Page 28 of Surviving Lies

“See ya later, not Rebecca.”

Chapter 10

Ty

Almost the entire week of classes passed and I hadn’t seen Becca. Not since the first day, anyway. It saddened me. Last year we spent every spare moment together. At the same time, it also meant I hadn’t seen her with Gage, either. I didn’t know how I’d have handled it if I had.

I had nothing personal against Gage; apparently all the guys in the frat really liked him. And maybe I would have, too, if he wasn’t moving in on Becca. He offered a lot of things to her I couldn’t: mainly the ability to be completely honest with her.

Logan’s words had been swimming around in my head since I saw him last week. I wasn’t entirely sureI’m where I’m supposed to bein my life. But I could get on board with taking control of my own life. I needed to do more of that. Withholding my truth from her, I thought, had been the right decision; it wasn’t something I felt she’d want to deal with. But I knew it was a mistake and I needed to fix it before I lost her for good.

If I hadn’t already.

Now I needed to move on and figure out a new normal without her in my life, at least for now. Giving her the space I promised her was turning out to be a lot harder than I anticipated, considering our friends were mutual.

But I wasn’t going to stop being friends with my friends.

Me:

Want to meet for lunch

Lanie:

Sure meet me around 1 usual spot

Me:

Will Becca be with you

Lanie:

She’ll be coming at 1:30

OK, so I would have a quick lunch with Lanie and hightail it out of there before Becca showed up. Grabbing my backpack, I took off for the bus stop.

The cafeteria was crowded. It always was in the beginning of the semester until everyone got used to their schedules, and then it settled in. Scanning the crowded room for our usual spot, I didn’t see Lanie there yet, but I was a few minutes early. I did see Jake, though, so I maneuvered through the masses of people.

“Hey, man, what’s up?” Jake asked.

“Waiting for someone. Did you have class yet?”

He was already eating a full tray of food. There was a mix of some Asian food, plus a salad and even a sandwich in front of him. Nodding, he tried to answer me, but his mouth was unable to form words around the food spilling from it.

“Woah, dude, take it easy,” I told him, clapping him on his back. He shrugged away from me, laughing.

“I’m fine,” he said finally. “Yeah, already had a class, have another in about an hour. What about you?”

Pulling out the chair across from him, I took a seat while keeping my eyes on the crowd and making sure to not miss Lanie. “I’ve got a class in an hour as well. Came here to meet Lanie for lunch.”

His head snapped up when I said that. “Lanie?” His tone said it all.

My eyes narrowed at him immediately. “Dude, she’s one of my best friends. What the fuck? And so is Xander.” Shaking my head, I continued looking around the room.

“Just checking. Wasn’t sure why you weren’t meeting Becca,” he questioned.

But as he finished his words, I saw Lanie walk in the door. I waved, and I knew she saw me as her eyes lit up and she smiled wide. She made her way to the table, and I found a chair for her.

“Lanie, you remember Jake, my roommate, right?”

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