One Little Lie: a hate to love rom-com

by Whitney Barbetti

  I wrapped my arms around her, giving her the hug I should’ve when she’d first shown up.

  “Oh god, please don’t tell me you’re crying on me right now.”

  “What?” I pulled back and gave her a look. “I am not crying. I’m just happy to see you. I am. It shocked me, but I’m actually glad you’re here.”

  She pursed her lips, considering what I was saying, before she leaned back against the railing. “Yeah, I knew you’d say that eventually. Didn’t think it’d happen so soon, but I’m not complaining.” She nodded at something behind me and I turned, half expecting Adam to be standing there. But it was just the side of the house.

  “What am I looking at?”

  “See that dumpster over there?”

  I squinted, straining my eyes through the trees until I saw it, nestled in a little alcove. “Yes, I see it.”

  “I was in that dumpster once.”

  I swung my head back to her. “What?”

  “Long story.” She shook her head, like she was repelling the memory. “But that’s how I know, you’ve got the sads too.”

  “I do not have the sads. I’m confused.”

  “Aren’t they the same thing, for you? You don’t relish lingering in confusion, babe.”

  “Are we going to talk about how you ended up in that dumpster, or…”

  “You’re changing the subject.” She wrapped an arm around my shoulders and turned me away from the view of the dumpster. “Talk to aunty Tori, tell me your woes.”

  “I don’t have woes,” I insisted, but Tori was already leading me to one of the patio chairs and all but shoving me into it. “I wouldn’t call them woes.”

  “Go on.” She twirled her hand as she sat across from me.

  “We kissed. A few times. More than a few, I don’t know. I stopped counting.”

  “Okay, keeping it rated PG, I dig it.”

  “But it’s just that we run so hot and cold. He’s mad one minute at me and the next he’s got his hands on me.”

  Tori raised an eyebrow. “Are we venturing into rated R territory?”

  “We are firmly in PG still.”

  “Okay, fine. Why does he get mad?”

  I mulled it over. “Maybe mad isn’t the right word. He’s just so moody. Two days ago, he was cutting up cheese with a very sharp knife, looking at me in a very murdery kind of way.”

  “Oh, murdery sounds hot.”

  “I guess it was more broody than murdery. But they can be similar.”

  “Yeah, broody sounds even hotter.”

  She wasn’t wrong. It had been hot. I was never the sole focus of any man, and the fact that it’d been my childhood crush was not exactly something I acted blasé about. “It was hot. And that’s why it’s so confusing.”

  “Well,” she said with a laugh. “That part isn’t so confusing. You want the D.”

  I rolled my eyes at her. “As I was saying, he was cutting cheese and looking at me like that and then we went to my parents’ house and…” I waved my hand in front of my face, already cutting my own self off. “I don’t want to talk about that right now. But anyway, that night we got pizza and went back to his place and I sort of straddled his lap and—”

  “Hot damn!” she cheered. “NC-17, let’s go!”

  I couldn’t help it. Even though she’d interrupted me, laughter poured out of me. I needed this. Time with Tori, to digest everything that had happened and help me figure a way through it. “No,” I said, shaking my head. “Nothing happened besides some kissing and lip grazing.”

  “Oh.” Tori frowned. “So you guys are playing it like it’s middle school?”

  “I’m not in a rush,” I told her. “That didn’t work out well when I rushed things with Willy.”

  “Yeah, well, to be fair he thought your name was Hannah, so.” She held up a hand. “And he was a grown ass boy who chose to go by Willy.”

  “That’s fair.” I dropped my head against the back of the chair I was sitting in. “We are decidedly in PG territory, but maybe a little bit of PG-13 chatter. And, like I said, we go from hot to cold so fast, like something is always there, lingering in the periphery ready to douse us with ice cold water.”

  “What’s causing the cold then?”

  I racked my brain, searching for a discernible explanation. “I think it’s gradually getting better, but I feel like maybe some of it stems from high school. That party.” I was sick of talking about that party. I wanted it to go away, to exorcise the memory from my brain.

  “Did you guys ever talk after? I knew you were upset with him, but I didn’t really know why.”

  “Ugh. I don’t want to talk about this.”

  “And that’s why you should. Get it off your chest, and then there won’t be so much weirdness between you two. Come on, tell aunty Tori what’s up.”

  “Well, you know I was soaked in beer.”

  “Yes. Keane bitched about his car smelling like shit for weeks.”

  “And Adam had been there, when it’d happened.”

  “And he didn’t do anything?”

  “No, no.” I shook my head. “Ben did it. He grabbed him by his shirt and shoved him back.”

  “That’s good at least.”

  “Yeah. But then we went to the front yard and he left, telling me he was going to find you so we could go home.”

  She was nodding with each thing I said, recapping the night. And she continued to nod. “Yes, I remember. He saw me half-naked.”

  I was on the verge of continuing with my story when what Tori said stopped me in my tracks. “What?” This was new information. My story had been that he’d abandoned me for another woman on the stairs, someone who had a rose tattoo and who showed it off to him.

  “So, he found us upstairs. Surprised us both.”

  “Who is ‘us’?”

  “Me and Keane.” She rolled her eyes. “We were fooling around. Anyway, he snagged me, told me how to get to you fastest. I guess he assumed you were still out in the front yard, which is why it took me a bit to find you.”

  I stood and pressed my fingers to my temples, absorbing this new information. “When I came through the front door, he was on the stairs, talking to whats-her-name.”

  Tori lifted her shoulder. “I wasn’t there, I don’t know who he was talking to.”

  “Some girl. Well, I was jealous and I basically proved his prejudices about me right soon after I found him.” I leaned over the railing and sucked in a deep breath of mountain air. “Ben and his cronies started taunting him, and I did nothing. I just stood there, letting them egg him on.” No wonder Adam had hated me. All this time, my narrative of that night had been so different than the truth.

  “It sounds like you need to talk about that night,” Tori said, coming up behind me and wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

  “I don’t want to.”

  “It’d be better than letting this fester between you. So what, you were jealous. What girl doesn’t have a jealous moment once in her life? Cut yourself some slack, and then tell him the truth.”

  “Ugh,” I said again.

  “Tori,” Keane said from behind us. When I turned, I made sure to watch his face. If there was any lingering attraction between him and Tori, it was long gone. “This is a surprise.”

  “Sorry for crashing your party,” she said. “Again.”

  They exchanged a look, telling me that there was so much history there that I wasn’t privy to. “It’s okay. You staying the night? I can put up an air mattress.”

  “I don’t have to stay the night,” she said, but Keane stopped her, wrapping an arm around her and squeezing.

  “No, stay. I’m glad you’re here. There’s a lot of dudes, it’s nice to have another lady around.”

  “No one’s ever accused me of being a lady, but if it’s a lady you seek, it’s a lady you’ll get.”

  “You gonna hike with us today?”

  “Hike? Me?” Tori looked down at her clothes and then back at Keane. “Do I
look like a person who climbs mountains for fun?”

  “Oh, come on,” he said. “You never go hiking when you’ve come up here. Once wouldn’t kill you.”

  “You only really die once, you know. So, best not take any chances.”

  Keane laughed and let her go. He ran a hand through my hair and turned to me. “So, uh, your boyfriend is probably going to murder me.”

  “You too?” Tori asked, winking at me. “What’d you do now?”

  “He threw me in the lake this morning, so I pulled him in as well. But I wasn’t thinking about his cell phone.” His mouth went into a grim line. “It’s in a bag of rice right now, but I don’t have high hopes for it.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I’ll go do some damage control.”

  It wasn’t until I had left Keane and Tori that I realized how Keane had called Adam my boyfriend and my mind hadn’t automatically dinged that he was actually my fake boyfriend.

  33

  Adam

  I shook the bag as if the action would cause the water to leech from my phone faster, but it was useless. By the time I realized that my phone had gone swimming with me, it was waterlogged and the screen wouldn’t even attempt to turn on.

  “Here,” Navy said softly, pushing a plate of food toward me. “I gave you extra bacon.”

  I stared at the plate of eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes. My stomach growled, but the frustration lingered. I hated being unreachable for Casey. Even though Keane’s mom had promised to communicate with me through her son’s phone, I didn’t like feeling so disconnected and out of reach. The only good thing was that I was free from Sarah’s nagging texts, but I couldn’t avoid her for forever, either.

  “Extra bacon, huh?”

  “I know it won’t fix your phone, but it might make you a little bit happier.”

  I took a big bite of the bacon and gave her a grateful smile. “Have you seen Hollis?”

  “She’s on the deck with Keane and Tori.”

  “Tori?”

  “She arrived while you were showering.”

  “I didn’t know she was invited.” I didn’t hate Tori, but I didn’t really like her either. She’d been the one to throw Hollis under the bus with her parents, had given them my name. And, at least throughout high school, she hadn’t been any different than the company she kept.

  “She wasn’t. She just showed up. I think maybe Hollis texted her.”

  That made sense, since they were best friends. But the thought of sharing such small quarters with Tori did little to make me feel like this weekend was going to be as relaxing as we’d planned.

  The glass door opened and Hollis came in, eyeing me like she was trying to get a handle on my mood. “Keane told me about your phone.”

  “I forgot it was in my pocket when he pulled me in. Fucker.”

  “He said you pushed him in first. Did you ask if he had his phone in his pockets?”

  “Well, no.”

  She gave me a soft smile. “Maybe cut him some slack then?”

  What, she was refereeing our disagreements now? Keane and I had endured far worse than a waterlogged cell phone since becoming friends during childhood. I didn’t need her to be our Switzerland. “I’m not going to kill him,” I said, digging into the eggs. “But don’t be shocked if Keane goes surprise swimming a couple more times today.”

  Hollis slid into the chair beside me and I breathed in her delicate perfume as she leaned against me. “Maybe let’s make sure he doesn’t have his phone on him first?”

  “I guess I can agree to that.” I pushed my plate toward her. “Want some bacon?”

  She looked at me with the most surprised smile on her face. “You’re sharing your bacon?”

  “Don’t get used to it,” I said. “But since you took off my clothes, I thought I kind of owed you.”

  “Whoa,” Navy said, refilling the coffee pot. “Should I leave?”

  “He was soaked,” Hollis said, exchanging glances with me.

  We both smiled. It was getting easier and easier to be like this with her, a fact that was infiltrating my thoughts. To think, if it hadn’t been for her parents, we likely wouldn’t have ended up together. Even though her dad had been an asshole by insinuating that Hollis was embarrassed by me, I paid attention to how she treated me around the people she was the most comfortable with, the people who knew that we weren’t really together. If anything, she was warmer and more affectionate when we weren’t trying to convince anyone.

  It was natural. Like we’d never been fake together. No, it had been real from the jump.

  34

  Hollis

  “People just climb mountains for funsies?” Tori asked, heaving a breath.

  “Yeah, we do.” Todd laughed at Tori and winked at me. “We also ride waves in New Zealand and dive into cenotes in Mexico.”

  “Speak for yourself. The only diving I do is into a bag of chips.” She placed a hand over her stomach. “God, I could go for some ruffled chips right about now.”

  “You’re always hungry,” Keane said teasingly. “One night, we went to McDonald’s twice.”

  “To be fair, the first time you rescued me from the dumpster.”

  I looked at Tori as we approached a switchback, spun around a tree and said, “Tell me this dumpster story.”

  “It’s a long story, not for today.” She glanced at Keane, who was bringing up the rear. “Thanks for throwing me under the bus, dick.”

  “‘Welcome!” Keane called out cheerfully. “Hey, Adam, mind slowing down?”

  Adam turned, “Maybe you could speed up?”

  “I wouldn’t mind if we took a rest here,” Todd chimed in, smiling at me. Why was he always doing that? Smiling at me like we had some kind of telepathic connection. “Leg’s bothering me a little.”

  “Anyone have chips?” Tori called out as we all moved to various seating positions.

  Adam stayed standing for the moment, looking around and peering through the rest of the trail. My phone trilled in my picket and I looked at it, instantly annoyed that I hadn’t muted certain people’s texts so that I didn’t see them. Once I saw it, it was in my brain. I couldn’t not think about it.

  Yo, do you have time for me to run some things by you this week?

  It was someone who frequently messaged me about this kind of stuff. I put my phone away, deciding I’d deal with it on Monday.

  “Hot date?” Adam asked, motioning to my phone.

  “No.” I didn’t want to explain it to him. “Tutoring stuff.”

  “Real tutoring stuff?” Navy asked from in front of me. “Or do me a favor for free stuff?”

  I gave her a look.

  “What? You don’t need to be dealing with that crap right now. Am I wrong?”

  “It’s fine, Navy.” I pressed harder down on my pocket, as if I could completely shove my phone from my mind. “How much longer to the top?” It was a baby mountain, more of a hill, really. None of us were prepared for a full trek, so we’d chosen the easier route so that we’d be back before nightfall.

  “Are there bears in these woods?” Tori asked, smacking a mosquito from her leg.

  “It’s woods. So, yeah.” Todd leaned against a moss-covered tree, regarding her. “And mountain lions. Maybe even some wolves.”

  Tori’s lips flattened. “You’re lying.”

  “We’re not too far from Yellowstone, sweetheart. Which means we get wolves and bears and mountain lions.”

  “I’m not your sweetheart.” Tori bristled. “Keane, is he right?”

  “Yeah, but the bears don’t really come down here unless there’s food out in the open. Too much human activity.”

  “I guess it’s good you didn’t bring any chips,” I reminded her with a smile.

  “Tell that to my stomach.” Tori patted her flat belly, making a pouting face.

  “Ready to go?” Adam asked from the front of our group. “I think I hear one of the waterfalls up ahead.”

  “Yeah,” Todd said. “You g
ood, Hollis?”

  What the heck? Why was he singling me out? “I’ve been good,” I said, wondering what his deal was.

  “Hollis, want to come up here with me? We can lead everyone else, together.”

  I turned, grateful, and moved past Navy and one of Keane’s friends until I was standing beside Adam. He looped an arm over my shoulders and brought his head down until his lips were at my ear. “Todd is kind of a slimeball,” he whispered. “Gives me some creeper vibes.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t get that I have a boyfriend.” I looped my arm around him too, proceeding around the curve of the switchback and back up the side of the trees. The positioning meant that we faced Todd for a moment and Adam squeezed tighter.

  His hand moved to my pony, like he was playing with my hair, and his lips pressed to my temple. I chewed on my lip, not meeting Todd’s eyes. While Adam’s gesture was sweet, protective even, it felt like a performance and not real. After everything that had happened, I didn’t want to keep pretending. What was the point?

  Along the way, Adam pointed out different kinds of flora and told me what they were historically known for. He pointed out some markings on a thinner tree and urged me closer to look when everyone else took another water break. My blood ran cold at the markings, but Adam shook his head. “These aren’t bear markings.” It was as if he’d read my mind.

  “How do you know?”

  “Because these are rubs, not claws. See how the bark looks like it was waxed off?” With his hand on the small of my back, he moved me closer. “This.” He held up tufts of hair. “This is from an elk. The bull elk prefer saplings like this one.” He pointed to the roots of the tree. “See how this tree looks like it was nearly ripped from the ground? They rub their antlers against smaller trees like this one. They’ve got more testosterone than a heavyweight championship. September is right in the middle for the elk rut.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means they’re horny motherfuckers.” Adam grinned, sending a spear of hot lust through me. Would that feeling ever dull? “And they’re stupid too. They will walk right past you if they see a cow.”