Lies Twist The Way We Think

Chapter 27 - The Price of Love

"You're not making my job any easier," Alisa grumbled. "My hope is that scheduling some high-profile social outings will provide enough grist for the gossip mill that we can delay setting up your first sit-down interview until after we've gotten you some real media training."

I roll my eyes. "I'm sure you get paid handsomely for your sacrifices to this job."

Alisa has been going on about media training, interviews, galas, events and a bunch of other things all morning. I stopped listening after she said "You have to...", and now I'm forced to endure all this.

I'll be doing an interview soon. Better I tell the story before someone else does, she says. But I don't complain. I stoked this fire by protecting Libby, knowing damn well that I have to pay the price now.

I'm haunted by grey eyes following every step of mine.

C. R. D. - M. L. T.

One foot in front of the other. Then again. And again. I walk through the corridor of the school, ignoring the now blatant stares of the students. The last few days have been like this. Everything feels like a fever dream.

A girl— Thea, I remember— walks up to me. "You did a thing," she says in a tone that highly suggests that what I've done is both desperately dramatic and terribly exciting. Inexplicably, my mind goes to Grayson, and the end of the evening. What he told me. What I told him.

"Do you really know why Tobias Hawthorne left you everything?" Thea asks, her eyes alight. "The whole school's talking about it."

"Let them," I say and my eyes find Avery's, who is walking up to us. She was standing with Jameson only moments earlier, having a conversation about things I probably don't even want to know about.

"Thea," Avery says neutrally. "Good morning."

Thea nods to her, then she turns to me. "You don't like me much. I get that. I'm a bisexual, hyper-competitive perfectionist and feminist who loves to win and looks stunningly attractive. I'm no stranger to being hated."

She's overly confident, and while her extroverted and argumentative personality is pushing my limits, I respect her. She's intelligent. "I don't hate you," I say, shaking my head. "You're not that important." Avery snickers.

She takes it lightheartedly. "That's good," Thea replies with a self-satisfied smile, "because we're going to be spending a lot more time with each other. My parents are going out of town. They seem to believe that, left to my own devices, I might do something ill-advised, so I'll be staying with my uncle, and I understand that he and Zara have taken up residence at Hawthorne House. I guess they're not quite ready to cede the family homestead to a stranger."

That bitch Zara again. "Why would you want to stay at Hawthorne House?" I ask Thea. After all, she doesn't seem too keen on meeting the Hawthornes again.

"Contrary to popular belief, I don't always do what I want." Thea tosses her hair over her shoulder. "And besides, Emily was my best friend. After everything that happened last year, when it comes to the charms of Hawthorne brothers, I'm immune."

C. R. D. - M. L. T.

That same evening, Thea is sitting with us at the dinner table, and the atmosphere is tense. All four Hawthorne brothers, even Nash, are sitting at the table. Even Skye has joined us.