that the story of yours I started reading will be taken down shortly, and with my busy schedule, I might not be able to read through as much as I’d like. So I decided to tackle one of your other ongoing stories instead. And you didn’t disappoint again! This chapter was completely hooking. I want to know so much more about those two and that terrible secret they’ve been keeping for years. You really have a way of building suspense and hooking the reader right in!