Lies That Bind by CJ Stone

Author:CJ Stone [Stone, CJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloodhound Books
Published: 2022-10-06T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

I’d already made plans to meet up with my friends the next night before Frankie had arrived home battered and bruised. As the evening rolled around I thought about cancelling, or at least postponing, but Frankie insisted I should go. He’d been fine through the day. He had a swollen lip – the cut had crusted over – but that was the only visible damage. Other than that he seemed a little quiet, embarrassed, I thought.

I remained in two minds, but felt I did need the break, and a change in company.

I’d found out nothing more about the incident the night before, nor of the girl whose house he’d been to, though he had confirmed her name was Meg and he liked her and he’d been seeing her a few weeks. Even telling me that seemed an effort for him. Why the big secret? I was pleased for him, even if the revelation didn’t explain how he’d been beaten up, and even if it did only go to show how little I knew of his private life.

I put thoughts of my brother aside.

I’d seen Ed before Christmas, with that awkward walk to the park, but I hadn’t seen my other home town friends since before my life had turned upside down. I looked forward to the reunion with Jamie, Kristen and Hannah, even if I knew that the group dynamic held plenty of tension, going back quite a few years. In many ways I thought it odd – unlikely, really – that we stuck together still as one group, though I knew the reason why. Hannah. My best friend for many years, Hannah was lively, bubbly, friendly, a bit of a party animal. She was just lovely; everyone liked her, and she held us all together, although perhaps only in the same way that paper covers a crack-filled wall.

Or perhaps they all remained super close to each other, and only I was the outlier.

Plaza, the bar in town where we were meeting, a trendy little new place, lots of fancy cocktails on offer, a chic, woody interior, had opened after I’d started uni. I’d been a couple of times before but it held no real sway over me, not like the other pubs and bars that had been the backbone of my late-night revelry in the time before I’d left home. For my friends though, Plaza was a favoured choice – just one example of how our lives had diverged.

When I walked in I realised I was the last to arrive. Hannah spotted me first and jumped up from the bench and ran over to me and threw her arms around me. We both giggled as she swung me around.

‘You look…’ she stepped back to take me in, ‘…gorgeous. As ever. Love the hair.’

‘Thanks,’ I said, brushing the loose strands away from my face. I hadn’t really made much effort, but I appreciated the compliment nonetheless. ‘You too.’

She’d put on weight and it definitely suited her. In the past

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