The Truth Comes Out Read online

  “Here.” He set the soda on the table and sat back in his chair.

  She wiped the condensation from the cold can, popped the top, and took a long swig. “That’s good.”

  Aaron glanced at the machine. “You look more relaxed.” He turned the page on his notebook and picked up his pencil. “Now, I want you to tell me more about yourself.”

  Warning bells sounded in Sadie’s head. She didn’t want to go there. “I think you know enough about me.”

  Aaron frowned, lines creasing his forehead. “I need to formulate more questions. We need you to lie while in a relaxing environment to test our theory. Why don’t you tell me about your family?”

  Sadie resisted the urge to unplug the machine. She could handle this. All she needed to do was persuade him her family wasn’t interesting. “Not much to tell…there’s just me and mom.”

  “Where’s your dad?” Aaron leaned closer, his pencil poised.

  The spindles went crazy, betraying her anxiety. “I don’t want to talk about my dad.”

  Aaron looked from her to the machine and back again. “Okay. We’ll move on. What do you want to do with your life?”

  Sadie took a calming breath. The machine settled down. “I’m going to law school to become a lawyer.”

  “Like a personal injury lawyer?”

  “A prosecutor. I’ll put criminals in jail.”

  Aaron wrote something in his notebook. “Interesting. Why do you want to do that?”

  The question needled Sadie. “I don’t know. Do I have to have a reason?”

  “No. Just curious. What will you do if you don’t get accepted into law school?”

  “I will get accepted. It’s all I ever wanted. That’s why it was so important for me to—” Sadie clamped her mouth shut. She’d forgotten who she was talking to for a second.

  “To what?” Aaron asked, one eyebrow raised. He tapped his pencil on his notebook while he waited for her to answer.

  She didn’t want to tell him what she was going to say. But how could she lie? He would know. She was hooked up to a freaking lie detector machine. After a second of internal struggle, she opted for the truth. “To win the student body president election. It looks good on an application.”

  His cheeks turned pink and he looked down at his notebook. “Oh.”

  An awkward silence settled in. Aaron fiddled with the wire spiral on his notebook. Finally, he said, “Sorry. I didn’t really think I’d win. I mean, I didn’t do all that much.”

  Yeah, she’d noticed. After all the work she’d done, he waltzed in and dazzled everyone into voting for him. But for him to admit he didn’t even try to win? That hurt even worse. She blinked, determined not to cry in front of him.

  The machine scratched and clicked as the spindles moved, responding to her distress. Sadie stood and jerked the sensor off her hand. “I think we’ve experimented enough tonight.”

  Aaron jumped up, reaching for her. “Sadie, I—”

  But she stepped back. “Don’t.” Sadie unhooked the rest of the cords from herself. “I need to leave. It’s getting late.” She grabbed her backpack and bolted out of the room.

  Chapter Two

  Aaron swallowed. Now what? He ran up the steps and out the front door. “Wait,” he called. The sound of his heartbeat pounded in his ears.

  Sadie didn’t slow down.

  The streetlights were on, dusk quickly fading into darkness. Aaron sprinted toward her and grabbed her arm. “Sadie, stop.”

  She turned and jerked her arm away. Angry tears streaked down her face. “Don’t touch me.”

  He took a step back. “I’m sorry. Honest. I didn’t know how much it meant to you. I wouldn’t have run had I known.” His stomach churned.

  Sadie wiped at her cheeks. “I worked my tail off on my campaign. I made posters. I handed out flyers. I babysat for a month to earn enough to pay for all the supplies. I shook hands and spoke with every student at school. And what did you do? You showed up late, batted your eyes at the girls and gave them that stupid fake smile of yours.”

  Her words stung, and he swallowed hard. All he’d wanted was for her to notice him. It was the only reason he ran against her. Yeah, she’d noticed him all right. And now she hated him…with a passion.

  When he moved to Shady Pine last year, Sadie had been the first girl to catch his eye. She was different from the rest of the cookie-cutter girls in designer jeans. Sadie was smart and didn’t care about shoe shopping or gossiping in the hallways. She was real.

  He tried to smile at her in the hallway, but she never noticed. So when the new school year started, he watched her. She was running for student body president. He figured he should get involved with what she liked. Epic fail.

  Sadie continued her tirade. “At least if you had put forth some effort, it wouldn’t have been so bad. But you didn’t. All you did was rely on your good looks to get you what you wanted. You’re…a lazy, senseless waste of human life!”

  Aaron flinched as if she’d slapped him.

  Sadie’s hand flew to her mouth, and her face drained of color. “I—I didn’t mean that.”

  The street began to swirl around him, and his stomach tightened.

  She reached toward him, but he backed away. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t know what came over me. I didn’t mean those things.”

  He studied the street lamp, afraid to look at her any longer. His head hurt, and a hole formed in his chest. “Yes, you did.” He turned and stalked back into his house, slamming the door.

  ***

  Lorena lived two trailer houses down from Sadie, which was a good thing because Sadie really needed to talk to her. She couldn’t believe what she had done. Getting upset in the first place had been stupid. Yeah, the student body presidency had been important to her, but crying? In front of Aaron? How ridiculous. And then losing her temper and shouting at him. She’d said such awful things.

  Each step toward home made things worse. How could she face him in school on Monday? She’d be too embarrassed to stand being in the same room with him. She acted like such a whiny jerk. Sadie took a deep breath as she stepped up to Lorena’s house and knocked on the metal screen door.

  Collin, Lorena’s big brother, answered. An athletic senior, Collin was all height and muscle. He gave her a disinterested glance and then called out, “Lorena, Sadie’s here.”

  Lorena bounced up behind him and waved him out of the way. “Come in.” Seeing her smile made Sadie’s stomach fill with acid.

  Sadie followed Lorena to her room. She wanted to cry but forced the tears at bay.

  When Lorena turned to face Sadie, her brow furrowed. “What’s wrong?”

  Sadie moaned and sat down on Lorena’s bed. “I’m the worst person in the entire universe.”

  Lorena placed her hands on Sadie’s shoulders. “Why? What happened? Did you go to Aaron’s house tonight?”

  “Yes. And I did a terrible, horrible thing.” Sadie covered her face with her hands. Lorena yanked them down. “I swear, if you don’t tell me right now—”

  “I can’t. It’s too horrible.”

  Lorena looked like she was going to burst, with her face red and her cheeks puffed out. “What. Happened.”

  Fresh tears blurred Sadie’s vision. “I got mad and told him off.”

  Lorena’s breath rushed out in a whoosh. “You what?”

  “I know. It was bad. He admitted he didn’t do much to win the student body presidency, which of course was true; he just showed up and flirted with the girls, but when he said it out loud, it really hurt. I got upset and kind of went berserk.”

  “Did you hit him?” Lorena whacked Sadie’s leg.

  “Ouch. No. I told him he was a senseless waste of human life.”

  Lorena bit back a laugh. “You quoted Monty Python?”

  “I was upset, okay? That was the first thing that came to my mind.”

  Lorena laughed while Sadie’s mood grew sour. “Don’t worry. He’s probably laughing abo
ut it.”

  A box of tissues sat on the desk, and Sadie grabbed it and pulled a few tissues out. “He’s not laughing.”

  Lorena brushed her hair from her face. “Stop worrying. He’ll have forgotten about it by Monday.”

  Sadie wanted to believe her, but the image in her head of Aaron’s face after she went all insane wouldn’t allow it.

  ***

  The walk to school on Monday took longer than usual. Sadie had trouble picking up her feet. They weighed about a hundred pounds each. Even the warm spring weather couldn’t lighten her step.

  As she approached the school, she scanned the crowds. No sign of Aaron outside. Good.

  She slid inside the door and headed to her locker. When she turned the corner, all the air left her lungs and her mouth dried up. Aaron. In a hallway full of hustle and bustle, he had a way of drawing all the attention to himself. He leaned against a locker, one arm up, hovering over Jenna Henderson. Jenna stared up at him, her gaze filled with adoration.

  Puke.

  Sadie hurried by, hoping he wouldn’t notice her. He didn’t, which both relieved her and annoyed her for some odd reason. He normally tossed her one of his I’m-so-hot-you-know-you-can’t-stand-it smiles. Maybe Jenna was more interesting than Sadie realized.

  Yeah, right. Aaron, most likely, was ignoring her on purpose. No matter. He couldn’t ignore her in science class.

  Sadie’s first two classes dragged, and she had a hard time concentrating, which never happened. Twice she raised her hand, only to realize she had forgotten the question. She was too busy practicing in her head what she’d say to Aaron. By the time science class came, she’d gotten a speech memorized and couldn’t wait to get the whole thing over with. She just wanted to talk to Aaron and clear the air. Then he’d go back to smiling at her in the halls, and she’d go back to disguising her dislike for him.

  Sadie was the first one to enter the classroom. She took her seat, removed her notebook from her backpack, and placed it in the center of her desk, with her pencil on the right side. Other students filed in, and the room became noisy. Aaron walked in, plopped down on his seat, and stretched his legs out under the desk. He didn’t look at her.

  Sadie straightened in her chair and turned her head toward him. “Aaron, I would like to formally apologize for my wretched behavior on Friday. I don’t know what got into me. I don’t hold any ill feelings toward you, and I’m sure we can work together on this project without any further incident.”

  Aaron shrugged, still not looking at her. “Sure, whatever.”

  That wasn’t the reaction she had expected. He was supposed to forgive her. Move on. Give her one of his fake million-dollar smiles.

  The idiot. He didn’t even know how to react to a sincere apology. “Is that all you have to say?”

  He sat up. “Actually, I’ve been thinking a lot about our project. I think what we need are some test subjects.”

  She wouldn’t have to be hooked up to the machine anymore? Hoo-freaking-ray. “Great idea.”

  He glanced at her for the first time that day. His gray eyes were shuttered. “I invited Jenna over after school. I think we should spend this class time coming up with questions to ask her.”

  Jenna? The air-head? Sadie bit her tongue lest she say that out loud. “Mmm.” She tried to make that sound like assent. For good measure, she even nodded a little.

  “I took the liberty of coming up with a few questions.” He pulled out another folded up piece of paper from his pocket.

  Sadie wondered if it was the same one, with the piece missing where he’d written down his address. It wasn’t. She took the paper and smoothed it out on top of her notebook, then scanned the contents. “Why are you asking her if she’s going to prom with anyone?”

  He inspected his fingernails. “It’s a control question.”

  Yeah, right. She rolled her eyes, but turned away so he wouldn’t see. “I think these will work. Let’s think of a few more, then we’ll go over what conditions we’ll change in the room.”

  They worked amiably the rest of the period.

  ***

  Jenna sat in the same chair Sadie had been in on Friday night while Aaron fiddled with the machine’s wires and tubes. “It’s so great that I get to help you with you guys’ project, and you get to help me with mine.”

  If Sadie had been chewing gum, she would have swallowed it. She shot a look at Aaron that she hoped said, ‘Really? You volunteered me?’

  Aaron coughed. “Sure, Jenna.” At least he had the decency to look embarrassed. He slid the pressure cuff onto Jenna's arm, hooked up her finger, and then flipped the machine on. “We’re going to ask you some questions. Please answer either yes or no.”

  “Okay.” Jenna’s hand flew to her mouth. “Um, I mean, yes.”

  Sadie opened her notebook and peered down at what she’d written. “Is your name Jenna Henderson?”

  Jenna nodded, her blonde hair bobbing with the movement. That might have been the only thing going on in that head of hers.

  “You’ll need to answer out loud,” Aaron said.

  Jenna leaned over, her face close to the machine. “Yes.”

  Aaron frowned. “No need to talk into the machine. Just answer normally.”

  “Okay. Oops, I mean, yes. Gosh, this is hard.”

  Aaron’s jaw muscles worked. Sadie bit the inside of her cheek so she wouldn’t laugh. “All right. Next question. Do you go to Shady Pine High School?”

  “Yes.”

  Thank goodness she got that one right. Sadie crossed her legs at the ankles. “Are you sixteen years old?”

  “Yes, but I’ll be seventeen in three months. That makes me sixteen and a half, right?”

  Aaron sighed. “Just answer yes or no.”

  Jenna folded her hands in her lap and smiled up at Aaron, batting her eyes. “Oh, sorry.”

  Sadie cleared her throat. “Is your science partner Rick Hill?”

  “Yes, but since he’s so busy with football and all, he’s letting me do most of the science stuff.”

  Sadie stared at her. Aaron said, “What?”

  “Oopsie. I forgot. I mean yes.”

  “No, wait.” Aaron held up his hand. “Rick is sticking you with all the work on your project?”

  “Not all the work. Just the science experiment part, and then the writing it down part. Oh, and I’m making the presentation board. He’s doing the rest.”

  No. Sadie couldn’t get involved. This wasn’t her problem. She’d bite her tongue and get through this stupid experiment thing and then be done with Jenna. She wouldn’t stick her nose in where it didn’t belong.

  No matter how much Sadie told herself to shut up, her annoyance at the situation increased, and she couldn’t stay quiet. “Jenna, there is no other work. He’s making you do it all.”

  Aaron nodded. “He tricked you.”

  Jenna’s smile faded. “Why would he do that?”

  “He’s cheating,” Sadie said. “He doesn’t want to do the project.”

  “Oh.” Jenna looked down at her lap. The only sound in the room was the scratching of the spindles on the paper as it recorded Jenna’s life signs.

  “You should tell Mr. Thorton what Rick is doing,” Sadie said.

  Jenna shook her head. “Then I’ll be branded as the tattle tale. Sorry, but I think I prefer air-head.”

  Heat traveled up Sadie’s neck.

  Aaron turned away and stuffed his fists in his pockets.

  “I mean, I know I’m not the smartest person and kids laugh at me, but I can only imagine what they’d to do me if I were the rat-fink who turned other kids in. No thank you. I’ll stick with the dumb blonde jokes.” A tear rolled down Jenna’s cheek.

  For a split second, Sadie understood what it must be like to be Jenna. She’d seen the other kids laughing. Jenna had always been laughing, too, but Sadie realized she wasn’t laughing on the inside.

  “We’ll help you, Jenna.”

  Aaron looked up, surprise on
his face.

  Sadie ignored him. “Your hypothesis is flawed, but we’ll help you fix it.”

  Jenna blinked. “You would do that?”

  Aaron studied Sadie, squinting. A small smile crept across his face. “Sure we will, Jenna. Your project will rock.”

  ***

  “It’s getting late.” Aaron stood up and scooted his chair in. He stretched his back, his muscles protesting from sitting so long. “We’d better work on these projects more tomorrow.”

  Jenna glanced up at the clock. “It’s after nine? My parents will freak.”

  “I’ll drive you home.” Aaron pulled his car keys from his pocket. “Sadie, want a ride?”

  Sadie looked up from her notebook. “Um, sure, I guess.” She smoothed her skirt before picking up her backpack and neatly placing her belongings inside.

  When they got outside, Aaron clicked the locks on his red Mustang convertible. Well, not actually his Mustang, his father’s Mustang. But his father let him drive it. No reason to tell the girls it didn’t belong to him, right?

  Jenna jumped in the passenger seat and shut the door, forgetting to let Sadie in the back. That was okay. If he let Jenna out first, he’d have a few minutes alone with Sadie. Aaron walked Sadie around to the driver’s side and opened the door. He folded his seat forward. Sadie slid in and pulled her seat belt across her, securing it.

  Aaron got in, turned the key, and started the car. “Where to, Jenna?”

  “My house,” Jenna said.

  “Where is your house?”

  “Oh.” Jenna’s face turned pink. “I live five blocks from here. On Maple Street.”

  Aaron cranked the wheel and stepped on the gas, making sure he didn’t go too fast. It would be terribly embarrassing to get pulled over.

  “That’s my house,” Jenna said, pointing to a brick two-storey with the porch light on. “Thanks for the ride.”

  “No sweat.”

  After Jenna disappeared into her house, Aaron turned to Sadie in the back. “Do you want to get up front?”

  “Sure.”

  Aaron let her out so she could move to the front seat. “Where’s Rosewood Drive?”