In Lies She Trusts

4

"No more games," I said to Ryan as I sat down in my seat in Psychology class.

"I never played any games, Jackson," he said.

"Really," I said, mildly sarcastic. "Because at the mall, you clearly implied we were playing a game of Go Figure where I'd always lose, no matter how hard I tried." I wasn't even sure what the game Go Figure was, so I hoped Ryan didn't know either.

Ryan flashed me one of his sickening smiles. "It's funny how I really don't remember doing that," he said.

"It's funny how one of us may have suffered brain damage--and it wasn't me," I said, proud of how disinterested I sounded.

"Okay," Ryan said slowly. "Well. Meet me by the gray doors after school today."

"What?"

"Meet me after--"

"Ryan, do you have anything to share with the class?" our teacher cut in, adjusting her glasses to properly glare at him.

"Yeah, the answer to--what number are we on?" Ryan said, shifting back to his role that I almost forgot he played. The class laughed, some girls and couple guys leaning precariously in their seats to get a better look at him.

Smart enough to be evasive. Smart enough to seamlessly be two different personalities to serve his own purpose--whatever that purpose was.

Ryan was a sparkly diamond, all right, but he didn't have the brain of one.

And that made me wonder--how many other people were actors, like me?

-

Meet me by the gray doors after school today.

I had been chasing the idea in my mind all the day. This meeting could answer all my questions, I guess. I'd finally find out why a sparkly diamond would ever accost me about anything.

Yeah, I'll admit it--I wanted to go pretty badly.

But what one wants to do and what they should actually do are two very starkly different things, and I always liked to make sure I knew the distinction.

However, after school that day, I seemed to quickly forget as I found myself without even quite thinking about it walking towards the gray doors.

"Oooh, you and Loomis," I heard Sammy squeal as I got closer to him.

I decided I hated the human race.

"I knew you'd show up," Ryan said when I was in close enough proximity to him. He leaned lazily on the handle of the door, his posture so aggressively poor I wondered if there was something wrong with his back. I wasn't sure what annoyed me more: that he had arrived before me, or that after a couple of days of talking to me, he thought he knew me.

I was annoyed enough to turn around and walk away.

But my curiosity kept me standing there, winning once again against my pride. "Yes. Why am I here?"

"That," Ryan said slowly, as if attempting to gather his thoughts for the final question on an oral test, "is a great question."

I nearly whipped out an Arrow Petroleum pen and skewered his icy blue eyes. But I restrained myself.

"If it wasn't a great question, Loomis," I said, "I wouldn't be asking it."

He looked at me directly in the eye, meaning he was done playing his role of sparkly diamond for the day. Then glancing around to check if anyone was listening, he said, "These are matters too pressing to be discussed in school."
I scowled. "Then why was I told to meet you in school?" This was the last time I would play his cat and mouse game, I thought. I would never speak to him again--maybe I'd even get my seat changed in Pysch.