We Were Liars | ONC 2020 ✔

Hot As Hell

TWO DAYS BEFORE

Avery Lang was a dangerous person to have as an enemy. That, I could admit.

She was Rockwell's undeniable head, the queen bee, the centre of the social solar system. She was also the leader of the most elite clique in Rockwell: the Liars. I'd never expressed any desire to join them, but I didn't want to get on their bad side either. Bad things happened when one got in trouble with the Liars, especially their ruler.

I mostly tried to stay away from them, even though many of the people close to my level of intellect resided in that group. They were all bad news, especially Avery Lang. I'd known that since eighth grade, when Miles Morellis called her a slut. A week later, photos of his crossdressing were plastered all over the school along with terrible messages written on the bathroom walls. Miles had tolerated the bullying that came after for perhaps two months before he finally hung himself in his family's five-storey mansion. It had never been discussed, and the Liars had received no repercussions, but it was obvious how the photos had circulated. There had been other stories, but I never bothered listening to them. Gossip was for the fools.

Now, judging by the look on Avery Lang's face, I was about to become a story for all those jerks to spread around.

At her side, Brittany Yee looked as if she was completely freaking out, her mouth gaping open in the most ridiculous way like she was about to scream but had forgotten how to. But Avery's face was a mask of deadly calm. It only made her intimidating beauty more terrifying than it already was. She looked like a cold, stone-carved warrior---or an ice-lit cadaver. The only hint to any emotion was the scowl that lingered upon her heart-shaped lips and the spots of crimson that had appeared upon her otherwise colourless cheeks.

In that moment, I knew I'd just jumped from the frying pan into the fire.

And the fire was hot as hell.

Not knowing what else to do, I straightened my bowtie with a careful cough, slowly starting to back out of the classroom. "I'll just...go now. Didn't mean to interrupt," I said, hoping they were in a good enough mood to let me leave without further discussion.

Then all hell broke loose.

Brittany instantly broke down, clawing at her best friend's---secret girlfriend?---perfectly-pressed blouse. "What if he tells someone? What if Josh finds out?" she wailed. From what I remembered, Josh was her boyfriend and another Liar: a tall, blonde, steroid-hyped jock with more than two brain cells in his head, surprisingly. From what I also remembered, Brittany Yee never cried, but then again, I supposed she'd never been caught in the scandalous act of kissing her best friend before. She was a pretty crier, though, no running makeup or snotty nose.

Avery did no such thing. She shot her hand out, grabbing me by the back of my bowtie and yanking me so close I could smell the citrus-scented perfume that some boys bragged about having seen in her bedroom. I could feel the anger and hatred radiating off her in waves, her onyx eyes gleaming like hot coals despite her impassive expression.

I hated to admit it, but she was no fool.

"What did you see?" she hissed, her voice low and dangerous. She tugged at my bowtie harder, making me choke and snatch at my throat. She was going to pull both my throat and my bowtie out of shape! "What did you see?"

"Uh, ah..." I wasn't very good at lying. I'd spent too many years telling the truth to lie properly. Although I believed lying was for heathens, beasts, and murderers-in-training, I would have given up half my knowledge to lie properly there and then. I could afford to give up half my knowledge; that would make me just a regular genius rather than a terribly precocious one. I was alright with simply being a regular genius. There would be no point in having so much brain if I was going to die at seventeen, anyway. "Um..." I despised stuttering---it was for the weak and the inept, bumbling fools I knew. Yet, paralysed by fear, I joined the ranks of the weak, inept, bumbling fools.