The Lies He Spoke

SIX

But she didn't go to Ms. Rivera's office. After hearing a couple of girls talking and laughing in the upstairs bathroom, she found a short dead end hallway with a window at the end of it sandwiched in between two classrooms on the third floor and slid down against the wall, her head aching.

She wanted Elijah.

She wanted him to quit pretending that this was the end of the world. She wanted him to yell at all those people that thought he had done it and tell them the truth, that he hadn't.

She wanted the knowledge that he would be there when she woke up in the middle of the night, uneasy after a nightmare. She wanted him to smile and tell her he loved her and to have a good day after school.

She wanted him to hug her.

Ambling footsteps forced her to blink her tears back into her eyes. She grabbed a random book from her bag and opened it and shoved her face inside so whoever it was would leave her alone.

But they didn't take the hint.

The tall, lanky boy with dark hair and dark eyes that had gotten detention in Ms. Mayhew's class that first day for talking back to her stood a few feet away from her, smoking a cigarette of all things.

"Oh, hey," he said, sitting down cross-legged on the opposite wall. He turned his head to the side and exhaled smoke down the main hallway. "What're you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" Olivia repeated in bewilderment. She unconsciously pressed herself back against the wall, farther away from him. Being in this close range with anyone was enough to give her the creeps, let alone being completely alone with him where no one could hear them. "What are you doing here?" she asked, not caring that her voice was slightly accusing.

His mouth turned up just a bit at the corner. "I come here all the time. It's my secret hiding spot. But I guess it's not so secret anymore."

But his voice was hardly annoyed. Instead, his lips were tugged upwards at one corner, like he was amused, almost teasing.

Olivia didn't want to make friends with anyone. In fact, she didn't plan on talking to him further at all, but the stench coming from his cigarette was getting unbearable.

"If you're going to sit here, will you please put that out?" she grumbled.

He glanced down at his cigarette, as if just noticing it for the first time. "Right, shit, sorry." He immediately ground it against the tiles, then wiped his hands on his pants and held out his hand for her to shake. "Olivia, right?" he asked.

"If you want to gossip, go find someone else," she snapped.

"Uh..." He drew back his hand. "My name's Angel."

"I know."

He rolled his eyes. "God, they didn't say something dumb about me, did they?"

"Can't be any worse than what they're saying about me."

For a while, he didn't say anything. Olivia wanted to melt into the vents behind her under his pitiful glance. She didn't need any pity. It wasn't like she was related to a murderer or anything.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Things just spread uncontrollably here whether it's a truth or a lie."

She didn't reply, but she felt a little bit of hope that he had considered that it was all just a lie. Or at the very least, pretended for her sake that he did.

"You want to get out of here?" he said suddenly. "You don't have to keep listening to all these idiots if you don't want to. We can leave."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm not going anywhere with you. I don't make friends with boys," she said point blank.