White Lies (Book 1)

White Lies

Chapter 1

My name is Jesabel Griffin. And I'm a professional liar.

First of all – did you believe that second line? I really hope not. Because I'm not being entirely truthful. Maybe I'm not a professional per se, since I'm merely a teenage girl who doesn't actually do this sort of thing for a living. Regardless, I'd like to think that I'm great liar.

And by great, I mean really great. But please, do spare me the lecture which always inevitably follows such a bold assertion. I know that lying is bad, and that it's frowned upon – so on and so forth. But we all do it.

Everyone is a liar. And if you don't believe so – if you don't believe you're a liar – then you might just be the biggest liar of them all.

I'm still undecided as to whether or not my startling ability to lie is a blessing or a curse. Sure, it means I can talk myself in and out of situations and hardly break a sweat. But it also means that people don't trust me.

I don't have very many friends, you see.

And I'm okay with that – I've always been. Until now. Not when there's a murderer on the prowl. And not when everybody suspects that the murderer is me.

In case you were wondering, I am not a murder. I'm simply a liar, and the two are in no way correlated.

But in these dire times, I can't help but be understanding of their mounting sense of panic. Their desperate need to point their fingers and lay blame on someone else's shoulders. Outcasts always get the brunt of it, in the end. I imagine that I'm no different – and therefore I don't blame them.

Because part of me even blames myself.

Jennifer Hockley and Robert Blight were the 'it' couple. They were rich, powerful, and visually stunning. They found no shortage of admiration among their peers, and turned plenty of heads as they sauntered through the crowded hallways with hands which seemed soldered together. Jenny was the captain of the cheer team – or the bitch brigade as I happily called it. She could have had any guy in the school. Instead, she chose nerdy little Robbie.

Bam! The school's fairytale of the century. The cute little rich girl falling in love with the anime-shirt-wearing, trombone-playing video game connoisseur. And god did they make an adorable couple.

How could two completely opposing individuals be so perfectly matched? Such an unexpected transformation, which had begun with a mutual cold regard for one another's existence, and had developed into deep infatuation. How gloriously complete their fairytale story seemed! How superficially perfect! Jenny had turned Robbie from a nerd to some sort of well-feared rock star. The evolution seemed almost like a colossal cosmic joke.

I used to talk to Robbie every now and then, before the rock star transformation. He had been a nice enough guy. A very cute guy, with dark hair and olive green eyes. He wore thick rimmed glasses, which had been conveniently replaced by contact lenses in the aftermath of the colossal mistake. All the better to see Jenny's perfect face with.

That has been the only way I can ever envision their relationship as being: as some sort of freak accident. A terrible glitch in the high school matrix. Robbie had possessed a great sense of humor, too. Always quick with the rapport, perpetually leaving me scrambling for my next witty reply. It wasn't surprising at all that his popularity had skyrocketed in such a short amount of time.

You see, I was the last person to have seen the couple before they died. At least, that's what the police officers had always loved to remind me.

I had been at the back of the town's only pharmacy. It had grown late in the evening, and I was standing at the register paying for my mother's medicine. She has a critical autoimmune condition. Every possible treatment that existed out there had only served to make her symptoms worse. Our family doctor thinks she only has months to live.

Okay, that was a lie. My mother was perfectly fine and symptom-free, and I had ducked down to the pharmacy in order to buy some tampons. Sue me.

I had decided to take the little-known shortcut around the back of the store, hoping it would get me home before the night grew too dark, when a harsh voice spoke through the thick trees and startled me out of my thoughts. I quickly ducked down to listen.

"How can you read so much into that? I was only talking to him. You're acting like I was giving him a blow job." The sharp, female voice crackled with such intense scorn, making the hair on the nape of my neck prickle to attention. I had recognized the voice instantly. It was the same voice which had always muttered snide comments whenever I walked past it towards my classes.

Jennifer Hockley.

Behind the town's industrial hub on a Friday night? What was she doing here?

"There's a big difference between talking and flirting, Jenny. I don't even need to explain that to you. That was not talking. You were trying to hurt me, and it's embarrassing," a second, deeper voice responded. My eyebrows had immediately lifted in surprise.

Robbie and Jenny had never fought before. Ever. They were the couple who walked hand in hand into every single room – those hands were practically welded together with that industrial-grade shit. Surely it would take an angle grinder to pull their rotting corpses apart, outlived by multiple grandchildren and long after they were dead.

But perhaps they hadn't been as entwined as people had been led to believe.

"Oh, so you're embarrassed of me now?"

"Yes – you fucking humiliated me! In front of everyone! Why are you doing this to me?"

"This isn't even about the flirting. It's about your shitty ego! You can be such a dick, you know that? Don't forget that I made you!" Jenny snapped back. I craned my neck high enough to be able to see the back of Jenny's curly, platinum head.

Robbie had been leaning over her, anger and jealousy clearly set in the lines of his face. His cheeks had been a gleaming, shiny red. Adorable.

Wow. Trouble in paradise, indeed.

Before he could find his response, Jenny had already furiously stomped away from him and crossed the street, her heels clicking behind her.

"Jenny? Jenny! Hey, wait a second, I'm still talking to you..." his voice had grown farther away as he chased after his girlfriend.

They both had disappeared into the thick bushes surrounding the pedestrian crossing, towards a small clearing with a child's playground. I had lingered behind for only a couple of seconds, before getting up, shaking myself off and quickly hurrying towards the path which would lead me to my street.

Clutching my plastic packet of goods to my chest, I had willed my thundering heart to slow...

Okay, I lied again. That hadn't been the complete truth of what it was I'd seen. But nobody knows that – except you.

***

Hi y'all! 

Whether you're a first time reader or a billionth time reader, I'm pleased to announce that I've been blossoming a brand new story on Wattpad. 

So if you like my writing and my particular prose, I think you'll enjoy 'Into the Velvet' - a teen fiction in which a girl is desperate to become an adult. Almost too desperate. The first few chapters are up now! Have a look for yourself - it's totally free. 

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- Lily