Page 4 of Pretty Girls Never Lie (St. Mary’s)

The wood railing is smooth against my palm as I climb the steps. I’m not eager to make this place a home, but it is one step closer to Thomas, so I’m a little less glum than before. As melancholy as this dark and moody school seems, I won’t let it put a damper on the progress I’ve made over the last month.

I tuck my hair behind my ear and push on the door with my name on it. I pray I don’t have a roommate, because it’ll only complicate things. The very last thing I need is some girl who thinks her life is terrible poking her head into my business, only to realize she hasnoidea what terrible is.

“It can’t be.”

My attention flicks to the shadow in the corner of the room, and I pause with one foot in the hallway and one right past the threshold. There’s an uptick in my pulse, and something familiar whooshes through my brain. It’s like a memory that’s too hazy to see, but it makes you feel something anyway.

“Excuse me?” I scan him from behind. He’s tall with shoulders so wide he blocks the sun from the window.

His chiseled jaw turns in my direction. “I thought I told you to become fucking invisible.”

My lips part.

The feeling of dread plows into me so abruptly that I immediately take a step back into the hallway.

Become fucking invisible.

Those were some of his last words to me.

Yet here I am, appearing as tangible as the fear tethering me to the very boy who saved my life but ruined it all the same.

TWO

Brantley

School seemed so trivial months ago. Other things–more pressing things–took precedence over an algebra test or the seven-page essay I was supposed to write to secure a passing grade, but now here I am, trying to obtain my diploma so I can get on with my life.

I exit out of the inmate search and slip my phone into my pocket. I know it’s an unhealthy habit to continuously check that my father is still behind bars, but I do it anyway because it’s part of my newfound freedom.

Though, how long will that really last? Who’s to say he doesn’t show up on my doorstep one day to kill me for turning on him? History can repeat itself. The name on the door behind my back is proof of that.

The dorm room is filled with nothing but a few measly pillows and a folded blanket at the end of the bed, but the moment the door opens, the space suddenly feels crowded.

Every nerve ending comes alive like a wildfire tearing down a forest. I crack my neck and say the first thing that comes to mind.

“It can’t be.”It’s her. I know it's her.I can feel it in my gut.

“Excuse me?” Her voice is the same besides the angry little edge to it.

I turn slightly and am shocked by how different she is. It’s only been four years, butfuck,she’s…pretty.“I thought I told you to become fucking invisible.”

Her gasp cuts through the room, and it’s almost as if I can feel her warm breath brush against my face. I push the memory of that night into the back of my head, trapping it there with the rest of the damage that was done to me over the years, and turn all the way around.

The door shuts in my face, and she’s out of my sight. I heave in a breath and get my bearings together.

If I believed in God, I’d curse the fuck out of him right now.Why is she here?When I first saw her name on the whiteboard hanging on the door, I froze. There was no way it was the same girl I risked my life for, coming back to haunt me and remind me of everything I detested in my childhood. But with hair as white as snow and icy blue eyes, I know it’s her.

It’s Isla.

IslaRansford. She may have a new last name, but it’s still her.

My father always taught me to clean up my messes, and she was the one mess I didn’t dare touch.

I silently prowl across the floor, but I know she can feel me coming for her. I rip open the door and meet her eyes head on. They’re so frosty a burst of ice flies through my veins.

“Remember me?” I ask, running my gaze down her frame.

Her mighty chin is firm, and her eyebrows are furrowed with anger. She’s filled out in places that I couldn’t even conjure upin my head over the last few years, and I hate her for being soul-suckingly gorgeous.

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