Our Little Lie (Complete)

ELEVEN

"Yay! Omg Lee! I'm so happy for you!" I say and pull her into a tight hug.

"Thanks, Lys! I can't believe I won!" She squeals and steps back to open her locker. I'm so glad no one found out about the note. Mystery Man can't tell my secret if he knows I tried.

The day goes on as usual. Slow class periods, awkward conversations, typical day. Halfway through fifth period, I realize I need to get my math notebook. Mrs. Wage let's me go get it. The hall is filled with echoes from the classrooms like a reminder of the last vestiges of conversation.

That is, until I hear the slight sniffle that's all too familiar. I key in my locker code. Please don't be what I think it is, I wish. I grab my notebook. The sniffles continue as I close my locker, their definitely her's.

"Lena!" I turn to face her. "What's wrong?"

"Don't tell anyone I'm crying," is all she has to say. Of course she doesn't want to ruin her tough reputation. "And I'll tell you later."

"Alright," I say and put an arm around her,"you'll be okay."

"I know," she replies and speed walks to the bathroom. But the echoes stay behind.

•••

"They think I cheated, Lys," she sobs on her shaggy bean bag in her igloo of blankets. "Someone found a slip of paper with the location of all the Chacos and the answer to the equation in my bag. But who would've gotten into my bag? And who put it in there?"

"Did you let anyone get something from your bag?"

"Just Stephen, but he wouldn't do that."

"This is so weird," I lie. I know exactly what's going on. Well, except for who saw it, but it could be anyone with eyes.

Lena and I eat too much popcorn and watch too much Vampire Diaries to forget her awful second-to-last week of school. We talk about everything except the incident and I end up staying way too late. So I leave at around eleven o'clock.

I walk home on the hard asphalt and heat. I only live about half of a mile away from Lee's house. When Lena, Audrey, and I first became friends, we were walking on this road after a neighborhood party. We called ourselves Lys, Lee, and Dree because for some reason we thought that was clever then. But the names stuck and blended into our group name for everything of Lysleedree. I know, stupid. Audrey was always the one who had it all, but never realized it. She was beautiful and had all the boys attention. But she never gave any in return. Lena was and still is the strong one, personality wise and physically. And she loves everyone like family.

And I've ruined it. It's my fault it's over. Our perfect trio has melted into a duet of chaos and it's all on me. And it fell too fast. One day I kissed my friend's boyfriend, the next day, I lost the only person who would love me anyways.

The sound of an engine grows louder as it nears behind me. "Hey, Elyssa!" I turn around to see Stephen slowing down behind me. "Want a ride?"

"Sure!" I walk to open the passenger door. "My house is just up the street."

"You want to go home?"

"Well I thought that was what you were offering."

"We can go to the park."

"Well, alright, as long as it's not a date."

"It's not," he laughs,"just two horrible friends hanging out."

"You're right, we are horrible friends," I sigh and for some reason my face starts to feel hard. And a tear starts to roll.

"Oh no! Please don't cry! I'm bad at making people feel better!" He panics. "You're not a bad friend to me!"

"I'm so messed up! I'm not even boy crazy yet here I am doing whatever it takes to keep my already ruined friendship from falling apart,"I hold in sobs,"and I've kissed three different guys in the past semester, when I didn't even have my first real kiss until when Damien and I started dating back in tenth grade!"

"Hold on," he stops the car at the park,"three guys? I know Damien and I, but who else?"

"I met this amazing guy in the Maldives. I told him everything I did here before I left and he still saw me as the same person. He still wanted to be my friend. It doesn't matter though, he hasn't text me back since we parted. He obviously didn't get the same idea."

"I still want to be you're friend."

"Well you can't hate me for something you did too," I laugh between sniffles. "I'm still so mad someone spiked the punch at Audrey's party. I never would've done that otherwise."

"I know you wouldn't have," he says and holds my hand. I want him so bad, but I shouldn't. Why is it we live in a world where we can't get what we want? And if we do there's always a sacrifice. Every good thing has a price. The only question is how bad do you want it? Is it worth the loss?

But with love, the choice is made for you and there's nothing you can do about it. Love makes you pay the price and deal with what's left.

I look over at him. His blonde hair blowing around and his usually rock solid face has melted as his eyes focused forward. As if maybe memorizing the tree line would be the key to solving our mistakes.