Believe Me, I'm Lying [New & Improved]

Prologue

Rain has always been a harbinger of tragedy for me.

Something horrible didn't occur every time it rained, but everything bad that had happened to me in my life had happened on a day when it was pouring. A light sprinkle never bothered me. It was only when the rain seemed really relentless.

It started when I was seven. A car hit the cat I'd had since I was a child because the driver couldn't see through the torrential rainfall.

When I was ten, I found out my grandpa had cancer. It was raining that day. Then, almost a year after, it was raining on the day he died. He was the only family I had besides my mother, father, and uncle. My little brother hadn't been born at the time.

It had been raining the day I broke my leg in gym class when I was thirteen.

Rain fell from the sky the day my house burned down when I was fourteen, forcing my family to move across town, away from my friends, my school, and everything I knew.

At age sixteen, I'd gotten into my first car accident because I'd hydroplaned on the wet pavement.

And it had been raining the day my parents died.

Rain pelted against the windowpanes, almost drowning out the sound of the teacher ranting about sine, cosine and tangent. "Sohcahtoa," she said to the class, writing the word on the board. "Sine is opposite over hypotenuse, cosine is adjacent over hypotenuse, and tangent is opposite over adjacent. Make sure you write that down, because I promise you that it will help you greatly when the chapter test comes."

I picked up my pencil and scribbled down the foreign word, repeating it over in my head, trying to remember what tangent was. I hated math, and math hated me. A sleepy yawn escaped my lips as Ms. Black began to pass out practice work sheets, ignoring the mumbled protests. Almost the whole class seemed to be asleep today— not that I could blame them. Rainy days made everyone tired.

Suddenly the door burst open and the principal, Mr. Venn, walked in looking stricken. A slight murmur rose from the class at his abrupt appearance. I held my head up a little higher, straining my ears to hear what he was saying to my geometry teacher. An expression of alarm crossed her face and she threw a quick glance in my direction. I furrowed my eyebrows, curious. Apparently the class was too, because everyone had gone deathly silent.

"Harley," Ms. Black said, gesturing me to the front of the room. "Come here please."

A weight dropped into my gut as I stood slowly, under the impression that I was in some serious trouble. My thoughts raced as I frantically thought of what I could have done. I wasn't a trouble student.

"Bring your stuff," Mr. Venn added.

I swallowed as I nodded, flipping the binder on my desk shut, not bothering to take out the pencil or calculator. Unzipping my backpack, I quickly shoved my stuff into it before I made my way to the front of the classroom. A few of my classmates gave me sympathetic looks as I passed them.

Mr. Venn signaled for me to follow him out of the classroom. My heart pounded in my chest as I tried to think of what I could have possible done to get myself into trouble. Nothing came to mind... except earlier in the day, when I'd stolen a lollipop from the secretary's office while turning in the attendance form. But I couldn't be in too much trouble for that.

"Harley," Mr. Venn started once we were out of the room, his voice wavering. "Your parents got in a car accident and you need to get to the hospital."

My smile dropped and I froze. "What?"

"We received a call from the hospital about five minutes ago," he explained. "The only people listed in your emergency contacts were your parents, is there anyone who can bring you there?"