All The Truths (Lies & Truths Duet #2) by Rina Kent

I never hurt Bree in the past and she’s a bitch, so that should mean something.

A knock sounds on the door and I startle, nearly dropping the phone.

“Open up, Rei!” Naomi’s voice hollers from outside. “I brought my tools. I can pick this lock.”

“Stop it, Nao.” Lucy’s soft voice reprimands her before she addresses me. “Are you okay, Captain? Do you need anything? I just want you to know we’re here for you, okay? Come out whenever you’re ready.”

“Yeah, campus is so boring without you or whatever,” Naomi grumbles.

My insides expand at her words, and a full-body shudder takes over me.

Did you hear that, dark thoughts?

They care.

My feet move of their own volition as I stumble from the bed and nearly fall as the sheet wraps around my legs. I kick it off and approach the door like a scared kitten.

The click is loud in the silent room as I open the door, just the slightest bit, enough for my head to peek out. The light from the hallway blinds me and I squint, trying to adjust.

Naomi and Lucy stand there, both carrying their school bags.

“Hi,” I whisper in a hoarse voice that doesn’t resemble my own.

I must look like shit. My makeup must be smeared, my hair is in complete disarray, and my clothes are rumpled.

If they notice that, they don’t comment. Lucy grins, her cheeks moving with the motion. Naomi straight-out kicks the door open and barges inside like it’s her house.

“Chop-chop!” She snaps her fingers. “You need to shower stat, and we’re getting out of this torture chamber.”

“I’m so glad you opened up for us, Rei.” Lucy engulfs me in a hug, and I fight the urge to sob as I wrap my arms around her.

I didn’t know how much I needed their company, their presence, until this moment.

From now on, I won’t allow that cloud to catch me all alone. It’ll just swallow me alive and release a corpse.

Naomi pushes me toward the bathroom, declaring that I’m a grown-ass adult who should shower on her own.

I grin as she huffs and helps me by fumbling through my clothes to find me something to wear.

“Where are we going?” I ask as I come out of the shower with a towel wrapped around me and another around my hair.

Lucy is searching through the makeup as Naomi throws me a camisole and dark jeans. “Anywhere downtown.”

“Not The Grill,” Lucy says.

“What’s that?” I ask as I dry my hair.

“A restaurant.” Lucy takes the hair towel away. “Nao hates it.”

“I don’t hate it.” She throws her hands in the air. “Actually, let’s go there.”

Lucy bites her lower lip. “Are you sure? Sebastian will be there.”

“Fuck that asshole,” she grumbles.

“Sideways,” I add as I pull my hair up in a chignon. “Do you really hate him?”

Naomi’s eyes nearly bug out. “Is that a trick question?”

“I thought…forget about it.”

“No, what? Say it.”

“I don’t know. I thought there was something between you two. You act tough, but well, you watch him.”

“I do not.”

“Uh-huh.” I grab the camisole and pull it over my head.

Naomi’s expression turns to one of pure contempt. “Like you watch Asher?”

My chest squeezes and the good mood I’ve been in since they appeared nearly disappears. “This isn’t about him.”

“Yeah, right.” Naomi flips her hair.

“We’re just an illusion, like Lucy said.” I flop in front of the mirror and stare at my eyes. They’re becoming lifeless, like the somber depths of an ocean.

“That was before.” Lucy clutches my shoulders from behind, looking at me through the mirror. “You guys are different now. You make me want to film your life.”

“No, we’re not.”

“Uh-huh.” Naomi throws the pants at my head and Lucy catches them. “Is that why he called us and asked us to check on you?”

My eyes widen as I face them. “He…he did that?”

Lucy’s smile is soft and dreamy. “He sounded worried, too. I need an Asher in my life.”

This can’t be true.

Wait—is this another one of his games?

If he wants me dead, why would he worry about me?

It doesn’t make any sense.





The following day, I go back to school.

I try to keep to myself and not talk to anyone except Naomi and Lucy. I can’t take any jabs at my person while I’m still trying to push that gloomy cloud away.

It’s clingy, you know.

Like super glue, it won’t go the fuck away no matter how much I shake it off. It has less to do with my state of mind and more with how the fuck I’m supposed to carry on with my life after what I uncovered.

That doesn’t mean I cower away from the snide remarks or the envious looks I keep getting from everyone around campus. Apparently, the locker room incident has been circulating around that shady Instagram account, blackwood-black-book. The fact that I disappeared two days afterward is one more reason for everyone to roast me, talk behind my back, and whisper at my face.

Blackwood College is full of fucking hypocrites. But then again, Old Reina gave them all the reasons to put her on a high pedestal. What she didn’t know is that no matter how high you rise, one day you’ll fall. The higher the position, the louder the crash.