Lying Liars Who Don't Tell The Truth

Chapter Eight

One of the side-effects of being driven to school thirty minutes early every morning by a neurotic, anxiety-ridden over-achiever such as Tom was that Naja, Ansel and I had about twenty minutes of loitering to do in the library as the rest of Haven High trickled in.

My first weekend in captivity had passed relatively quickly, with Naja and Ansel both too guilt-ridden to leave the house without me for more than a brief errand. Being cooped up for an entire weekend also had the bizarre effect of making me excited for school to resume again on Monday.

The over-prepared nature of both Naja and Ansel meant that I mostly sat alone with my thoughts while they squeezed in additional studying for whatever test they were irrationally nervous about that day. Sometimes they nagged me to finish whatever homework I had neglected the night before, but more recently they had been softer on me. Naja even offered to finish my work herself a few times, flashing me her big, sympathetic eyes and excusing my lack of effort toward school as stemming from "having so much on my plate."

Which, though it was a nice sentiment, was not really true. My brain had been particularly strained for the past week, but aside from moping around the Abara house, I had become rather docile. Not even the tepid stories of Rory and her devoted followers interested me anymore — their novelty had worn off and now everything they complained about just seemed petty and uninteresting to me. I had managed to keep my coveted position of "friend" to Rory throughout the week, despite turning down her various invitations to visit her house or study after school. Even if I wasn't physically spelled inside the Abara home from the hours of 3 p.m. to 6:30 a.m., I wasn't sure I'd be too inclined to accept her invitations.

Mark I did still like, and he appeared to still hold an interest in me. A part of me expected him to move on after receiving almost immediately the one thing that undoubtedly sparked his interest in me in the first place, but he continued to make an effort to speak to me and had even asked me out on a proper date Thursday night. Turning him down on the grounds of needing to babysit the Abara's mentally-incapacitated cousin Squid was a little harder. Even after my bizarre disappearing act last Friday in the woods, even after we had sex, he was still hanging around. Maybe it was just a low bar, but I found that all quite charming.

Naja hadn't been so lucky with her male friend. She seemed resigned to talking about Taylor at all after Friday night, and, through Rory, I learned that she had disappeared shortly before the two of them were supposed to make their own way into the woods which displeased Taylor greatly. Though Naja never admitted it, I presumed that he turned rather cold on her after Friday, thinking she had the nerve to turn him down. This, of course, meant that Taylor was forever dead to me. He was mighty lucky that we shared no classes together or else I'm not sure how much restraint I could have held over myself to keep me from hexing him during lectures.

Ansel, who was even less forthcoming about the status of his blossoming relationship with Finnigan, had been subjected many times since Friday to Naja and I's prying about whether or not he was going to continue to see Finnigan. Every time we asked, Ansel bowed his head and struggled for words, telling us there were far more important topics of discussion than his romantic life.

It had been a few days since I had last thought of Ansel and Finnigan, with last week's Lucifus and Ignius events occupying the little space in my head not already taken up by Amar, Zorion and Elrik, when our Friday morning library contemplation was interrupted by my sighting of Finnigan entering the library.

I nudged Ansel's arm, nodding to where Finnigan had just walked in. "You should go talk to him," I said, as Naja backed me up with an encouraging smile.

Ansel's face went a little pink as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair and mumbled, "Now's not really a good time."

Naja and I exchanged a perplexed glance before Naja added gently, "You know he likes you. What could be the harm?"