One Little Lie by Barbetti Whitney

Author:Barbetti, Whitney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Whitney Barbetti
Published: 2019-06-24T16:00:00+00:00

21

Hollis

My dad’s text came through right as I pulled into the driveway of Adam’s place.

I assume we’ll be meeting your boyfriend tomorrow. We will also discuss your LSAT, since you’ve failed to respond to my emails. I assume that you’re ignoring them, not that your phone has gone missing. Which is why I’m texting. See you tomorrow.

Texting was beneath my father. He’d never said it verbatim, but the disdain was there every time he saw me texting my friends. “Don’t you get sick of being glued to your phone?” he often asked me.

Realizing I was going to see my parents tomorrow, with Adam in tow, exacerbated the nerves I felt after this week of school. My phone was blowing up already, with repeated texts from classmates.

I tucked my phone away, not wanting to answer my classmates or my father. What would I say to him? Actually, I am not interested in law school and Adam is not really my boyfriend but someone who took pity on me.

Before I made it to the front door, Casey swung it open. “You’re here!” she said, as if she was surprised I had actually shown up.

“Hey,” I said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and following her into the house. “What kind of homework are we looking at today?”

“Ugh,” she said. “Social Studies.”

“That’s my favorite,” I said, smiling as she led me to the couch.

“Then I guess I’m lucky.”

A noise drew my attention to the television where none other than Beauty and the Beast played. “Oh,” I said, feeling instant nostalgia. “The cartoon version.”

“It’s the best,” Casey said.

“I agree. My favorite movie.” I fingered the little rose at my throat as I watched the scene where Gaston plopped his feet onto the table for Belle to rub.

“Hollis,” Adam said from across the room. Why did he never say hi? A simple hi. I lifted my head, eyes connecting with his. He looked … different. It’d only been one day since I had seen him, but his eyes were darker, haunted. And the smile he gave me was purely for Casey’s benefit because it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Hey, Adam.” I settled onto the couch while Casey opened her backpack.

“Hollis’s favorite Disney movie is Beauty and the Beast,” Casey said, motioning to the television. “Adam got me this DVD when I was still in diapers. I’ve watched it at least once a week ever since.”

“I can quote the whole thing thanks to that,” Adam said. Was that why he’d written an essay about it in our Fairytales class in high school?

“We’re learning about the Native Americans, before the explorers came over to North America,” Casey said, pulling my attention back to the book in her hand. She handed me a pretest and I noticed the way she held her thumb over the failing score on her pretest.

“This is just a pretest score, to see what we know before we learn,” she quickly said.

“Of course,” I reassured her. “How would you know these things if you hadn’t studied them previously?”

“Well, Arcadian, in my class, knew all the answers.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.