Little White Lies Read Free Page B

to man.”
    Brilliant. He could tell her
everything
. Vix, the fricking aspiring investigative reporter.
    “Oh, I’m only interested in the facts,” she says earnestly. “I believe that’s the true function of the press.”
    “Quite right.” Kenny smiles. “
Fact
and
fiction
. What an intriguing pair you make.”
    “Is it far to this pub?” I snap as we turn onto a street filled with more terraced cottages and there’s still no sign of it.
    “Nope.” Kenny grins. “Not far.”
    “So are you a student too, Kenny?” Vix asks.
    “Yep. I’m doing computer science.”
    “Wow, that must be interesting,” she gushes. “I always think it’s amazing how computers are programmed by code—it’s like a secret language or something!”
    What?
I shoot her a look. She’s changed her tune.
    “Ah, it’s when you crack the code that it gets interesting.” Kenny winks. “Once you’ve hacked one computer you can hack them all.”
    My heart beats fast. “So how do you know Christian, Kenny?” I ask, quickly changing the subject.
    “A result of my drinking habits, I’m afraid. The pub’s just round the corner from my flat—”
    “You live in a flat, not halls?” Vix says, impressed.
    “Yeah, I had enough of communal living at boarding school.” He shudders. “I moved up here a few weeks early to acclimatize, and I met Christian in the first pub I went to. Plus his house is almost opposite my nearest off-license, so I’ve bumped into him on the street a few times too. How about you two?”
    “Oh, we don’t know him—yet.” Vix smiles.
    Kenny raises an eyebrow. “Then why are you looking for him?”
    “Well...,” Vix starts.
    “He dropped his wallet,” I say quickly. “We just want to return it.”
    “Ah! A couple of Good Samaritans, are you?”
    I feel sick.
    “Hey, you could ask him about a job too, Lou,” Vix suggests. “Kill two birds with one stone? Returning his wallet proves you’re trustworthy, after all.”
    Kenny nods. “Trust: you can’t put a price on that.”
    I shiver.
Except when you can
...
    “You can trust me,” Kenny said the day I first approached him, back at Oakwood Grange boarding school. But I didn’t believe him, not straight away. Despite the fact that we’d been at the same school for a whole year, I barely knew him—our social spheres were galaxies apart. Until that day. Until I needed him.
    I gate-crashed a meeting of the computer club and found Kenny showing a new website he’d created to his geeky mates.
    “Impressive,” I said, and instantly they all turned, startled. Girls were rare enough at the college—we were outnumbered three to one—but in the ICT room they had long been declared extinct.
    “Nice work.” I let my Chanel-spritzed hair brush Kenny’s shoulder as I leaned towards the screen. “What else can you do?”
    He spent the rest of the evening showing off all his codes and tricks, till finally I asked him to walk me back to my boarding house.
    “The truth is, Kenny, I need your help,” I sighed once we were alone. “I’m in big trouble, and you’re the only one who can get me out of it.”
    I told him I was struggling in biology and had a mock exam coming up that would determine my predicted grade—and consequently which universities I could apply to.
    “So I’m guessing you don’t want me to tutor you, as I’m not even taking biology?” He raised an eyebrow.
    “Not exactly.”
    “So...?”
    I took a deep breath. “The mock paper’s on the school computer system....”
    “Wait.” His eyes widened. “You want me to hack into the system so you can cheat on the exam?” He ran a hand through his thick ginger hair. “Bloody hell.”
    “Please, Kenny, you’re my last hope,” I said desperately, grabbing his hand and squeezing tight. “I can’t fail it. If I do, I won’t have a
chance
of getting offers from the universities I want. Plus my aunt and uncle will
kill
me—they’ve forked out a fortune for me to come