Our Little Lie (Complete)

TWELVE

The last week of school goes by quickly, Lena is forced to give up her trophy and take down her picture from the Wall of Game when there's no evidence to prove she didn't cheat. She's okay, and if she's not no one knows.

Stephen acts as if we never had a romantic session on the bench at the park. And maybe he only sees us as friends, which is good. But why am I so disappointed? Damien and I still fake the motions of a high school relationship. That's a lie. I fake it, he doesn't.

That's why it's so hard. Because I know Lena and Damien love me beyond words. I can't let go of the beautiful lie we're stuck in.

Finally, summer comes. And so does freedom and a capricious feeling of joy welled up inside. Stephen and I go on more random friend dates and Damien and I go on more real dates.

"Stephen we can't be together anymore, we have to end this," I say.

"Is that what you want?" He says doubtfully.

I want to say no. I don't know why I want to, but I do. And I can't,"Yes, that's what I want. We can't do this, not now."

"What if we leave?" Stephen asks. "We could run away to Florida and live by the beach where we don't have to worry about people accepting us being together."

"We can't be together, Stephen, we have to be just friends," I look up at him as he sits on my bean bag while I sit on the floor. In case you're wondering, yes, I did sneak him in here, and yes, I feel bad.

"Then why does this feel like that scene from The Giver where Jonas gets the baby and begs Fiona to run away with him?"

"Probably because Fiona doesn't end up going with him."

"Darn it! Really?" He runs a hand through his blond hair.

"Yeah she stays behind," I laugh. I hear footsteps coming up the stairs. "Get in the closet," I whisper. "Hurry." He does as I say and slams the door in a rush.

"Hey Elyssa!" Damien says and closes the door behind him just as Stephen closes his. Close one. The sound of a hanger clattering to the floor bursts from the closet. "What was that?" He asks. Darn it, I spoke too soon.

"Oh probably just my cat," I laugh,"she's crazy."

"You should probably let her out," he says and approaches the door.

I run against the closet door and block it. "Don't let her out!" I yell realizing too late how suspicious that is.

"Are you alright? You're acting weird."

"If you let Trixie out she'll claw you to death! She's in a really foul mood. Trust me, you don't want to do that," I let the words spill out of my mouth.

He raises an eyebrow, he does it a lot,"Alright," he says and backs away from the door. "Just wondered if you wanted to hang out so I came over and your dad let me in." It reminds me so much of all the times as little kids. When he would just barge in like it was his house. We would play Star Wars video games and watch movies without a care in the world.

"Sure!" I smile hoping he'll forget the crazy things I said. "Wait outside, I'll be down in a second."

"Alright," he says and walks out the door. I exhale a giant breath I was holding and wait for the steps to stop after the sound of our front door closing.

"You can come out," I tap on the door. He pushes the door open and let's out a laugh

"Dang girl!" He laughs,"you'd think by this point you'd be good at lying, but really?!" He falls onto my bed,"that's all you could come up with? You're cat is going crazy and claws people without reason?" He keeps laughing hysterically until his face is red. But it's not funny to me.

"Stephen! We were almost caught!" I whisper yell, if that's even possible. "You'd think after all this sneaking around you'd be better at hiding," I mimic him. "You knocked over a hanger!"

"Hey! No matter where I stepped there was something so I leaned against the wall. And BOOM! Hanger down,",he smiles like he wants to look innocent, but knows it's not working.

I laugh because I can't help it,"Leave after I do,"

"Yes, mom,"he jokes.

"Shut up, you weirdo," I close the door and run downstairs.

Like Lena, Damien lives down the street so we meet up a lot. Damien and I walk to out favorite spot, the space ship. No, it's not actually a space ship, it's a log in the woods. When we were little we would pretend it was and we would go on adventures with it to other planets. Our favorite was planet Dorko where we would pretend our families were crazy. We especially picked on my older sister Emerson. She was always the villain.

Anyway, the space ship has morphed into our little thinking spot. No one can hear us there so we talk about things we wouldn't talk about with anyone else.

"I'm so glad it's summer," I say.

"Me too," he replies and holds my hand. "I get to hangout with you more."

I rest my head on his shoulder like I've done since we were three. It's familiar, like home in a person. "I love you," I say randomly, and I mean it. I don't know what I would do without him with me.

"I love you too, Elyssa,"