It All Started with a Lie

Chapter 11.1

I felt like an animal,
and animals don't know sin,
right?
~ Jess C. Scott

A/N
Okay so this book officially switched to present tense in this chapter because I decided I liked it better. :)
Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 11.1
Her POV
Despite my better judgment, I find myself inadvertently avoiding the presidents of ΒΣΞ. Her existence only reminds me of the life I have worked so hard to get away from that I can't seem to escape. She paid him to hurt me. She hates me that much. When I found myself refusing her gaze, crossing the studio to avoid her, I would have to stop and force myself to look her in the eyes and take my spot on the center of the floor, where I always practiced. The whole dance team, me excluded of course, made a plan to go to a party hosted by the glee club, invite only. They practically laughed in my face about how I was not invited because I was not a ΒΣΞ girl. I can't wait to see the look on their faces when they find out I was invited by the President of the glee club herself, and will be at the party to taint their precious little group with the sight of my presence. Emma will be there; she hates parties, but anything to be accepted by them, right?

I touch up my lipstick in the mirror of my apartment bathroom. Richard sits on the counter beside me, weeping over the death of Patroclus in her novel. I do not know who Patroclus is, but she cries for him like he is real and I almost wonder if he was at some point. To her he was. That's what I love most about Richard, her love for things, even things that are fictional. She cries over words on a piece of paper like she is experiencing it, living it. And she isn't afraid to show it. Her emotions are written across her face when she reads, I can almost live the whole story through her expressions alone. "I'm gonna head out, I'll see you when I get back."

She is too enthralled by her novel, her hand cupped over her mouth in anguish, her eyes red and puffy, to notice me. She will be done with the story by the time I return and her 'after book depression', as she puts it, will have sunk in and we will sit on the couch and watch movies that she will have no interest in, too distraught over the loss of a world, and she will tell me about the tales she'd just read between movies—maybe then I will know who Patroclus is—and we will stay that way until we fall asleep on the couch and we will wake with aching pains in our necks because my couch is practically made of cardboard, and it will be like it always is. Me and her.

I leave Richard in my apartment to read her novel and take an Uber to the party. Most of the people there will walk back to their homes on campus in their intoxicated state but I do not live on campus or with the rest of the dancers in the sorority house, so I will take an Uber there and back and Richard will wait up for me to make sure I do not get kidnapped, murdered, or raped during the night, a trait she picks up from her brother.

The thought of him brings a lump to my throat. I've learned to lie well over the years, but never to anyone I loved. I never had anyone I loved to lie to. I should tell her. But should I ask him first? Should we tell her together? Would the sight of him distract her from my betrayal? Would he defend me?

Probably not. He would probably throw me under the bus, tell her I seduced him and that it was all my fault. Asshole.

I arrive at the party well after it is in full swing, bodies clamoring together, lubricated only by the sweat of their bodies. My bare back clings to that of another's, and I have to withhold my urge to gag at the feeling of moisture pooling between our bodies. I adjust my right ear plug as it begins to slip out and push my way through the crowd. I came only for the high of the loud music—so loud you can feel it in your feet, in your chest—to get drunk, to get laid, and to head back to Richard with stories to tell. I find drinks stacked along the edge of the bay window, an odd place I think but I don't question it for long, pouring myself one. The glee club, probably one of the richer communities on campus, is known for their extravagant drinks, it is what makes their events so hard to get into. Tonight I will be drinking whiskey, the finest drink I've had in the entirety of my life and far too glorious to be wasted on a bunch of 'young adults' who don't even know what whiskey really is.