If I Lie by Corrine Jackson

Author:Corrine Jackson [Jackson, Corrine]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781442440012
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 2012-08-28T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Of all places to go, the laundry room seems the most ironic. For a girl who can’t get clean, the garbage room would seem to be more fitting, but that would take feeling sorry for myself to a new low.

I’m not sure how I’ll show my face upstairs in my hotel room. Or in public for the next few days.

Sitting on the floor of the guest Laundromat three floors below the one I’m assigned to, I bump my head against a washer and breathe air that smells like mildew and fabric softener. I hate that Jamie got to me with that crap about my mother. I didn’t cheat on Carey, but . . . I used Blake, didn’t I? What did that make me? Not innocent. Not guilty, exactly. Caught in a gray area, maybe.

The one thing I do know is that I can’t give myself away again like that. I can’t betray who was in the picture with me because Jamie’s barb hit a little close to home.

Eventually, when I grow sick of my thoughts, I drag myself up and into the elevator. When the doors open on my floor, I’m surprised to find Angel hanging around in the hall, leaning against the fancy burgundy wallpapered wall.

She sees me and rushes forward. “There you are! Where have you been?”

I don’t realize I’m angry at her until she reaches out to touch me.

“Hiding,” I say. “Licking my wounds.”

There’s an edge to my voice that makes her pull back a little. She tucks a strand of blond hair behind her ear. “You sound mad at me.”

I laugh without humor. “You think?”

She grabs my arm when I brush past her. “Wait a second! I didn’t do anything. Jamie—”

I swing around on her. “No, you’re right. You didn’t do anything. You never do anything.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“I thought we were friends, Ang. Did I imagine that? How could you let her do that to me?”

“No, you didn’t imagine it,” she says quietly. “But what do you expect me to do?”

“I expect you to be better.”

Her lips tighten. “Than who? Jamie? Or you? I didn’t do this to you, Q. I’m not the one who cheated on Carey.”

Neither did I. My mouth opens. Closes. Opens. I stare at the EXIT sign above her head so she can’t see the truth in my eyes.

“What?” she shouts. “What are you not saying?”

I can’t say what I’m thinking, so I tell her what I’m feeling. “I never would have let somebody treat you like that. No matter what. Your friendship meant too much to me.”

“I could say the same.”

She sounds so pissed at me, and I don’t get it. “What did I do to you, Ang?”

“You didn’t talk to me! If you were thinking of cheating, why didn’t you talk to me first? You knew how I felt about this. I told you how I felt. Maybe if we had talked, I could’ve helped you. Maybe . . .”

She blasts me until she runs out of breath.

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