Masquerade of Lies Read Free Page B

our school. They had the best chocolate éclairs. Apparently, she was meeting another guy she’d met online. I was really glad she wasn’t going alone.
    I left her a comment that said, ‘Have fun and be careful! I miss you!’, then decided to search for Josh. I typed Josh Banks in the search box, and quite a few profiles came up–but then I found him. I decided to add him as a friend, hoping he’d accept my friend request. I bit my lip like I always did when I was nervous. I requested Brooke as a friend, too.
    I then opened another browser and logged on to Twitter. After I followed Josh and Brooke, I got caught up reading Brooke’s tweets. One in particular, “I can’t believe this is happening to me!” caught my attention. I was going to text her to ask what she was talking about, but I decided to wait until I saw her later. Josh didn’t tweet that much, but when he did it was usually sports related.
    I went back to Facebook to find that Josh had accepted my friend request! Brooke accepted my request, too. Immediately afterward, I received a friend request from Claire. Even though I was hesitant, I decided to accept it. Then I received another one from somebody named Mark Edwards. I looked at his profile picture and realized it was pretty boy from the cafeteria. I clicked on Confirm. Just then, Brooke texted me to let me know she was outside.
    I looked at the time at the bottom of my computer screen: 6:30 PM . I logged off and closed my laptop, then opened my bedroom door and leaped down the stairs. I pulled open the front door as Brooke approached me. “Hey!”
    “Hey, Deerwood girl!” She walked in and I closed the door behind her. She took off her shoes and we went into the living room, where my mother was watching television.
    “Mom, this is my friend Brooke.”
    My mother stood up. “Nice to meet you Brooke.”
    “Nice to meet you too Mrs. Clark.”
    “Please, call me Victoria.”
    “Cool…Victoria.” My mother smiled.
    “Okay, we’re gonna go up to my room.”
    “Okay.” My mother grinned. I led Brooke up to my room and closed the door.
    “What’s with all the boxes Deerwood girl?”
    “Oh, I still have to unpack a few things.” She nodded and took a seat on my bed. I sat down beside her. She pulled a cigarette and lighter out of her pocket. She popped the cigarette in her mouth.
    “What are you doing? You can’t smoke in here!” I gushed.
    She yanked the cigarette out of her mouth. “Oh…sorry.” She stuffed the cigarette and lighter back in her pocket.
    “No worries.”
    “So…did you have a boyfriend back in Deerwood?”
    “No, not really.”
    “What do you mean not really? You either did or you didn’t.”
    “Okay, I didn’t.” I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear.
    “Why not?”
    I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know. Shy, I guess.” She stood up and walked towards my closet. She started looking through my clothes. “Are you dating anybody?”
    She snapped her neck in my direction. “Not anymore.”
    “Who were you dating?”
    “What’s with all the questions?”
    I rolled my eyes. “Oh, so it’s okay for you to ask me questions, but I can’t ask you anything?”
    “Exactly.” We both laughed. “No, I was dating this older guy, but it’s over now.”
    “What happened?”
    “Nothing…our relationship ran its course.”
    “Oh.” Suddenly, I remembered that I wanted to ask her about that tweet. “Hey, I was on Twitter earlier, and I came across one of your tweets. It said: I can’t believe this is happening to me! What was that about?”
    “Oh…I…uh…I realized I had a test that I forgot to study for.”
    “Oh…bummer.”
    “Yeah.” She walked back towards my bed and sat down. “Hey, wanna play a game?” She shifted her body towards me and crossed her legs on my bed. She pulled out her phone and started pressing buttons.
    “What kind of game?” I asked.
    “Truth or Dare.” I moved a little closer to her so I could see her smartphone