Chapter 20: Both Liars

Teagan held the microphone out to me with a sweet little smile.

It was a dare. She thought I would take it and fall apart.

I took it.

The gym was so quiet I could hear the ice settle in somebody's cup.

"Every word on that screen is real," I said.

A murmur ran across the floor. Teagan's smile slipped, just slightly.

"I wrote the message to Cassie. I wrote the replies to Nightcrawler. And I knew who he was the whole time."

I turned and found Drake's face in the crowd.

"The first day," I said. "In the cafeteria."

"He tipped my lunch on the floor, and I sat down and sent him a message."

Someone behind me whispered, "Oh my God."

"I read his screen. He didn't know that I had."

"I decided to make him fall in love with me so I could break his heart in front of all of you."

I breathed in.

"I meant it. For about two weeks, I meant it."

Nobody was laughing now.

"I'm not here to say I was right. I lied to him for weeks."

"I let him say things to me that I answered with a script."

"Say the rest, scholarship," Teagan said, too bright. "The part where you're sorry."

"I'm not sorry about the plan," I said. "I'm sorry I was good at it."

A boy somewhere laughed once, startled, and stopped.

"But here's what that screen didn't show you."

I held up my phone.

An hour ago I had sent Cassie a picture of the banner.

I turned the screen toward the booth, and Cassie, who could read my mind from forty feet, put it on the big monitor.

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