One Lie at a Time

PROBLEM SOLVED

Tears filled my eyes.  I touched the skin under my nose again.  Great.  I was bleeding from both nostrils.  That's never a good sign.  Crying made my head feel thicker with pressure.  My head felt like it was going to explode.  I felt like getting a hole drilled into my skull would be less painful.

"Lily, are you okay?"  Cody asked, tapping my shoulder.  I turned around to look up at the two boys, swaying on my feet.  Tyler looked down at me with the same, concerned eyes he always did.  I swear that's his resting face.  

"This is gonna hurt like a b*tch,"  I muttered my first ever curse word before collapsing onto the ground, my head -yet again- connecting with the hard tile.

--

I opened my eyes to find myself in the nurse's office.  You would think I'd be in the hospital, but teenage boys have no brain sometimes.  My headache was dancing in the back of my head, only now it was a little less explosive.  I looked over to see three people snoring loudly in chairs.  There was Tyler, Cody, and Anthony.  Cody opened his eyes groggily.  When he saw me, he choked on a snore and smacked each of the boys on either side of him hard in the chest.

"Dude, she's up!"  He barked, repeatedly hitting them to get them to wake up.

Anthony rushed over to me and literally climbed on top of me to give me the biggest hug in the world, "Thank the Lord.  I thought you'd never wake up!  The way the nurse and teachers were whispering, I thought you were going to die."

"How long was I out?"

"An hour."

I sat up and shoved him off of me, "Idiot, you made it sound like I was in a coma!"

Cody sat on his knees beside my bed and folded his arms on the bed, leaning his head into his elbow, "What happened?  You were bleeding, then all of a sudden, BAM!  You were out like a light!"

"I had a nightmare last night and I rolled off the bed and hit my head on my nightstand,"  I lied flawlessly.  To Cody, at least.

"Gollee, sis, quit lying,"  Anthony breathed out, placing his hands on top of his head.  

I felt the blood rush to my cheeks and I muttered, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You have a tell,"  Tyler commented, siding with Anthony.  Every eye in the room turned to him and he looked around awkwardly before continuing, "When you're lying, you get a crinkle between your eyebrows.  It's kinda cute,"  Anthony shot him a furious death stare and Tyler quickly added, "Uh, because it reminds me of my old pug, Jumper!"

"I don't have a tell!"  I said in a slightly higher-pitched voice.

"Ohhh, dude, you're so right.  There it is!"  Cody laughed triumphantly and touched the skin between my eyebrows.  I swatted his hand away and snapped, "I'm not lying."

Tyler and Anthony looked at me funny, but Cody was just trying to catch a dust bunny midair.  Clueless Cody.  He might be the one I need to befriend.  At least he won't try to poke and pry into my home life.

I started to stand up and all three of the boys started objecting at the same time, trying to push me gently back onto the bed.

"What now?"  I snapped angrily.  They all widened their eyes, and Tyler said, "You need to rest."

"No, I don't,"  I stood up and smacked away their hands, "I need to go to Espresso Cafe or I'll miss my shift.  Some of us have bills to pay."  I shot a nasty glare at Anthony.  Of course, he didn't need to do any work himself.  Anthony was living happily with Mom and her rich, homewrecker boss.  I shouldn't take it out on him, though.  It's not his fault Mother is a lying scum bag.