Not Exactly Lying

  Not Exactly Lying

  Bayview High #2

  Melody Summers

  Copyright © 2017 Melody Summers

  melody-summers.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form or by any means, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Names, characters, places, businesses, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Excerpt: Just Friends

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  “Quinn, if you don’t get back over here he’s going to shoot you.”

  Quinn’s character, a tall, muscular blond not unlike his real-life perfection, continued walking casually along the edge of the rubble-strewn street. I scanned the buildings to our front through the scope of my sniper rifle and gritted my teeth. CowboyBob and SimoHayha’s teams were playing through the ruins with us in a player versus player deathmatch, and I was pretty sure that Hayha was camping in the bombed out office building in front of us. It was sniper Heaven, with good concealment to shoot from and cover for relocating after firing. Hayha was good—almost as good as me—which was why I figured he’d be in there. It was where I’d be.

  And if Quinn didn’t get his stupid head down, he was going to get it shot off by Hayha or one of his team.

  “Quinn, get back here now or I’m going to shoot you myself.”

  Little flutters riffled through my stomach as his laughter came through my headset.

  “I love it when you talk dirty to me, babe.”

  I flushed, grateful that Delaney wasn’t watching me play today. Quinn never let up on the teasing and flirting. Too bad it was just another game he was playing. But at least he moved back to where the rest of our team was waiting in the wreckage of a parking garage so I didn’t have to listen to the other guys griping about favoritism when I didn’t carry out my threat.

  “I wish you’d stop walking around out in the open like that. Do you have a death wish or something?”

  “Aw, Val, I didn’t know you cared.”

  “I don’t. I just can’t afford to lose another player.”

  Trent had stepped on a mine, and Jason had been picked off almost the instant we spawned. I was pretty sure that had been CowboyBob’s doing. There were rumors that he was cheating, but since I liked the other people on his team I put up with it.

  “Don’t be like that,” Quinn said, faking a hurt tone. “You’ll bruise my ego.”

  As if. A dump truck couldn’t put a dent in Quinn’s ego. He was our varsity quarterback, six feet of broad shoulders and toned muscle with big, blue eyes you could fall straight into and lips that I had dreamed of kissing since the first time I’d seen them.

  Of course most of the other girls in school had the same daydream, and Quinn always dated the hottest ones—for a few weeks, anyway, before moving on to the next one. Whatever it was he was looking for, he wasn’t finding it, and I wasn’t delusional enough to think that I’d be any different.

  “I just don’t want you dead,” I grumbled.

  “See? You really do care about me!” He pitched his voice to a sexy murmur. “Want to sneak off by ourselves behind the garage after you waste Hayha?”

  Yes. “No! Quinn, you are the biggest pain in my—”

  “Ten o’clock—third window from the end,” he said. “Go get some, babe.”

  I glanced around the corner, struggling to ignore the babe thing, and made myself as small a target as possible. Oh, sweet. It was Hayha, just like I’d thought, waiting to hit us as we came out of the garage to cross the street. That sneaky little…

  Dylan, who was being my bodyguard today, eased back so he could cover me. “Have you got a shot?” he asked.

  I frowned as I studied the layout. Hayha had picked a fantastic position. Anywhere I moved to get a bead on him would leave me exposed to him, which would be very bad.

  “If I try it he’s going to see me, and since he’s already in position odds are he’ll get off a shot before I do.”

  “We’ll just have to give him something else to look at, then,” Quinn said. “Come on, Dylan. Let’s see if we can get his attention without getting ourselves killed for a change.”

  They darted out through a sagging door frame and began moving along the edge of the street, taking advantage of every bit of cover they could find. Hayha would be looking for me, but he couldn’t afford to ignore them when they were moving towards his position. In a stand up fight they’d slaughter him. I gave it a ten count then slid around the corner and lifted my rifle. Hayha was still there, but now his attention was on the others. Biting my lip, I lined up the shot and fired.

  “Boom. Headshot,” I announced. “So long, Hayha.”

  “You got him?” Dylan asked.

  “I got him.”

  Quinn cackled like a maniac. “Valkyrie, you are the bomb.”

  “Let’s go clear the rest of them up.”

  Without Hayha to lead them, his team fell apart. Thirty minutes later it was all over, although only Quinn and Dylan had survived on my team. Quinn was still laughing over the ambush we’d suckered CowboyBob’s team into.

  “Babe, we make such a killer team. Don’t you think we’d be just as hot in real life?”

  “Let’s never find out.”

  Dylan groaned in disgust. “You two either need to get a room or give it up. This constant flirting is making me nauseous.”

  “I am not flirting with him!”

  “You totally are,” Quinn said.

  “Dream on.”

  “You love it and you know it, babe.”

  “All right,” Dylan grumbled. “I’m done. Later, you two.”

  After he disconnected, only Quinn and I were left. My heart gave a little skip as I awaited the inevitable. He pushed a little bit harder every time.

  “Tell me who you really are.”

  “Not a chance.”

  “But I can’t go out with you if you won’t tell me.”

  “Why do you want to go out with me? You don’t even know me.”

  The teasing banter left his voice. “Because you’re smart, you’re sassy, you’re confident, and you can lead a team of high school guys who’d trash any other girl who tried in about ten seconds. That makes you pretty awesome.”

  I sighed as a wave of sadness swept through me. I wasn’t any of those things—not really. It was something I could do when I was safe in my own home playing a game with people I didn’t have to be in the same room with—that was all. It was a role I put on like a Halloween costume. It didn’t mean anything at all outside of that.

  “Maybe I’m hideous. For all you know I’m a troll or something.”

  “Somehow I don’t think so. But it wouldn’t matter. I like you, Val.”

  I wanted what he was offering more than I’d ever wanted anything else in my whole life, but I couldn’t have it. Couldn’t have him. Guys like Quinn weren’t for girls like me. And knowing that made me hurt so bad I could barely breathe.

  “You don’t know me at all,” I told him, and it was only the sad truth. “I need to go. Later.”

  “Bye, babe.”

  My eyes were b
urning with tears I refused to shed when I killed the session and powered off the game console. As I pulled the headset over my curls a bitter laugh forced its way past my throat. Smart. Sassy. Confident. What would Quinn say if he found out that Valkyrie was really The Ditz, the school’s poster girl for dumb blonde jokes? How fast would he run if he found out she was the girl who barely passed her classes and hardly ever said a word to anyone?

  I could tolerate the blonde jokes. Putting up with a high school full of kids who thought it was a riot to set off the panic attacks that usually left me huddled in a bathroom stall for hours was a different story. That had been the story of my life until I’d moved here at the start of my sophomore year. That was when I came up with The Plan.

  I was going to be ignored. I was going to be invisible.

  If people think you’re not very bright—if you never understand anything that they’re talking about and you never have anything interesting or funny to say—after a while they tend to leave you alone. They stop trying to include you. They stop calling on you in class. And what fun is picking on someone who doesn’t even get the joke? After a while you just sort of fade into the background. I’d spent my entire sophomore year attracting no more attention than the plastic potted plants in the classrooms, which after what I’d gone through in school before had been pure Heaven.

  I couldn’t take a chance on anyone finding out the truth. Word would get out around school and I’d be right back to throwing up in the bathroom every day. Even worse, the other gamers I played with would find out and I’d lose the one real social outlet I had. So Quinn was never going to find out Valkyrie’s real identity. No matter how much I wished I could tell him.

  So I’d play online games with Quinn and admire him from a distance and wish, but that was all it could ever be. At least this way I got to talk to him and spend time with him and know that there was something about me that he liked, even if it was just in cyberspace. That was way more than I’d ever imagined I’d get when I started falling for him a year ago.

  Chapter Two

  I was still moping when my phone rang later that afternoon. Only two people ever called me, and since my mom was downstairs it had to be Delaney, my new friend from across the street. Actually, she was my only friend aside from Walker Dean, who lived in the house next to Delaney’s. Once the two of them had started seeing each other I’d kind of gotten pushed to the sidelines. I understood—I really did. But it was still a serious bummer losing both of them for so much of the time when they were the only friends I had.

  I picked up, hoping she had some free time and wanted to hang out for a while and help me take my mind off of Quinn. “Hey, stranger.”

  “Um, Molly?”

  That wasn’t Delaney’s voice, but it came up as Delaney’s number on my phone. “Yes. Who is this?”

  “It’s Allison, Delaney’s friend.”

  Allison? She and Dannika were Delaney’s best friends from way back. Why was she calling me on Delaney’s phone?

  “Is she okay?”

  “Not exactly. We went to the beach today and Walker was there with London. Our girl’s upset and could use her friends right now.”

  London? What on earth was Walker doing with London? The boy was head over heels for Delaney, and while he might have been the biggest player in high school up until now, he was not a cheater. Then the rest of what she said hit me and the room began to squeeze down around me.

  “She told you about me.”

  “Yeah. We’re having a sleepover at Dannika’s, and I was hoping that you could come because you’re the only one of us who knows Walker at all. I don’t know if you can help or not, but I’ve never seen her this upset.”

  My face went hot as my heart began to race and my throat went tight. They knew. Delaney had told them about me, which meant they knew all about my anxiety disorder and the persona I adopted at school. I must seem so pathetic to them. And how was I going to keep them from giving away my secret? Just thinking about it had my stomach tying itself in knots.

  I’d had a feeling that Delaney was going to try to pull me into their circle, but I hadn’t had time to get comfortable with the idea, yet. Now it looked like I was going to have to deal with it a lot sooner than I’d thought. I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. I needed to do this for Delaney—it wasn’t about me right now. Of course saying that didn’t stop my hand from shaking while I held the phone, or my stomach from churning.

  “It’s just going to be the four of us, Molly,” Allison said softly when I didn’t respond. “She told us about your anxiety disorder, and I’m so sorry to put you on the spot like this. We’ll try really hard not to do anything to make you uncomfortable.”

  It didn’t work like that, but now wasn’t the time to go into it. I forced my mouth to work and managed something better than a whisper, although it came out kind of raspy.

  “No, it’s all right. I’ll come. Just text me the address.”

  “Thanks for doing this. And Dani and I both want you to know that since you’re her friend you’re ours now, too. That’s how it works with us. See you in a bit.”

  “I’ll get there as fast as I can. Bye.”

  After she hung up I sat on my bed with my arms wrapped around my shins and my head between my knees while I tried to stave off the rising panic. I could do this. I had to do this for Delaney. Desperate for a friend, I’d reached out to her, and she had given me the benefit of the doubt despite everything she knew about me from school. She was quickly becoming the best friend I’d dreamed of and never believed I’d actually find. I couldn’t let her down.

  While I threw pajamas and a toothbrush and the other things I thought I’d need in my backpack, I ran through a list of mental calming exercises. They didn’t always help, but this time, since I was focusing more on Delaney’s problem than my issues, the feelings of panic began to subside. That was the key, here. Just stay focused on Delaney and everything would be all right.

  Mom was downstairs watching some nature show about oceans while she flipped through a magazine.

  “Mom, can you give me a ride?”

  She looked up and her eyes widened in surprise when she saw my backpack. “A ride to where?”

  “Dannika Ross’s house. She’s having a sleepover.”

  My mom blinked and stared at me as though I’d been speaking in Swahili rather than English. “A sleepover?” she repeated in disbelief.

  “Yes. You know, that thing where girls get together to spend the night at a friend’s house? They’re a staple plot device in those 80s teen movies you and Dad watch.”

  “Ha, ha. I know what they are. You’ve just never been to one before.”

  “Well, I’m about to be a junior in high school, so I think it’s about time I started.”

  She raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Why now?”

  I explained about Delaney’s boy troubles and that I needed to be there for her.

  Her voice turned serious. “Are you going to be okay?”

  “I think so. If it starts getting too bad I’ll go sit in the bathroom and call you to pick me up.”

  Mom still didn’t seem convinced. “If you’re sure…”

  “Delaney could have blown me off, and it would have been my own fault. But she didn’t. She’s a good person, and I need to be a good friend for her.”

  That got a smile. “I like Delaney, too. You take care of her, and call me if you need me.”

  As I got out of the car at Dannika’s house I kept telling myself that Delaney’s friends were not evil harpies like a lot of the girls in school, but my pulse was still racing like a baby bunny’s that was being pursued by a Great Dane or something when I walked up to the door. My heart was pounding about a million beats a minute and I started getting tunnel vision where the rest of the world faded out and the front door seemed to get further away with every step.

  Somehow I made it to the porch and stood there with my palms sweating and my throat tight while I worked up the nerve to r
ing the doorbell. I started to shake, and so I closed my eyes and worked on taking deep breaths while I forced myself to think of soft, soothing images. After a minute or so that stopped the shivers, so I pressed the doorbell before I could change my mind.

  A tall woman with her blonde hair back in a messy bun opened the door and looked down at me. Her eyes were friendly and her face lit up in a smile that could have outshone the lights in our football stadium.

  “You must be Molly. I’m Dannika’s mom. The girls are all back in her room.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I wheezed.

  I followed her into the house and tapped on the door she led me to. This was it. I’d wanted a friend, and now it was time to pay my dues. She needed me this time, and I was not going to let her down. I tapped on the door and poked my head in.

  “Can I come in? I got here as fast as I could.”

  Delaney looked up, her tear-streaked face radiating surprise. “Molly?” she squeaked.

  “I brought ice cream.”

  I’d thought of it on the way over, so Mom had stopped and gotten four cartons for us—chocolate chip cookie dough, rocky road, coconut fudge, and mint chocolate chip. Somehow I had a feeling we were going to need every bit of chocolatey goodness we could get.

  Now that I was there, Allison teased the story out of Delaney again. I’d warned her about Walker from the beginning. Now it looked as though I’d been proven right, even though I’d been hoping for her sake that I was wrong. Still, I couldn’t help feeling that there was something else going on. I had kind of expected him to dump her and go on to his next conquest, but he was too decent a guy to ever cheat at anything. This didn’t make any sense.

  In a weird way I envied Delaney. While she was obviously miserable, at least she had enough of a relationship to be broken up about her problems with Walker. The guy I liked didn’t even know I existed. Sure, Quinn knew Valkyrie, but she wasn’t me. Quinn would never think twice about Molly Powers. I doubted that he even knew I existed.

  Dannika and Allison went out of their way to welcome me to the group and make sure that I felt like a part of them without it being overwhelming. Even though I knew they weren’t judging me it was still hard, but I was determined to make it work. Dannika in particular was able to slide through my usual defenses, which was funny because we were total opposites. She was tall and brunette with a bubbly, outgoing personality that refused to admit that anyone could be left out in the cold. It was simply impossible not to like her, and that made it easier to settle in with them.