These Lying Eyes Read Online Free Page A

from the last couple of years, people who had never bothered to notice she existed.
    Max gestured for her to go ahead of him, but she didn’t want to go first. She didn’t want to go in at all, but if she had to, Mina wanted to cower behind him before she slunk to an obscure seat. She peeked again through the window and back at Max.
    And then she saw it again. That glimpse of his nerves. Guilt welled in her, and she realized she couldn’t do this to him. She couldn’t drag him into the land of the invisible.
    “Ladies first,” he said, pulling the door open. Mina surveyed the classroom again, finding the faces she knew and watched their eyes sail past. And then, she stepped back into the hall.
    Max glanced into the room before letting the door go and joining her in the shadows by the windows, “Mina?” he asked.
    “So,” she said, fighting for the right words. “You have to know I… Man, how do I say this,” she trailed off again, caught the memory of little Max calling her name.
    He looked at her so patiently, with those big familiar blue eyes.
    “Max, I don’t have any friends except Peter. Probably, my other cousin Ben. Even Hailey and I aren’t friends any more,” she said.
    Max’s eyes widened as she spoke, and a zombie monotone took over her normally husky voice. “You don’t have to be nice to me just because we were friends in grade school. If you enter that room alone, you will be pulled into the popular crowd and the next four years will be happier without me.”
    He shook his head, so she continued, “Max, you’re all tall and pretty.”
    The slightest of flushes crossed his cheeks, and Mina nodded to emphasize her words, adding, “Don’t let me ruin it for you.”
    She made herself meet his eyes. She wasn’t going to be self-sacrificing while blinking tears away and staring at the ground.
    “Mina…” He trailed off.
    She clenched her jaw, preparing for him to slide away, missing her old friend again already.
    But, he took in a slow deep breath, almost in unison with her. She could nearly feel him thinking.
    “Really.” Mina said. “It’s cool. Go. You know. Have a good life.”
    An awkward tension filled the space between them, and Mina waited for him to flee it. After all, grade school was a long time ago, and Max was no longer the squeaky little kid he’d once been.
    “Mina, I’m not interested in those things. Being popular or whatever.” Max said. “I’ve never cared about it.”
    He lowered his voice, stepping closer, and the movement thrust him into the light while she lurked in the shadows. “If we’re going to be embarrassingly honest, seeing you again is the only good thing about being back. I know we aren’t little squirts running around the forest anymore, but we were. And I’d rather run through the woods again with you than do whatever those popular types have to offer.”
    He tugged one of her curls. “I like you, Mina.” He said. “I rather be friends with you again than sucked into a crowd of superficial people who probably turn on each other.”
    “Max.” She didn’t know what else to say.
    They waited. Ill at ease, uncomfortable, shifting their feet, avoiding the other’s eyes, but even still, each felt as if they were standing on stone, rather than the shifting sands of moments earlier.
    “Mina.” He grinned his face lighting up, and the dimples flashed on his face as he gestured to the classroom door. “I think we agreed you’d go first.”
    She sighed dramatically as she stepped into the classroom, making him laugh. She tossed a grin back before glancing around the room, carefully not seeing her cousin, Hailey. Except, the only place with two seats together was next to Mina’s cousin, and Max headed right over.
    Don’t look at her, Mina told herself. Don’t remember. Hailey. Cousin. Once-best-friend.
    Max stretched out his legs and crossed them as soon as they sat, and as he did, Charlie, Hailey’s boyfriend, recognized Max.
    “Max