Truth

Truth- Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Nova's POV- Friday, 4:21 p.m.

Through the dark- One direction (You tell me that you hurt, it's all in vain; but I can see your heart can love again)

I reach home and take my phone off do not disturb. It immediately vibrates a mile a minute, flooding my screen with texts and missed calls from Aliyah, Liv, Athena and Arch. I open our group chat and can't believe what I'm reading. I get these texts next:

Liv: Come to the Café ASAP
Arch: be there in 5
Athena: kk
Liv: Aliyah's here w me, NOVA FOR GOD'S SAKE CHECK UR PHONE.

I respond frantically, then message my mom that I'd be in the Café. I scrub the green off my hands, then grab my jacket and keys and head out the door. I would have eaten, but I guess I'll just get a milkshake there.

I cycle to the café, Brew, which is next to the common intersection close to our houses. It's a great place to study or hang out and it's a popular meeting spot of ours. As I park my bike and walk in, I smell that amazing scent of fresh baked cookies and coffee. Liv waves me over frantically, and I sit down at their table- Liv drinking cold coffee and Aliyah having a Frappuccino. Before I say anything, she says 'I've ordered you an Oreo milkshake' and I grin.

Now's not the time to grin. 'Are you both okay? You got some evidence? How? What happened? I got a story too, Cadmus had-' 'Hang on, Nova. We're all fine. I'm great, actually, Liv is too, ours went amazing. We'll explain everything', Aliyah says.

Liv starts to explain how Cole was actually working with them, and how he apparently figured their secret too. It wasn't through being Sherlock Holmes, though, he'd just overheard them speaking and connected the dots in his head.

Just then, Arch and Athena arrive, Arch's hair dripping wet. Arch orders a muffin and Athena orders black coffee before sitting down.

'Finally.' Aliyah rolls her eyes at them and briefs them on what Liv told us so far. We all spend the next half an hour telling our individual stories.

At the end of it, our drinks are finished, we're relieved, confused, and laughing our heads off at Liv and Aliyah's stories. Athena, Arch and I are never going to stop teasing them now- their crushes stopped a huge catastrophe because of their love. Adorable. We're genuinely happy for them though- Liv and Cole are perfect for each other, and Aliyah and Asher seem like they like each other. Aliyah denies everything, but no one falls for that.

It was strange how we all ended up alone with one of the boys and how we all managed to get evidence. We discuss for a while, and it seems like all the boys had a simultaneous plan to get information from us today. I'm so glad it worked out. We spread out the evidence we gathered- Athena produces some papers and a phone. Arch has a huge bottle of golden potion, along with another phone. I have a second potion, the knife, and a journal. Aliyah has a recording, truth potion, and says Asher's willing to give up information and she'd talk to him tonight. Liv says Cole is helpful as a witness and she'd talk to Cole tonight as well.

It's late and time for us to leave. We pay, make plans for tomorrow, and go our separate ways.

I've realized I got lucky, dodging that knife- I could have been seriously hurt. I'm so grateful nothing bad happened to any of us. We'll give the information to the principal, police and foreign scientists on Monday, but we've got a whole day of fun planned first.

Saturday, 11 a.m.

We all arrive at Athena's house. Arch retrieves the bottle full of still golden liquid from her bag and we pour a tiny amount into five glasses.

'Asher says it's instantaneous, just like the truth potion,' Aliyah tells us.

'Talked to him for a long time did you, Al?' Arch says as we all burst out laughing.

'Oh, shut up.'

'Ready?' Athena asks.

'Ready.' We say together and gulp the liquid down.

It was pretty tasteless. Looks are deceiving, I suppose. I look around the room, and stare at the paintings hung up in ornate frames. I brace myself for the disgust, but it never comes. It worked. I can't believe it. It worked! The antidote worked.

With the antidote working and all of us loving our hobbies again, we spend the day playing basketball with Athena, dancing to Liv's favourite playlist, splashing around at the pool in Arch's neighbourhood, painting on canvases, and going to Aliyah's to bake cookies and of course, devouring them later.

We're much happier again. There's a lot of the potion left and we'll pour it into the school's water supply on Monday, the same way the gang got the original one into all our systems. It'll be very diluted so no one will receive golden coloured water- that would have been cool though.

This day was the best I had in a long time. I wish I could say we were done with everything that happened, but we still have to face the aftermath and the consequences.