Page 3 of Loving the Liar

His usual deep voice is a rasp from the alcohol, and his gray eyes sparkle with the secrets he never shares with us.

I don’t ask what he knows that I don’t. We’ve always put Achilles on a pedestal. In high school, I was prom queen, and he was king. We never dated, never even slept together, but people liked to imagine we did because we would have been the perfect power couple. He wasn’t here during freshman and sophomore year, studying in France where his mom lives. His parents had a messy divorce, and he chose to go live with her. But he’s been back since the beginning of the summer, and he took his rightful place among us once again.

In private, Achilles is the leader in a group where we’re technically all equals, and yet don’t mind always giving him the last word. So much so that as soon as he returned to Stoneview, he told our old friend Chester to not even think of approaching us anymore since he’d been a complete dick to Alex.

I look out at the lake where Wren and Peach are now splashing water at each other. Tilting my head to the side, I squint my eyes. I don’t think she’s wearing the top of her bikini anymore.

The sun will be up soon. We’re all going to watch it rise above the lake like we’ve done every year before going back to school since we were kids.

A sense of independence washes over me. A new start.

Letting a smile spread on my lips, I answer my friend without looking at him.

“I guess the only thing that matters is that I’m over him.”

And before I can scare myself out of it, I pick up.

But I don’t let my ex talk.

“Chris,” I say with a newfound strength. “There is absolutely nothing you can do to get me back. I wouldn’t go back to you if you were my last option on earth. Even in an alternate reality where I’m on my deathbed, and the only way to keep myself alive would be to be yours again. I still wouldn’t. Goodbye. For good.”

I hang up and throw my phone on the pebbles covering the bank.

I’m officially free of Christopher Murray.

I love you

I wouldn’t go back to you if you were my last option on earth.

That broke my heart.

Now you have to put it back together.

Chapter Two

Ella

Empty - Chase Atlantic

First day of junior year. For some, it would be another year closer to the reality of the outside world.

For us? The real world doesn’t exist. There’s rich. There’s richer…and then there’s us. The Stoneview kids.

We’re raised in our billionaire district where no one cares how much your family earns because you wouldn’t even be able to approach if your bank account didn’t match ours. We are trust fund babies born with silver spoons in our mouths and diamonds around our necks. We grow up together, in our tightly knit circle of invincible peers. We attend Stoneview Prep from pre-school to senior year, and graduate with a special kind of honor: nepotism.

And then we move into the penthouses our parents arrange for us in Silver Falls—a decent-size city just over half an hour drive away from Stoneview—and that’s where the real fun begins. Silver Falls University.

Don’t get this wrong. We go to a more accessible city, where middle-class families can afford to live if they work hard. Where people from the nearby town can come to the mall and enjoy a day by the river. But SFU? It belongs to us.

Your average citizen can’t study here. Not everyone has access. This is our luxurious estate away from home. Sometimes it’s a good thing, and sometimes it makes you claustrophobic. Especially when everyone knows who you are.

“Ella! Wait!”

Point proven.

I slow down on my walk to the library. My friends are waiting for me there, but I’m not joining them to study, though, just picking them up. Studying is for the people who didn’t make it to the top of the food chain or those who like it. There’s no higher power than me among the SFU undergrad, and I’m too dumb to achieve anything with my brains—my father’s words—so the library isn’t exactly my go-to spot.

I tilt my head to the side as a tall girl with blonde pixie hair approaches me with flyers in her hands.

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