Lie to Me (A Touched Trilogy) (27 page)

“Then I guess you’ll simply have to suffer through your
jealousy of my superior hair.”

“Yeah, but your outfit balances it out.”

“What do you mean?” I glanced down at my black shirt and
skinny jeans. I thought I looked good.

“It’s a bit...Chloe.”

“Bitch!”

“Here,” she said, and gripped one of the shoulders of my
shirt and yanked it down. Luckily, the stretchy material didn’t rip. It gripped
the side of my arm in a now off the shoulder look then she took off her
extra-long silver studded necklace and put it over my head. “Chloe so wouldn’t
wear this.”

“Thanks.”

“Owen!” Bianca called and waved her hand in the air to catch
his eye. She spun back around, her eyes huge. “Nathan’s here.”

“Where?” I glanced in the direction she’d been facing, but I
couldn’t see him in the sea of moviegoers.

“Oh, uh, he was heading through the ticket line.”

I raised a brow at her suddenly strange tone. “Do you think
I should go find him?”

“No. I mean, didn’t Chloe say he was going to come and talk
to you? Besides you don’t really have a great track record when you chase after
him.” She paid for her order and I wished I had the spare cash to get
something, but a full price movie ticket was the limit to my budget.

“You’re right. You are,” I said as Owen joined us and we
entered the concession line. I glanced around again, hoping to see Nathan.
Usually his height made him easily visible, but I couldn’t see him anywhere. “I
just don’t want to wait any longer.”

“Wait for what?” Owen asked.

“To talk to Nathan,” I said.

“That might not be the best idea right now,” he answered,
shifting from one foot to the other, while managing to avoid looking at me.

“Why?” I looked from Owen to Bianca, wondering what was
going on. Bianca was close lipped, and I knew she wouldn’t spill. So I turned
back to Owen, knowing that unlike Bianca, he wouldn’t try to lie. “Why not?”

He quickly cracked. “Uh, Vivian’s with him.”

God, couldn’t that bitch just fall down and die or
something? Maybe that seemed mean, but it was Vivian, and ever since Nathan and
I broke up, she’d been hanging off him like a dog in heat.

Owen’s comment put a pretty effective end to our conversation,
and we made our way through the line. Andy ripped our tickets and pointed to
the right. The theater was only half-full, and we got good seats right in the
center of a row just up from the middle. I waited a few minutes before looking
for Nathan, but it took me less than a minute to scan the place and find him
against the back wall. He was standing at the end of the row staring at me. He
lifted his hand in a wave. Rather than returning it, I looked down his row and
found Vivian talking to one of her little posse.

I swiveled around, fury building inside of me, pissed at
Nathan and Vivian, but mostly at myself. He was with Vivian only because I’d
pushed him away. If Tonya were here, she’d be wearing her smug face, and
pushing me to take Vivian down. Instead, I was going to wallow in my self-pity.

“You okay?” Bianca asked as the first previews started.

I nodded in response and then pulled out my cell phone. I
didn’t want to be super annoying and call Tonya, but I did want to tell her
what was going on. It took me until the third preview to get a text message
typed out, and then I had Owen turn it on to vibrate so I didn’t have to turn
it off.

Focusing on the movie was almost impossible, and I really
did try hard. But I could feel Vivian’s spiteful gloating behind me, making me
squirm in my seat with frustration. Was she why Nathan hadn’t called me back?
Was this his way of telling me that he had chosen her? I twisted around and
looked over my shoulder. He was hard to see, but in a few flashes of brighter screen
time, I could make him out, and thankfully, Vivian wasn’t beside him. She was a
few seats down, two of Nathan’s football friends separated them.

“You’re being pretty obvious,” Bianca whispered, causing me
to turn back around.

“I’m going to the restroom,” I said, ignoring her comment. I
needed to get some air, and maybe I hoped Nathan was as aware of me as I was of
him and would follow me.

The hall was nearly empty. Only a few staff members milled
about with their rolling trash bins and brooms, wasting time until another
movie ended. I paused for a moment, waiting to see if Nathan had followed me,
but the door stayed closed, so I headed into the restroom.

When I came out a few minutes later, he was there and I
instantly felt nervous and jittery, unsure of what to say. It didn’t help that
he was wearing his hot date outfit - black jeans and a vintage Green Day shirt.
He’d worn the same thing on our first date.

“Hey,” I said, stopping in front of him.

“Hey. I got your message, but I was at work.” He shoved his
hands in his pockets and scuffed his sneaker along the carpet. “I was gonna
call you back, but I figured I’d just see you here.”

“Oh.”

“But you didn’t come over when I saw you inside.”

“Inside. When you were with Vivian.”

“Phoebe, I’m not dating Vivian. I already told you I wasn’t
interested in getting back with her. It was supposed to be just the guys from
the team, but a couple of them invited their girlfriends and well, somehow
Vivian ended up coming. I didn’t know until we got here.”

I started to say something, but my pocket began to vibrate.
Pulling it out, I saw Tonya’s name flashing on the screen and pressed decline,
sending her to voice mail, then I shoved it back in my pocket.

“I know. That you’re not here with Vivian, I mean. I just
really didn’t want to get to risk getting into it with her again. My dad would
totally flip if I ended up in another fight. And-” My cell started up again,
cutting off my words. I yanked it back out. “It’s Tonya, just let me get rid of
her, or she’ll keep bugging me.”

I flipped it open, but before I could even say hi, I could
hear her crying.

“Tonya? What’s wrong?”

“Phoebe. Oh God! I made a mistake. Can you come get me?”

“Where are you? What’s going on?” Panic started to set in as
her sobs pulsed through me.

“I-I just want to go home.”

“Tonya, calm down. Where are you?”

“I’m-” Her words ended when the phone went dead.

“Holy shit, holy shit.” I fumbled around trying to pull up
her number, until Bianca’s demonstration from earlier popped in. I jammed my
finger onto the number one and held it until the line began to ring.

“What’s going on?” Nathan asked as I waited for her to pick
up.

“I don’t know. She was hysterical, said she needed me to
come get her then the line went dead. Shit, shit, shit.”

“Hello?” Tonya’s voice quavered through the phone.

“Where are you? I’ll come get you right now.”

“Oh, I’m fine.”

Liar.

“Tonya, where are you?” I swallowed past the bile that crept
up my throat from my churning stomach.

“I’m sorry I called you. Gran and I had a fight.”

Liar
. My stomach cramped.

“Where are you?”

“Don’t worry about me. I gotta go, okay? I’ll call you
later.” Again the line went dead.

I called her back, waiting while it rang twice and then went
to voice mail. I tried again and this time it went directly to her mailbox. Her
phone was off. And I started to panic. “Her phone’s off. I don’t know what to
do. She said she had a fight with her gran and that she’s fine, but I know
she’s lying. She wouldn’t tell me where she was.”

“Calm down and just takes a moment to think. Where could she
be?”

“I don’t know! She was supposed to be home, but I know she’s
not!”

“Okay, so let’s call there. I know you say she’s lying, but
let’s just double check. Maybe she’s there, and wants to leave, or at least her
gran might know where she is.” He took the phone from me and within seconds, he
had it ringing. Someone must have answered, because he started talking. “Hi,
can I speak to Tonya? Oh, okay. Do you know which one? Thank you.”

“She’s not there, is she?” I asked as he handed the phone
back to me.

“Her grandma said she was with you at the movies. Where else
would she go? If she’s not with you or at home, then where?” He guided me over
to a bench where I sat and he crouched in front of me. I could see his father,
and his police officer training, in Nathan, taking charge, being the calm one,
thinking logically. “Is there some place she wouldn’t tell you about going?”

“Nowhere! I mean...Oh God, she wouldn’t...” My lips couldn’t
form the horrible idea that came to mind.

“Wouldn’t what?”

 “Trevor.” My stomach lurched at the idea of her going to
see him.

“Okay, let’s call him. If she’s there we’ll go get her.”

“I don’t have his number. I deleted everything about that
asswipe after what he did.”

 “I might still have it.” Nathan pulled out his phone. “Yeah,
here. Do you want me to do it?”

“Yes. No, wait! He might lie. If he lies to me I’ll know
it.”

“Phoebs, you gotta be nice. If you’re rude he may just hang
up.” He handed me the phone and I took a deep breath then pressed the send
button.

“Hello?” The sound of Trevor’s voice drove a nasty chill
down my spine.

“Hey, Trevor. This is Tonya’s friend Phoebe.”

“What do you want?” His dislike of me was obvious, and I
struggled to stay pleasant. Not the easiest thing to do when my skin crawled at
even the sound of his name.

“I just got a really weird call from Tonya and wondered if
you’d heard from her?”

“No.”

Liar
. A vicious cramp seized me and I took another
deep breath, willing it to pass.

“So she didn’t come over to your place or anything?”

“No.”

This time when my stomach clenched I gagged as a massive
wave of nausea hit me.

“Okay, thanks.” I hung up, threw the phone at Nathan, and
then raced for the restroom. I barely made it to the toilet before emptying my
stomach. Once the shaking stopped, I went to the sink and quickly rinsed my
mouth out. Nathan was still waiting when I came out and Bianca and Owen were
with him.

“I went and grabbed them while you were...” He motioned to
the restroom and I nodded.

“She’s there. At Trevor’s,” I said.

“You’re sure?”

My instinctive response was to get angry with him for
questioning me again, but it was instantly squashed by the sound of Tonya’s
scream echoing through my mind. He was right. I needed to be sure. My eyes
closed and I tried to think about Tonya the past few days. Her reluctance to
give details about what she and Gran were doing. Her sudden lack of interest in
the new Mickey guy. And then there was Trevor’s tweet.
hookin up wit ma gurl
2nite
. It was possible that instead of some unsuspecting girl, it had been
Tonya. Who knew where she’d really been last night? The hollow pit in my
stomach said she’d been with him. I was sure that’s where she was now.

“Definitely. I have to go get her,” I said.

“We can call the cops,” Nathan suggested.

“And tell them what? That my friend says she’s fine, but I
know she’s lying because some voice in my head is telling me she is?” I gave a
humorless laugh. “I really don’t want your dad to think I’m crazy.”

“I’ll drive then,” Nathan said. “No way should you be going
anywhere near that asshole alone.”

“Do you want us to come with?” Bianca asked.

“There’s won’t be room in the truck for all of us once we
pick Tonya up,” Nathan said.

“Owen and I can take my car, and we’ll follow you.”

“Fine. Let’s go.” I started moving to the door and they all
fell in line behind me. Once we were in the parking lot, reality started to
sink in and I stopped abruptly. Nathan skidded past me, while Owen and Bianca
nearly plowed into me. “I don’t remember how to get to his place.”

“We used my dad’s GPS the time we went there. He practically
never uses the thing, so it should still be stored. Come on.” Nathan grabbed my
hand and propelled me forward. Owen and Bianca veered off toward her car, and
Nathan and I continued straight. We climbed into his dad’s truck and a minute
later, we were heading for San Diego.

“Get the GPS from the glove box,” Nathan said. I opened the
compartment, grabbed the GPS, and pushed the power button. Once it had loaded
itself, I handed it to Nathan. He waited until we stopped at a red light to
search for Trevor’s address. “Here it is.”

I pulled out my cell and called Owen, knowing Bianca
couldn’t answer hers because she was driving. I gave him the address and the
basic directions to get to Trevor’s just in case we got separated.

Then the rush of adrenaline began to wane. I felt completely
exhausted and consumed by the nausea Trevor had brought on with his lies. I
leaned my head against the cool window and stared into the blackness. Outside
of town, there were no lights to illuminate the roadside.

How could she have gone to see Trevor? How could she have
lied to me about it? I wanted to yell at her, scream at her for being an idiot.
I prayed that she was okay, that the call had been some complete
misunderstanding, and that she was actually at home, safe and sound.

Even without my gift, I knew I was lying to myself.

“I’m sorry.”

I looked at Nathan, his words bringing me out of my
thoughts.

“I shouldn’t have blackmailed you into giving Trevor a
chance and I shouldn’t have brushed off your concerns.” He sounded a bit stiff,
like he’d been practicing what to say and was trying to remember the exact
wording.

“I’m sorry, too.” My words were as stilted as his, although
mine came from a reluctance to apologize. I really hated doing that, but Nathan
was worth it. “I shouldn’t have blamed you for what Trevor did.”

“But you were right about him.”

“Yeah, but I wish I hadn’t been.” I sighed and shifted
closer to him in my seat so I could place my hand on his thigh. He was warm
like he always was, and it made me want to snuggle closer.