Page 34 of Surviving Lies

“Listen, I will never judge what a person is dealing with at home. Never.” My head snapped in her direction, and I listened to her words. “You might have met them, but I’m sure they didn’t show their true selves with guests in the house. You may not have the real picture of what Ty is going through with his parents.”

That made me take pause.

Lanie was right. And she knew from experience.

Maybe his parents were brutal assholes and made his life a living hell. I had no idea.

“So,” she continued, “when you took up with Gage, Ty got scared. Really scared. And he told aversionof what’s going on. Trust me, I’ve lived that life.” She got up from the bed and started toward her closet but popped her head back out. “Xander’s coming for me soon; I need to get changed.” She kept talking from inside the walk-in. “I’m not telling you what to do, but he has put the ball in your court. He’s done all he can, I think.” She came out, it appeared dressed the same, maybe with a different color shirt on. “You need to decide if it’s enough.”

I needed to decide if it was enough.

Yeah, that was the big question of the day.

“Are you going to tell Gage you and Ty talked?” she asked before she popped back into her closet.

Hmm. Good question. “I guess I have to. It’s what I would want, so yeah,” I told her. “Where are you and Xander going? I thought we were making our shirts for the game with Ava and Macie?” My confusion came through in my words as I got up from the bed. We had finally made plans for a girls’ night with all four of us and she was already heading downstairs. It had been near impossible to get all of us together so far with our schedules.

“We’re just going for pizza. It’s still early.” She looked at her phone. “We told Ava for them to be back at eight. I’ll be back, no worries.” She turned around once at the bottom, near the front door, to look at me. “Do ya wanna come?”

Living off campus meant we didn’t eat our meals in the cafeteria as much as last year. So much had changed since the year before. I always liked the routine of the four or five of us eating almost every lunch or dinner together. This year, Logan wasn’t here, Ty and I were barely talking, and most meals we cooked or brought in. I realized I didn’t like change.

“I’m good. I’m not hungry.”

Right then, my phone pinged with a message from my one of my younger brothers.

She stared at me with concern in her eyes that spread to her mouth as it pressed her lips into a thin line. “Well, if the roles haven’t reversed from last year.” A soft chuckle left her mouth, but she wasn’t happy. Lanie went through a time last year, when she and Xander were having their struggles, that she barely ate. I guessed it was my turn. “Want me to bring anything back for you for later?”

“No, I’m good. Besides, my brothers want to FaceTime me, and that usually takes a while,” I said with a bit of a whine in my voice. As soon as I said that, my phone started that familiar ring with the screen lighting up. “Want to say hi to them?”

“Yes! I love seeing their adorable faces,” she shrieked. Lanie came home with me for Thanksgiving last year and therefore had the opportunity to meet my entire clan. I had four brothers. The older of the four were closer to me in age: Mason was sixteen, almost seventeen, and Nate was fourteen. But the other two. Well, let’s just say that my parents definitely had an oops that resulted in twins. Jonah and Sam were both only six years old, just starting first grade.

The twins became attached to Lanie immediately when we were home together.

I picked up and Jonah had the phone facing out toward the driveway, showing me Sam about to do a jump on his bike over three bags of mulch lined up together.

“Hey guys, I don’t know if that’s the best idea! Why don’t you set that up on the grass instead of the driveway in case that doesn’t work out?” But they didn’t listen. Sam’s little legs worked as hard and fast as they could toward the ramp. I wanted to close my eyes but knew if I didn’t watch, I’d have hell to pay from them for missing it.

“Shit, Becca, is he gonna make it?” Lanie asked in my ear.

“We’ll know soon enough.”

But just as Sam was heading off the ramp, Jonah dropped the phone, I assumed to watch it better himself, so we couldn’t see a thing but the ground. We heard mumbled voices, what sounded like a tire skidding on the ground, and I waited to hear the telltale sound of crying.

But it didn’t happen.

Then the phone was retrieved and two muddy faces filled the screen, both missing at least one front tooth, though thankfully that was from nature and their age and not their current antics.

“Did you see that, Becca?”

“I did it, Bec. It was great. I’m the best ramp jumper in the world!”

“Hey, I’m good, too!”

The little voices argued between themselves for another minute while Lanie and I looked on. Lanie’s smile grew with each of their proclamations.

“They really are adorable,” she said.

I nodded. “They are. From four hours away, they’re even cuter.”

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