The Truth Beneath the Lies by Amanda Searcy

Author:Amanda Searcy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2017-12-12T05:00:00+00:00

The girl at the mall wouldn’t do it. She crossed her arms and told Paige absolutely not. She was barely older than us, and yet her face was covered with almost as many piercings as skin. No way did she get all of those after she turned eighteen.

Carol Alexander and Paige had a disagreement about what Paige could get for her seventeenth birthday. Paige wanted her nose pierced. Carol gave her a coffee-colored cashmere sweater.

Since Thanksgiving, Paige and I have been trying. We see each other at school, and we’ve hung out a couple of times, but there is an awkward tension surrounding us like a dark mist.

Plus, I found the cashmere sweater in my locker with the tags still attached.

The place we’re in now is Seedy with a capital S. Sierra’s sister knows a guy who will pierce anything. No ID. No questions.

I stand over a glass case and peer at a thousand pieces of metal that can be poked through numerous body parts. Paige grabs my hand. “This is so exciting!” she squeals.

I lift my head and catch sight of myself in the small, smudged mirror on the counter. My skin has a strange cast to it. My eyes are sunken, lips pale. I look gray, like someone who missed four days of school because of the “flu.” It’s going around, you know. But really, I couldn’t face the hallways full of people whose biggest concern is what to wear to the winter formal next month. Not after what I’ve seen.

Every time I close my eyes, there she is. On the ground, bleeding. Girl Number Three. She has a name. Shonda. I don’t like to think about that. It’s easier to call her Girl Number Three, like the robot reporters on the news.

When I open my eyes, I can still see her.

“What do you think of that one?” Paige points into the case. “A star? For Explorers?” She realizes her mistake and looks away. We don’t talk about my quitting the dance team.

“Which one?” I ask, and try to seem engaged.

“The third from the top.”

I follow her finger. It points at a tiny silver star on a metal post that curves at the end. Like an earring that has been stepped on and bent.

In the mirror, my skin turns green.

I smile and nod. The guy comes out. Paige puts her money—cash up-front—on the counter.

She screws up her face and cringes as the guy prepares to shove metal through it.

It’s a coincidence. Hundreds of girls have nose piercings, not just Shonda. Even straight-laced Paige is about to have one.

Jordan brought a girl with a nose piercing back to his house. She took it out and put it on the bedside table. It fell on the floor. A simple explanation. Pain hits me in the gut. Fear? Jealousy? I don’t have words to describe what I feel anymore.

—

Paige glances at herself in the rearview mirror for the hundredth time. A pinpoint of sparkle shines off her splotchy red nose. “Mom is going to freak,” she says, satisfied.

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