Page 40 of Unspoken Words
She glanced over her shoulder at me. “Isn’t it obvious? Tristan would never have done that in a million years had Ellie not been a part of it. Acting, singing, and dancing just aren’t his thing.”
I didn’t respond. Deep down, I’d already suspected he had a thing for Ellie. She was gorgeous, quirky, and fun. Who wouldn’t be attracted to her?
“Plus, he kinda told me so,” Lilah added.
“WHAT?” I stopped walking and gently grasped her arm.
She turned to face me and placed her hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry. He won’t cross a line. My brother is a good guy.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yes. I’m the bad twin, not him.”
Lilah winked, turned back around, and walked out of the building, and after a few seconds of letting what I’d just been told to sink in to my already shambled mind, I proceeded forward when Chris elbowed me in the back and told me to move it or lose it. Maybe Lilah was right. Maybe she was the ‘bad twin’ and I had nothing to worry about. She definitely had a devilish side because, just last week, she deliberately unbuttoned the top of her blouse before approaching Casey Wilkes to talk to him, knowing he’d cop an earful from his girlfriend, who was standing right beside him at the time when his eyes abruptly locked to Lilah’s partly exposed chest. Then there was the time she kept biting her lip and twisting her hair when Mr Brown was trying to teach the anatomy of a rat.
Lilah definitely liked to play with fire. The manipulative things she did grated my nerves because they seemed pointless, even to her and, yet, she did them just to cause trouble—trouble she didn’t seem to care about. I didn’t understand that mentality; the need to cause shit for the sake of causing shit.
Maybe it was a cry for attention, or maybe it had something to do with her dad and his absence in her life. All I knew was that there was a side to Lilah that most people seldom saw; her true side, the side I got to see more often than not. The side she pretended didn’t exist in the eyes of most.
Standing outside the school hall, a pleasant summer breeze blowing the purple flowers of the Jacarandas lining the schoolyard, I waited for Ellie with her family, unsure of how I felt. Seeing her and Tristan so close with one another had really thrown me.
“ELLIE!” Mrs Mitchell dashed toward her daughter when the door to the hall opened and the cast, crew, and teachers involved in the production started to file out. “You were incredible!” she said, enveloping her in a tight hug.
Ellie threw her hands to her face in an attempt to hide her smile. “Really? You really think so?”
“Yes! You did such a great job. And that song … oh my goodness!”
Mrs Perez pointed a finger at Tristan, who’d been right by Ellie’s side. “And you! Where did all that singing and dancing come from?”
Ellie laughed, pulled away from Mrs Mitchell, and playfully punched Tristan’s shoulder. “How good was he?”
The fucker pretended she’d hurt him and even pouted his stupid fucker lips. It boiled my blood. I wanted to show him just how much a punch could hurt.
He shrugged. “Dunno. I guess it was always there. Just needed someone to draw it out of me.” He glanced at Ellie and she blushed.That’s it! Let me at the prick.
My hands balled into fists at my sides.
“Easy there,” Lilah murmured as she walked by me en route to her brother.
I pretended I didn’t hear her and approached Ellie, relaxing my hands and draping my arm over her shoulder.
“What did you think?” she asked, her green eyes darting from side to side, her finger solidly clamped between her teeth in anticipation of my answer.
I didn’t want to lie and tell her I’d loved it, because I hadn’t. Seeing that fucker pretend to be her boyfriend and put his hands all over her had made me feel murderous. It had prevented me from concentrating on her performance as much as I should’ve, as much as I would’ve, and as much as she’d deserved. But I couldn’t tell her that. Not all lies favour the liar.
“I thought you were great,” I answered, giving her shoulder a squeeze.
Her eyes narrowed just slightly. “You didn’t like it, did you?”
“Ellie,youwere amazing.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you?”
“Maybe because it’s written all over your face.” Her shoulders tensed, and she crossed her arms. “Admit it, you hated it.”
“No. I didn’t,” I said with an awkward chuckle, my eyes bouncing from Mr and Mrs Mitchell, to Chris, to Lilah—who was smirking—to Tristan, who was also smirking.
