Not Exactly Lying

by Melody Summers

  “Don’t be silly,” Jason said. “You’re still Valkyrie.”

  Trent laughed. “I can’t believe it’s really you. It’s so cool the way you fooled everybody.”

  “I’m not sure that everyone else is going to feel that way.”

  Sure enough, the minutes ticked away with no sign of the others. When the clock hit 7:20 I knew it was over. This was exactly what I’d been afraid of.

  “I guess that’s it,” I sighed. “We’ll just have to forfeit the match.”

  I was just about to let CowboyBob know when someone new signed in.

  “Could you use a hand?”

  It was Quinn’s voice, and my stupid heart fluttered even though it had no reason to.

  “I brought a couple of friends along,” he added.

  Two more players signed in under handles I didn’t recognize.

  “Hey, Molly!”

  I knew the voice. It was Daniel.

  “Can we help you show these jerks who’s the baddest girl in town?”

  “Ashton?”

  “I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.”

  Quinn cleared his throat. “So. Are we a team?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, we are.”

  We smoked CowboyBob’s guys in record time in a fight so one-sided even with him cheating that it wasn’t even funny. My boys were still laughing about it an hour later when they signed off, leaving just me and Quinn, the way it used to be. I waited, hardly able to breathe, and wondered what he’d say.

  “Can we talk?” he asked.

  “Sure.”

  “Do you mind if I come over?”

  Quivers of fear pricked at my heart. What if he hurt me again? But I still had enough Valkyrie going to push it aside. Some risks you have to take if you plan to win.

  “Okay.”

  “Be right there.”

  It wasn’t two minutes later when the doorbell rang. I opened the door and my heart did that fluttery thing again. He was so gorgeous I couldn’t look away from him, and that sexy grin of his immediately turned my brain to mush.

  “How did you…”

  “Ashton and I were playing at Walker’s.”

  “Oh.”

  I should have known Walker would have a hand in this. But I knew him too well to distrust him or his motives. He was very protective of his friends.

  “Can I come in?”

  I opened the door and he stepped into the entryway. His presence seemed to fill it, almost brushing up against me even though he stood a couple of feet away.

  “I can’t tell you how sorry I am for what I did. It was stupid and I just didn’t think it through like I should have. But I did it because I wanted this so bad.” His finger swiveled between the two of us. “And you kept pushing me away, no matter how hard I tried, even though I knew you wanted it, too.”

  “I know. I shouldn’t have, but I was too afraid.”

  “I wouldn’t ever do anything to deliberately hurt you. I was just being dumb. I’m crazy about you, and we’re really good together. Do you think maybe we could try again?”

  My brain was warning me that I’d just end up getting hurt again, but my heart was begging me to listen to him and give him another chance. Slowly I nodded. It was the scariest thing I’d ever done—worse than dropping The Plan, worse than the football games, worse than the Homecoming dance.

  “I don’t want to give this up, either.”

  He swept me into his arms and cradled me against his chest, and just like before the fear vanished and I felt warm, secure, wanted.

  “I’ve missed you so much, babe,” he breathed into my hair.

  “I missed you, too. But promise me—no more secrets, no more not telling me things.”

  “I promise.”

  “And I won’t keep anything from you, either. No more secret identities. Nothing.”

  His fingers tilted up my chin and he brushed his lips across mine. That teasing grin was back full force.

  “Want to take a drive to the beach and make up?”

  The magic bench. Our bench. The butterflies took flight and swooped around crazily.

  “I’d really like that. Is making up as much fun as everybody says?”

  “It will be this time.”

  And Quinn was right again.

  I still have my social anxiety disorder and I doubt it will ever go away, although being with Quinn helps a lot. But it doesn’t define who I am anymore. I’m not my fears. I’m Delaney’s friend, and Dannika’s and Allison’s and Walker’s and Ashton’s and Daniel’s. I’m Quinn’s girlfriend. And deep down inside there’s a part of me that’s Valkyrie. I like to think I’ll be seeing a lot more of her.

  The End

  Thank you for reading Not Exactly Lying. If you enjoyed it (I hope you did!) would you consider leaving a review? Reviews help out a lot to convince other readers that a book is worth reading, so I’d really appreciate it. Also, if you want to get an email when my next book comes out, sign up for my low calorie 100% spam-free newsletter.

  Continue reading for an excerpt from Bayview High #3 – Just Friends.

  Bayview High

  Excerpt: Just Friends

  As the bell rang, I slung my backpack over my shoulder with an inner sigh of relief. It was Friday afternoon and the only thing standing between me and the weekend was our homecoming pep rally.

  “Dannika, hold on a sec.”

  Ms. Hobson, my art teacher, had my escape route blocked and was approaching me with a large sheet of art paper in her hands. I winced inwardly as I recognized it—my proposal for the big art project she had assigned at the beginning of the week. She held it up in front of me, displaying a sketch of a woman’s face in four different states: sleeping, crying, laughing, and in love. Or at least it was supposed to be love. I was having trouble getting that one right.

  “What is this?” she asked.

  I put on my best blank look. “The proposal for my art project?”

  “I was really hoping for more from you,” she said.

  “Well, it will display hyperrealism and contrast, which cover the requirements you gave us.”

  Ms. Hobson pursed her lips. “Yes, it does. But I’m not feeling it. There’s nothing of you in it.”

  Unfortunately she was right. It was pretty lifeless. I just hadn’t been able to come up with anything better. My creativity had apparently decided to take the semester off, and my usual sources of inspiration had proven less than helpful as I struggled to find it again.

  “Yeah,” I admitted. “I’ve just been having trouble coming up with a better idea.”

  “You might want to rethink it. It’s a big part of your grade, and the top entries are going to go on display in the lobby at the bank.”

  I nodded grudgingly. Ms. Hobson expected a lot from me and I needed to deliver, especially since this was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. If I couldn’t even manage this, I wasn’t sure how art was going to work out for me as a career. And there just wasn’t anything else I wanted to do.

  She took another hard look at my paper then shrugged. “Well, go with this for now. If you come up with something better later you can change it. But I think your problem is that you’re trying too hard. You’re getting in your own way. You can’t force this stuff, Dannika. The best thing you can do is not think about it and let it percolate in the back of your mind for a few days.”

  Most likely she was right. And I’d have plenty of other things to occupy my mind over the weekend.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “All right. Enjoy your weekend.”

  “You, too.”

  I fled to the hallway where Ashton was waiting, looking all kinds of hot in his football jersey, and together we worked our way into the crowd and headed towards the gym.

  “What’s wrong, Dani?”

  Somehow he always knew when something was bothering me.

  “Molly’s homecoming date bailed on her.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah. She�
��s pretty upset, although she’s doing her best to pretend.”

  “I can’t believe anyone would do that to her.”

  “I offered to set her up with someone else, but she said no.”

  “Poor kid. Just when she was doing so well.” His eyes met mine and he frowned. “What else is wrong?”

  I told him the gist of my art project problem as we walked, and he took my hand and squeezed it with a reassuring smile that left me feeling warm all over.

  “You’ll get it,” he said. “You’re the queen of creativity. You always come up with the best ideas.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “Of course I am.”

  He grinned, and the warmth swirling inside me spiked up a few more degrees. As we reached the gym he let go of my hand, which immediately missed his touch.

  “I’ll find you at the game tonight,” he said. “Don’t forget your mum.”

  “I won’t,” I promised.

  He had dropped it off at my house that morning before school. Since we were going to the dance as friends I hadn’t really expected it, so it had jolted me with a pang of nostalgia that I’d had to fight hard to conceal from him. With a quick wave Ashton took off to join the other football players while I went to find my friends in the bleachers and help cheer up Molly.

  Life is complicated when your best friend is your ex-boyfriend. It’s even more so when you secretly wish he was still your boyfriend. Maybe secretly is too strong a word since all of my friends knew how I felt about him—and how he felt about me. I just didn’t like admitting it, not even to myself most of the time.

  Saturday night the sight of Ashton dancing in front of me kick started the old familiar flutter in my stomach which always weakened my resolve to keep him safely in the friend zone. He moved with the confident, assured grace of the athlete he was, and his dark eyes glinted in the shifting lights. I caught a teasing smile on his lips as our eyes met and knew that he felt it, too. Even though we’d officially broken up over a year ago it was always there, had never gone away or seemed to lessen much.

  I sighed a little as I remembered other dances and how I’d felt so at home in his arms, as though I’d always belonged there. But at tonight’s homecoming dance we had come as friends, not dates. My boy wasn’t mine anymore. The fact that he wasn’t anyone else’s didn’t offer much comfort.

  Lost in my thoughts I didn’t notice at first when the DJ replaced the upbeat pop music we’d been dancing to with a slow song. Suddenly Ashton’s arms were around me and he’d pulled me in close, folding me against the achingly familiar warmth of his chest. It was a bad idea—I’d avoided slow dancing with him all night because I knew that surrendering to all our old feelings would only make things worse for both of us. But although my heart thudded wildly, I relaxed into his embrace and rested my cheek against his shoulder.

  It was like we’d never broken up, like not a day had passed since I told him we could no longer be a couple. We swayed slowly together, drifting in the moment, and even though I knew it was a mistake and would just hurt worse afterwards I savored every lovely second of it.

  Finally the music died away and I slipped out of his grasp, back to safety. Ashton’s smile turned wistful, but he let me go.

  “Dani...”

  I shook my head, knowing what he wanted to say and fearing to hear it.

  “It’s almost midnight,” I told him. “I need to get home before I turn into a pumpkin. Or at least before Dad grounds me from the car for a week.”

  “All right,” Ashton agreed. “I know how much you hate riding the bus.”

  His eyes were still on me, their expression impossible to read in the dim light, but I didn’t need to see them to know. I knew him, and I was feeling the same things.

  Allison and her date had already left the dance floor, although Delaney and Molly were still locked together with their dates as the next song began. We said our goodbyes and headed out to his car. I half expected Ashton to try to hold my hand or something, but he seemed content merely to walk beside me. We spent the ride to my house trapped in a silence which grew more oppressive with every passing mile.

  “Did you have a good time?” I blurted, desperate to fill that quiet.

  “Yeah. But I could have fun with you during a drug awareness assembly.”

  I laughed and had to fight the urge to reach over and take his hand. “Thanks for going with me.”

  “Any time.”

  Flustered by the feelings swirling restlessly in my heart I couldn’t think of anything else to say, and my throat tightened up as I observed his silhouette from the corner of my eye. Friends. It wasn’t really enough, but it was all I could have. Some day I’d have to learn to be content with that. Somehow.

  All too soon we pulled up to the curb in front of my little house, so much older and shabbier than Ashton’s luxurious house on the beach. I opened the car door slowly, wishing I had some excuse to prolong the evening, but the mental comparison I’d just made reminded me why I shouldn’t.

  “I’ll walk you to your door,” Ashton said, following me out of the car.

  I felt like a death row inmate taking that last, fateful walk as we strolled up the sidewalk, each step bringing me a little closer to the end of my night with him. I didn’t want it to end, didn’t want to stop remembering. Finally we stopped on the porch before my front door.

  “Thank you again for going with me, Ash. Goodnight.”

  He said nothing, so I turned away. Had the memories hurt him that badly?

  “Dani.”

  Something in his tone compelled me to pause with my hand on the doorknob, and I turned my head towards him. Before I knew it his arms were around my waist and his lips brushed against mine, sending my blood crashing through my veins like a derailed freight train.

  “Dani,” he whispered again.

  His mouth closed over mine, gently, teasing. With a groan I let my hand slide from the doorknob and wrapped my arms around his neck to draw us closer together. A thrill like an electric shock sizzled through me from head to toe as he kissed me, and I felt more alive, more awake, than I had in the last year. Oh, how I’d missed Ashton’s kisses.

  Although gentle at first, when he decided I wasn’t going to pull away Ashton allowed his passion to break free. I whimpered deep in my throat and kissed him back with everything I had, lost in the moment without a thought for the potential consequences. After what seemed like hours he pulled away and took a step back. With a tiny smile he shoved his hands in his pockets as though he was afraid to touch me again.

  “Night, Dannika.”

  He turned and strode off into the darkness without a backwards glance. I watched him go, my chest heaving and knees wobbly, not trusting myself to move as he drove away. When his taillights disappeared around the corner I went inside and slumped back against the door as it shut behind me.

  Friends. It ought to be a curse word.

  Get Just Friends and read the rest of Dannika’s story.

  About the Author

  I’m a native Texan, and I live in south Texas where I spend as much time as I can at the beach. I’m a recent college grad (journalism with creative writing), and I live with my two rescue kitties in a little apartment just across the street from the beach. When I’m not working or at the beach, I’m usually staying up way too late drinking way too much coffee while scribbling away on my current masterpiece-in-progress.

  Did I mention that I like the beach? :-)

  I’m a firm believer in True Love. I grew up reading romance and fell in love with falling in love. That’s probably why I decided I wanted to write my own stories. I had filled up a big stack of those giant spiral notebooks before I graduated from high school, and worked my way through several more while I was in college. After I got my degree, I decided that if I was going to do all of this writing I really ought to try publishing some of it. Since I’ve got all of the patience of a fruit fly with ADHD, I decided to self publish instead of spending who knows how
long trying to find an agent and mailing manuscripts back and forth. We’ll see how it works out.

  You can stalk me on my blog at http://melody-summers.com.