Lie To Me

04. Enemies

AVA STONE

I glanced through the window as a light breeze fanned my face, watching all the buildings we passed being left behind. My elbow was resting on the car door while I rested my head on my fisted hand. Minutes later, I turned to look at my brother with a bored expression whilst his eyes focused on the road the whole time.

"Why did you insist on driving us today?" I asked him with a frown.

While he took his time to respond, I glanced at Leah and Cole through the rearview. Leah was glancing outside the window, just as I had been doing, the only difference being those earbuds plugged onto her ears as she listened to music. Next to her was Cole with a pen in hand and two notebooks over his lap, one being mine while he scribbled on the other at such speed you would think his wrist could break any moment. He had forgotten to do math homework.

"Can't I spend some quality time with my little sister?" Damien finally replied to my question, never taking his eyes off the road.

I rolled my eyes, knowing that may be part of the reason but not everything. "Damien," I warned.

"Ava," he mocked me. I gave him another look and, even though he never looked directly into my eyes, the sigh he let out told me he saw me perfectly. "It's true what I'm saying. Now that you're not homeschooled anymore, you spend less time at home. Plus, I myself have been busy with mafia work lately. I just missed my sister."

I smiled lightly at his confession, content of this rare situation of hum showing affection. "Ok, I missed you too, but what else?"

Damien huffed, tightening his hold on the steering wheel.

"The mission has not started well, Ava," he muttered.

My smile vanished as I gaped at my brother, an offended look taking over my features. The only reason why I hadn't talked back yet was because, deep down, I knew he was partially true.

This past week had passed extremely fast, on contrary to our mission which had gone agonizingly slow. Now it was already Friday, the fifth day I would have to attend this hell, yet I didn't feel my relationship with Noah getting any better.

He's been avoiding me like a plague the whole week and when he couldn't, he never stopped glaring at me as if he was warning me to leave, not only that room but also his life. The rude words didn't stop either whenever I tried to confront him about his behavior or ask him if he had some problem with me. In fact, Leah and Cole have already needed to hold me down twice due to confrontations with that boy. I swear I'm close to letting go of the 'sweet girl' facade with him.

Another person who has done a great job at annoying me and, dare I say, even more than Noah, was his little friend Sophie. That girl irked me to no lengths. While Noah at least expressed the way he felt about me with his harsh words and cold actions, Sophie had a whole fake facade surrounding her. She feigned smiles every time I looked at her, she was always way too sweet to me, she pretended she was excited to have new friends... But I knew and could see that, instead, she disliked me just as much as Noah did, probably even more.

The rest of their friend group was fine and welcomed us with open arms. But still, I didn't care about them nor did I need him to find crucial information on the White family. The only person I needed was giving me the cold shoulder.