Page 23 of An Honest Lie

“Well, I’m down to be done.” Braithe crumpled the slip in her fist and made to toss it away.

“No way, everyone has a turn. I’ll read it for you.” She wrestled the paper from Braithe’s grasp with a triumphant smile and, with the slip in her possession, Tara began to read silently, ignoring Braithe’s protests. When she saw the question, Tara exclaimed, “Yass, girl.”

“Ohhh, why doesn’t she want to answer her BFF’s question?” Ursa was sitting on a chair behind Mac. She’d retrieved her curling wand and was sectioning off the brunette’s hair.

“Because she’s being rude,” Braithe said, giving Tara a look. But instead of continuing to fight with Tara, she let her read it.

“Who was your first true love? Describe them.”

Rainy sat up a little straighter; that wasn’t Tara’s question, it was hers, but for some reason, Braithe had thought her best friend had written it.Why?

“He was, like, so handsome,” Braithe said to the room.

“Stephen is still handsome!” Ursa called from behind a piece of Mac’s hair.

“Just real easy to be around, you know?”

And now it seemed to Rainy that Braithe was talking to herself more than any of them.

“We were just around each other and it was this energy, like putting spit to pop rocks.”

“Oh, ew,” Tara laughed. “Can you not wax poetic about bodily fluids?”

“So you...popped?” Mac asked, clearly unsure of herself. Her eyes were still red from crying, but thanks to Ursa, she was starting to look like...Ursa. Waves framed her face, easing some roundness into her square jaw; with a little bronzer and wet lips, she’d be set for the twinsie life.

“We poppedandwe meshed, and he was this perfect combination of Chandler fromFriendsand that guy fromThe Notebook. Like, superfunny and snarky and comfortable with his obsession with me. We were obsessed with each other—”

“What’sThe Notebook?” Mac asked. But no one answered her; they were waiting for Braithe to keep talking.Now that she’s going she’sreally going, Rainy thought. But this was her favorite topic, even if she was hesitant to admit it: love.

“And he’d do this thing where he’d rub little circles on my palm to tell me he wanted me, and like, wherever we were he’d do that and we’d just go running out like—”

“Two horny kids?” Rainy finished for her.

“Yeah,” she said, and her mouth curled up in a secret pleasure as she traced over her memories in front of them.

“Um, so are you not talking about Stephen?” Mac’s face was genuinely confused.

“Have you ever loved anyone other than Bryan? Hush,” Tara said, but not unkindly; Mac was like everyone’s little sister.

“I’m more of a Christian Grey fan myself,” Ursa said. “I need you to spank me, not read me stories in a nursing home.”

“Your turn,” Braithe said as she pushed the ice bucket toward Ursa, who was finished with Mac’s hair.

Ursa reached in, her hand, with its candy-colored nails, drawing out the second-to-last question. Rainy watched her eyes scan the paper and widen considerably. When she read it out loud for the rest of them, she was trying not to laugh.

“Have you ever...squirted?”

It sounded like a series of murders were taking place all at the same time. Rainy joined the choir of screams and screeches and then laughed behind her hand as Ursa recounted her the story of the first time she’d done it (freshman year of college with a premed major).

“And he explained the whole thing in medical terms. I legit thought I was dying of an STI. No one had ever told me about it—”

Rainy stopped listening, remembering that her turn was next.So had that been Tara’s question or Braithe’s?she thought, doing the math. There wasn’t long to think on it because they were done asking Ursa their prying questions and ready to sink their teeth into Rainy.

They didn’t even bother to pass her the ice bucket. Braithe dug the last piece of paper out and passed it to Rainy without looking at her. She was still engaged in the conversation, pointing a finger at Ursa as she said, “It is not right that a man had to explain that to you!”

It was stupid, but Rainy’s palms began to sweat.

Unfolding the slip, she mumbled out the words as soon as she saw them and felt herself immediately go cold. Her voice abruptly cut off and Mac asked her to repeat the question. Rainy read it again, slowly this time.

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