True Colors

by Melissa Pearl

  “But he’s not, I mean, he’s Liam.” I resumed my drawing, switching to swirly lines that soon formed the letters L-I-A-M.

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

  “He’s...” I frowned. What did I know about Liam? I darkened the L of his name. “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. That’s how I know she’s scared. But she won’t tell me anything.” I started writing her name beneath Liam’s, swirling the letters beneath his so they twisted together like vines.

  “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. I leaned back in my chair with a grin. “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,” he chided.

  I smiled. “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 was 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 bit the end of my pen, fighting a giddy grin. Eric Shore just might become my boyfriend one day!

  It was an effort not to giggle into the phone like a fangirl. I dropped my pen on the desk and cleared my throat. “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.

  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 less stressed than usual.

  “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. It 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?” I asked.

  “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 tinting 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.

  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 veheme
nt 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 didn’t want to push it any further. All my other research would have to be done on my own.

  Without meaning to, I spent the rest of the game quietly distracted. 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 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’d 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.”

  She gaped at me for a second before finding her voice again.

  “Oh well I’m sorry for being such a burden.” The way she elongated the word sorry made it obvious how little she meant 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. And I don’t think I can be friends with someone like that.”

  I saw past her scorn to the betrayal beneath and felt awful...but also annoyed. I had been a good friend to her for years, always at her beck and call. The 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. She’d do anything she could to sabotage it out of plain jealously and spite.

  Why was I still friends with her? Our history 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 couldn’t 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 toward 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 have realized it, 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 a 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.

  No matter what I researched online, 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 in the 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.

  It 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 on the 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 for as long as I had, and I was pretty sure 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. 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.

  “All right 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 twenty percent 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 behind them.”

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