Page 30 of Veil of Lies

“Yeah.” She blessed me with a brief smile before going back to her notes.

“Good. Try not to break it, yeah?”

That provoked an annoyed glare. “It’s not my fault computers hate me!” she huffed.

I laughed and she scowled at me. “Only joking, sweetheart.”

We both settled back to our work. Mine involved working on some code, which was boring as fuck, but it allowed my mind to wander a bit as my fingers zipped over the keyboard.

As I wrangled the code, my eyes kept drifting over to Stella. It was strange seeing her without a baseball cap pulled down over her face, although the long bangs she now had did a similar job. I traced the curve of her pouty mouth with my gaze, noting how she chewed her lower lip when she was stuck on something. The more I watched her, the harder it was to drag my attention back to my screen. Thankfully, she was way too engrossed in whatever she was working on to notice me staring at her like a creeper.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out, scanning the screen to read a message in our group chat.

Brax: Game night, bring some food.

Brax had been much better the last few weeks. Less anger and low moods, which I mostly attributed to Stella. His focus on her seemed to have distracted him from all the shit surrounding his father’s death. I was glad about that. Seeing him in so much pain had been tough. I knew this wasn’t the end of it. The trial would happen eventually, and no doubt trigger a whole new load of trauma. But for now, Stella was a good influence.

Me: Sure. I’ll be leaving in about an hour.

Me: Busy admiring Stella’s new look…

Brax: New look?

Harley: We need pics!

I glanced over at Stella but she seemed oblivious to me, so I angled my phone to make sure she was in shot and took a photo.

The movement attracted her attention and her eyes snapped up.

“What the fuck are you doing?” she hissed.

“Just sending a photo to the boys, they want to see your new look.” I smiled but she looked furious, way angrier than a quick photo warranted.

“Delete it now!”

I frowned. She was overreacting. This wasn’t some sleazy revenge porn video. “Come on, don’t be crazy, I’m not posting it online or anything!”

“Please, just delete it.” Her voice remained low, to avoid attracting any attention, but I heard the slight hitch. Shit. For some reason I couldn’t fathom, she was really upset.

“Why? It’s just a photo?”

“I…I hate photos of myself.” The pencil she held snapped in two and we both looked at it. Me with surprise, her with something that looked a lot like fear. “Please, I’m asking nicely. Just delete the photo.”

From the way she was leaning toward me, I had a strong suspicion she’d try and grab my phone if I refused.

“What’s going on, Stella?” I asked. “Are you on the run or something?” I laughed a bit, but she didn’t crack a smile, and my attempt at lightening the thick tension between us crashed and burned.

“Or something,” she muttered. “Just delete it, now!”

“OK.” I quickly deleted the photo as she watched.

“Empty the trash folder,” she instructed.

“Done. Happy now?”

“Thanks,” she gritted out, sweeping a lock of magenta hair back behind her ear and pushing her glasses back up the bridge of her nose.

Any trust I’d built with her was long gone. For the next 30 minutes, she rebuffed all attempts at conversation until eventually, I gave up. It was almost a relief when she started packing up her things, but the nagging feeling that I’d massively fucked things up played on my mind.

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