Chapter 48 The Price of a Lie
CHAPTER 48: The Price of a Lie
Lily
Finally it was over.
The air in the hallway was heavy with the scent of cheap perfume, sweat, and the electric, manic energy of excited teenagers realizing that they were finally free of high school obligations.
Lockers were being slammed erratically, and the rowdy chants and cheers of the sweaty jocks echoed off the linoleum walls, a chaotic melody that marked the end of our high school era.
I didn't engage in the embarrassing display with them. Yet, I might actually be the most relieved and happiest to be done with high school.
I walked through the center of the circus, my chin tilted just high enough to let everyone know I was above the common fray.
Chelsea hovered at my side, hastening to catch up with my stride like a devoted shadow.
“Oh my god, Lily. I can't believe it. We’re actually done,” she squealed, her eyes wide as she tried to keep pace with my stride. “We're no longer high schoolers!”
I chuckled. “Of course, stupid. We are like the college girls now,” I smirked.
Chelsea was like the perfect sidekick…loyal, easily impressed, always ready to please, and not to mention, still nursing a pathetic crush on Silas, after seeing him in her drunken state at the pool party.
She smiled sheepishly. Then leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.
“But hey, did your brother-in-law say anything about me?”
I stepped to the side, avoiding a clash with a howling, sweaty, bare chested jock.
I frowned. “Huh?”
She laughed nervously. “I mean, was he mad about the party? You know, after he came home, you immediately asked us to leave. Especially after I was, you know, checking him out?”
By now we had arrived at my locker.
I let out a soft, dismissive laugh, waving my hand as if the memory were a fly I was brushing away.
I opened my locker, taking out the contents.
“Mad? Please. He doesn’t get mad at me, Chelsea. Actually, I had had enough of the noise, so I was the one who decided the party had reached its peak,” I lied smoothly.
I had a reputation to protect.
Her eyes opened and her mouth dropped open. “Really?”
I arched my brow.
“Mhmm. He actually looks out for me and dotes on me like a little sister, really. Sometimes it’s actually a bit suffocating how much he’s concerned about me.”
She nodded vigorously, her face full of envy.
“I totally envy you, Lily,” she sighed. “I mean, he’s so handsome and intense. You’re so lucky to have him—”
I rolled my eyes. “Give it up, Chels. There's no way the man’s going to look at you,” I sneered. “He has a wife. My sister.”
Hurt flashed across her face.
“Lying is a very exhausting hobby, isn’t it, Lily?”
The voice was like a splash of ice water. I stiffened. Banging the empty locker, I turned to find Melody standing there, her arms folded over her chest.
The smugness of the smirk playing on her lips made my blood boil.
Behind her, a few of her lackeys snickered.
Melody had been the thorn in my side since I enrolled here after we moved to the city.
According to Chelsea, she felt threatened and was angry that she was no longer the prettiest girl at St. Jude's.
Not to mention that she had also lost the position of president of the cheerteam, and also her boyfriend to me.
I didn't care about the latter though.
“What do you want, Melody? Some of us have actual lives to get to,” I spat.
She stepped forward, her eyes raking over me with unveiled disdain.
“I was just wondering if your ‘doting’ billionaire brother-in-law forgot where he kept his checkbook,” she sneered in that irritating high pitched voice.
Her lackeys snickered, and Chelsea glared at them.
My fingers curled.
Chelsea arched a brow.
“The final payment for the graduation trip to Tulum was due three days ago, and your name is yet to be added to the brochure for the trip.” She stepped closer, getting in my face. “For someone who brags about living in a mansion, you’re awfully slow on the draw with a few thousand dollars.”
With how tense the air had been at the mansion the past few days, I hadn’t been able to talk to Vera about the trip and get the money from her.
Actually we have yet to have any conversation since the day I returned from Chauncey’s.
My face burned. “It's just a minor bank transfer issue. You'd get the payment soon,” I shot back. “If that is all, get the fuck out of my face.”
Chelsea scoffed.
“Don't make me laugh, Lily,” she mocked. “Word around town is that your sister is just a world-class, gold digging leech who managed to latch onto a wealthy man for a meal ticket. I guess she didn't negotiate a high enough allowance to cover her bratty sister’s vacation, did she?”
The world turned red.
Before I could even think, my hand flew out, the slap echoing like a thunder crack through the rowdy corridor.
Melody’s head jerked to the side, her cheek blooming with a violent crimson mark.
I wagged a finger in her face.
“Don’t you dare talk about my family,” I hissed, my chest heaving.
Her eyes blazed and she let out a snarl, lunging forward to grab my hair.
“How dare you?! You sank!”
Before she could get to me, Chelsea and a few others jumped between us, creating a wall of frantic bodies and shouting voices.
“You’re dead, Bennett!” Melody screamed over the noise as she was pulled back.
A thousand of her could never make me scared or cower.
“Have fun staying home while we’re in Mexico!” I shouted back, my voice steady with a promise, despite the rage pulsing inside me. “I’ll make sure to have you kicked off the trip before the plane even leaves the tarmac!”