In Lies She Trusts

3

Hi! I've finally come back from the dead. My goal for this year is to be a lot more active on this website. Honestly, the only reason why I disappeared is due to chronic laziness. I might add more to this chapter later.

Author's Note 2: Hi! Sorry for the late update (not that anyone was waiting, but still). I finally added on to this chapter like I promised I would--enjoy! (This is more of a filler chapter, but gives you an idea of the dynamics between the characters. But I'll warn you--don't assume anything.)

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"Michaela told me she saw you with Ryan at the mall yesterday," Sammy said with an overly dramatic wink. "Are you finally opening up?"

It was early in the morning. Early enough that I was trying to remember what my Dad's security guard had said about killing a person in one move.

"Who's Ryan again?" Allison asked.

And it was too early for me to quickly inform them that my lack of interest in Ryan had not and, unless I got amnesia, would not change.

"Just another ugly white boy," Rita said with a sneer.

"Ugly?" Michaela exclaimed. "He is so--"

"Annoying. Unattractive. Full of himself," I finished. While it felt like I was removing my intestines with a meat grinder to do so, I agreed with Rita. But I'd never refer to anyone as a white boy--or at least not in Rita's way.

"He could be annoying," Sammy acquiesced. "But unattractive? No. Who would blame him for being full of himself?"

Yeah. There were always rich, gorgeous high school girls to inflate his ego like a birthday balloon for a five year old.

"I still don't know who we're talking about," Allison exclaimed, sounding like a child who didn't receive the right kind of Barbie doll.

Rita gave her the one day I'll just smother you look. Then, turning to me, she said, "Lauren thinks she's too good for everyone, and--"

"Not today, Rita," I cut her off. There wasn't any good day for her bull. My only wish was that someone else would be brave enough to put her in her place.

"Anyways," Sammy said. "I got Zach to reply to my text."

"What did he say?" Michaela wondered.

Sammy's face shrunk like a raisin. "He said, 'okay.'"

"Dump him," was my immediate suggestion. 

And here came the Oscar-winning expression. The slightly watery eyes--with just enough tears that the sadness is there, but not enough to ruin their makeup. The tremulous lips that happened to be painted in a nude shade of pink. The eyebrows creased at an almost calculated angle. Paired with a slight stammer, Sammy said, "But he's the one."

I nearly slapped her for her own good, but I checked myself.

"Right, Lauren, she loves him," Michaela said, putting a protective arm around her.

Allison nodded in sympathetic agreement, the confusion flashing in her eyes. Rita gave me a pitying stare, not providing a sarcastic comment when it could've actually helped a friend who lowered her standards to the ground.

"I guess everyone had their dose of Nicholas Sparks last night," I said. Actually, not even. The men in Nicholas Sparks' novels probably sent paragraphs back to one-word texts.

"You don't need Nicholas Sparks to see true love," Rita said scathingly, and on that note I decided I needed to tune out the conversation or else I might get sick.