How To Be The Best Third Wheel

Original Edition - Tip 14: Always Hunt for the Truth

I march up to my friends who are already seated at a table. They look up and smile innocently at me. I return the smile. I survived my 3 classes and it is now my favourite part of the day. Lunch.

"Hey Lara!" they greet.

"Where were you guys this morning? And why haven't you been answering my texts?" I question, much less intensely than I did to Logan and Daniel.

"This morning? I had early soccer practice." Carol answers truthfully. "Were you guys not with Lara?" she asks Jasmine and Kiera.

"I was finishing up an extra credit assignment." Jasmine answers.

"And I had cheer practice." Kiera states.

"Sorry dude, I forgot to tell you." Carol tells me.

"No problem. But where were you guys yesterday? I was in the middle of a situation." Are they going to lie to me? I know they are going to lie.

"Oh. I had to take my brothers to karate practice and my phone ran out of battery." Carol explains. Ha! She's the best liar there is, but she's not supposed to use her skill on me! Ugh, she's only supposed to do that when we're in the middle of a situation that might lead to hand-to-hand combat.

Whaaaat? We've never done that. On a totally unrelated note, Kiera and Jasmine make great practice targets.

I nod, pretending to believe her, then look to the other two.

"Me?" Kiera asks. I nod. She continues, "I had a dentist appointment. Ugh."

Next, my eyes go to Jasmine, who cannot lie for the sake of anything. She looks like she's about to vomit or bolt out of here. So basically the exact same face she had when they confessed their relationship status to me.

"I was...um...I was at the, uh, library." she manages to stutter. Woah. Jasmine told a lie? And here I thought that I would never see the day when it happened.

"So Carol was at a dojo, Kiera was at the dentist and Jasmine was at the library? That's great. Who's ready to admit that they're lying? Unless, of course, you took those lovely instagram photos at the dentist office." I say, smiling sweetly.

1 jaw drop, 2 jaw drops, 3 jaw drops. They stare at me in disbelief.

"H-h-how did you know?" Carol asks, dumbfounded by the fact that I knew.

"You idiots! If you're going to keep a secret, at least do it correctly! Who the hell posts pictures of a secret date on Instagram with the #couplesgoals, #relationshipgoals, and hashtag other things that you hashtag!" I yell at them like a crazy person.

"What? We never posted anything." Jasmine comments seriously.

"Yeah, you did." I respond.

"I didn't post anything either." Carol tells the group. They narrow their eyes to Kiera who is smiling nervously, her double chin as gorgeous as ever.

"Well, I may have posted a couple...dozen pictures on my Instagram." she confesses.

Carol facepalms. "You're actually an idiot. Like, I don't even want to look at you right now."

"So instead of telling Lara, you posted it for the whole world to see!" Jasmine exclaims.

"What! The pictures just matched my feed so well! How could I not post it?" Kiera justifies her actions.

They roll their eyes. "See?" she says, pulling out her phone and scrolling through the pictures. "The pictures are so pretty!"

"Why did you guys have to lie to me?" I ask, confused and a bit hurt.