Liar, Liar (Book 2 in the Hide and Secret Series)

(4) Serena's POV

I glared daggers at Calum's head. Why wouldn't he admit that he knew me? I knew that I'd seen him before. But I couldn't tell anybody where I'd seen him or when.

Maybe Calum wanted to keep that part of his past a secret too, just like I did. Maybe he didn't want people to know about what he'd done, and what I'd seen him do. But he had no right. Calum was a dangerous person. He couldn't be around people. It was putting their lives at stake. I had to warn Taylor, but I couldn't warn her about Calum without revealing my part in the whole mess as well.

And that was something I wanted to keep under wraps.

The bell rang to signal that the next class would soon be starting. I went out of Homeroom quickly, waving goodbye to Jill and Taylor. I pointedly ignored Calum. I freaking hated him. But I couldn't tell anybody why I hated him, or how I knew him. It was just so frustrating.

I hoped he wouldn't get any closer with Taylor. Otherwise I would have to intervene somehow.

Time flew by until lunch. Lunch was my favorite subject, as it had been since... like, ever. Adding in the fact that I had it with Jill, Taylor, Theo, Emory, and Zach. That would be fun. I hoped that Jill and Zach would be able to sit at the same table without doing any physical harm to each other. They just didn't click for some reason.

When I got to lunch, I made a beeline towards a table where I saw Jill, Emory, and Zach were sitting together. Well, Jill and Emory were sitting next to each other. Zach was on the other end of the table, clearly trying to avoid Jill at all costs. It seemed like Jill was doing the same, judging by the way she was speaking quickly to Emory and not even acknowledging that Zach was there.

I finally got to the table and sat down, next to Zach and across from Jill and Emory. "Hi, guys," I greeted them, smiling. "Emory, your hair looks great!"

Emory ran her fingers through it subconsciously. "Thanks," she said, a bit shyly. Her hair, original a dark brown, was now streaked with red here and there. She had probably gotten her hair done when she went to California for the summer. I hadn't seen her for the whole summer, which was a bit sad. Emory had grown to be a very loyal friend, despite the fact that she had started out the year hating me because Jill told her to.

Emory had also been a huge help to us in terms of catching the sender. She had been getting threatened by the sender as well. Kai. Her best friend. We still weren't sure what exactly Emory had been getting threatened with, and none of us wanted to pry into her personal business if we didn't have to. We all knew how uncomfortable it had been to have someone pry into ours.

I turned to Zach. "Hey, Zach! How was your summer?"

Zach blinked, as though he was surprised that I was speaking to him. "Uh, hi. My summer was... it was good," he finally finished.

"What did you do?" I asked him, trying to make conversation with him. Zach had been kind of a loner for most of his life, thanks to things Jill and I had said about him. I wanted to try and make amends for what I had done pre-rehab stint. Of course, nobody knew that I hadn't actually been at boarding school except for Jill, Taylor, Johnson, and my mom. Well, Kai knew too, but I chose not to count her in the final tally.

That thought put a question in my mind. Did my father know? Had Mom told him about everything that had happened to me? Did he know that I had gotten stalked last year?

"Uh... Serena?"

Zach's voice brought me back down to Earth. I blinked slowly, noting his slightly confused expression before realizing that I had just tuned out entirely to what he had been saying. "Sorry!" I squeaked, feeling a little bit embarrassed but doing my best not to show it outwardly.