Page 26 of Whisper Pretty Lies (Lust & Liars #1)

Cam

If there’s one thing I can’t handle, it’s tears. And EvanAnn looks like she’s about to cry when she leaves second period. Damon watches her, but Hawk ignores her. We walk down the hallway to third.

“How’d auditions go?” I ask.

“Fine.” Hawk doesn’t look at me. He was fucking excited about this yesterday. Figured it’d be a good in with Evan and the whole college thing.

Damon glances at Hawk with what looks like a glare.

“What the fuck is going on with you two?” I keep my voice low, because we aren’t about to duck into a room to work out our feelings. No, if we need to work out some aggression, we take it to the ice.

“Nothing.” Hawk breaks away and heads for his next class.

I shake my head. “That’s not nothing. Fuck, does this make me the chick who wants to know what everyone is feeling?”

Damon laughs. “Nah, but I’ll show you why he’s pissed tonight after practice.”

“We’re partying at yours tonight?” I smirk, because tonight is EvanAnn’s first night in the mansion.

“I’ve got some things I want to make clear.” Damon smirks as he breaks off to go to his class. “Don’t worry. Evan will fall in line.”

I’m all in on this. Revenge. Taking the girl. Damon wants the gold digger out of his house too. That’s going to be complicated, because forcing her mother out will likely lose us the girl.

EvanAnn

Mia squeals as she reads the list posted on the board. She pushes her way out of the crowd of students around the cast lists and rushes over to me. Her arms fling around me and squeeze me tight against her.

“You are the absolute best!” she says.

My chin is against her shoulder but I manage to get out, “No, you’re the best. Which is why I cast you.”

She pulls back and her grin is contagious.

Crystal squeals, “Oh, my god.”

She turns, finds me, and hurries over. “You cast Hawk as Cassio?”

“Turns out he’s really good at Shakespeare.” I keep his background in theater a secret just in case he doesn’t want anyone else to know. I don’t know what to think about Hawk today, so I’m trying not to think about him.

“Oh, my god.” She squeezes my arm. “I have scenes with him, right?”

I nod. She grins and squeals again. Maybe I won’t have any problems with Hawk wanting me when half the cast will want him. He should have no trouble finding someone single to kiss.

Crystal is playing Emilia and I cast Sophie as Bianca. I hope Sophie won’t be too awestruck by Hawk to play his courtesan.

“This is going to be amazing.” Mia is all grins as she pulls me with her to the cafeteria.

I nod, but swallow down the bitter pill that I need to keep what Hawk and I did a secret to maintain unity amongst the cast. Mia wants Hawk. Sure, she wants them all, but it’s definitely against girl code to go after someone else’s crush.

Besides, it’s not really a lie, right? Just something I’m not telling anyone. If someone asked me directly if I kissed Hawk, I could say no. After all, he kissed me. It’s semantics, but I have to do what it takes to have a successful production.

Besides, no one would ever guess Hawk decided to kiss me. It was probably a mistake. He said he was practically high on auditioning. Maybe he regretted it as soon as he left my house. Which is why he’s ignoring me today. That makes sense.

Mia parts from me as I head to the salad bar. I should be walking on air. I got my dream cast for Othello , but the rock in my stomach remains. Maybe I should come clean to Chase.

“Babe!”

I cringe as Chase wraps his arms around my shoulders from behind. I force a smile.

“You’re the absolute best. We’re going to have an expensive dinner tonight to celebrate.” Chase kisses my cheek and walks away.

Dinner, and then I have to move into my new room at Damon’s. Maybe it would be easier to think of it as Adam’s house instead of Damon’s. It doesn’t negate the fact Damon lives there, but it might be easier to tell people we’re moving in with my mom’s boyfriend.

But then they might ask who’s the new boyfriend...

I grab a salad and head to my table inside. There’s no way I’d step outside into that courtyard today, not even if Mia and Chase go out there. Nope, I’m accepting my lot in life and running back to safety.

Mia joins me first, still bubbling about being cast. Chase also has high energy when he joins us. They chat over me about the cast, the production, and how great the show is going to be, but all the energy I would normally have is sucked dry because of what happened last night.

It was a mistake. As long as I keep telling myself that, eventually I’ll believe it.

Later, after acting class, I walk to my directing classes. As I approach the classroom, a tentative touch on my arm makes me turn.

“Hi, EvanAnn.” Kiera Fox stands with her books held against her chest. She’s a junior in the directing program. Her dark hair is pulled into a low bun, and her bright green eyes are fixed on me.

“Hi.” I keep walking because we’re both going to the same class.

“So, I know we haven’t talked much.” Kiera tucks her hair behind her ear and glances toward me as she falls in step beside me.

“But from the projects in the directing class we’ve done, I know we have similar visions.

It’s your decision, of course, but I wanted to say I really respect you as a director and as a student, and would love to work with you on Othello or any other future projects you have. ”

I don’t think she took a breath during that sentence. I stop to look at her. The seniors are probably all trying to convince Brandt to let them be his assistant. Most juniors look up to the seniors and only hope one of us will pick them.

She stops with me and sighs. “I know I’m coming on too strong, but honestly, when I look at you, I see me.

We’re both here because we auditioned and made it in.

We’re smart, but we don’t have the money or connections most kids do.

We’re lucky this school is in the same town as our parents, or we couldn’t afford to do this at all. ”

I release my breath. “I loved your take on Sally’s Gone, She Left Her Name last year. It was different from the other takes on it. Original.”

She smiles and tucks her hair. Nervous tick? “Thanks.”

I have to decide today who I’ll work with. “I’ll definitely consider you for my assistant director spot, but I have to think about it.”

She beams. “Really? Thank you. I won’t let you down if you pick me.”

She goes up on her toes and turns to walk with me to class. When I take my seat, I consider the other people in our class and how I might rank them. At least it distracts me from thinking about seeing Hawk at play rehearsal and seeing Damon at home every day.

In the end, I let Keira know between classes I’m choosing her.

She practically walks on clouds, and I wish I could have that feeling today.

The rest of the day is hectic with arranging the production schedule, now that we have the students’ schedules to work around.

Fortunately, hockey isn’t in full season yet, but football is.

Working around both is going to take me time to figure out, but Cassio is in the play a lot less than Iago. It’s our last block of the day and the teacher has given us free time to work on the schedules or the project the other directors have for this semester.

Kiera and I sit at a table with the schedules in front of us.

I’ve already blocked out what scenes to work on together to optimize the time I’ll have the actors.

I spent most of the summer working on it, knowing people’s time would be limited to practice outside of school.

I don’t want people to hang around for only a few lines.

“Thank you again,” Kiera says as she labels Post-its with the characters and actors’ names.

I nod. “Honestly, I probably would have chosen you if you hadn’t said anything. Like you said, our work is very similar. We’ll have less conflict than if I’d chosen someone who has a very different aesthetic.”

And right now, I need something easy in my life to rely on. But I don’t tell her that. We work the whole time and put together a feasible schedule, including the two hours every other school day where we’ll have the full cast in the afternoons.

I have everyone’s email to send them the schedules. The first practice will be the read-through on Monday during the afternoon time slot. Kiera walks with me out the front door and heads off toward her ride.

I release my breath and look around the parking lot. Chase isn’t at his truck yet. He usually drives his car, especially when he picks me up. I assume, with a scrimmage tomorrow, the trio will have hockey practice today.

The scrimmage I’m attending with my boyfriend and my best friend, who has a crush on the guys. Fuck. Who decided I needed a shake-up in my life? Because I so didn’t. I liked my little world where the most stressful thing would have been picking my assistant director.

That was the easiest part of my day.

An arm drapes over my shoulder from behind, and for a second, I forget to breathe. When I inhale Chase’s cologne, I relax. Turning, I look up at his wide smile.

“Let’s go get dinner.”

He leads me to his truck and even helps me in, which is a first. He must be super happy to be cast as Iago. When he climbs in the truck and starts it, I turn to him.

“You know you earned your part, right? I didn’t give it to you because you’re my boyfriend.”

He winks at me. “It doesn’t hurt to kiss up to the director though.”

I shake my head, because I hope he’s kidding. He turns the music up as he pulls out of the school lot and heads downtown. We’re still in our school uniforms, so we can’t go anywhere super fancy, but he picks a nice sit-down restaurant.

“Anything you want. It’s on me.” He sits back in his chair and looks over the menu.

I still look at the prices and choose something on the cheaper side. When the waiter walks away, Chase sits forward and takes my hands on the table.

“We’re going to have such a great year, babe.

You’re going to knock this play out of the park, and people will be lining up to have you come work for them.

” Chase rubs his thumb over my knuckles.

He smiles sweetly, and I remember why I decided to date him.

He can be a really nice guy when he wants to be.

“I don’t think it works that way, Chase.” I pull one of my hands back and tuck my hair behind my ear. “I need to get into a great college and make the connections I’ll need to have a great career.”

“My dad can get you connections. You know, we could be a power couple. Your brains, my looks, your smarts, my money.” The way he looks at me is different than how Hawk looked at me last night.

Almost like I’m something Chase wants to buy.

Hawk looked at me like he wanted to possess me, like it was a physical need.

Cold flows through me, but I push away the thought that maybe Chase isn’t with me because he wants me. We’ve kissed and he’s pushed for a more physical relationship, but when I told him I wasn’t ready, he backed off.

That’s completely normal, right? He’s introduced me to his parents. They seem to like me.

“EvanAnn?”

I focus on Chase. “I’m sorry. What?”

He smiles softly. “You thinking about us in the future? We could go far, babe. You wouldn’t even need to go to college with me by your side.”

My brow furrows. “I want to go to college, Chase.”

“Why? We could do films together straight out the gate. Who needs college when you can have a career?” Chase sounds perplexed.

“Me. I need college. I know I’ll learn a lot on the job, but the types of connections I can make at a good university will be invaluable as I progress through my career.” We’ve talked about the future together. I thought he knew this was what I wanted.

“Of course, babe. Whatever you want.” He smiles. “College will be great. You can go somewhere in New York City or LA, so we can stay together while I work on my acting career.”

“Do you really see us together after high school?” I mean, sure, we’ve talked about it, but I don’t know if I’m going to stay with my high school boyfriend forever. It happens, but what I feel for Chase is respectful and nice.

“You don’t?” He straightens like I said something wrong.

I shrug, because I don’t have the answer to that.

He reaches for my hand. “Let me take you somewhere after we eat. I’ll show you how good we can be together.”

“You have a game to get to,” I remind him.

“Tomorrow, then.” He rubs my hand. “I want to make sure you know how much I value you.”

Value?

“We have the hockey scrimmage, the dinner, and the first party of the year tomorrow. You said we shouldn’t skip it.” Usually, I’d rather skip it, but not this time. This time I’ll have Mia and I’ll be able to talk to her when Chase is hanging out with his friends.

“You’re right.” He releases a breath. “Sunday. It’ll be our last time to be together before everything takes off.”

Be together? Is he talking about sex? Because I’m definitely not starting a physical relationship with him when I’m sneaking around with other guys. Not sneaking, per se, but... Fuck, what am I doing? “I’m still not ready?—”

“Your filet, sir.” The waiter sets Chase’s steak in front of him, then puts my pasta in front of me. “Miss.”

I don’t say anything as we start eating, but if Chase wants to have sex, we’re going to have to talk more. Even if I was ready, I can’t have sex with him while I have stronger chemistry with other guys.

“Hey,” Chase says softly, bringing my attention to his blue eyes. “I’m willing to wait for you, EvanAnn. You take all the time you need to be ready. I’m in this for the long haul.”