True Colors (book #1, The Masks Series)

by Melissa Pearl

  It unnerved me, so I quickly layered her back up until I was looking at the Indie everyone admired.

  “So, I didn’t know Liam had a brother.” Poor girl, I knew the last thing she felt like talking about was her boyfriend when she finally had a night to herself.

  I spotted a flash of irritation as she cleared her throat. “He’s in college, I think. I’m not sure. Liam doesn’t talk about him much. I haven’t met him.”

  Liar.

  “Have you met anyone else in his family?”

  Indie brushed the bangs out of her eyes, keeping her gaze on the court. Her jaw clenched. “His father lives in Burbank. He never sees him.”

  “So who does he live with?”

  “Me, mostly.” Indie’s voice was soft, but her eyes were blazing blue as she turned to face me. “Don’t judge okay? He had a tough time growing up. His father’s a loser. His mother’s dead. His brother and me are all he has.”

  I nodded, taken back by her vehement defense of him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.”

  “You’re really a nice person, Caitlyn.” She touched my arm. “I know you don’t mean any harm, but Liam likes his privacy. I’d respect that if I were you.”

  Her warning was loud and clear and the expression behind her mask knocked the breath from my lungs.

  The buzzer went and Indie’s attention was drawn back to the game...or at least Micah. I kept my mouth shut after that, more intrigued than ever. I had rattled her big time and knew not to push it any further. All other research I did would have to be on my own without anyone else knowing about it.

  Without meaning to, I spent the rest of the game in my own quiet distraction. It drove Stella nuts and I didn’t even notice until we were back in her car and she started going off at me.

  “Well, that sucked!” She yanked on the parking brake and slammed it down.

  My forehead wrinkled as I looked at her.

  “Don’t play dumb. I went to the game to hang out with you and you spent the first quarter chatting to Indie and the rest of the game playing mute robot. You didn’t even hear half the stuff I said to you!”

  “I’m sorry,” I mumbled, annoyed that I’d let her down yet again, but also annoyed that she was pressuring me with her bullshit when I had so much else to worry about.

  “You know what, you’re becoming a really lousy friend, Caitlyn. I used to be able to rely on you and now you’re just not there for me anymore.”

  Irritation tickled my insides. I pressed my lips together and looked out the window.

  “Do you want to be my friend or not?”

  “Of course,” I muttered, wondering if I actually did. I knew I could probably tell her the truth about my quiet behavior, but something warned me against it. She’d gossip. She’d turn all my insights into big drama, which it was, but the school didn’t have to know about it. Indie needed to be approached quietly. Stella would turn this information into a circus and do major damage along the way.

  “Well start acting like it then.” Stella spat as she braked for the red light. “Stop focusing on everyone else all the time and hang out with me.”

  It was taking major effort to keep my lips pressed together. I wanted to boil over at her and tell her everything I was thinking, but I couldn’t. I mean, I never had before, always afraid she’d be mad at me.

  We pulled through the intersection and had to slow down a short while later for another red light.

  “It’s so embarrassing going to a function with my best friend only to have her ignore me. How do you think it makes me look, Caitlyn?”

  She did that kind of thing to me all the time!

  “I mean, think about it from my point of view. I’m sitting there like a loser as you chat away to Indie and then—"

  “You’re not the only person in this world, Stella!" I thumped the edge of my seat, making us both jolt. I never raised my voice to her. It actually felt pretty good - scary, but good. I swallowed. “Other people have problems too, and I can’t keep pouring all my energy into you, all the time.”

  “Oh well I’m sorry for being such a burden.” The way she elongated the word sorry made it obvious how much she didn’t mean it.

  In spite of the way my skin was bristling, I licked my bottom lip and kept calm. “You know I didn’t mean it that way, Stella. I just meant—”

  “Whatever.” She flicked her hand in my face. “Go hang out with Indie then.”

  “We both hang out with Indie. I don’t see why I can’t talk to her.”

  “I’m not saying you can’t talk to her, I’m just saying... oh forget it. You’re not hearing me anyway.”

  “I’m trying.”

  “No, you’re not. You don’t care about me anymore, Caity. I don’t think I can be friends with someone like that.”

  I saw past her scorn to the betrayal beneath and felt badly...but also annoyed. I had been a good friend to her for years, always at her beck and call. This friendship had never been about what I wanted or needed; it was always about her. I even got together with Chase because she said I should...and if she ever found out something was brewing between me and Eric, she'd cut it off at the knees. I just knew she'd do anything she could to sabotage it out of plain jealously and spite.

  Why was I still friends with this girl? Our history just didn't seem a good enough reason to be bossed around by her anymore.

  Normally I would apologize and work it out so that Stella got her way, but I just could not form the words.

  “Fine.” I crossed my arms. “Can you drop me at home? I don’t feel like going to the beach with you guys tonight.”

  “It’d be my pleasure.” The ice queen accelerated towards my place. She ordered me out of the car at the bottom of my street and I was left to walk home alone.

  The idea of losing Stella had always speared me with dread, but as I reached my front door, I realized that I wasn’t as sad as I thought I’d be. Maybe I’d been losing Stella for a while and just didn’t know it. Or maybe my new eyesight showed me that Stella didn’t have to be my only friend, that there were nice people in this world who did need me. They may not realize it yet, but I was going to be there for them anyway.

  *****

  Between my homework load and my research quest, I spent most of Saturday in my room, on my computer. I Googled different variations of Liam Donovan, Burbank until I went cross-eyed. I found a few pictures of Liam at Burbank High when he was a freshman. I also found the name Mason Donovan and one grainy picture that was obviously scanned from the yearbook. They looked like brothers, although Mason’s face was more refined and angular, his blue eyes darker. He was a senior at Burbank High when Liam was a freshman. There was a strong chance Mason was the brother Indie was referring to. On that assumption, I researched Liam and Mason Donovan together. Nothing really popped out, even when I scoured the online Burbank Leader, the newspaper for the area. The only thing of significance I could find from two years back was concern from citizens about teenage parties and car thefts in the area. I figured it was unrelated and I gave up with an annoyed sigh.

  Homework was calling and I needed a break. I was never going to work out what Liam was up to, and I kept coming back to the same thing. Indie was my way in. If I could get her to trust me, then maybe I could set her free and expose whoever Liam Donovan really was.

  *****

  Monday morning brought with it the opportunity I’d been waiting for. I walked into Biology, still grinning after reading Eric’s text. I’d been getting them all weekend. He’d had the best time with his grandpa, but couldn’t stop checking up on me. Not wanting to burden him, I’d kept all my frustrations to myself, making sure my texts were flirty and light, yet informative enough not to arouse any concerns.

  I couldn’t wait to see him this weekend. My parents were leaving for Hawaii on Friday to visit Holly for ten days. Ten days! I was super stoked about having the house to myself and purposely hadn’t told anyone. I didn’t want Stella launching some surprise party on me... not
that she would anymore.

  This was the first time my parents hadn’t waited for Spring Break to visit Holly. I was always dragged along, but this year they decided I was old enough to handle things on my own. Thankfully their tickets were already booked and paid for before the Chase incident. I’d managed to ease Mom’s worries over that by telling her we’d broken up. She was aware of Eric, but seemed to like the Shore boy very much.

  When Eric came over this weekend, there’d be no little boys interrupting our Saturday night and no mothers walking in on any make out sessions. The very thought was simply delicious.

  “You keep grinning like that and it won’t be hard for people to figure out you’re crushing big time.”

  I shunted Micah’s elbow, my cheeks heating quickly.

  We were waiting for Mrs. Mackerly to arrive. She was always late for Biology. She left out assignment sheets usually, so we just got on with it, but not today.

  “So who is he?”

  I shrugged, trying to hide the way my heart hiccuped every time I thought about my sexy next-door neighbor. “Just a guy. He doesn’t go to this school.”

  “I take it you want to keep it on the down low.” Micah’s eyebrows rose.

  “Maybe.” I blushed. Although Stella and I had now "broken up" she would still freak if she knew. She’d wanted Eric just as long as I had and I think she somehow felt more entitled to him.

  “It’s cool. I won’t say anything.” Michah's big lips pushed to the side, his standard lopsided grin.

  “Thanks.”

  He nodded, reverting his attention back to Indie. I couldn’t help peeling back his mask. And he thought I was crushing big time. I wondered how he’d react if he knew she liked him too. I wished I could do something to help them. I was really worried about Indie...and Libby. They had both shut me out. They weren’t being rude or anything, just really distant. I felt like if I could just get some time with them, I might be able to crack their veneers, get them to tell me what the hell was going on in this school. They both knew something and I was pretty sure the thing they feared was the same—Liam Donovan.

  “Alright class, sorry I’m late. The school server is on the fritz and the photocopier was being mean to me.” We all grinned as Mrs. Mackerly strode into the room looking flustered. "Hand these back please." She shoved a pile of papers at the people in the front row, who took one each and passed the pile along.

  Micah grabbed two sheets and handed me one before passing the rest back. I scanned the top of the page and saw it was a huge assignment.

  “This is your last graded assignment for the year. It’s worth 20% of your lab assessment, so I’m expecting a really big effort on this one. You will be working in groups of four, but there will also be individual components you are expected to complete. I was going to let you choose your own groups, but I’ve decided it’ll be quicker if lab partners just go with the people in front of them.”

  I quickly counted from the front of the class and saw that we would be paired with Indie and Libby. Sweet! This might be the chance I was looking for.

  The girls both turned to acknowledge Micah and me. I glanced at his face, peeled back a layer and saw him beaming. He was even more excited than I was.

  I nudged his elbow without meaning to, accidentally letting him in on the fact that I knew his secret. His intense scowl made me regret my decision, but then he rolled his eyes and shook his head.

  “Is it that obvious?” he whispered.

  “Only to me.” I winked.

  This appeased him and he gave me a small smile before tuning in to Mrs. Mackerly’s instructions again. My stomach clenched tightly as I glanced at my new assignment partners. I felt like this was my one chance and I didn’t want to screw it up. This was going to be hard and part of me was worried by what I might uncover, but I knew I had to try. I was chosen for a reason, right? Maybe the homeless stranger sensed my quiet stubbornness; I’ll never be sure. But whatever he thought about my good soul, I oddly found myself not wanting to let him down.

  Chapter 18

  The girls both looked reluctant to be in a group with Micah and me. I read them quickly and decided that Libby found Micah scary and Indie was petrified I might try to pry again. As we sat down in the library that afternoon we were all nervous. If my stomach hadn’t been such a wreck of nerves, I probably would have found it comical. Micah was nervous of Indie, Indie was nervous of me, Libby was nervous of Micah and I was nervous about screwing everything up. It was slightly ridiculous.

  I cleared my throat, not wanting to be the leader of the pack; that was always Stella’s role, but she wasn’t in my Biology class. I looked to Libby and raised my eyebrows, but she just scratched her upper lip. Indie was eyeing me out of the corner of her eye, no doubt waiting for me to pounce, demanding more info on her boyfriend. Pressing my lips together, I decided to keep my mouth shut and looked to Micah instead.

  I silently told him to get things started with a little flick of my head. He was reluctant, but I put on my pleading eyes and he huffed.

  “Okay, fine. I’ll start.” He tapped his pen on his blank notepad. “First we need to decide what we want to look into. I don’t know about you guys, but I want the aim of this investigation to be kind of unique, so we stand out a little.”

  “Me too.” Libby perked up. “We’ve only got three weeks, so I don’t think we have time to do a proper observation study, so we need to choose something where we can gather heaps of data quickly.”

  “Good idea.” Micah didn’t smile, but the soft way he agreed with her made Libby relax instantly. She toyed with a smile as she looked at him.

  “Why don’t you tell us what ideas you’ve had so far?” He gazed back at her, his expression open and non-threatening.

  She was pleasantly surprised and her round cheeks bloomed as she launched into a list of ideas she’d come up with since reading the assignment brief. Man, she was one smart cookie.

  Her expression was animated as she described her two favorite ideas in detail and I thought her chest might burst when we unanimously agreed to go with the second one - classification of native plants along the Pacific Coast Highway, which involved producing a dichotomous key. I'd never really done that before and Libby wanted to get quite complex with it by making several keys for different types of plants. It was huge, but if we could pull it off, it'd be awesome.

  “Cool. Thanks guys.” She accidentally met my eye as she said it. I knew she hadn't meant to, because her unmasked face balked and she looked away from me. It hurt a little. We got on so well after the party on Friday. I had to remind myself that this had nothing to do with me and everything to do with a silent threat from Liam. But I couldn’t let that show.

  We spent the next fifteen minutes reading through the assignment together and allocating specific jobs to each person. Our first task was to make sure we clearly understood the difference between monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants. I was surprised that I understood more than I realized. Libby explained everything so clearly and I was soon jotting down notes that actually made sense.

  "So we obviously can't do the entire highway, but even if we go up to Point Mugu State Park, that should give us a pretty decent sample. Indie and Caitlyn, are you happy to collect flower samples? And Micah, are you cool to focus on trees with me?"

  We all nodded and Libby grinned back, catching the edge of her lip with her teeth.

  We had worked really well together. Everyone was happy to be led by Libby. As the session came to an end everyone was calm and happy...if anything, we were actually enthusiastic. It was a good feeling and I wanted to cling to it.

  As the bell rang, I made a decision.

  “Hey Indie, can I talk to you for a sec?” I waited until Micah and Libby were away from the table before asking. Indie’s face paled as she reluctantly nodded.

  “I just wanted to apologize again for prying the other night. I really didn’t mean to offend you or Liam.”

  Her tense shoulders be
gan to sink, her posture loosening a little.

  “I don’t want to lose your friendship by being a Nosy Nelly.” She grinned at the term I’d coined from my mother. “I won’t ask any more questions, so you don’t have to be nervous about doing this assignment with me or anything. Let’s just have fun with it.”

  Her eyes warmed, in spite of her clammy skin. “I’d like that.”

  “Cool.” We walked out of the library together and I purposely kept the conversation light, talking about the latest episode of “Pretty Little Liars,” a show I knew she loved.

  *****

  I kept this up for the rest of the week, trying to act as though I didn’t care one bit about Indie and Libby’s fears. It was working too. The more time we spent together, the more relaxed everyone became. We even skipped lunch on Thursday to hang out and study the samples we had all collected. Libby was stressing about fitting all her schoolwork in and Indie was the first to support her, saying we could easily skip lunch if it helped her out.

  I couldn’t figure out why Libby was so bogged down. School seemed a breeze for her. Working with her on this assignment showed me just how smart and capable she was. I knew working hard added to natural smarts, but I thought she was pushing it a little.

  “I can’t believe how hard you work. You’re amazing. Your GPA must be so freaking high.” I was expecting her to grin at my compliment or at least blush, but she did neither.

  A pained expression wafted over her face as she mumbled, “I just want to do well.”

  My comment had closed her off completely. It didn’t take much to realize I’d hit a sore spot. To say it baffled me was an understatement. I was more confused than ever now. I glanced to Indie, but she was looking just as pale and forlorn as Libby.

  I didn’t know how much longer I could keep up the charade that I didn’t care what was troubling them. But I didn’t have the guts to come out and say it. Not after we’d made such good ground this week. I wanted them to trust me, to relax around me.