Page 23 of Bitter Lies

Eyeing her with a glimmer of pity, I say, “Trust me, Griffin feels nothing for me. He never has.”

And after, as I walk home grimly and fight the ever-present panic pushing at my lungs, I wonder, is Griffin watching me when I’m in his presence?

Ha! More like waiting for me to fall so he can crush me.

∞∞∞

The next few days pass slowly, and Griffin largely ignores me to my relief because he seems to have put aside our project for now. On Saturday, I laze the morning away, sleeping because I know no one will be home to lecture me.

Griffin should be gearing up for his game today, and Max usually attends to cheer on his friend, which is why I sit up curiously when I hear his voice emerge through the front door.

Why isn’t he at the game? I know it’s on because I couldn’t keep myself from checking the schedule, even if I refuse to watch the damn thing.

I used to go to all his games, and back then he insisted I was his good-luck charm, always looking for me in the stands once they emerged on the field. The last time I went, I was miserable, and he never once glanced my way.

Sliding on a pair of shorts, I pull my ratty hair into a ponytail and wipe the sleep from my eyes, erasing any evidence of my pain, because instead of asking if I’m okay, Max will just get angry.

I don’t understand his extreme emotions recently because Max has always been relatively even-keeled. Is he really that angry about my issues? Did I really impede his life that much?

I’ll admit that his harsh treatment and lack of empathy hurt my feelings, but more than that, it leaves me unsettled because I feel like something is going on, and once again, I’m on the outside looking in.

After the voices pass my door, I open it cautiously and peek out, spying Max with a tall guy I’ve never seen before. With his back to me, all I can see are the baggy jeans, old T-shirt, and long dark hair swinging at his collar before they’re out of sight.

Huh, I wonder who Max’s new friend is? And why isn’t he at the game?

Shrugging it off because I’ll probably never know the answer to the latter and the former isn’t all that important to me, I go back to my room but set about studying this time, the thought of being caught out sleeping abhorrent in the face of Max’s cruelty. Nope, I have to slog through because guilt is a motherfucking monkey on my back.

A short while later, as I’m closing up my Econ 101 work, something bumps against the wall in Griffin’s room, loud enough that it makes me flinch. Glancing around, I strain to hear anything more and start to relax when it’s silent again, only to jump clean out of my skin when Max turns his music on, and it blares loudly, breaking the peaceful silence.

The obnoxious thump, thump, thump invades the space, and with a sigh, I stare at the ceiling. Why, god? Why?

I’m definitely not going to get any work done now, so I close everything up and grab my shoes. Maybe now would be a good time for that exercise I’m supposed to enjoy.

I’m standing at the threshold of the front door, just turning back to grab my keys from the dish by the door, when I meet Max’s new friend, and as soon as I make eye contact, I wish I hadn’t.

“Well, hello,” he says, but his hard blue eyes do not have a hint of humanity and I shift where I stand frozen.

“Um, hey.”

He’s older, almost too old to be a college student, with slicked-back dark hair and an expression that sends a sliver of caution down my spine.

I don’t know how to explain it so much as the dude makes every hair on my body stand on end in the perennial instinct to flee when there’s danger. Creepy rolls off him like bad cologne.

Thankfully, Max comes up behind him, and I relax marginally, but I’m a little confused as to where Max found a friend such as this. The two couldn’t be more opposite, with Max all preppy in a polo shirt and jeans and this dude, well, not…

“Who’s this?” the guy rumbles as I look over at Max with confusion.

Something is off about him as he gazes at me wide-eyed, his face flushed and his hair in disarray, but it’s the tic below his right eye that I’m drawn to as he looks right through me with a glassy stare.

I smile politely and go to pull the door closed, hoping to extricate myself from this situation, only to scowl when Max pulls it back, his blue eyes wild in his face as he smiles wide. “This is my sister.”

“The one you told me about?”

“Yeah, man,” Max says, swiping his nose with his finger.

“Mm, you’re a sweet one, aren’t you?” his friend licks his lips as he looks me over with a leer.

I’m saved from responding when Max frowns and turns away, forcing his new, skeevy-as-fuck friend to follow. This is just as well because I don’t know whether I would have told him off or run for the fucking hills.

---