Page 65 of Surviving Lies

She nodded before speaking again. “OK.” There was a thoughtful pause. “But I’m here now. Do you want to talk about anything?”

I sank into the couch and pulled the blanket over both of us.

“How much time do you have?”

Lanie agreed with me about the other girl probably being the one who kept interrupting Gage and me the other night, the one he was then talking to instead of taking me home. Yeah, he was a dick that night. He didn’t handle that well at all.

And I guess I was hurt.

And I was pissed.

But more by how he treated me duringourtime together.

I was also confused whether I actually had a right to be.

I’d never done a “long-term booty call” before. This was not something we had planned for or discussed.

But I knew that if my phone started ringing right in the middle of Gage and me fucking, even if it was Ty,especially if it was Ty,I would not have stopped. And I wouldn’t have answered it while Gage was with me.

And I had kept Gage in the loop about everything going on between Ty and me – well, almost everything. I didn’t feel the need to update him on my sex life. But he should have at least told me there was someone else in his life. Even if it was casual.

Lanie was also thrilled to hear how Ty had planned an entire special day for us. I didn’t give the details, only that we wound up in bed together. She thought I owed him more than the one text I sent him, and I agreed. The only problem was, it was now three days later, and I wasn’t exactly sure how to go about doing that.

“Xander and I are heading to his mom’s house for fall break this weekend. Are you going home?” she asked.

“I wasn’t planning on it. You know I try to stay away from my crazy house and my brothers as much as possible.”

“Do you want to come with me to Xander’s?” she asked.

I stared at her.

“OK, well, we need to make some time for us, either before or after fall break,” she said.

I continued to stare at her.

“OK, I have to make time for you. You’re right, I’m spending a lot of time with Xander. I’m sorry.” She hugged me before heading up to her room. “I have to get ready for class. You too, right?”

“Yeah, I need to head to campus. Is Xander picking you up by chance?” I asked, trying to score a ride. I still hated trying to catch a bus. Getting a parking pass for my car was next on my to-do list. Why had everyone thought of that but me? Ava and Macie both had parking stickers for their cars. Lanie didn’t have a car, but I was sure she’d have a sticker on it if she did.

“He is, and he’ll be here in ten minutes. Does that work?” she asked.

“Perfectly.”

Thankfully, Lanie and Xander didn’t force the topic during the ride. I sat in the back of the Jeep with my earbuds in, so that may have hinted I didn’t want to talk. The looks I got from Xander in the rearview mirror told me he had things he wanted to say, but I kept avoiding direct eye contact until we arrived on campus.

“Thanks for the ride, Xander,” I said while hopping out of the back seat. “Lanie, I’ll see you back at the apartment later.”

“See ya later,” she said.

Both her and Xander’s wary eyes were on me like hawks as I exited the Jeep. Before I could get an earful, I took off to my class. I saw it in both their faces, the pity and concern. Now I completely understood why Lanie acted the way she did most of last year. I had no desire to talk to anyone, to see anyone. I only wanted to curl up in my bed and make it all go away.

Of course, I knew that Gage and I were in a casual relationship. But I guessed it hurt more than I realized that he was actually hooking up with someone else.

But that made me a hypocrite.

Because I had Ty.

My ex, who I had sex with the day before hooking up with Gage. Exactly what I was upset with Gage about. And I didn’t tell him about that, did I?

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