The Lies They Tell

Duet

Inej tucked her hair behind her ears. She adjusted her keys in her pocket, the cool metal of her pocketknife soothing on her hand.
Nina looked down from her perch on the pull up bar. "Do you ever think Matthias and Kaz would be unstoppable friends if they didn't avoid each other?" She said, a far away look in her eyes. Inej looked up to meet her eyes. They were the sweetest eyes she'd ever seen, the kind that made you feel like you were in on a secret any time you met them.
"No, not really...." Inej laughed. She was sitting cross legged on that thing where you're supposed to do situps, and was dangerously close to sliding down and falling on the ground.
Nina jumped down, bending her knees on the landing as she fell on the bark.
Inej's heart raced. Her mind flooded with thoughts she couldn't decipher.
"You okay?" Nina asked, pushing a stray dark hair back from Inej's face. It was a normal Nina thing to do, a gesture of friendship and trust she would show to any of her friends, like Jesper or Wylan. Well not Kaz, but most of them. This was all supposed to be normal. So why didn't it feel it?
Inej pushed the feeling away, leaving only the exciting rush of Nina's hand brushing her forehead.
"Yeah," Inej replied with a smile. "I will be."
"So we should practise some of the songs, huh?" Nina said, grinning.
Inej grinned back, a warm feeling in her chest. She sung the opening line of I'm a Believer. Inej had a beautiful voice, though she didn't song very loudly. Nina sung the next line in an uneven warble. She was an infamously terrible singer, but Inej suspected she hammed it up for the comedy value. The real singer of the group has always been Kaz. He had a rich baritone, and sung with a kind of gravelly melancholy that would stop a bull in his tracks just to listen. His singing voice made people shiver, and star transfixed at the eighteen year old boy singing like a retired star.
Nina warbler so far off key she may as well have been singing a different song, and Inej hit the high notes in a light as a breeze voice.
"Now I'm a believer," Nina sung almost drunkenly.
"Not a trace-"
"No not a trace"
"Of doubt in my mind / I'm in love!" Inej finished the line.
Nina added "I'm a believer I couldn't leave her if I tried," then trailed off.
Inej grinned over at Nina, whose messy brown hair had flown into her eyes in the winter breeze. Nina was still sitting, half kneeling, where she'd landed on the bark, her silk blouse hanging loosely around her. There was a red leaf in her hair.
Inej debated with herself. She was on the verge of saying something she knew she'd regret, but stopped short. She didn't want to give Nina something else to forgive her for.
"Nina?" Inej began hesitantly.
Nina looked up at her, smiling. "Yes, darling?" Dear lord, did Nina have to be so flirtatious about everything.
"How did you tell Matthias you liked him?"
Nina opened her mouth and shut it again, as if unsure where to begin. "You and Kaz...?" She left the question open ended.
"Um, yeah, that," Inej managed to say, staring at the ground. There was a time she'd hoped Kaz would be her first boyfriend, fantasized about their wedding day even. Fantasy Kaz had always been dapper, in a tuxedo, and shared her slightly sentimental streak. But she'd outgrown that version of Kaz as she grew older, he had vanished as past grew more distant. Inej had begun to realise that that version of Kaz, however romantic, was ficticious.
"Well," Nina smiled mischievously, "it helps to know the lingo."
"Yeah yeah, innuendo and all that." Inej rolled her eyes.
"When two people love each other very much...." Nina began in a patronizing tone.
Inej shoved her with her left hand. Nina fell onto the bark giggling.

It was afternoon now, and Nina and Matthias were walking to the train station. Auditions were over, and after a good amount of discussion on how they all did, the six had gone their seperate ways. Nina had noticed Wylan and Jesper share several fervent glances after she and Inej went back inside to wait for their individual singing auditions. Something had happened between Jesper, Wylan, and Kaz, and Nina desperately wanted to know what.
"Mattie," Nina said softly, tugging on her boyfriend's Woolen sweater. The pare were just a block or so from the station now.
"Yes, beloved?" Matthias turned his head to meet Nina's gaze. His light blue eyes were curious, lit by the afternoon sun. He was really starting to suit this boyfriend gig.
"Wraith was asking about us earlier."
"What about us?"
"How I told you I liked you," Nina replied.
"Oh? And what did you tell her?"
"I believe it was 'I said Matthias you are so handsome you must be mine now,'" Nina joked. "But that's not the point. Did you know she likes Kaz?"
Matthias looked like his pride was wounded. "Surely not, good lady!" He said, in mock horror.
The two had arrived at the train station, and stopped on the platform, sitting down on the cold metal bench.
Nina couldn't help but wonder if this was really about Kaz. Maybe Inej had simply gone along with it because that's what Nina said. Maybe it was about someone else. A thought struck Nina. The words 'He came by my house last night,' played over in her mind. Maybe it was a dark skinned, lanky, cocky, risk taker, not Kaz at all.
"Nina?" Matthias' voice and the screech of the train on the old tracks brought Nina back to the present. Her head was practically spinning.
"Jesper," Nina murmured without realising.
"It would really boost my confidence, if you didn't call me, your boyfriend, by the name of our more attractive mutual friend," Matthias said, deadpan.

Nina and Matthias sat side by side on the train. Not many people took this root at this time, so they had a whole seating booth to themselves. Nina remembered Wylan saying that when he and Jesper took their usual train - they lived near the same stop - they were sometimes the only passengers on it.
Matthias absentmindedly stroked Nina's hair, while is right hand stayed intertwined with her's.
Nina couldn't stop thinking about Inej, and Jesper, and Inej and Jesper. It seemed to make sense now that she thought about it. At that moment, as if conjured from the depths of Nina's mind, Jesper stepped onto the train. That's weird, Nina thought. He never takes this train.
"Leave room for Jesus, love-birds," Jesper said as he sat down opposite Matthias.
Nina must have looked either excited, petrified, or both, because Jesper quickly added "Woah, what's going on? Why are you staring at me like I kissed a tree with tongue or something?"
Nina blurted, "Matthias called you attractive!"