Easier to Lie

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Eric, talk to me!" He was dragging me behind him. He walked so fast I couldn't keep up with him.

"It's my dad," he eventually said once we were at the front desk. "David Parry's room, please."

Two lifetimes passed before the elevator made it to the ground floor. I hated how hospitals smelled, like Pine Sol and bleach. My nose burned as soon as the doors opened. The carpet was gross, as if a vacuum hadn't touched it in years. I wanted to know who chose the carpet because in every hospital, the carpet was an ugly shade of orange and blue with weird zig-zag designs. My head pounded just thinking about it.

The walls were eggshell white with paintings of the building hanging in frames. The waiting room was the worst. Baby blue walls with that same, hideous carpet. A Bible was on all four of the end tables along with various magazines and children's books. Adam and Leah were on the one couch. They were smiling and laughing.

"What happened?" The laughter halted when Eric spoke.

"Eric, I'm so sorry---" Leah started to hug him, but he backed away.

"Your dad and that girl from the pool, they were in an accident. It's bad, man, it's really bad. Leah and I saw the whole thing. That's why we're here."

The doctor, a short, balding Patton Oswalt lookalike came into the room asking for Eric. I didn't want to let go of his hand, but the doctor asked to speak with him privately. I didn't understand that because Eric was going to tell us everything.

With Eric out of hearing range, Leah beamed, "Oh my god, you two totally did it!"

"What the hell, Leah? How do you know these things?"

"I just do. Sooo how was it?"

I felt my face flush. She knew how easy it was to embarrass me. "Now isn't appropriate," I tried to convince her to let it go but she wanted the details.

"I'm bad at explaining things," it wasn't a lie. I was horrible with words. Leah was the writer, not me.

"Oh, C'mon. Tell me, tell me, tell me." We were in a hospital, and she was being her usual bouncy self.

"Fine! Gosh," she always got what she wanted, "it was amazing. Happy now?"

"Did you—"

"A few times. Can we stop talking about it now?"

The look on her face told me that we were far from ending that topic of conversation. "Fine. We'll talk later," she faked irritation.

"What happened here?" I asked.

Leah and Adam took their lunch break from work together. They had decided on pasta and were sitting at a table outside. David and McKenzie had the same idea; they sat at a table in front of Leah. She said that she could barely keep her food down with both of them looking at her.

Adam did his best to keep Leah distracted, however, he was unable to ignore what was being said. He wanted to confront them. Leah knew from past experiences that Adam would be in handcuffs if he confronted David. McKenzie wasn't a threat to anyone except herself.

They were holding hands and David told her how beautiful she looked in that yellow sundress. McKenzie rubbed her thumb across his hand, called him handsome and asked if he wanted to stay at his place that night.

Leah couldn't forget the way McKenzie looked at her as she and David left. It was a look of pure jealousy. McKenzie thought she had won David from Leah, but really, she wanted Adam to notice her. The girls who rely on attention from boys for validation are the worst kind of females. McKenzie was the worst of the worst. She only wanted a guy once he belonged to someone else.