True Colors (Masks #1)

by Melissa Pearl

She lifted her nose with a haughty scowl. “I’m your best friend. I shouldn’t have to chase after you all weekend and I certainly shouldn’t have you ditch me at a party.”

  “You looked pretty entertained when I left.”

  Her cheeks flushed scarlet. “That’s not the point, Caitlyn. You should have been there for me.”

  This argument was getting us nowhere. I hated fighting with Stella. I always lost. From the fiery expression on her face, I knew I’d lose this round too.

  With a soft sigh, I relented. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you needed a wingman so badly.”

  Appeased by my servility, she gave me a nod of forgiveness. “What were you doing with Libby anyway? Is she working for you or something?”

  “No.” I frowned, confused. “What does that mean?”

  Stella blanched, her shoulders pinging back. “Nothing. I just meant I know she sometimes helps kids with homework and stuff. She’s a tutor.” Stella was lying. I didn’t need to pull anything away to see that.

  “Tutoring on a Friday night? Really?”

  Stella couldn’t respond to my sarcastic reply. Shame washed over her features like dirty dishwater.

  I crossed my arms, wanting to question her, to strip away her secrets until I could figure out what the hell she was talking about. But behind that layer of shame was a fragile insecurity I didn’t have the heart to mess with. I put her mask back in place and was met with a haughty, nose in the air, scowl.

  I knew the only response to it was the truth, but I didn’t want to get Libby in hot water or say anything that would annoy Carter. I still had three months of school to go as well.

  Ruffling my curls, I flicked them off my face and went for a half-truth. “I bumped into Libby in the kitchen. She was really upset because some guys had been mean to her. I just offered her a ride home.” I didn’t want to go into detail about our awesome chats on the beach and how I actually felt closer to her than I did to Stella at that moment.

  Stella’s lips dipped. She wasn’t overly friendly with Libby, but she’d never be openly cruel. I liked that her expression sunk slightly. “You should have come and got me. We could have driven her home together.”

  Yeah, like that would have gone over smoothly.

  “I didn’t want to mess up whatever you had going with that cute guy.” I wiggled my eyebrows, needing to bring humor into the conversation.

  Stella’s grin was instant, followed by a blush.

  “Who was he?”

  She winced, not looking ashamed in the least. Putting her arm through mine, she turned me in the direction of class and confessed. “I have no idea what his name is. We just drank and made out until he said he had to go. I didn’t even notice you were gone until then.” At least she looked a little abashed by that one. She shook her head, her perfect blonde hair rustling. “Just promise me you won’t ditch me at a party again.”

  I wanted to tell her that I hadn’t, because I’d come back and got her, but I guessed that was just a technicality. In Stella’s mind, I should have been there for her, standing by her side even while she made out with her mystery man.

  It really stung to say it, but I mumbled, “I promise.”

  Squeezing my arm with a charming smile, she air kissed my cheek and strutted off. “See ya later, sweets.”

  As I watched her flounce past the blue lockers, I thought back to my day with Eric and how enjoyable it had been. Not because it was Eric, although that was huge, but also because I had spent the day hanging out with someone who was just as interested in me and my thoughts as I was in his. He had kept asking me what I wanted to do, not demanding that I follow him everywhere. In fact he hadn’t made any demands of me at all. It was a refreshing change.

  I loved my best friend. She was fun and lively. Hanging out with her was always an adventure, but I was starting to see sides of Stella I really didn’t like.

  The new eyesight was a trip with some really bad repercussions, but there were some good things about it too. As I walked to Algebra, I thought of Libby and what I’d done for her, which then made me think of Indie...and how badly I wanted to save her too.

  I decided to start my “Save Indie” campaign in Biology. The cafeteria could have worked, but there were always so many people around and Liam was there. I figured Indie wouldn’t let anyone in if she knew Liam was watching. I still wanted what I saw to be a figment of my imagination, but Indie’s face that morning told me otherwise and made my heart sink. I didn’t just feel duty bound to help her. I wanted to.

  I spotted her auburn hair as I walked into the lab. Her head was down as she read over the day’s experiment. Class didn’t officially start for another couple of minutes so I paused by her desk.

  “Hiya.”

  She glanced up, her blue eyes wide and gentle. I noticed how long her straight bangs were getting. They nearly touched her eyelashes now. That would drive me insane, but they looked so good on Indie. She really was gorgeous in a waif like way.

  “What’s up?” Her top lip perched over her bottom one and I could see how much she didn’t feel like talking. I didn’t want to hassle her, but I had to know.

  “I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out after school today.”

  I pulled her mask free as I said the words, wanting to know the truth. A flash of panic scuttled across her features before settling into the ever-present fear.

  “I’m busy after school. What do you need?”

  “Nothing particularly. I just thought it’d be cool to hang out.”

  She was trying to figure out what I was up to. Her suspicion was strong and she didn’t trust me at all. “Are you trying to get back at Stella or something? I don’t want to come between you guys.”

  “Oh, no.” I touched her arm. A tendon in her neck flinched as I did it. I moved my hand away. “It’s not that at all. I...” Licking my lips, I willed my courage not to fail me. “I thought you looked a little worried about something on Friday night and I wanted you to know that if you need to talk to anybody about it, I’m here for you.”

  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. I smiled again. This time her grin was jittery, but there. Friday night had been good. I’d really enjoyed our chat. 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 was sure 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 senior. He came to the school last year having already been expelled from other schools in the area. People were kind of scared of him, but he joined the basketball team and quickly became a super star. He was potentially 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 toward 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.

  16

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

  She was forced to slow down and wait for a group of ambling students so I was able to catch up to her.

  “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.

  I tipped my head and asked, “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 was 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.

  It was Liam.

  He strolled toward 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 didn’t 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 that particular moment had nothing dark about it.

  A small part of me was disappointed. I mean I should have been ecstatic that the Liam I was looking at seemed 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 he looked to the floor, his shoulders tense 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 started to notice a pattern. There was a pocket of students who stood out to me. Not to categorize too much, but the slightly eccentric kids. The ones who had 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 gleaming. 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 gaze. 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,” I murmured.

  He was telling the truth about the Carter part, but I didn’t believe him about Libby. I did need to worry about her. 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 figured out what I was up against whenever I approached them and I saw 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 it all 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 my insides turned to mush. “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?

  My forehead crinkled. “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.” I shifted the notepad on my desk and started doodling down the edge.

  “Come on, Caity. What’s up?”

  I sighed, dotting my pen on the white paper. “I’ve seen something at school that I can’t figure out.”

  He paused before replying. “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.” My dotting grew harder, nearly puncturing a hole in the sheet of paper.

  “Well, have you asked around?”

  “Yes and no one wants to talk to me.” I rubbed my thumb over the doodles, smearing the ink. “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.”