Burning Little Lies by Christine H. Bailey

Author:Christine H. Bailey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kinkajou Press
Published: 2023-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28

Monday at school was a blur. I walked the halls like a zombie, completely brain-dead after spending the rest of the weekend thinking about those recordings of me and everything Nick had done to violate my privacy. All I wanted was to go home and sleep, especially after realizing what the date was: April 24. Tomorrow would make three months since Ellie had died. But for now, I had to pull it together. I had an after-school ACT prep class that I couldn’t miss.

On my way down the hall, Piper caught up with me.

“Want to grab a coffee?” she asked.

“Can’t. Have that ACT thing.”

“Oh right,” Piper said. “Ditch it and come hang out with me instead.”

“Can’t.” I kept walking, too tired to engage.

“Hey,” Piper said, grabbing my sleeve and pulling me back. “Everything okay?”

“Just tired,” I said, glancing down the hall at Coach Lyles. He was standing outside his classroom door, ushering people inside. He flinched a little as he spotted me. But then he nodded, offering me a small, guarded smile. So much had happened. The wreck. Nick dying. Miss Taylor getting fired. Did he know what happened to her? Why she’d gotten the boot? “Got to go,” I told Piper.

“Call me later?”

I waved a hand in the air and hurried down the hall. “Where do I sit?” I asked Coach.

“Anywhere, Miss Henson.”

I started for the last open seat in the front row just as Kylie Marshall swept past me and grabbed it. Great. I zeroed in on an empty seat in the very back, two rows behind Hayes and Sydney, Rachel’s tall, model-thin best friend. She sneered at me as I walked down the aisle between them. Hayes looked up, meeting my eyes. In that moment, I wanted to scream at him right then and there: “Do you know what your brother was doing? Do you? Do you know that he was recording my sessions with your mom? And that he was sending me creepy letters? Do you?”

“Just take a seat, Tori,” Coach said.

I didn’t even realize that I’d paused. My face flushed with heat as Hayes looked at me. I nearly tripped over someone’s backpack on my way to my seat. Pull it together before you fall flat on your face and make a complete idiot of yourself.

Coach shut the door and sat down at his desk at the front. “Alright, y’all. We’ve got an hour. No talking. No getting up and moving around. No bathroom breaks.”

I raised my hand.

“Yes, Tori?”

“Are we starting with practice drills?” It was my third time taking the class and he always started with online practice exams. Hayes and a few others, including Connor, looked over their shoulders at me. I hadn’t noticed Connor earlier when I’d first walked into the room.

“Yes, Tori,” Coach said.

Connor nodded.

I’d been surprised to see him at Blue’s with Sydney. Then again, I really wasn’t that surprised.

“Connor and I are casual,” Ellie had told me once. “Not everyone sees the world like you, Tori.”

“Which means what, exactly?”

“Sometimes you just have to be free, unfettered.

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