Pretty Lies: A contemporary YA Romance (Astrid Scott Series Book 1)

by Blake Blessing

  “Do we need to go to the library today?” He asked.

  “No. It’s usually deserted so it’s a good choice.” I tipped my head, trying to figure out what his game was.

  “Will you get in trouble if we sit outside on the lawn?” He turned around and walked backward toward a side door leading to the courtyard.

  “I guess not.”

  “Good.” He grinned before pushing the door open and letting me through first.

  The sun was bright sitting in the middle of a light blue, cloudless sky. I inhaled a deep breath of fresh air. It was a good day to sit outside. I didn’t even need my sweater in the sporadic fall temperatures.

  Thatcher took off his messenger bag and pulled out a thin beach towel first. He motioned for me to take a seat as he sat on the other half, taking out a broken-down easel, and assembling it back together with a serene expression on his face. Whatever he planned to do, he was in the zone. I wanted to get lost like that. When I escaped into my work, I was never completely free of the real world. Thatcher looked like he was the master at shoving life to the side while working on his art.

  I opened my laptop and scrolled through the database I’d amassed over the last month or so of school as he worked next to me.

  About ten minutes later he leaned over my shoulder to see what I was doing.

  “That doesn’t look like portfolio options. Those look like camera phone shots.”

  “They are. I’m working on something else at the moment.” I slowly toggled browsers so it didn’t seem suspicious.

  Don’t ask. I won’t tell you.

  “Okay, well for today only, since you probably aren’t going to be allowed out of the house anytime soon, instead of you coming to watch me paint, I thought I would bring the painting to you.” He was extremely proud of himself.

  “You’re treating me by letting me watch you paint?” I quirked a brow.

  He sobered up after my question. “Uh, I mean… uh.”

  I busted up laughing and leaned into him. “I was joking. I’d love to see you in action. Please carry on. I’ll keep working as I watch you. Cool?”

  He slouched in relief. “Yeah, cool.”

  I got through maybe five pictures before I looked up to see what he was doing, and was immediately mesmerized by the way he moved the thin paint brush over the canvas. It was like one of the do it yourself craft videos where you get sucked in, watching nothing turn into something that you desperately needed in your life.

  For Thatcher, he started with a couple lines and kept adding more and more depth, texture, and color. He was completely in the zone. If he forgot I was behind him, it wouldn’t have surprised me. I moved around him and snapped pictures at different angles, using the sun as a prop. If even a little bit of his magic came through the lens, I would be ecstatic.

  By the end of the class hour, I had eight new pictures of Thatcher and a new appreciation for his craft. The paint he used was acrylic, so it dried fairly quick after he applied it. When he turned, he smiled huge and I snapped one more picture.

  “Hey now…” He grinned. “What do you think?”

  I was stunned. I scooted up next to him and really studied the painting. He had painted me, holding the camera over my face, the flash going off. You couldn’t see my features, the only reason I knew it was me was because of my hair, and who else would he be painting with a camera? I loved it.

  “I have to go over it again later and fill out some more details, but you can have it when it’s done.” He wiped the paint off his hand with some wet wipes from his bag.

  “I would love that.” I bent close to the painting. The smell of the acrylic seared my brain with this forever memory. I knew whenever I smelled this type of paint again, I’d be reminded of this moment. When a cute college boy shared his art with me, and created something beautiful.

  The next few days went by smooth. Almost too smooth. The girls would glare at me anytime I passed by their little clique and they did nothing to hide the fact they were planning something big.

  On the bright side, my parents were on the outs, barely home, and when they were, they weren’t talking to each other or to me. I mentioned one time to Dad that I was hanging out with Rhys, and he gave his permission. Not waiting for Mother Dearest to weigh in, I booked it to Rhys’ house where he was waiting in his SUV.

  I got some great shots of Rhys playing hockey, and his team winning. Then of Jonah and the debate team as they killed the other school. The whole week was surreal. By the time Friday rolled around, I was ready to take my life into my own hands and commence operation take down the twitch bitches.

  Only, Friday hadn’t gone exactly as planned. My whole life flipped upside down and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

  It was going to be hard to sneak out this morning. It wasn’t even seven and my parents were arguing. Again. For the most part they ignored each other but the few times they were actually in each other’s space, it was like Revelations all over again. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mother Dearest threw out a reference to the Whore of Babylon. She was actually doing most of the arguing. Dad played defense through the whole thing. If he could ignore her, he did.

  Hopefully I could catch Beck before he got here.

  Me: I better drive myself today. My parents are up and would definitely notice you on your bike.

  Beck: That blows. You want to meet me at the end of the street?

  Me: Nah. It’s too risky. I don’t want to upset the balance I have with the parentals right now.

  Beck: : (

  I laughed and shoved the phone in my backpack along with the camera bag. The boho backpack looked ridiculous so stuffed, but I didn’t want them to question why I had a camera bag with me all the time. They knew I was using it for art, but they were unpredictable this week.

  It was actually a good thing I wasn’t riding with Beck today. I had a plan, and it would go much smoother if I didn’t have a shadow. Beck must let the others know the exact time I’d be arriving at the school, because someone was always there to greet us and escort me inside. Not that I hadn’t enjoyed the last week, I had. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was a part of a real group, even as weird as our group was.

  The school nerd, the star hockey player, the moody college art student, the heartthrob musician. And then me, the weird boho chick who had a penchant for documenting people’s stupidity.

  The energy in the parking lot was wired when I pulled in. Did someone somehow find out my plan for today?

  No, no one knew, not even my shadows. And that made me even more nervous. Was today the day the twitch bitches decided to put another phase of their plan into motion? A week of peace was longer than I had hoped for, so maybe.

  I got out of Freda and zipped to the front doors. The less time people had to see me, the less chance someone would do something stupid.

  Inside, the hallway was popping with guys bouncing all over the place and girls giggling. Someone bumped into me but I grabbed them.

  “Hey, why is everyone so excited this morning?”

  The girl jerked her arm out of my grip and shoved a hand through her hair.

  “It’s senior prank day. All the seniors harass the underclassmen today. Don’t get caught in the hallways or bathrooms.” Her eyes rolled around in her head as she watched who was around us. Clearly, she was an unfortunate underclassman.

  “Jesus.” I muttered. “Thanks.” She scurried down the hallway and then I noticed it. The majority of the people in the hallway were fighting to get to class, and the seniors were living it up, feeding off of the fear.

  Senior prank day put a kink in my plans. It was now or never. Did I want to play it nice and warn the bitches away, or did I want to ruin their precious reputations?

  There wasn’t a lot of time to think about it. I was a senior, but if I was right, they’d do something else horrible today. They’d lock me in the bathroom, strip me down or beat me up. Who knew what these girls were capable of? The only thi
ng I knew with any certainty was that it would be worse than dumping fish and dirty water over my head.

  I forced my way through the crowd, to the back hallway where they liked to hang out. It was all huge windows and blinding sunlight. Premium space in the school so they called it as theirs.

  Their cackling reached me before I saw them. Miniskirts, heavy make-up, and stick straight hair, a great impersonation of a slut barbie.

  “Ashley, look who’s here. Just in time.” The short blonde next to Ashley snickered.

  Another round of grating cackles and then I was in Ashley’s face. Pushing her back. Pushing hard.

  “We need to have a chat.” No one would ever have known the insanity of emotions twisting inside me right then. Fear, anxiety, satisfaction at finally standing up for myself. And a little glee to get mine back.

  “Watch it, slut. The school already thinks you’re a whore with all the guys you have watching out for you. It’s pretty pathetic.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. If anything, the girls are jealous because they’re all hot guys and don’t pay attention to anyone else.” That was a bluff. Maybe they did when I wasn’t around? I couldn’t dwell on that right now.

  She started to open her mouth, but I pushed past her.

  “You don’t want to have this conversation out here.” The bathroom was right behind her, and that was where I was heading. Rhys and Jonah would be freaking out any minute when they realized Beck hadn’t dropped me off and I wasn’t in my car. This way, they couldn’t interfere.

  I walked to the back of the bathroom and spun to see the last of the girls follow me in. She shut the door and braced herself in front of it. Five girls blocking my exit. This had to go my way. If it didn’t, they had less brain cells than my camera. Although my camera at least served one hell of a purpose.

  “Are you trying to prolong your surprise?” Ashley crossed her arms, pushing her boobs up.

  “Actually no. I didn’t know you were going to do anything. I thought we were past that.” I deadpanned. Of course, I knew they were planning something else.

  “It won’t work you know. In about five minutes the freshman guys are going to do it, all to avoid senior prank day. They’ll get immunity.” Her face twisted with sick satisfaction. She felt powerful.

  Oh, how I wanted to watch as she was knocked a few rungs down the school’s pecking ladder.

  “And that would be?” I was in here. If it was something directed at me but not me specifically, were they targeting Rhys? No, he was too popular. Jonah? That was a possibility.

  “That’s our little secret. You’ll have to wait to find out.”

  I opened my bag and pulled out a folder. “Maybe, maybe not. If I were you, I would call the guys and tell them not to follow through.”

  “Please. Like you could threaten us?” Her group giggled and wiped their eyes dramatically, like the idea of me threatening them drew tears to their eyes.

  This was it. The moment I’d been building up to. And it was so sweet.

  “This is just a teaser. You have your secrets and I have mine. So this is the only teaser you’ll get. Just know, I have more. On every one of you.” I met each of their eyes and put every ounce of anger and contempt in my gaze that I could.

  It worked. At least on a few of them. The girl next to Ashley swallowed hard. Perfect. She was my teaser anyway.

  Ashley snatched the folder from my fingers. “What crap is this?” She opened it and it took her a minute to realize what she was looking at. Teaser girl knew immediately because she gasped and backed up, nearly knocking over two of the other girls.

  “Bella!” She spun and shoved the folder in the girls face. “That’s my fucking boyfriend!” she screeched and I had to cover my ears.

  The twitch bitches dissolved into a catfight, complete with slapping and hair pulling. True to my nature, I pulled out my phone and snapped picture after picture.

  Oh. That shot showed a nipple. These girls were getting vicious.

  I sent the pictures—minus the one with the nipple—to Beck since he was the last person in my messages along with a text to tell him I would explain soon, then I shoved my phone in my back pocket.

  It was fun, now it was time to let them know I was not to be messed with. “All right. So you saw one picture. I have many. Pictures you wouldn’t want to see the light of day.” I projected my voice and the fighting stopped. Laughter threatened to knock me out of my fierce mode, but I pushed it down. These girls looked like extras from Thriller. “Call the guys. Tell them to stop whatever they were planning. If you don’t, if you try to fuck with me again, or any of my friends, I’ll release the pictures to the school blog.”

  “What’s to stop us from busting your phone?” Ashley huffed.

  They really were stupid.

  “Because the pictures aren’t stored on my phone and a friend out of state has the pictures and the blog name. If I say the word, she’ll upload all of them.” I spoke slowly so they could understand the words coming out of my mouth. Stace was horrified to hear what happened and jumped on the chance to get revenge.

  “Astrid!” Pounding startled the girl leaning on the door.

  “That’s Rhys. Does he need to know you went through with your plan?” I raised my eyebrows. Five minutes was almost up. If they didn’t call off their freshmen, it would be too late.

  “Ann, call Heath. Tell him it’s a no go.” Ashley did the best she could to smooth out her makeup in the mirror, completely ignoring the continuous banging and screaming. It sounded like Jonah had joined him.

  “Got it.” Ann, a short brunette, who looked too innocent for the likes of these bitches, started texting.

  “You lucked out, Astrid. You aren’t our target anymore. For the first time ever, it’s changed in the school year.” She raised a hand to unlock the door, but twisted her head and looked back over her shoulder. “Watch yourself, Bella.” Then she was gone and Jonah, Rhys and Beck fell into the room.

  Hands patted me down, but they weren’t going to find any sign of injury.

  I beamed. They scowled.

  “What the actual fuck?” Beck yelled. His face was red and he eyes were wide. “You scared the fuck out of me. Fuck!” He spun and banged a fist on the dirty green concrete wall.

  “Guys, it’s okay. I fixed it all.” I bent down to pick up the picture that had fluttered to the floor, flipping it so they could see.

  Jonah squinted, the thunderous expression totally blanking out. Seconds ticked by as he and the others studied the shot. Then he grabbed it out of my hands, laughing his butt off. “This is great! I hate that guy.” He wrapped his arms around me, lifting me in a hug. “This is epic, Astrid.”

  “No, it’s not. You scared the shit out of us.” Rhys remained three feet away, hands fisted at his sides.

  My good mood plummeted when I met his gaze. He was scared for me. And now angry because I went off on my own.

  “Rhys,” my voice was almost a whisper. It wasn’t an apology, but it was close.

  He sighed. “If you want revenge or if you’re doing anything at all, with or about the twitch bitches, let us know. We could have helped.”

  With each word, I shrunk until I felt two inches tall. It wasn’t a big deal. Or I hadn’t thought it was. The fact that he was disappointed in me turned my stomach in a weird way. I didn’t like it. This kind of friendship was new to me, but I already knew I didn’t want anything to happen to mess it up. If it was important to him to be involved, I would let him.

  “Okay. If I’m ever planning to do anything like this again, I’ll tell you and you can be my accomplice.” That was what it really boiled down to. I wanted to protect them and keep them out of trouble. It seemed, at least Rhys hadn’t wanted that.

  He nodded. “Let’s get out of here. We can go to my place.”

  “I can’t.” Beck waved at a girl that tried to come in, but she backpedaled as soon as she got a look at who all was inside. “I have to work. I’ll text you later.�
� He trailed his fingers down my arm and left.

  “I can’t skip. It looks bad, especially as the class president.” Jonah shook his head. “Sorry, man. We’ll catch up later.” He turned to me and grinned. “That was awesome. I’m always happy to help you on the back end when you’re causing mayhem. I would appreciate a live video feed so I can live it through you, though.”

  We laughed and then he left too.

  “Want to get out of here?” Rhys stuffed his hands in his back pocket.

  My mother would get a call again. But right now, that was the last thing I cared about. I wanted to leave with Rhys and forget about senior prank day. If I wasn’t here, then no one could prank me. Just in case they decided to follow through on whatever lame plan they cooked up.

  “Let’s do it.” I closed my eyes tight, then opened them and grinned. Today, it would be worth the trouble.

  He smiled, releasing the tension from his shoulders. After a moment of staring at each other, he reached out a hand and I took it. His rough callouses slid across my palm, and he squeezed.

  People literally stopped walking to watch us leave together. It was because I was with Rhys, and we hadn’t held hands before so this was news to them. This time, it didn’t bother me. I still avoided making eye contact, but I didn’t feel like my skin was crawling.

  We parted ways as we climbed into our own vehicles, and I followed him back to his place. He must have realized my car couldn’t be seen, as he pulled around the back of the house where we parked behind the cottage. It was bad enough I was skipping for real. Parking where Mother Dearest could see would be asking to get caught.

  “Hey, my parents should be gone. Let’s go grab some food from the house.” He tapped the hood of his car and walked to the side door of the garage.

  He stopped in the doorway and I plowed into him.

  “What the heck? Move.” I shoved my way around him because he was still frozen.

  The sight that greeted me. I was frozen too.

  Rhys’ dad had another man bent over the hood of his car with their pants down.

  And that man… That man was my dad.