In These Walls

Chapter 1

I, Melissa Linden, have regretted my words far too many times.

Granted, I live in a world with no secrets. But still – do I have to think so many things!?

Okay, let me back up. The year's 2063. Forty years ago, on some random day, on a random hour, (respectively July 27, 2023, 12:45 PM) every secret in the world was released. Crazy, right?

The news went insane, everyone crying, shouting, screaming, and panicking, because no one could contain their feelings. People suddenly had an intolerance to lying and feeling guilt. Guilt and lying became obsolete words only used in old, musty dictionaries.

Now, you may be thinking, Melissa, you're insane! A world with no lies! Perfect! You'd always know who killed whom and why they did it!

That's on the extremely, painfully short list of pros.

That cons list...now that's impressively long.

Take today as an example.

It all started with Ruby. Ruby was the "mean girl" of the school, if you will. She seemed decent until the third day you knew her, where she showed her true colors of a rude, selfish, and disrespectful jerk. She was discrete about what she did, so she manage to inspire fear into people's heart. However, she was never feared for long.

Maybe it was because of her short stature, or the fact that after you found out she was the one raiding your locker, you could deal with her so effectively, it was pretty much a waste to worry about her.

The only side effect was just the name Ruby having a bad taste in your mouth.

Anyways, today at lunch, I was with my pod of friends (Claire and Penny), just laughing and joking when none other than Ruby came up to our table.

When I first spotted her, I honestly wasn't thrilled. Again, she'd messed with me before, so I we weren't exactly in the best of terms with each other.

Now, I know you probably have a mental image of a tall, snarky, make-up obsessed blonde.

Ruby didn't look like that. She had a kind-of timid look on her face, with a short, lean figure and black hair. She always wore cut-off jeans and a (usually) deep orange T-shirt. Keen hazel eyes seemed to say I'm upset for some reason so I'm taking out all my insanity on everyone around me because that's the only mature thing to do.

Sorry, just really don't like her or her full confidence strut to our table or how she slapped her tray down and sat right next to me.

"Hi, Melissa," she said cheerfully, like nothing had ever happened between us. I gritted my teeth, flashing a quick smile and turning back to my mashed potatoes. It's only impossible to lie if you talk or if you experience a strong surge of emotion. Which didn't go well with my mom's borderline obsession to be nice and polite. Unfortunately, the polite thing and the no lies thing did NOT work well with my mind.

Maybe she learned some manners. I thought in my mind.

And "thinking in my mind" also meant "saying aloud."

"Did you learn some manners?" I asked her. My question came out sounding harsh and sarcastic.

Ruby recoiled, immediately offended.

"Excuse me, but you're not short scheming liar, either. All your mouth does is babble and occasionally sends acidic shrapnel out of it!"

That hit a nerve. A very deep, sensitive nerve.

"Well, at least I have friends unlike you." Ruby's face contorted into anger, her hands shaking, her knuckles turning white from clutching onto her tray so hard.

"C'mon Ruby," I snarled, "We all see you sit alone at that table. Maybe if you learned how to be a decent human being I wouldn't get urges to slap you in the face."

Okay, I'll admit that I was pretty harsh with Ruby.

Honestly, I was just DONE with her. I didn't want to see her face. I didn't want to see her acting. I didn't want to see her try and be friends, okay? I wanted a wall between us, but she kept coming over.

It was annoying.

"I'd be careful with that tongue of your, Melissa," Ruby snarled as she picked up her lunch tray and left.

I rolled my eyes at Ruby's lame attempt to scare me.

"Do better next time!" I mumbled.

"Sometimes, I think you're too bold for your own good, but I also appreciate that too," Penny confessed, her shoulder length, curly black hair bouncing around her head as she talked. With porcelain skin, a skinny figure, a slightly freckled face and crystalline chestnut eyes, Penny could've easily snuck her way into any modeling studio, and no one would ask questions. Somehow she even made blue rimmed glasses seem incredibly fashionable.

"You're such a stick in the mud, Penny," Claire replied in a joking voice, frizzy orange hair shaking. "At least Melissa knows how to talk without hesitation."

"Ooooooooh!" I hollered, quickly recovering from my battle. A little humor goes a long way, am I right? "You just got burned!"

"Oh shut up!" Penny laughed. Her perfect white teeth shone, looking like glitter had been delicately sprinkled onto them.

I remembered when I had told Penny that I had envied her perfectness and how people liked her.

She hadn't been upset at me.

That's the thing about friends. When you tell them brutally honest things, they don't judge you for it. They accept it.

Everyone today has conformed to the new "no-lies" concept. Friendships, businesses, news, everything reformed to adjust. It was as if people were happy with the way things were. Heck, everyone talked about it. Restaurants and hallways held snippets of conversation with people proclaiming that honesty was a good thing, now that we could deal with it.

But, there always one girl in that hallways that hid her secret deep inside of her, burying it with layers and layers of different emotions, the dark, destructive anonymity that she loathed having the truth spill out of her like a burning waterfall of acid hurting those around her.

That girl was me.