Page 79 of Loving the Liar

They stop, sharing a telling look.

“Oh.” Rose squints her eyes as she looks around, nodding to herself. “Yeah, we forgot to invite her.”

“Guys, come on.” I run a hand over the back of my neck as I pull out my phone.

I’ve already got a missed call from her. I know she must have prepared something for my birthday, and it would be suicidal to not go home. I should have told her myself about this party, but it was technically meant to be organized by my friends, and I know that deep down…I didn’t want Megan here.

Rose snatches my phone, gives it to her twin, Jake, and him and Luke are off right away, disappearing in the crowd.

“You forgot to invite her, huh?”

“You know how it is,” she chuckles. “Our parties are private.”

We both eye the number of people in my house.

“I don’t know how they got here,” she says drunkenly, taking another sip.

“Stop drinking. You’re drunk enough as is.”

She pulls the glass away from her lips and replaces it with something else.

Cigarette hanging from her lips, long black hair in a serious mess, and eyes bright with mischief, she smiles at me.

“A party without Megan will be like the good old days. Don’t tell me you don’t miss it. People partying upstairs, us four in your basement doing our own thing. Ella somewhere in the house, wondering at what point you’re going to take her to a room and?—”

“Rose. Don’t.” I automatically double-check Luke is far enough from us he wouldn’t hear us.

“What? Is she not here yet?”

“She’s not going to come, and you know it.”

“But did you invite her?”

I huff. “Of course I did.”

“Not Megan, though. You didn’t think of telling her we were organizing you a party.”

Refusing to admit she’s right, I change the topic and snatch the cigarette from between her lips. “I thought you told your fiancée you’d stopped smoking.”

“I have.” She scratches her throat, looks away as she starts picking at her hair, and then back at me. “Don’t tell Rachel.”

I roll my eyes. “Is she here?”

“Jake and I agreed not to bring our partners so we could focus on you tonight.”

“I don’t know if I feel like having fun,” I admit.

I know I can be honest with her; she’ll figure it out if I’m not anyway.

“Why?”

“You know why,” I tell her, but she insists on dragging it out of me.

“Spell it out for me.”

I look down at my shoes, back at her midnight eyes, and huff. “Because Ella isn’t by my side.”

“Oh, Christopher. You are so fucked.”

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