Lies My Girlfriend Told Me Part 9

"When are you free?" Liana asks.

"Whenever." It sounds like I have no life. Which I don't.

"How about now? As soon as I can get there? I could meet you at Arvada. I'd like to see her real school, too."

"Okay. That'd work."

"I'll be driving a red Jetta," she says.

We disconnect and I link to her Facebook page. Just to remind myself what she looks like. As if that's necessary. Liana could be a supermodel.

Chapter 10.

Her Jetta is already parked in the lot when I enter. I park next to her, but she doesn't get out. I open my door and circle her car. She rolls down her window.

"Do you want to follow me, or are you legal to drive other people by yourself?" I ask. Because there are laws.

"I can drive," she says. "Get in."

As I'm latching my seat belt, she adds, "I'll drop you back here afterward so you can pick up your car."

Without even thinking, I say, "It's my dad's car. I don't have my own."

"Oh. Okay."

She probably thinks I'm deprived by not having a car-which I am. No life. No car. No nothing. "I live close enough to walk to school." On rare days Swanee would finish her run in time to pick me up. She'd park a block away from my house, and when I saw her pink Smart car, a rush of excitement would flow through me. Thinking about it now, it feels as fresh as yesterday.

"Thanks for doing this, Alix. I know I'm being a pain."

"It's fine." I wish she'd drop the nice act. I can handle her b.i.t.c.hiness better, since she has every reason to resent me. We drive out of the lot and I say, "Take a left." She s.h.i.+fts gears and I ask, "Did you and Swan always meet at your house, then?"

Liana blinks at me and shakes her head. "My parents didn't like her, and vice versa. She met them a couple of times and said they gave off hater vibes."

My jaw drops. "That's the same thing she said to me."

Liana meets my eyes. "At least she was consistent."

I almost laugh, and then realize it's not funny. Liana can't be nice and funny.

We head to Swanee's cul-de-sac and Liana says, "Can I ask you a question? It's been bugging the h.e.l.l out of me. I shouldn't say h.e.l.l, but what the h.e.l.l?"

I can't help cracking a smile. "Sure."

"Why would Swan pose as someone else? She had to jump through a lot of hoops to keep her real ident.i.ty a secret. Because the more I think about it, the more I wonder if everything she told me about herself was a lie."

Why am I the one who has to end up hurting her again and again? "She was going with someone else when she met you. She didn't want either of you to find out."

I hear a small intake of breath. Liana goes, "Did she break it off with this other girl?"

I tell her the truth. "Yeah. In October."

Liana turns slowly and stares at me.

I can't look her in the eye. I lower my head. "I'm really sorry."

"Why? It's not your fault." She looks away.

No, it's not. So why do I feel like s.h.i.+t?

"I was wondering..." Liana lets out a long breath. "I'm trying to pick up some extra hours at work to pay for the engagement ring, since I charged it on my sister's MasterCard."

"Engagement ring?"

"We bought engagement rings for each other."

But Swanee would've taken it back after she met me. Right? Right?

"I went ahead and gave her mine at Christmas, but she wanted to keep hers on layaway until she could pay it off."

Liana sounds furious, the way I feel, or felt. I can't even begin to fathom this depth of deception.

"Anyway," she says, "I want my ring back."

I don't blame her.

"Have you seen a diamond ring in her room? She probably hid it from her parents. Or maybe she flaunted it, if what you say is true."

I shoot her a dirty look. Why would she have reason to doubt me? She doesn't know about my texting her, and she never will.

"Turn right here," I say. We pull into the cul-de-sac and I tell Liana to park at the curb behind Genjko's van. There's no danger of us blocking him in, since all four of his tires are flat, not to mention he's still in Hawaii, as far as I know.

I get out and shut my door, and then head up the sidewalk. Liana's not behind me. I go back and lean down to the window. She cracks it open an inch. "Are you coming?" I ask.

"I don't want to meet her family."

"They're not home. They went to Hawaii."

She gives me that same bewildered look Mom did.

"Hang on." I walk to the porch and ring the doorbell. A minute pa.s.ses and no one answers. I signal to Liana to come.

She seems reluctant to approach the house. I find the key under the frog and open the door. It's cold inside. Freezing. Maybe I should've turned up the thermostat the last time I was here.

Liana stands outside, peering in through the doorway.

"It's not haunted," I say. But my eyes stray to the urn of ashes and I wonder.

Liana finally steps inside so I can close the door. Her eyes dart around. "Huh," she says. "It's definitely not what I expected."

That makes sense. If Swanee said she lived in Greenwood Village, Liana would expect a mansion.

"She said her parents were loaded-like country-club types. Which is one reason she couldn't come out to them. Their reputations, you know?"

That makes me laugh out loud. "Asher fixes foreign cars, and Jewell works part-time as a caretaker for a man with Alzheimer's."

Liana's big eyes narrow.

"Do you want to see her room?"

Liana shrugs one shoulder. "I guess so. It'd be nice to find that ring so I don't have to work my b.u.t.t off for the rest of my life."

On the way down the hall, I ask, "Where do you work?"

"Victoria's Secret."

A visual of her in a skimpy bra and a thong flashes through my mind, and I get this little thrill. Feeling ashamed, I push it down. Swanee owned a ton of provocative underwear. Did Liana use her employee discount to buy it all for her?

I never thought I'd be back here, and I wish I weren't. But I suppose after so many lies, Liana deserves as much truth as Swanee's room will reveal. "It's here." I point to the closed door.

She hesitates the way I did, maybe hoping this is all a dream and Swan will emerge. Liana clasps the handle and turns it slowly. Inside, emptiness. She enters, while I sit cross-legged just outside the threshold.

I try to see the room through Liana's eyes. There are rainbow b.u.t.tons and stickers all over Swan's mirrors. The Johnny Depp posters. The bag from the hospital on the bed.

"What are all the trophies for?" Liana asks.

"Track and field," I say. I'm surprised Swan didn't tell her that, at least. But then I realize Liana could've looked it up. "She was a runner. Last year she won the sixteen-hundred and thirty-two-hundred meters at State, and raced in the relays. She was practicing for the upcoming season when..."

I wonder if Liana's thinking the same thing I am: How does a person who's in phenomenal shape just drop dead? Don't they have to get sports physicals?

Liana picks up the essay notebook. "I wrote these poems to her," she says, more to herself than to me. "I put my heart and soul on these pages." She opens the cover and flips through it. "There are pages missing."

s.h.i.+t. "If it makes you feel any better," I say, "she kept it right there on her nightstand."

Liana turns and meets my eyes. "Here's how it makes me feel." She rips out the rest of the pages and flings them across the room. She throws the notebook like a Frisbee and it clunks against the opposite wall. Picking up a sweats.h.i.+rt, she shakes it out. It's the blue one I rolled up to rest my head on. The back reads UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO IN GREELEY. "This is mine," she snarls. She hugs it to her chest, then kicks through the junk on the floor and grabs the necklace with the cross off the desk. "This is mine, too." She digs through the rest of the c.r.a.p on the desktop, and then clears it with a swipe of her arm. "Where's the ring? I know you know where it is."

My cheeks flush. "I don't! I swear."

She charges toward me like she's going to kick me and take me down, but she vaults over my body instead. A moment later, I hear the front door shut.

b.i.t.c.h, I think. The least you could've done is take me back to school.

As I'm locking the front door behind me, I see Liana sitting in her car, her forehead pressed to the steering wheel. Waiting for me? When I head down the walk, she guns the motor and tears off.

That night I call Joss and ask when they're coming home.

"Soon, I hope," she says. "I hate this f.u.c.king family, if that's what you even want to call it. Every minute with them is like living in the fiery pit of h.e.l.l."

Always the drama queen. "But you don't know when?"

"Why? Do you miss me?"

When I don't answer right away, Joss laughs bitterly.

I don't want to go back in Swanee's room. Not ever. But I may have to. "Do you know where the engagement ring that Liana gave Swanee is?"

"The what!"

She sounds genuinely shocked. "Swan didn't tell you they were engaged?"

"No way. Who told you that?"

"Liana."

"Why are you talking to her?"

I'm not going to tell Joss we're trading war stories and basically tras.h.i.+ng her sister. "So you never saw a ring?"

"There's no f.u.c.king ring. Swan would've shown me." Joss clicks her tongue. "Engaged. I'm so sure. Have you found the cell or car keys?"

"No. Sorry."

"You better, because Jewell is threatening to put a lock on Swan's door." She ends the call.

The way she reacted, I believe Joss didn't know about the engagement. Now I have all these doubts floating around in my head again. I know Swanee lied to Liana about her ident.i.ty, but now I wonder if Liana's lying to me about the engagement. To make me feel worse? Or more inadequate than I already do? I try to put myself in her shoes and can't. Her six months trumps my six weeks.

I feel a connection with Liana that I wish I didn't. Not only did Swan lie to both of us, in her wake she left a path of emotional devastation.

I open a blank doc.u.ment to start my persuasive paper and key in the t.i.tle: "Ignorance Isn't Ignorance." That can't be right. A wall goes up and I don't want to scale it, or even figure out the topic of this paper.

I link to my Facebook page and see that I have a message; it's from Liana. My stomach does a little flip. Maybe she's going to ask for forgiveness. She doesn't even realize what it took for me to willingly share Swanee with her.

The message reads: I can't be your friend. Sorry.

I check out my friends list and see that she's no longer there. It's not like we ever were friends, really, but no one's ever unfriended me. Not even Betheny.

Chapter 11.