Wicked Lies by Mae Doyle

Chapter 8

Imanaged to make it through the rest of the week without a lot of drama mostly by keeping my head down and making sure that I walked with friends to all of my classes. Jackie walked me to Spanish again, but if he knew anything about the run-in that I’d had with Amelia, he didn’t say anything.

“Are you girls packed?” Harper leaned in my door wearing jeans and a comfy looking t-shirt. She had her hair pulled back and some of the biggest earrings I’ve ever seen on. They would definitely have been against dress code, which must have been why I hadn’t seen them yet.

“Just waiting on you.” Maggie hopped up from my bed and reached back to help me, but I shooed her away. Since I actually started taking my physical therapy seriously again, I was having a much easier time moving around on my own. I had to take care of myself I was going to be able to avoid run-ins with Amelia and her friends, who, by the way, had kept out of my way since Tuesday night. I knew that it wasn’t going to be a permanent solution, but I’d take any break that I could get.

“Then let’s get out of here!” Harper squealed and beckoned for us. Maggie followed her out the door, swinging her backpack up onto her back, and I grabbed mine from the floor, slowing lifting it up. By the time I managed to get it situated on my back, they were halfway down the hall, laughing and giggling, and someone else was in the door.

Brett filled the door, his dark eyes locked on mine. He had on a white sweater that set off his dark skin and dark blue jeans that were perfectly molded to his thighs. The last thing that I wanted to do was have a physical reaction to seeing him, but there was a throbbing in my core when I saw him there.

He’d always had this effect on me, even when we were younger, but now that he was all grown up and filled out, it was hard to ignore the fact that he oozed sex. I pressed my legs together, feeling the throbbing between them, and forced myself to smile at him. “Hey, Brett. What’s up?”

At first, he didn’t answer. His hands were planted on the doorframe, and when I looked, I saw that he was gripping it so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. It was obvious that something was bothering him, but I pretended that I didn’t notice that something was wrong.

He must have talked to Amelia. I wondered if she was trying to get the truth about our past out of him and that was why she’d practically ignored me all week. Luckily, I didn’t have long to wonder about what was going on.

“You running around school spreading my secrets, Rose?” He stepped into the room, bringing with him the spicy scent of his cologne. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, unsure of how to handle this situation. “Because I heard from Amelia that you know things about my past, but you’re not sharing.”

Shit. Shit. Shit. I was right. I don’t know what came over me in the quad the other night that I would think I could say something like that to her without any repercussions, but it’s was obvious that I underestimated her a little.

Trying to play it cool, I shrug. “Everyone here knows that we knew each other when we were younger, Brett. Jackie told me that.” There was a flash of something on his face when I mentioned Jackie, but I couldn’t tell what the emotion was, and it was gone before I could really focus on it.

“That’s for me to tell, Rose. I just would hate to think that you were telling anyone my secrets. Our secrets.” He took another step closer to me and I backed up, the backs of my knees hitting the mattress. One more step and I’d be sitting down.

“Our secrets?” Without thinking about it, I reached down and rubbed my arm – the one I’d broken when I had to jump from the tree. Well, Brett kept telling me that I didn’t have to, but I didn’t have a choice. I don’t know that I’d ever had much of a choice when it came to him.

“Yep.” He crosses his arms, and I admired for a moment the way it made his muscles pop out, then I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. “You know, Rose, I wasn’t really happy when I saw that you’d be coming here. You don’t belong at Taylor Prep, and you know that. This is a place for students with potential, who have families who will do anything they can to help them succeed. How’s your mom going to help you? Just by making sure she doesn’t fuck up orders at her shitty job?”

I grimaced but didn’t respond right away.

“Your dad isn’t here to make sure that you don’t run into trouble,” he continued, ignoring the pained look on my face. “And I think that you and I both know that even if he were, he wouldn’t want you here.”

“But he did. He wanted me to use the money from his life insurance to get a good education, and Taylor Prep is the best. Although, if that’s true, then I can’t help but wonder how the hell you got in. You wanna talk about daddy issues, Brett, then why don’t we start with yours?” It’s too far, and I know it. His faces twists in anger as he looks at me.

Before he can do anything, though, Harper and Maggie lean back in my door. “You coming?” Harper’s voice cut through the tension in the room, but I still felt like I was tied somehow to Brett. I glanced past him at my friends and gave them a quick nod, but when I looked back at Brett, I saw that he hadn’t moved. He was still staring at me, a flush growing up his neck.

“You don’t belong here.” His voice was so low that my friends couldn’t hear it. “You think that you can use your dead daddy’s money and buy your way into the best school in the country? Think again, Rose, and look around, because this is the last time you’re going to see your room. You need to leave and not come back.”

“Not a chance.” My voice was just as low. “And if you try to force me out, Brett, you’ll regret it.” I had no idea what I was saying, but the words just slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. From the look on his face, he was even more pissed.

He growled and turned, pushing past my friends as he shoved his way out of the door. They both stared at me, their faces pale. “Rose, what happened?” Maggie took a step towards me, reaching out her hands for me, but I shook my head. There was no way that I was going to drag my friends down with me.

Not only was I in the wrong place at the wrong time when I was younger, but then I managed to bring Brett’s wrath back on me. Even though I wanted to be at Taylor Prep and I wanted to do what my dad had told me, there was part of me that couldn’t help but wonder if maybe he was right. If maybe I didn’t belong here.

* * *

“Isn’t this the life?” Harper’s voice carried across her pool, where the three of us were sprawled in our bikinis on floats, drinking virgin margaritas and eating chips and salsa. Being here has made it almost possible for me to forget all of the drama going on at Taylor Prep. If only there were a way that the three of us could live here and not have to worry about going back then I’d be the happiest girl ever.

But even as I thought that, I knew that our time out of school was growing short. We needed to be packed up and in the car within an hour, and that meant getting out of the pool and no longer stuffing ourselves on chips and salsa.

“Girls, time to come into the house and get ready to go!” Harper’s mom called from the patio where she’d been sunning herself. She was thinner than me, with long blonde hair that she wore in a messy topknot on her head and hadn’t taken off her pearls the entire time we’d been here.

The three of us paddled over to her and she handed us each a towel. “Here you go, girls. Now, Rosie, the chef saw last night how much you liked his sinful chocolate cake, so he made you one to sneak back to school today.”

“Mom, it’s Rose!” Harper stopped drying her hair long enough to glare at her mom.

I laughed and took the towel she handed me. “Honestly, Mrs. Pierce, you can call me whatever you want if you’re going to send me back to school with a cake.” She chuckled. She and her husband had made their fortune as art dealers in Europe. Harper had told me that when she was growing up, she was often left on her own with the nanny while her parents travelled for work.

In fact, she said once that her mom only stopped working out of the country so much when she heard Harper call the nanny “mom”. After that, she left the company that she’d worked so hard to build so that she could be at home raising Harper. Her dad continued to travel and deal in art, which is how they had the biggest mansion I’d ever been in.

“Well, you girls are always welcome here. I know how hard it can be to get home when you live far away, and Harper told me that your mom has a pretty rough work schedule.” Her kind eyes bored into me, and I dipped my head so that I wouldn’t have to look at her. She reminded me so much of my mom that it was hard for me not to tear up when she was being so loving. “Anyway,” she continued, interrupting my thoughts, “it’s time to go. Michael packed your bags in the car, so all you three have to do is change and then hop in it.” She turned to me. “The cake is in the backseat all ready for you, and I stuck three forks in there, but you decide if you want to share or not.”

I grinned back at her. “Thanks so much for having us.” Before I could say anything else, she reached out and pulled me into a hug.

“Anytime, Rose. You too, Maggie,” she said, looking over my head and reaching for my friend. Even Harper walked over and joined in our group hug. We all held each other for a moment before letting go and stepping back. I had to fight hard not to wipe my eyes because I didn’t want anyone to realize how much that hug meant to me.

We changed and hopped into the limo, digging into the cake before we’d even made it down the driveway. The entire time back to Taylor Prep we talked and laughed, but by the time we pulled up through the gates, I’d fallen silent.

It was easy for me to get lost this past weekend and think that nothing bad was going to happen, but I knew that Brett and Amelia were waiting for me. And, thanks to Mr. Taylor’s announcement last week that the school was going into lockdown, I knew that I had nothing but time with the two of them.

All I could do was hope that they had forgotten about how I’d slighted them last week, but since we had voice class the next day and Brett had always been great at holding a grudge, I knew that that wasn’t possible.