Liar Liar

by L A Cotton

  “Welcome to Shake ‘n’ Pass.” Cindy breezed right into the middle of whatever was happening around me, oblivious to the tension. When she noticed, she shot me a confused look. “Can I get you a table?” She stepped in front of Kendall, ending her stare off with Evan.

  “We were going to get our order to go, but sure, why not? A table sounds great.”

  I silently groaned. Evan started tucking into his food as if everything was fine while Cindy led Kendall and her group to a couple of tables on the other side of the diner. And I busied myself with menial tasks and avoided looking in either direction. I’d felt something the day in the cafeteria when Kendall confronted me. She had been ready to say something, and then Evan walked in, and she’d held her tongue. I’d wanted to believe it was coincidence, but now, I knew it wasn’t.

  “Isn’t that the group you had problems with the other week?” Cindy said in a hushed tone, keeping one eye on their table. I nodded stiffly. “Yeah.”

  “I don’t like that girl. There’s something in her eyes.”

  You’re telling me, I mused. A dark cloud surrounded Kendall that threatened to suck you in if you got too close. It made me wonder what her friends saw in her. Why Trevor stuck around. But I figured misery loved company.

  “Well.” Cindy brushed off her apron. “Duty calls. I’ll take their table; you can focus on hottie.” She winked and hurried over to Kendall’s group.

  I waited for Evan to finish up and then went to clear away his plate. As I approached, he stiffened but didn’t make eye contact. A sinking feeling spread through me. Why couldn’t things be simpler?

  “Can I get you anything else?” My voice was flat.

  “Just the check.” He shot me a cursory glance but then went back to his chocolate milkshake. I took the empty plate to the kitchen and then slipped into the hallway leading to the bathroom, giving myself a couple of seconds to pull myself together. My timing sucked, and just as I leaned my head back against the tiles, the door swung open, and Kendall walked in. Her eyebrow arched up, matching the smirk on her lips, but it didn’t have its usual effect. I didn’t sigh or roll my eyes or even bristle. Something bubbled up in me, and I pushed off the wall, staring her down.

  “How’d you do it?”

  Kendall tilted her head, narrowing her eyes. “Am I supposed to know what you’re talking about?”

  Denying it didn’t change anything. Anger bolted through me, and through gritted teeth, I said, “You know exactly what I’m talking about. Do you honestly think a few photographs are going to scare me away? Force me to run?” Without realizing, I’d closed the distance between us, and we stood almost toe-to-toe. Adrenaline pumped through me, and I knew I was trembling, but I needed to make her see—to make her back off.

  “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.” Her voice was calm, giving away nothing, and for second, I wondered if I had it all wrong. But it had to be Kendall—it had to be.

  I let out an exasperated breath. “Fine. Deny it all you want, but I am done playing your games. You don’t scare me, so back the hell off.”

  We stood there, eyes locked on each other. Seconds ticked by and neither of us spoke. The silence surrounding us was thick and heavy and suffocating. And then Kendall narrowed her eyes to slits. “You have no idea who you’re messing with, do you?” Her shoulder slammed into mine as she barged past me and stalked into the women’s bathroom.

  My whole body shook. Kendall’s hatred for me went far deeper than just schoolgirl rivalry. But something about her denial bothered me. Kendall owned her actions. She’d publicly humiliated more than once, so why did she deny the photos?

  And if she really wasn’t sending them … then who the hell was it?

  “See you Thursday, sugar,” Cindy shouted across the diner. “Say hello to that hottie of yours for me.” Her laughter filled the room as I stepped out onto the sidewalk.

  After my showdown with Kendall, I’d avoided the dining area as much as possible, keeping myself busy out back with Rusty. It was quiet enough, and Cindy didn’t ask questions. She probably thought I was avoiding Evan after our frosty interaction. He’d left shortly after Cindy delivered his check.

  My eyes scanned the area for any signs of Kendall. To my relief, the street was quiet. Snuggling down into my jacket, I rounded the corner to wait for the bus, but Evan stepped out in front of me. I jumped back in alarm. “Jesus, you need to stop doing that.” My heart was in my mouth.

  “Sorry.” His lips were pressed into a thin line. “I was waiting for you.”

  “All this time?” It had been at least an hour since he left the diner.

  “Well, no, I popped home to check in on Eli and came back. I was hoping you’d let me give you a ride home. Peace offering?”

  I peered around his solid frame, but there was no sign of the bus. “Okay.” I met his eyes, hoping to find some clue of what was going through his head, but I was met with a swirling gray storm.

  “C’mon, I’m down the street.”

  We walked in silence to his Impala, and I almost jumped out of my skin when a stray cat toppled over a trashcan, my nerves still on edge from Evan startling me. He chuckled beside me. I jabbed him in the gut. “Not funny,” I muttered, my heart still racing.

  “It was kind of funny.”

  “I hate this place.” The words spilled out, and I clapped a hand over my mouth.

  “Thanks,” he clipped out.

  “Evan, I—”

  He pulled out his keys and the Impala bleeped to life. “C’mon.”

  With a resigned sigh, I climbed inside and buckled up. For the last hour, I’d obsessed over piecing together the Evan-Kendall link, but now that he was here and able to answer my questions, I couldn’t find it in me to ask. My suspicions told me it involved Ami—she seemed at the heart of the whole group and their beef with Kendall—but Scarlett had insisted nothing happened between Ami and Evan … so did something happen between Kendall and Evan?

  Just the thought of it made my skin crawl in the worst kind of way.

  “What’s going on in there?” Evan’s hand paused, key in the ignition, and he searched my eyes. “Talk to me.”

  With a heavy sigh, I flopped back against the seat. “Honestly, I don’t even know where to start.”

  “Okay, I’ll go first. Is Kendall still on your back?”

  My eyes widened. Did he know something? Apart from her public attacks, I had kept everything else to myself.

  “No more than usual. Why do you ask?”

  His eyes narrowed slightly, and he said, “No reason,” before gunning the engine and pulling out onto the road. Why couldn’t I just be honest with him? It was the perfect opportunity to ‘fess up, but I didn’t want him to fight my battles for me. It was bad enough that Scarlett, Lilly, and the guys had to take Kendall’s crap for me. But I wasn’t the only one keeping things to myself; I saw it in his eyes.

  Only, I didn’t know what to do about it.

  “You want to go straight home?” There was a question in there somewhere. In the slight tremble in Evan’s voice. I looked over at him, and he took his eyes off the road, just for a second. The storm had calmed, replaced with lust.

  “What did you have in mind?”

  A slight smile played on his mouth. “I know a place.”

  After everything, why did those four words spark such excitement in me?

  “Pretty awesome, huh?”

  Dad had said San Francisco Bay was a sight to behold, but I hadn’t been interested then. Here, now, with Evan, I understood. City lights sparkled in all directions, reflecting off the vast pool of water in front of us. Evan had driven us as close to the water’s edge as possible. The narrow strip of land seemed to jut out onto the water, giving us a panoramic view.

  “It really is something.” The cool breeze whipped my hair around my face, but the fresh air was invigorating. Being in the car with Evan was always so intense, but being out here was different. I felt lighter somehow. Freer.
r />   “I come out here when I need to get away.” Evan rubbed soothing circles over my skin. At some point, he’d dragged my hand into his. I didn’t stop him because his touch calmed me.

  Thinking back, it always had.

  “Who’s watching Eli?”

  “Mom; she’s home and sober, but Mellie, our neighbor, keeps an eye on them.”

  “That’s good.” I couldn’t even imagine what Evan had to deal with.

  “We’re lucky to have her. What about you? No siblings?”

  “Nope, only child.”

  “How was that growing up?”

  I shrugged. “Okay, I guess. I mean I never had a brother or sister, so I guess I didn’t know I was missing out on anything. But I think I would have liked a sister.”

  “Yeah, when I was young, I would’ve liked a brother or sister, I think, but being made a big brother at fourteen was … interesting.”

  “I can’t even imagine …”

  “I wouldn’t be without that little pain in the butt now, though. You had loads of friends, though, I bet?”

  “Yes, I had those.” My lips curved into a wry smile as I realized this was the first time Evan ever asked about my life.

  “Boyfriends?”

  My whole body tensed and I hooked my fingers into the grove where the hood met the car’s body. “Hmm, no, not really.”

  If he sensed my discomfort, he didn’t let on. “You lived in Santa Barbara, right?”

  “Yeah.” I sighed. “I guess nothing stays under wraps in a place like Credence High, does it?”

  He turned to me, his brows knitted together. “Is it supposed to be a secret?”

  My stomach somersaulted. “No, of course not.”

  “Eventually, everything gets out …” Evan’s voice trailed off, and something about his words bothered me. Was he warning me? Speaking from experience? Or both?

  A comfortable silence settled over us. Something had changed on the ride over. His apology, my acceptance, or just the fact that we were here, now, together. But being with Evan made everything else fade into the background. The questions were still there, on the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t want to ruin the moment. I didn’t want it to end.

  And then Evan asked the question I’d hoped he wouldn’t.

  “What happened last night, Becca?”

  “I—” The words lodged behind the lump in my throat.

  “Did I push you too far?” A new vulnerability filled his voice. It touched something inside me, and I twisted around to face him. Our eyes collided as I shook my head, pressing my body back onto the hood of the Impala.

  “So what happened?”

  “I panicked.”

  He turned toward me, sliding closer. “I would never push you into something you didn’t want.”

  “I know. Being around you … It’s intense and confusing, and you hardly know me, Evan.”

  “I know enough.” His hand palmed my cheek, and I turned into it, finding comfort in the warmth of his skin. Closing the distance between us, our lips connected in a lust-filled kiss. One minute, Evan was beside me on the hood of the car, and the next, he was in front of me, crowding me, pressing tiny kisses along the line of my jaw and down the column of my neck. A deep shiver worked its way through my body as I hugged him closer to me. Every touch erased a piece of the doubt that I carried around with me. How could anything about what we were doing be wrong when it felt so good? Even if we were both still hiding things? Still avoiding the truth.

  “Let me in, Becca.”

  It was a whisper I wasn’t sure I was supposed to hear, but it carried on the breeze and settled deep in my chest. My hand slid up and around his shoulder, and I cupped his jaw, pulling his head up to meet me, my eyes asking the question.

  “Stop fighting this thing between us.” He captured my lips in a quick kiss. “Let me in. I won’t hurt you, I promise.”

  My hand flattened against his chest, and I leaned back against the hood of the car, pushing him away from me. “Let you in? Do you know what it feels like to see you across the hallway in school only for you to ignore me?”

  “I’m only trying to protect you.”

  “From what? Rumors? School yard gossip?” I hesitated, unsure whether I should say the next word, but my frustration won out. “Kendall?”

  Evan’s face gave nothing away. His mask was unmovable. I wanted to push, to make him tell me the truth, but all he said was, “Do you trust me?”

  “I—”

  Did I?

  Could I?

  I wanted to—wanted to believe that he really was trying to protect me, but a small voice in the recess of my mind refused to stay quiet.

  “Becca.” Brushing his nose across mine, he kissed me softly, and I felt my last shred of doubt melt away. “Do. You. Trust. Me?”

  Unable to reply, I nodded, letting him deepen the kiss. Evan’s lips were firm and powerful, the weight of his body pressing me down on the Impala’s hood. I knew it wasn’t right—the way we kissed away our concerns, the way Evan kissed my questions into oblivion—but I couldn’t seem to stop.

  He was like a drug … and I was teetering on the edge of addiction.

  Evan drove me home, but I made him park down the street to avoid upsetting Mom further. He didn’t question me, but all the kissing and groping probably acted as a good distraction. By the time I got inside the house, the flush staining my skin had just about returned to normal, so Mom would be none the wiser. But she didn’t greet me like usual. Instead, she shouted a curt hello and left me to my own devices. I headed straight for my room, where the vibration of my cell phone filled me with a mix of excitement and dread.

  You look good on the hood of my car

  My mouth curved into a wide grin as I flopped onto the bed, kicking my legs up behind me.

  Thanks for tonight

  No problem. I meant everything I said.

  I know.

  So meet me in the janitor’s closest tomorrow at lunch?

  My grin widened as I typed out a reply.

  That depends…

  On…

  How persuasive you are ;)

  Ohhhh, I think you’ll find I can be very, very persuasive

  Heat pooled between my legs, and I rolled over onto to my back, clenching my thighs together, wishing that Evan was here to show me just how persuasive he could be.

  Good night, Evan

  Closet. Tomorrow.

  What was I doing?

  When Evan had shown up at the diner, I was set on not giving in to him so easily again, but then he’d waited for me, and my resolve crumbled. Something in him touched the broken pieces in me, and I couldn’t resist. It was more than a fleeting attraction or lust or circumstance. I was falling hard and fast, and I wanted to believe he felt the same. That I settled the storm in him just as he calmed the chaos in me. But being with Evan was a slippery slope, and I didn’t know how it would all end.

  More importantly, did I care?

  For the first time since being at Credence High, things felt settled. Maybe settled wasn’t the right word; maybe it was just the calm before the storm, but after that night at the diner, something changed. Maybe it wasn’t so much a thing as it was me. That night, I made a choice. I chose to ignore all the warning signs, the doubt, and live for the now.

  Evan wanted me … and I wanted him any way I could get him. But I wasn’t the only one who changed—he did too. We still kept ourselves off the public radar, but we took more risks, sneaking into the janitor’s closet or behind the abandoned stacks in the library whenever we could.

  “Shh, someone’s coming,” I whispered, pressing a finger to his mouth. Evan’s teeth grazed my skin, setting me alight as I nestled into him while we waited for the unwelcome intruder to pass. “We can’t keep doing this. This is the third time this week we’ve almost been caught.”

  “You love it.” He smirked cockily.

  He was right—I did. But we were treading a thin line. At first, I’d resented that Eva
n wanted to keep us a secret, but now, I couldn’t get enough. I was completely and utterly under his spell.

  “Who are you and what have you done with the Evan Porter I met back in that first week of school?”

  Evan leaned in close, brushing his nose along my jaw. “I have a reputation to uphold.”

  I pressed a kiss to the underside of his jaw, thinking about his words. Something still didn't quite add up about him, the way he stayed on the periphery. But if I'd learned one thing since arriving at Credence, it was that most questions came with answers better left unsaid. And I wasn’t brave enough to ask yet. Not if it risked what we had.

  “I should go. The guys will be wondering where I am.” I started to untangle myself from Evan's grip. “Will I see you this weekend?”

  “I'm not sure yet. Mom has some shifts at the store, so I'm on Eli duty, and we have this family thing.”

  “Okay,” I replied, internally cringing at how disappointed I sounded. It was only one weekend.

  Evan dropped a kiss on my head. “Maybe I could come by your house if I get time?”

  My eyes widened. “Hmm, not a good idea. My mom and dad ...”

  “Don't know you're seeing someone?”

  “No.”

  He ducked his face level with mine. “So I'm your dirty little secret?”

  His words rang loud in my head, and I stuttered, “No, no, it's just ... Well, they're ...”

  His lips curved in a grin. “I'm just messing with you, Becca. I like that this thing is just between us, for now, and I’m not sure meeting the parents is something I’m ready for.”

  Little did he know that wasn't the real reason for my impending meltdown. Dirty little secret ... I'd had one of those before, and it had ended badly ... very, very badly.

  “Sugar, get on in here. Rusty's driving me up the wall.”

  “I heard that,” he called from the back.

  “No Mitch again?”

  She shook her head and smiled. “While the boss is away, the staff will play.” Cindy regarded me for a second. Her smile slipped and was replaced with a deep frown. “Uh-oh, what's wrong?”