Lie to Me (A Touched Trilogy) (21 page)

Interesting. Lily lying to Dylan. My lips tipped into a
small smile. My angelic little sister was being a bad girl telling fibs to her
boyfriend.

“Where is everyone?” Tonya pulled out her cell phone to
check the time. “Trevor’s going to get there before us and start worrying.
Especially after the whole turning off the cell thing you did earlier.”

A groan of disgust escaped before I could control it and I
avoided the sharp look she sent my way. I’d been doing such a good job of
distracting her, and now Dylan had broken my flow and she was right back at it.

“That creep isn’t coming, is he?” Dylan said, sitting
forward and glaring at me then Tonya. Dylan got a little less jerk-ish. If
he
didn’t like Trevor, then how could I be wrong?

“He’s not a creep,” Tonya spit out. “He’s my boyfriend and
yes he’s coming. He’s going to meet us there so he doesn’t have to look at your
ugly face.”

“Really?” Lily asked softly from the entry to the living
room. “Can we please not fight tonight? I seriously don’t have the energy to
pick up the pieces.”

“They’re not gonna fight, Lils. And if they do they can deal
with it on their own.” I sank onto the couch.

Then Dylan completely floored me. He tossed the remote onto
the coffee table and stood up to look at Lily.

“You look real pretty, Lils,” he said and gave her such a
sweet smile I could almost see the Dylan she must love. “I’ll be good.
Promise.”

She smiled back at him, but it faded as he stepped closer to
her and by the time he took hold of her hand, it was gone, replaced by a sad
look that only lasted a moment before she was yawning.

“Sorry,” she said, covering her mouth. “I haven’t been
sleeping very well.”

Liar. She’d been sleeping almost twelve hours a day,
sometimes more, for the past couple of months.

She pulled away from him and went to the couch, sitting
between Tonya and the armrest, leaving no room for Dylan to sit beside her.

The bell rang again and I went to open it. Bianca leaned on
the button even after I opened the door, while Owen seemed to be trying to put
as much space between him and Karin.

“Girl, took you long enough,” Bianca said, finally removing
her finger from the bell and letting the constant chime echo itself to silence.
“Please tell me you’re all ready.”

“Yes, I guess we’re just waiting on Nathan.”

“He’ll be here any minute. I caught a glimpse of him getting
in his dad’s truck as we passed his place.”

Nathan was our designated driver, since he was the only one
who could get a truck. It would be a squish fitting in for the ride to the
theater, but once there, he’d be able to reverse into the spot and we’d all
pile into the back of the truck.

“Hey guys, Nathan’s almost here,” I called into the living
room, then got my shoes from the closet and sat on the small stool beside the
door to slip them on. Dylan, Lily, and Tonya joined us at the door just as two
vehicles pulled up. The first was Dad’s silver minivan, which he parked in the
driveway. Nathan’s was the second and he pulled his dad’s truck up behind my
Sunfire in front of the house.

“Hey, Mr. Matlin,” Bianca said as Dad made his way up the
porch.

He smiled and greeted everyone as they parted to let him
through. Once inside he dropped his briefcase on the floor beside me.

“What time are you expecting to be home?” he asked, looking
at Lily.

I rolled my eyes at his back. God forbid I give him an
honest answer.

“The last show should be done by two, so probably around
two-thirty. I’ll call if it’s going to be later,” Lily answered.

“I know you will,” he said and this time he caught my
rolling eyes when he turned to me suddenly and said, “No more fighting.”

“Sure, whatever.”

I wasn’t sure what I’d done to earn his distrust, but so far
he’d refused to allow me on a solo date with Nathan after curfew, even after
giving Lily permission, and now he was expecting me to lie about how late we’d
be out. Deep inside I knew it wasn’t me he didn’t trust but Nathan. Dylan had
been around for years and had proven himself over and over, even if I thought
that trust was sorely misplaced. And well, there was the fact that Lily was an
angel.

“I’m serious, Phoebe.” He glanced over at my friends who all
seemed to be finding something interesting on their shoes or in the sky. “I’m
trusting you.”

I nearly rolled my eyes again, but knew if I did, I probably
wouldn’t make it out of the house for at least a month, so I gave a tight smile
instead and followed Lily and the others out to Nathan’s truck.

“You look nice,” Nathan said as he got out from behind the
wheel and came around to me. He grasped my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. I
figured he didn’t try for a kiss because Dad still watched us.

Everyone piled into the truck, making it was a tight
squeeze. Good thing Trevor was meeting us there, because even with Dylan and
Lily going in his car, and the extra large cab, we were sandwiched in. Owen had
managed to maneuver his way into sitting between Tonya and Bianca, while Karin
sat up front with Nathan and me.

Bianca kept us entertained during the twenty-minute drive
with comments about the mall and Dylan’s out-of-date Bieber hair. I even
managed to relax a bit, because Tonya seemed to have let the whole cell phone
thing go.

When we pulled up to the theater, Trevor’s new truck was
idling just outside the ticket plaza and he followed us through the gate.
Nathan handed over our tickets and then reversed into a spot beside Dylan’s
car. We poured out of the vehicle and I took a deep breath, stretching my arms,
glad that I had opted to bring my, well, Lily’s black cardigan.

Nathan and Owen hopped into the truck back to spread out a
blanket and arrange the few pillows Lily pulled from Dylan’s trunk. I turned to
talk to Tonya, but she was already standing over by Trevor. She grasped his
hand and dragged him over to me. Both were smiling. There was no way either of
them could be truly mad at me. I felt a bit smug, knowing my quest to have a
Trevor-free shopping day and then my distraction technique had worked so well.

The drive-in theater was one of the few old relics left in
town. It had been built over forty years ago and still featured the plug in
radio set that hung on the window. Nathan propped it up on the side of the
truck and cranked the volume up, filling the space around us with the sound of
Elvis. Every time I went to the theater, the same songs played, and probably
had since they’d opened.

Nathan reached out a hand to me, and I grasped it, letting
him pull me up and onto the truck bed. It was already six and, despite the lack
of complete darkness, the first movie would be starting soon. We snuggled down
on a pillow together in the middle of the truck bed, our backs pressed against
the cab, and covered our legs with a blanket. It wasn’t cold out, but I wasn’t
going to pass up a chance to cuddle with him.

Owen and Bianca spread out on their stomachs in front of us,
propping their chins up on their hands. Tonya and Trevor sat inside his truck,
hopefully behaving, because Karin kept glancing their way from her position
beside me. Lily and Dylan were still inside his car. I glanced around Nathan
and could see Lily pressed against her door, with Dylan hidden on his side by
the angle I looked from.

Seeing that distance between them reminded me of the
assumption Dylan had made that our dad had been objecting to both Lily and I
going on single dates to the Triple Feature, not just me. Something was
definitely going on with Lily, but I had no clue how to ask her about it. She
was so quiet, and even though she was my favorite sister, I always found it
easier to talk to Chloe. Maybe because she never shut up and I got some major
satisfaction by interrupting her.

“You okay?” Nathan asked, tightening his arm around me.

“Yeah,” I said and smiled up at him. “Perfect.”

He titled his head down and lightly pressed his lips to
mine. I leaned into him and increased the pressure.

“Hey,” Bianca said, causing us to break apart and look at
her. She’d twisted around to glare at us. “No macking on each other in front of
the unattached.”

“Unattached?” Nathan asked.

“Yeah, us without a life mate. Us singles,” she clarified
when he continued to draw a blank.

I laughed at her terminology and risked a peek at Karin. She
was sitting with her eyes glaring daggers at the back of Owen’s head. I looked
away quickly, before she could catch me staring. She didn’t want to be one of
the unattached, but since getting in the car Owen had been doing his best to
flirt with Bianca, something that was almost painful to watch. He definitely
lacked finesse. Bianca had called before they arrived and told me she was going
to take pity on him and play along with his attempt to shake Karin loose.

Karin wasn’t exactly one of my close friends. She was really
more of a tag along, but I still felt bad knowing that Owen didn’t like her.

“I’m gonna go grab a drink. Wanna come with?” I asked Karin.
She looked a little startled by my suggestion.

“Uh, sure.”

“Can you grab me a Coke, too?” Nathan pulled out a ten and
held it out to me.

I shook my head and said, “I’ll buy the drinks and you can
buy the food after the first movie.”

Karin and I slipped down from the edge of the truck and
headed for the concession stand. We didn’t talk at first, maybe because we
rarely spoke without Bianca or Owen around. Finally, I couldn’t stand the
silence.

“So, you have plans for Spring Break?” I asked once we were
in line.

She didn’t say anything for a moment and when she did, it
wasn’t to answer my question.

“Owen doesn’t like me does he? As more than a friend, I
mean.”

Wow. Okay, how does a person respond to that? I wasn’t the
dream crusher Tonya was. I couldn’t just tell her flat out, but then again Owen
would probably stop talking to me if he found out that I had encouraged her.

“Um...I don’t know. Owen and I don’t really talk about
things like that.” I avoided eye contact and focused on looking around the long
line in front of us.

“It’s okay. I figured out I’m not really his type.”

“His type?” Owen had a type? I tried to picture him with any
kind of girl and couldn’t. He always struck me as more of a loner type. He
hadn’t been dating anyone recently, although I’d heard him mention an
ex-girlfriend.

“Yeah, he always seems to date really feminine girls. Super
sweet and into fashion and all that.”

I was speechless. Not only did Owen date, but he apparently
had a type and it was nothing like I would have guessed. Some kind of hippie,
tree-hugging girl, yeah. Fashion plate, absolutely not.

“How do you know this?” I asked when my shock wore off.

“Well, he dated Nadine over the summer, and that was after
he hooked up with that foreign exchange student from England last year.”

“Owen dated Jeanette? And Nadine? How did I not know this?
How did Chloe not tell me?”

“It was probably due to the complete absorption you had with
your devastation over Nathan and Vivian dating.”

“I just can’t believe it.” A mental picture formed and I
cringed at the image of Owen and Nadine kissing. That was just plain wrong.
Owen was...Owen. Weird Owen who we could tease and was oblivious to half the
jokes we made about him.

The line moved and we went with it automatically. Chloe was
handing sodas and tubs of popcorn to the people in front of us. She smiled and
acted natural, but I could see her attempting to avoid physical contact with
the people. Lily was much better at hiding her reactions when she was using her
abilities. Chloe, on the other hand, froze and stared off into space. The
school nurse in elementary school had told dad that he should get Chloe checked
out for some type of seizure. She’d brought it up again and again, until one
day, Chloe looked at her and told her that her husband was going to start
sleeping with a coworker. Two months later, she was separated and never brought
up the possible seizures again.

The couple ahead of us left and we approached Chloe. She was
decked out in a white shirt with a pair of red lips painted in the center, the
official logo of the school’s prom fundraiser. Just one more reason I was glad
I wasn’t possessed by the same drive to achieve as Chloe. Spending a weekend
working to raise money for a dance I wasn’t even planning on going to sounded
even worse than staying at home.

She pulled a Coke and Sprite from off the soda fountain and
passed them to me along with my exact change all before I could even say a
word.

“Why didn’t you ever mention Owen and Nadine dating?” I
asked while I pretended to survey the candy selection.

“Nadine and who?”

“Owen. Tall, skinny, long curly hair.” I would’ve been
surprised by her not knowing the name of one of my best friends if I didn’t
already know how self-focused she was. If they weren’t her friends, they didn’t
exist.

“Oh, they dated?”

“How could you not know? Nadine is like your best friend.”

She shrugged and flipped her hair back over her shoulder.
“Nadine and I didn’t talk for like three months last summer. We had that fight
about Andy. Besides she’s got a new boyfriend practically every other week.”

Karin ordered some popcorn, but when Chloe passed her the
loaded bucket, she froze and stared right through me, dead-eyed. A moment
later, she blinked and any enjoyment she’d been feeling before I’d come up was
gone.

“You okay?” I asked her. Karin gave us a curious look, completely
unaware Chloe had had a vision.

“Yeah, I...I’ll talk to you when we get home tonight.” She
looked way to serious and I itched to drill her with questions, but I could
feel the people behind me getting antsy, slowly surging forward like a wave of
zombies, so Karin and I left, wandering back to the truck.