Lie to Me (A Touched Trilogy) Read Online Free

be constantly bombarded with every detail of
every soon to be minute of my life.
    I refused to struggle for my bag. Tonya would only take it
as confirmation that I was hiding something from her. Instead, I screwed my
face up in confusion and hoped she’d buy it.
    “What’s wrong?” I sank back further in my chair, tipping it
up on its back legs again as Mrs. Schaeffer went out the door, following the
rest of the students. Owen and Bianca stopped behind Tonya, waiting, Owen
looking mildly disinterested, while Bianca was completely confused.
    “What are you hiding?” Tonya asked, her head tilting to the
side.
    “Noth-”
    “Cut the crap, Phoebs. Vivian is pissed and you’ve been
looking guilty all class, well at least the part where you were awake.” Her
eyes narrowed, and she crossed her arms over her chest, ignoring my bag as it
swung around and bumped her hip. There was no way to get out of this, but if I
told her now it’d be all over campus within an hour.
    “Fine, but not at school. I’ll tell you when you come over
tomorrow.”
    “I can’t tomorrow.” Her face shuttered and she turned
around, tossing my bag to me in a quick motion. I caught it as it slammed into
my chest.
    “Why? I thought we were gonna go Christmas shopping? You
already ditched me last weekend.” There were only six days left to shop and I
needed to get, well, everything, and Tonya was one of those people that managed
to find the best things the instant she walked into a store.
    She shrugged and twisted a strand of her straightened hair.
    “I’ve gotta go see my mom.”
    Liar . It whispered through me, my stomach churning to
the point I thought I’d puke. There was a moment when my brain tried to make
sense of what I was hearing, what I was feeling, then it came again. Liar .
    “Liar.” The word slipped out, unrestrained in its harshness,
and almost instantly, my stomach settled. Until I saw the expression on Tonya’s
face.
    “What did you call me?” Her back stiffened and her head
reared back. Shit. Owen and Bianca went bug-eyed behind her. Tonya’s lips
pursed and her eyes narrowed, darkening from brown to black.
    “I...I...” My voice faded, unsure if I should call her on it
again, or try and fib my way out of it. This wasn’t the first time I’d called
her a liar and she’d always laughed it off before. Her reaction and the flush
coloring the soft brown of her cheeks told me I’d actually caught her.
    “Screw you,” she snapped as I stood there with my mouth
moving like a gasping fish. “I don’t need to tell you every move I make, and I
don’t need my best friend calling me a liar.” She spun, shoved Owen out of her
way, and took off out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
    My bag thudded to the floor. Owen and Bianca stared at me,
the question in their faces a reflection I was sure of my own. What the hell
had just happened?
     

 
     
    Chapter 2
     
    I pulled up in front of the house after school and groaned,
every hope of evading Nanna vanished. Her old blue Plymouth was parked in the
driveway. I hesitated before putting my Sunfire into park. The urge to simply
drive away overwhelmed me, pushing me to switch gears and press my foot back on
the gas, but her head had already peeked out the screen door. I turned the car
off and grabbed my bag. Sliding out of the front seat, I barely controlled the
urge to get back in and speed off.
    There’d been a time when I loved Nanna’s visits, before I
realized she was using me. Every hug and smile she gave wasn’t really for me,
but for who I reminded her of. Oh sure, a part of her loved me for me, but
mostly I was her favorite because I was the living image of my mother.
    “Phoebe dear, I missed you this afternoon.” She smiled
sweetly and came out onto the front porch, as if she didn’t know how much I
wanted to avoid her, which of course she did know. I tried to shake off the
guilt flooding me. She hadn’t really missed me. She’d missed seeing