Lie is Just a Word

𝓔𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓮𝓮𝓷

Song of the chapter: club heaven- Nessa Barrett

NIGHT OF THE MURDER...

"You ready to go, Ev?" yelled Lydia, who had just finished applying lipstick and was now zipping up her faux leather boots. Everly was too wrapped up in trying to put in a particularly obnoxious pair of earrings to respond, though she gave her friend a weak nod in reply. "Words, Everly, words. You're sixteen, you can speak, y'know." Rolling her eyes, Everly turned to face Lydia.

"Yes, I'm ready now." She quickly ran her hands through her frizzy, jet-black hair, clearly trying to smooth it out, though it wasn't working.

"Good...now let's get our asses out the door. We don't wanna be late. Especially when Cal's gonna be there!" Everly didn't have the heart to tell Lydia that she had no interest in guys, let alone Cal. Instead, she kept her mouth shut and rustled through her purse, looking for her house keys.

"Shouldn't you care more about Grayson?" Muttered Everly. Grayson Hatcher was Lydia's newest "boyfriend," though the term never really meant much to her. Lydia Kersey was a lot of things but consistent in her relationships was certainly not one of them. Before Grayson it was Reese, but Reese was "too nice." Before Reese, it was Vincent, but he was her cousin's best friend so it was "too weird." Before Vincent, it was Ray, but Ray cheated on her with Tori, so that breakup was inevitable. Before Ray, she was Dalton, but he wasn't super interested and wound up breaking her heart, starting a cycle of loving and leaving for Lydia. Of course, it wasn't quite his fault. He had been in an "off period," with April, the unofficial love of his life. But once she wanted him back, it was game over.

"Nah. He's alright but Dalton and April broke up about five months ago and there were rumours they were getting back together, but now people are saying she's mad at him." The grin plastered on Lydia's face betrayed all of the bad ideas swirling around inside of her head. Everly groaned.

"Please don't tell me you'll give him another chance?! You never give a guy a second chance and you can't just change your own rules because it's fucking Dalton. He's the first person to ever break your heart like that and you can't give him the opportunity to do it again!" Everly was adamant and Lydia didn't feel like arguing.

"Whatever...let's go, bitch." Everly smiled. Lydia only called the people she truly loved "bitch," so it was essentially her forfeiting. She had won the argument, at least for now.

~~~~~~

The two girls were greeted by the flashing neon lights emanating from the windows of the Motter house as the car pulled up. Lydia bolted out of the car, with Everly soon following suit, but at a much calmer pace.

"So Lyra was telling me the other day that you have a new boyfriend?!" Lydia practically shrieked. Everly was not half as excited though. She began nervously twitching as she wondered if Lyra knew about her and Scarlett and was just trying to cover for her. She doubted it, though. If Lyra knew the truth, she wouldn't cover for Everly. She would want to shout it from the rooftops. For the most part, Lyra was a sweet girl. However, her fatal flaw was her obsession with drama. When it came to drama, she didn't care who she hurt because she never even considered that it could potentially hurt someone. To her, it was all fun and games.

"It's Lyra, she probably made it up 'cause she was bored or something." As much as Everly tried to hide her embarrassment and concern, she couldn't hide behind her fake smile much longer.

"I know that face! SPILL!" Shouted Lydia, leaving Everly with no choice but to tell her a small bit of the truth. Of course, leaving out the fact that her "new boyfriend" was none other than Scarlett Addair.

She filled her in on a few of the details, things like how her and her "new boyfriend" would sneak out and go to parks together, how they started out as friends but got together when he found out that he was being cheated on, how she never felt more loved. But even though she was telling Lydia true details, Everly hated the fact that she still had to lie to her.

"Are you happy now?" Lydia nodded excitedly.

"I can't believe you found someone that great before I did! Sooooo..... when do I get to meet him?" Lydia's question caught Everly off guard, so much so that she almost dropped the soda she'd been holding.

"Meet him? I don't know about that, Lydia." The one thing Everly wasn't prepared for was a question like that. She didn't want to tell Lydia there was no chance she would get to meet Everly's boyfriend, mostly because she'd probably have to tell her he didn't actually exist. She stood there quietly, wishing it had never been brought up in the first place.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom, please hold my drink," She muttered, handing the can to Lydia before walking away. Sure, the switch up was sudden, but she needed an excuse to get out of the awkward conversation. Once she was out of Lydia's sight, she began looking for Scarlett.

As she was passing by the back sliding door, she saw Scarlett sitting outside by herself. Perfect. She thought as she reached for the handle. Everly marched over to the log where Scarlett sat and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Ev! You're here!!" Scarlett motioned for Everly to sit next to her, which she did. "I wasn't sure if you were coming," She was relieved. At least Scarlett seemed to be happy.

"Yeah, Lydia and I came together but I ditched her," She smiled weakly.

"Is something wrong? You look kinda upset," Scarlett remarked, tucking a piece of Everly's hair behind her ear.

"Nothing you can't fix.."

~~~

As much as Everly wished she could stay with Scarlett forever, she knew that soon enough one of her friends, probably Lydia or Vivian, would be looking for her. She checked to make sure her lipstick was in decent enough condition before whispering the word "goodbye" to Scarlett.

Once inside, she quickly made her way over to Lydia, who was crying in one of the rooms upstairs about how unfair it was that April and Dalton had gotten back together. Vivian had already spent a considerable amount of time trying to comfort Lydia, to no avail. As soon as Everly entered the room, Vvian's shift was up and she went downstairs, muttering something along the lines of "good-luck with little miss drama queen."

"I'm sure you'll find someone better. He's clearly not good enough for you," Everly declared, hoping that it would make her friend feel a little better, though she knew it was unlikely.

"But it's Dalton. How can I possibly find someone better than Dalton?" Everly wasn't quite sure how to respond. To her, the infamous Dalton Kellett was just some guy she went to school with. He just happened to be the same guy her friend was hopelessly in love with.

Just as Everly was going to say something else, the door swung open, revealing an incredibly distraught Vivian. Her eyes showed an intense fear, something Everly had never seen in her before.

"Are you okay, Viv?" She asked as Vivian started to shake.

"Scarlett's dead...!" And just like that, the world that Everly knew was completely destroyed. Scarlett Addair is dead.