Page 10 of Sinister Lies

“Me?” I sputtered. “What are you talking about? What didIdo?”

“Nothing.” Sky sniffled and lightly shook her head, her gaze falling distant, lost in thought. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Hey.” I reached up and grasped her knee, squeezing it tight. She blinked through more tears, but she didn’t look at me, nor did she try to push me away from her. “If I did something, then tell me. I can’t fix the problem without knowing the cause.”

“After I introduced you two, he just started acting… different. When you weren’t around us, he’d talk about youa lot. He started asking me questions about you, like where you grew up and if you were seeing anyone. You know, personal shit. That day when you were in the bathroom, hungover… You should’ve seen the look on his face when he got here. I don’t know how to describe it, but he and I have been together for almost four years now. The way he was looking at you, well… He’s never looked at me like that. Never. There’s more to it, but yeah, those are just the starting points.”

Grrreeaat.So, basically, what she’s saying is that her scumbag beau has the hots for me. I suppose it made sense in a way. Hell, now that I really think about it, itdidbetter explain his behavior towards me while Sky was gone.

But I still failed to see how any of that was my fault. It sure as fuck didn’t explain why the fucker hit her either, and I said so.

“I’m getting there,” Sky promised. “After I packed my shit and left here, things have gradually gotten worse. He wanted me to pretend like nothing happened between you two. To just let it go and move on.”

“But you didn’t…”

“I tried to at first. But then as the days went by, Brian’s behavior kept rapidly spiraling. Instead of being affectionate, he’s been very crass and verbally offensive towards me. I haven’t been able to go to classes, eat, shit, piss, do homework, or much less fucking breathe without him being right there underneath me. He-he’s been going through my phone and reading my messages, too.Ourmessages, to be precise.”

I started to open my mouth—because I mean, let’s be frank here—there was only one true reason for Brian’s sudden sus and dickish behavior. He fucked up, and he knew it. If he had actually taken the time to think shit through, or, I don’t know, did like I did and just tried to forget about it, then his own paranoia wouldn’t be eating him alive. Shit wouldn’t have turned out this way and he wouldn’t be a dead man walking right now.

But… after watching Sky breathe in and close her eyes, and with all those goddamn tears still spilling down her cheeks, I decided to keep those unsupportive thoughts to myself. She was utterly heartbroken, and with the route this conversation was headed, I couldn’t deny the obvious. Sky knew she made a mistake.

A small beat of silence passed before she abruptly sat up straight and tenderly wiped under her eyes, meeting my gaze.

“After I caught him the first time, I’ve noticed he’s grown very protective of his phone. He’ll disappear sometimes or go in the bathroom and just stay gone forever doing only God knows what. If I come in a room or get too close while he’s on it, he’ll turn the screen away from me, or rush to shove the fucking thing in his pocket. It’s like he’s—”

“—like he’s purposely trying to hide something?”

“My thoughts exactly,” Sky agreed, nodding. “Anyway, the more he kept on with the deceitful act, the more suspicious I became. So, I waited for him to fall asleep last night, and then I went through his phone.”

“And?” I asked with furrowed brows. Another hundred bucks says this is the reason why Brian hurt her. “Did you find anything?”

Sky leaned up, lifted her phone from her back pocket, then swiped over to her gallery, tapping the app. “I found these on his phone and confronted him about it this morning. It-it’s proof that you were telling the truth, Samara. It proves a lot of things, actually.”

Sky’s hand shook as she reached over to give me the phone. She leaned back against the door, lightly banging her head against it as she waited, sniffling to herself.

There was a photo on the screen. I stared down at it, my guts twisting.

It was a picture ofme.

I was standing at my locker, placing a book inside my backpack.

“Keep going. There’s more.”

Nausea churned up my throat when I swiped over to the next photo. Then the next, and the next, all of them of nothing but me and only me at my locker or along campus grounds. When I finally reached the last photo, my breath hitched. It was all I could do not to shatter Sky’s phone in my hand.

It was meandIsaac. In the courtyard. Our mouths were molded together while Isaac was knuckle deep between my legs.

“I’m sorry,” Sky’s soft, shattered voice whispered. “I was going to call you as soon as I found them, but that fucker must’ve deleted everything because your number and all of our texts are gone.”

I squeezed Sky’s phone even tighter, my body shaking, fuming with rage. My muscles constricted tighter and tighter the longer I wordlessly glared at the photo.

“Samara,” Sky said worriedly as she reached for my hand, her voice cracking with fear. “Please…

“…say something…”

Six

Rhett

---