Lie to Me (A Touched Trilogy) (31 page)

“Oh, really?” I leaned away from him and crossed my arms
over my chest.

“Just a bit. Then again, maybe I’m wrong. Let me test you
out again.” He moved in quick, pressed his lips to mine, and I forgot about
trying to prove myself, or about pretending offense. Instead, I let myself
drown in the taste of him. He’d been in my dad’s thin mint chocolates.

“You know,” I said as we parted for air, “you really need to
stay out of my dad’s candy. He doesn’t need another reason to want to kill
you.”

 “Hmm, so I have to either give up the chocolates or kissing
you? Wow, that’s a hard one.”

I punched his arm lightly. “I suggest you make a quick
choice, before I decide you don’t get either.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll lay off his candy.” He gave me a quick
peck on the cheek and then turned back to the movie.

I glanced at him, watching the way his eyes made tiny
movements as they took in the action on the screen. He tugged me closer and I
relaxed into his arms with a smile, thinking of how close I’d come to losing
him for good. If Tonya hadn’t called, if she hadn’t gone to Trevor’s, there was
a chance that I would have shoved my foot, okay feet, back in my mouth after
seeing Nathan and Vivian together at the theater. I felt a nudge of guilt as
Tonya came back to my mind, but it was done and I knew there was nothing I
could do to change her situation.

“You know I’m sorry, right?”

He looked at me, an eyebrow cocked in surprise. “Excuse me?
Did I just hear you say sorry?”

“Ha ha. This is serious. I’m sorry I blamed you.”

“What brought this on?”

“I just...” The words froze in my throat. Admitting I was
terrified of how close I’d been to losing him would leave me open to that
horrible vacuum of emptiness I’d been in without him.

My silence brought a smirk to his face.

“I know,” he said, “you couldn’t stand to be without this
hotness again.” He flexed his biceps and then squeezed me close while we
laughed.

When my giggles finally settled, I cupped his face in my
hands and kissed him, trying to put everything I felt into it. I wanted him to
feel everything I wasn’t ready to voice yet.

We stayed pressed to each other, taking in the other’s
breaths until the sound of the door at the top of the stairs opening drew us
apart. Nathan’s wandering hands came back to mine, and I slid my fingers
through his.

“I’m sorry, too.”

“What for?” I asked.

“You were right that I didn’t believe you. Well, I did, but
I didn’t. When it was stuff that wasn’t in my face, I didn’t have to believe
it. Then when I finally saw Trevor in action, I realized that you’d been right.
I hung out with the guy, and he seemed so cool.”

“He was. I just wish I’d trusted my gift enough to not have
been sucked in to that side of him.”

“We all were.” He pressed his lips to my forehead, and I let
my eyes drift closed, relaxing into the feel of his arms.

I woke an hour later, when Nathan shifted under me. I looked
up at him and he had a decidedly guilty look on his face, and was staring over
my head. I twisted around and found my dad gazing at us with an eyebrow raised.
I shot to my feet, heat flooding my checks. I rarely blushed for anyone but
Nathan, but having Dad catch me sleeping on top of my boyfriend was definitely
a blush worthy moment.

“Hey, Dad. I...we-”

“Nathan, I think it’s time for you to be heading home. It’s
a school night, and it’s getting late.”

Nathan stood and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck.
“Yes, sir.”

I grabbed Nathan’s hand and dragged him toward the stairs.
Once Dad was no longer visible, I gave a giggle, which got me a dirty look from
Nathan.

“Phoebs, it’s not funny! You’re dad is going to kill me.”

I gave a full blown laugh this time. We stepped onto the
porch and I turned to wrap my arms around him. “He won’t kill you. Now if we’d
been naked...”

“Hmm... I think I might be willing to take that risk.” He
wriggled his eyebrows and leaned down to kiss me. I met him halfway and pressed
closer to him.

“That’s good,” I whispered when we pulled apart, “because
Chloe said...”

“She said what?” No missing the hope in his voice.

“She said...” I paused and gave him a sweet smile. “She
said, we’ll be waiting a long time.”

He groaned while I snickered at his frustration. I finally
ended his wordless complaint with my lips. After a brief kiss, he moved back.

“I suppose I’ll just have to get by on my dreams of you and
your hot pink panties,” he said and dodged my hand when I tried to playfully
pinch him. “I’ll see you in my dreams.”

He took off for his car, and threw me a wave when he climbed
in. I waited for him to drive away before I went back inside, making it to the
top of the basement stairs before my dad’s voice stopped me.

“Phoebe, I’d like to have a talk with you.”

I turned back and went into the living room where Dad sat in
his recliner.

“Sit down,” he said.

I barely held in my groan. This was not going to be a
conversation I liked.

“Nathan is a good kid, and I know you like him a lot, but
you’ve only been dating a short time.”

Oh, dear God. He was going to give me ‘The Talk’. This was
going to be worse than I’d ever imagined.

Chapter 16

I swiveled my desk chair around, letting my eyes blur for a
moment, the English essay I’d been writing forgotten on my computer screen.

School without Tonya was weird. She’d begged her gran to let
her stay home until all of the bruising was gone, but news about what had
happened had spread pretty quickly. It died just as swiftly, mainly since no
one had really known Trevor, and Tonya wasn’t the most popular girl in school.
Only our group of friends and my sisters knew what really happened.

With Tonya gone and Nathan and I back together, I’d almost
expected Vivian to attack, but she hadn’t. For the first few days, I’d been on
edge, waiting for her to strike. But nothing. I was really hoping she’d finally
given up on the idea of Nathan dumping me and going back to her. I think Tonya
was holding out hope that Vivian would bring back a little of the drama,
although she didn’t mention fighting again.

I’d gone with her to a couple of support groups in the two
weeks since she’d asked me to go with her, and I was glad I’d stuck to my word
about going. It was really hard to listen to the things the people there
described. I’d sat silent, simply listening and thinking about how difficult it
must be to tell another person the things they were sharing, yet they did.
Tonya hadn’t spoken at any of the meetings other than to introduce herself, and
I was almost relieved. I didn’t really want to know everything Trevor had done,
and I think me being there was one of the reasons she didn’t talk. Dad said she
might be embarrassed about me knowing and that sometimes it’s easier to share
those things with people who know nothing else about you.

She mentioned she’d been to another meeting on her own, and
I was glad, because as much as I wanted to support her, she had to take the
steps by herself. All she needed to know was that I’d be there to catch her if
she needed. And I would be.

Going with her had helped me understand the cycle she’d
fallen into, how she could have stayed with Trevor, and then gone back to him,
even after what he’d done. And it made me appreciate Nathan’s imperfections all
the more. He was late, a lot, and he didn’t call that often, and there was his
obsession with chocolate, but he respected me and I thought he might actually
love me.

So many times those three little words had hovered on the
tip of my tongue, usually after he kissed me. But I always kept them in. I
wasn’t really the touchy-feely kind of person, but Nathan always managed to
make me go all gooey inside, almost to the point that I wanted to say them.

The very idea of love had me squirming with nerves. I sprung
from my chair, paced the room a few times, and then headed down to Lily’s room.
I pushed her door open and flopped, stomach down, onto her bed.

“Hey?” she said, staring at me from her computer desk,
clearly confused by my abrupt presence.

“Hey.” I grabbed a magazine from her nightstand and began
turning pages. It was some boring thing on art news. How did they even make a
magazine about art news? At least it had some pretty pictures.

“Did you need something?” she asked.

I tossed aside the magazine and grabbed another from the
overly organized magazine basket on the bottom of her nightstand. “No. Just
thought I’d spend some quality time with my favorite sister.”

“Um, okay.” She turned back around and resumed her typing.
She must have been working on her English paper. Even though I had English at a
different time than her and Chloe, we all had Ms. Garcia, so we had pretty much
the exact same assignments. Although, Lily usually didn’t leave things to the
last minute and with the paper due in the morning, she was probably doing some
extra credit work.

I glanced at the rapidly flipping pages before me. This one
was slightly better with hot guys every few pages. My eye caught the word love,
and I stopped. A love quiz. It was so stupid. Love. How do you put everything
you feel for a person into one little four letter word?

It wasn’t a word I’d really thought of before Nathan. At
least not in connection with me. I read the questions on the page. Favorite
color? What are his dreams? Does he open the door for you? Is that really how I
was supposed to define my feelings for Nathan? Did I even have to? He hadn’t
said he loved me. Shouldn’t he go first? If I said it first, would he just do a
pity return? Then again, what did it matter who said what first? Or even if we
said it at all? It’s not like I was Lily. She was one of those emotions people,
always wanting peace and love and understanding.

“Nathan asked me to junior prom,” I said. “I’m going to try
and get Tonya to go shopping with me. She always finds the best stuff. It’s
totally unfair.”

I looked up at her nodding head. She’d stopped typing and
was gazing at a picture, which from my viewpoint looked to be of her and Dylan.
I wish I could figure out what she saw in him.

“I think we’ll try and go into the city. The stuff they have
in town is horrible. I saw Vivian trying on some of them, and she completely
skank-tified them.” I turned a few more pages, leaving the stupid love quiz
behind. “We’re probably going to go next weekend. I think it’s still too early
to buy something. I mean, junior prom is over a month away, but Tonya is
refusing to do last minute shopping with me. Hey, why don’t you come with us?”

At her lack of response, I sat up and scooted over to the
edge of the bed. I waved my hand in front of the photo. “Yo, Lily? You still
with me?”

“Are you and Nathan in love?” she asked, still staring at the
picture.

Sometimes it was scary how the twin, or I guess the triplet,
thing worked. Then again, maybe she’d been reading my emotions or something and
decided to make me think about it all over again.

“Yeah, I mean, I guess we are. We’ve never said it, but it’s
there, you know?” I gave her one of my half smiles. I wondered if my answer
seemed as lame as it sounded. Maybe I was some kind of freak for not having
told him yet. “Do you think that’s strange? Should I tell him?”

“No, not unless you really want to.” She glanced at me and
tried to smile back. I rolled back onto my stomach, scrunching one of her
pillows under my chest, while mussing up the comforter with my legs. I could
practically see her calculating how many seconds it would take her to fix the
bed once I left.

I considered what she’d said. It wasn’t that I didn’t want
to tell him that I loved him, it was just that it didn’t seem that important to
say the words. But maybe it was. Maybe he was waiting for me to say them first.
But how?

“How did you tell Dylan?” I asked.

She looked back at the photo, probably reliving the glorious
moment. She would have made it sweet and all roses and puppy dog tails. As she
took her time answering, I decided right then that I would tell Nathan when I
really wanted to. Anything Lily had done would just be too... well, too not me.
I would tell him. Soon.

I glanced at Lily. She still hadn’t answered my question and
she had a freaky look on her face, like she was about to tear herself apart.
She’d been acting so strange lately.

“Lils? Come on, how did you tell him?”

She put down the picture.

“I didn’t.”

“What?” I nearly fell over in shock. She’d been dating Dylan
forever. How could she never have said I love you? I’d only been with Nathan a
few months and I was pretty sure I loved him. No, I knew I did. So how messed
up was Lily?

###

The Touched Trilogy continues.

Keep reading for a sneak peek at

Heal Me

Chapter 1

Is it wrong to not love the person you’re with? I don’t know
if that’s worse than not being with them.

I stared at the photo of Dylan and me, taken almost a year
ago. We’d gone to Sea World with a group of his friends and someone had snapped
the picture. We looked happy. In love. Everyone always assumed we’d be together
forever. High school sweethearts. I had believed it. I had clung to it until it
felt like it was going to swallow me whole. I’d thought that would be a good
thing. I thought that was what love was supposed to do.

But things changed after that day. Dylan changed. I couldn’t
pinpoint the exact moment or event, it was just a slow building of anger and
pain within him. Not the physical pain that caused my stomach to clench in
dread, but the emotional kind that burned my hands until I was desperate to
relieve it. He even looked different now. Oh, the wavy hair was just a bit
longer and he was still reed thin, but his face was now drawn tight, a constant
signal to me that he was hurting. As if the heat in my hands wasn’t enough. It
would have been easy to fix it if I had known the cause, but in all of the
times I’d healed Dylan, I'd never been able to figure out the source.