When We Were Liars // B.E.

Chapter One

My name is Isabelle Amelia Carson.

I'm not interested in my preppy school and its effects, and I don't care for what comes after. All year, I wait to go to my happy place.

My family is "old money" per say, but my grandfather had maintained it just like his fathers.

There's only one place I can leave the real world to, and that's my family's small beachfront estates in California that we escape to every summer. There are five beach houses in total; the biggest house where my grandfather and grandmother sleeps, the Whale house; the next biggest house was where I slept with my mother, the Lioness; the third house was where my aunt, and my four cousins (Jacob, Kyle and Kevin, and Paula) lived, Blue house; the smallest house was where my other aunt and her children lived (Addy and Cory), Mary's.

The only name that made sense was the house named Mary's; since that was the name of my grandfather's grandmother.

The fifth and last house none of us have necessarily stayed in (and planned to stay in) was the guest house (which was noticeably smaller than all the other houses). The guest house had no name and it went unoccupied until summer ten.

The house I lived in all year was minimal and proper for a family of two, but all year I waited to live a life of luxury and lack of responsibility. Once it was summer time, I left my fake friends, my small house, and my preppy life to go back to a place where all that matters was me and my liars.

My liars and me.

Me. Addy. Jacob. Finneas. Billie.

The first year we all started the tradition was summer ten. Billie and Finneas showed up one day, and we were unsure why. We didn't hesitate to let them play with us—cause Jacob, Addy and I were ten—and I'm glad we didn't; now they mean everything to me.

Billie, Finneas, and their mom walked up over the pebbles scattered all over the beach instead of sand, and stood behind me, Addy, and Jacob playing on the dock.

"Hello." Maggie, their mom, said.

We turned our heads and that's when I laid eyes on Billie for the first time.

Her hair was short and blonde, and she had the most piercing blue eyes. Those will never change. Billie's skin was a pale, milky white and she had a small button nose and thin lips. She was Billie.

My Billie.

We all stood in an unsynchronized manor, and Jacob bowed at them. I slapped him.

"I'm Maggie, and this is Finneas and Billie," Maggie introduced. "They will be staying here for the summer, so I was wondering—could they play with you?"

We all accepted. As if by the natural order of things, Jacob went off with Finneas and left me and Addy with Billie; which I initially wasn't happy about. I masked it, though.

Billie sat on the edge of the dock, away from us two, and hung her legs, swinging them vigorously. She was quiet and reserved, and made me and Addy slightly uncomfortable.

"She's weird," I whispered to Addy. "We'll just play over here, and let her sit over there swinging her legs over our dock."

Addy shook her head. Addy was too nice for her own good. "No. Let's play with her." She whispered back. "Billie!" Billie's head snapped up, and looked at Addy. "Come play with me and Izzy!"

Billie didn't answer, but she did shift over marginally and stare at us. Addy and I sent each other confused looks, but we didn't whisper about Billie's weirdness.

"Anyways, I'm still waiting to get my birthday wishes dolls back." Addy admitted, as she picked at the moss on the wood. "She was one of my favourites."

I rolled my eyes. "You said I could have her!" I giggled and pushed at her shoulder.

"Billie?" Addy asked, turning over to the blonde haired stranger. "Do you like playing with barbies?"

Billie simply shrugged.

"Do you want to play?"

Billie shook her head.

"Are you sure?" Addy asked.

Billie nodded.

That was that.

—

The next week after that was the first time I had heard Billie talk.

Addy and I were playing with Jacob and Finneas, we were all scavenging for special rocks, and I saw Billie standing inside behind the large glass doors of the guest house, staring back at me. I curled my eyebrow and nudged on Jacob's shoulder.

Jacob told Finneas.

Finneas groaned. "Billie! Come out and play! We're finding rocks!" Billie's head shook. "Come on, Billie!" Finneas ran up to the sliding door and opened it, grabbing her hand.

Billie struggled, but Finneas persevered. Finneas left Billie in the middle of all of us gathering stones, and she sat moodily on top of them. Her arms crossed over legs as she pushed them against her chest, and she dug her chin into her right forearm.

As we continued to look around, Addy said "Jacob, let's go find some on the other side of the beach!" Addy ran off and Jacob followed, but Finneas didn't notice they left until they were nearly at the other side of the beach.

"Hey! Wait up!" He shouted as he bolted toward the pair. He left Billie without a second thought. He left me alone with Billie without a second thought.

I gazed over to Billie but she did not catch my glance, she was preoccupied with jamming her foot into the rocks hard enough so that the sand hidden underneath came up.

I didn't tell her not to do that. Grandpa didn't like it when me, Jacob, and Addy did that, but she made me nervous. I couldn't tell her.

I resumed my previous errands, picking up pebbles.

Suddenly, since I was in fact ten, I subconsciously asked "what's your favourite colour, Billie?"

Billie looked up from the ground and made eye contact with me, but she did not answer.

"My favourites are green and red." I told her as I bent down to grab another pretty rock. "Green because of plants and life, and red because of love and hearts." She still didn't speak. I sighed but joked "mostly they're my favourite colours because Christmas is my favourite holiday."

Billie giggled.

My heart skipped a beat; even at ten.

"I guess my favourite colour is..." she mumbled. "Probably yellow. Maybe it's my favourite because of pretty flowers and... the sun, maybe?"

It took me a second to answer because I was baffled she spoke to me.

I grinned politely back at her. "Cool. I like yellow too." I picked up one rock before asking "do you want to look for pretty rocks with me? We'll make frames for our moms."

She nodded, got up from her sitting position, and began picking up pebbles.

And that was that.