How to Get Away with Lying

Prologue

August 1st, 2015 - 8:00 PM

"Tied!" Adley Morgenstern and I shouted for the fourth time that night, sounding more exhausted than happy.

The stars filled up on the TV screen before announcing my and Adley's scores. We then flopped down on the leather couch behind us, where Jessi Alvarez sat, huddling under a wool blanket. I tossed a lock of my golden-blonde hair out of my blue eyes as I smiled over at Jessi, who was twiddling her thumbs and looking out the living room's window. She was clearly bored out of her mind.

I felt a little bad for, once again, crushing her score in Just Dance. So, I tried to find something to say that would boost her mood. "You know, Little J, you were really good at that Britney Spears song."

"I got two stars for that dance. You guys got five," Jessi grumbled. She didn't look away from the darkening sky.

"That doesn't matter," I remarked, brushing the comment off. I now realized that wasn't helping – but it wasn't necessarily my fault for being so good at something I barely played anymore.

"Why don't we do something else?" Adley offered. She tossed her white Wii remote dangerously close to Jessi, who flinched as it landed. She scowled at Adley, but Adley didn't seem to realize as she bent down to shut off the Wii.

"I mean," Jessi began slowly as she sat up and unraveled the blanket wrapped around her. "We don't have to. You guys can keep playing–"

"Oh, come on!" I cheered as I walked over to the coffee table. I filled up the empty, pink chip bowl with more barbeque-flavored chips. "This is our sleepover, which means that we decide what to do together."

"Okay. What did you have in mind?" Jessi asked as she plucked a chip from the bowl.

"What about Truth or Dare?" Adley smirked, and as happy as I was about the idea, I caught Jessi's smile drop.

I knew that Jessi hated playing that game with us since Adley and I played at a way more extreme level than Jessi. But Adley always reminded me that Jessi needed to get out of her shell once in a while to have a little fun.

"Ooh, a classic slumber party game! I like it," I stated. Without giving Jessi a second to say no, Adley and I sat down on the floor with the chip bowl between us.

"Um, I don't know, guys," Jessi muttered, biting one of her blue, chipped nails. "I-I was actually looking forward to watching Twilight for the first time."

"Seriously, I don't even know why Anna suggested that we watch that film," Adley chuckled, playing with a lock of dark blonde hair. "If you wanted a rom-com, you should have picked Clueless. Paul Rudd is so much hotter than sparkly Robert Pattinson–"

"Why don't we just play–"

"Truth or Dare is just a game, Jess. Unless, of course, you're hiding something." Adley laughed as Jessi blushed and glanced down at the floor.

"I promise that we'll go easy. Right, A?" I looked over at my best friend, as Jessi hesitantly sat down beside me.

"Of course. We'll save the harder levels of this game for the pros," Adley promised, irritation lacing her cheerful tone. She glanced at me with a smile that I could tell was forced.

Something inside of me whispered that Adley wouldn't play nice for long. After all, she always enjoyed making these games a little messy.

However, this only made me more excited to play.