True Colors (book #1, The Masks Series)

by Melissa Pearl

The flash of panic turned into full blown terror. It was an effort not to show her how much I could see. I put her mask back in place to compare and was astounded by her calm chuckle.

  “I’m fine, Caitlyn. I’m not sure what you saw, but I’m not worried about anything.” As she shook her head, I whipped the mask away and she looked ready to burst into tears. Her nostrils were flaring and her lips were quivering.

  With a gentle hand I patted her back. “Okay, my mistake. Sorry.”

  Relief washed over her, but only briefly. I was about to pull another layer off when Libby arrived looking subdued. I gave her a friendly smile, but she just dipped her head and slumped into her chair, totally confusing me.

  As I slid into my seat beside Micah, I caught Indie looking at me. As soon as our eyes connected, she spun back in her chair and I couldn’t help wondering if I’d had the chance to talk to Indie for a little longer what I would have seen. The idea that maybe she desperately wanted help wouldn’t leave me alone.

  I turned my attention back to Libby wondering how she was coping with her day. She was obviously nervous. Had Carter done something already? He would no doubt be lurking the halls ready to do serious damage. I'd have to keep my eye on that one. I kept my gaze on Libby until she peeked over her shoulder and I smiled again. This time her grin was jittery, but there. Friday night had been good. I’d really enjoyed our chat. I think I’d helped calm Libby down, but it still felt like there was something she wasn’t telling me. She was pretty scared, but she wouldn’t say why. I knew I could crack her more easily than Indie, but Indie’s fear seemed so much more palpable; and therefore more important to me.

  I couldn't take my eyes off the back of her long, russet curls as I sighed. This was going to be hard work.

  “Hey.” Micah nudged my elbow. “Don’t worry about it. She’s never let me in either.”

  Glancing at Micah’s strong, dark face I watched his mask drop away and was surprised by what I saw. Micah Wilson was a tall, muscly African-American kid. He came to the school last year having already been expelled from other schools in the area. Kids were kind of scared of him, but he joined the basketball team and quickly became a super star. I mean he was potential NBA good. His adopted parents were working on getting him a really awesome scholarship and I knew he was studying his ass off. He was in head down, good behavior mode. In spite of this, people still seemed to avoid him. He was pretty quiet and didn’t smile much. Sometimes he just looked plain mean. I wondered if it was a protection thing. He’d always been super nice to me. Maybe he played mean to avoid being pulled into anything that could take him off track.

  Maybe I wasn’t that surprised by what I saw on his exposed face. His gaze was on Indie, his dark eyes drinking in every little move she made. He was in love with her. It was so obvious. Not a lusty love, but a real, genuine, I want to protect that girl and cherish her kind of love.

  My heart melted to putty as I smiled at him.

  “What?” He scowled, pulling the experiment sheet towards us. His mask fell back into place and I let it. I felt a little bad for reading him and discovering his secret. Man, I wished people knew what a marshmallow he was. He would be the perfect boyfriend for Indie...a strong knight for a fragile princess.

  I kept everyone’s mask in place throughout Biology so I could concentrate on what we were doing. The experiment went smoothly, and Micah and I agreed on all our results. Once it was done, we were supposed to write up a report and that’s when my eyesight began to wander. After fifteen minutes of studying the three people around me, I had my mission set. I needed to figure out what was worrying Libby and help her enjoy the last few months of school. I didn’t feel like that would be too hard. Indie was going to be a much tougher case. I had to work out what was going on between her and Liam and then if I could somehow work it, get Micah an in with the celebrity’s daughter.

  Chapter 16

  “Hey Libby, wait up!” I ran down the corridor after her.

  She reluctantly slowed so I could catch up.

  “How’s it going?” I nudged her shoulder with mine.

  Putting on a smile, she nodded and told me all was good. She was lying and I decided to be brave and call her on it.

  “You’re still worried about what Carter might do, aren’t you?”

  “Mhmm.” She looked to the ground.

  Concern scampered through my system. “Libby.” I squeezed her shoulder. “It’s going to be okay. You did the right thing.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I guess.”

  As soon as she looked up, I read her and she looked really nervous...and defeated.

  “Is something else going on? Has Carter approached you today?”

  “No.” That was the truth, but she was hiding something. She wanted to tell me and I’m sure she was about to, but her eyes suddenly rounded and her lips pinched tight. “Look I don’t really have time to talk about it. I have a bunch of work to do and I don’t want to waste my free period. Thanks again for Friday, but I’m cool. You don’t have to worry about me or you know, be my friend or anything. Let's just accept Friday for what it was...a one-off...thing." She didn't want to say that to me. Her lips could only just form the words. "I’ll catch ya later, Caity," she whispered before scuttling away like a scared bunny rabbit.

  Completely thrown by the swift change up, I looked over my shoulder to see if Carter was standing there. Something had her spooked. But it wasn’t Carter I saw.

  It was Liam.

  He strolled towards me, his friendly blue eyes sparkling. That half-smirk that all the girls fell for was perched on his lips, but it grew into a smile as he drew near.

  “Hey, Caitlyn.” He grinned.

  “Hi.” My voice did not come out as friendly as I’d hoped.

  His brows dipped together, but then he smiled. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.” I chuckled. “I’m good.”

  “You heading this way?” He pointed with his book filled hand.

  I nodded and dropped in step beside him.

  “So, you enjoy the party on Friday?” Liam’s tone was sweet and casual, the familiar one I knew so well.

  “Of course. Your parties are always the best.”

  He liked that. I pulled down his mask and saw that it was a genuine feeling. He loved being in charge, that was obvious. I studied him as we walked down the hallway. He was chatting about the game on Friday and how epic our win was. He thought the boys deserved to celebrate. His enthusiasm seemed genuine. It was easy to see that control and fame suited him. I wanted to see more. I wanted to spot that dark, sinister glare from Friday, to prove I hadn’t just imagined it, but it wasn’t there. Sure, he was hiding a cocky arrogance beneath his sweet smile, but whatever he was feeling at this particular moment had nothing dark about it.

  I hate to say I was disappointed. I should have been ecstatic that the Liam I was looking at was pretty close to the Liam I knew, but then why was Indie so scared of him? Glancing away from my friend, I spotted Andy Chen, the school math guru. I didn’t know him very well and his mask slipped away before I could stop it. His eyes went wide with fear then dropped to the floor, his shoulders tensed as we walked past. I turned back to look at him and he was eyeing Liam.

  Not wanting my discovery to show, I grinned at Liam and asked him another question to get him talking. He chatted easily and I then spent the next few minutes roving the halls. Almost every person who walked past Liam had some kind of reaction. They either loved, loathed or feared him.

  What the hell was going on at this school?

  And how had I never noticed it before?

  As our walk together came to an end, I had started to notice a pattern. The smart kids (I hate to categorize here, but you know, the uber-intelligent, slightly eccentric kids. The ones who have no athletic prowess or good looks to glide them through high school.) Yeah, well them. They feared Liam. Some of them looked up to him, some of them hated him, but all of them feared him.

  “Well, it’s been nice chatting, Caitlyn
.” Liam grinned, his blue eyes sparkling. I hadn’t put his mask back on and I spotted a flicker of warning run through his gaze.

  I swallowed, putting the mask back in place. The scary thing was, when I did, my nerves were no more settled. In spite of his smile, that warning look was still emanating from his eyes. He licked his lower lip.

  “Hey, I heard about Carter and Libby. I’ve had a chat with him, so you don’t have to worry about her. He’ll leave her alone.”

  “Okay.”

  He was telling the truth about the Carter part, but I didn’t believe him about Libby. I did need to worry about her. I knew Carter hadn’t been working alone. Liam put him up to it and the big question now, was why.

  *****

  It didn’t take long to figure out that Liam ran Pali High. I had spotted it by the end of the day. I didn’t ask any questions, I just watched. Lunch was a real eye-opener. He had sway in every social grouping. I knew he was powerful before, but I had always believed it to be in a positive, cool kind of way. Now I knew better. I just wished I knew what he was up to.

  I had subtly asked around at school, but seemed to get stonewalled no matter who I asked. Libby was obviously avoiding me and Indie was still nice, but even more closed off than before. Being able to read them all helped. I knew what I was up against whenever I approached them and I knew when to back away before going too far. It didn’t take much; both Libby and Indie were jittery messes.

  It was driving me nearly insane trying to figure this out. I tapped my pen against my open textbook. It was Thursday night and I knew for a fact that Stella and most of our group were heading out to the movies. I had been invited, but had said no, which so wasn’t helping the Stella situation. I couldn’t figure out how my friends managed to fit in so much socializing when I felt like I was working overtime to keep up with the amount of schoolwork constantly being dumped on us. It certainly wasn’t making me very enthusiastic about college.

  My phone buzzed and then started playing “Kiss You” by One Direction. Stella had made it my ringtone when I started dating Chase and since my phone hardly ever rang, I hadn’t gotten around to changing it.

  I checked the screen and grinned, unlocking it with fumbling fingers.

  “Hey, Hercules.”

  “Hey, girl next door.” I could hear the smile in his voice and felt my insides go mushy. “Watchya doin’?”

  I groaned. “Trying to study, but finding it hard to concentrate.”

  “Too busy thinking about me, huh?”

  I giggled. “Yeah, yeah, that’s it.”

  He chuckled at my sarcastic reply and then cleared his throat. “You okay? You sound a bit flat.”

  Did I?

  “How can you tell that over the phone?”

  “I don’t know. You just...there’s no smile in your voice.”

  “I’m talking to you. Of course there’s smile in my voice.”

  “Caity. What’s up?”

  I sighed. “I’ve seen something at school that I can’t figure out.”

  “Something or someone?”

  “It’s just a guy that I’ve been friends with for a while and he’s really nice and his girlfriend is like awesome, but...” I licked my bottom lip.

  “But?”

  “She’s totally scared of him. In fact a lot of people at school are and I want to know why.”

  “Have you asked around?”

  “Yes and no one wants to talk to me. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Maybe you should drop it?”

  “What?” My question came out snappier than I meant it to.

  “Caity, you’ve just told me that everyone at school’s afraid of him. They must be for a reason. He sounds dangerous to me.”

  “But he’s not, I mean, he’s Liam.”

  “Well, what do you know about the guy?”

  “He’s...” I frowned. What did I know about Liam? I sighed. “Not much. He started at Pali High two years ago and fitted in really easily. Everyone likes him.”

  “You just said everyone was scared of him.”

  “No, just his girlfriend and a bunch of students that don’t even hang out with him.” I shook my head. “He’s up to something, but I have no idea what. I’m friends with his girl, so I figure that’s my in. But she’s a closed book.”

  “You can’t read her?” Eric seemed surprised.

  “No, I can read her. I know she’s scared, but she won’t tell me anything.”

  “Caity, I don’t like this. You need to be careful. If everyone’s this afraid of him and he finds out you’re trying to meddle...”

  “I’ll be okay. I’m not worried for me or anything. I just wish I could figure this out.”

  Eric paused. Even though we were on the phone and I couldn’t see him, I could sense his reluctance. “Before you start throwing yourself into this, why don’t you take some time to try and figure out who this Liam guy is? Find out anything you can about his past. See if he’s hiding any secrets you should know about. That’s what I’d do.”

  I loved that idea. It was a forward step and hopefully a step that wouldn’t have me meeting a brick wall head on. “You give the best advice, you know that?”

  His laughter was dry. “Just promise me you’ll be careful and don’t do anything until you’ve found out more about this guy.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Caitlyn.”

  I smiled at the reprimand in his tone. “I promise. I won’t get myself in trouble. I really want to help these girls, Eric. They’re my friends.”

  “I know. And I really like that you’re embracing your whole super power thing, but I’m allowed to worry about you. It's my right as your...next door neighbor."

  I thought for a second he was going to say boyfriend, but that's ridiculous. We'd been on one official date; admittedly it lasted an entire day, but still. And yes, we had been texting every day, so the whole Eric Shore becoming my boyfriend thing felt totally natural, but I didn't think either of us actually had the courage to admit it aloud yet.

  I cleared my throat, striving for cool when all I felt like doing was dancing around the room like an idiot. Eric Shore just might become my boyfriend one day! “Well, I feel like a very lucky neighbor right now. I'd feel even luckier if you were just over the fence at this moment, but that's okay."

  His chuckle was soft. “Yeah, well I'd be getting luckier if you were just over the fence right now."

  What did he just say?

  The way he cleared his throat and nervously tittered made me think he hadn't meant to say it that way.

  I giggled. "You're blushing right now, aren't you?"

  "I'm sorry." His voice was stretched tight. "I didn't mean to sound like some depraved jerk. I just meant I'd want to, you know, kiss you."

  “Don't worry about it." I grinned. "Maybe you can show me what you meant this weekend." Ugh. My flirty voice was so lame.

  Eric hissed. “Actually I’m going to see my grandpa this weekend, so I won’t be around.”

  I did my best not to sound totally gutted and focused on the fact that I was even talking to Eric Shore, my possible future boyfriend, which certainly helped ease the sting.

  “That’s cool.”

  “I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

  “You don’t have to. It’s your grandpa. You have fun and I’ll spend my weekend pretending to be a PI.”

  “Cait—"

  “I’ll be a safe private investigator. I can read people, remember? I’ll know if they’re going to attack.”

  My joke was obviously no comfort to him.

  “Promise to call me if you need me, okay? San Diego’s not that far away.”

  “You’re not coming back because of me. Go see your grandpa. Have fun and don’t think about me.”

  “Not think about you? That’s not gonna happen. I’ll see you next weekend, girl next door.”

  I hung up with a grin, gently placed my phone on the desk and threw my head back with a swoon.

&n
bsp; Chapter 17

  I spent the rest of the night and most of Friday researching Liam Donovan and got nowhere. The guy was an enigma. No one knew his history and none of my friends seemed bothered by the fact he was so mysterious. If anything, it made him more appealing.

  In the hopes of finding out more, I decided to spend as much of the weekend with my usual crowd as possible. Surely I’d spot something new outside of the school setting.

  I traveled with Stella to the Friday night away game. It was at Malibu High School. Stella was still flirting with the role of ice queen when it came to our friendship, but it was nothing I hadn’t experienced before. I kept the conversation focused on her, reading her the entire time in an attempt to keep her happy.

  It was probably slightly selfish of me, but I needed to stay close to Stella in order to stay close to the people I was investigating. I grinned. Investigating. What was I? A cop?

  We eased across the bench seat and found a place next to Indie. She seemed lighter tonight, less stressed somehow.

  “Where’s Liam?” Stella asked as we took a seat beside her.

  “He’s hanging out with his brother tonight. We’ll see him after the game.”

  She was lying.

  Not about seeing him after the game, but about what he was up to.

  She took a sip from her water bottle and grinned at me. I smiled back, wanting to put her at ease. This was a good chance to make her feel comfortable with me. Maybe if I kept the chatter light and easy, she’d let something slip.

  “So, who do you think’ll win?”

  “Us, of course.” We chuckled. “With Micah playing we’ve always got a good shot.”

  I liked the way she said his name. There was a gentle admiration to it. I was already reading her, but had to peel back a second layer to see a soft blush lighting her cheeks. Did she like Micah?

  As our team ran onto the court we all stood to cheer. Her mouth opened with a big whoop. She was watching Micah, his large hand held the basketball easily as he pointed at his team, directing them through a few quick warm ups.

  Indie couldn’t take her eyes off him as he easily danced around the court. I peeled back another layer, past the affection and spotted the caged longing. Tears glistened in her eyes, her face pinching tight as she tried to deny herself the desire she felt. Another layer later and I was once again looking at that stark, white fear.