Comfortable Liar

Chapter 16: Lie

lie; a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood

My eyes slowly opened, and I blinked in the semi-darkness. My head was pounding, my throat was sore, and my entire body felt like lead. I struggled to remember where I was and what had happened, but my head hurt too much. I don’t know how long I laid there awake, staring at the ceiling, when I heard someone move beside me. I moved my head to the side and fought against the wave of nausea that the simple movement caused and looked at the person laying next to me. To my relief it was Matt, and he looked like he was in a deep sleep. I rolled my head back into a straight position and took a deep breath.

Being careful not to wake Matt, I rolled into a sitting position and then slowly stood up. Another wave of nausea washed over me, but I made sure I didn’t fall back onto the bed. That would definitely wake Matt up, and he looked so peaceful. I looked around the small room that I was in and saw a door. It was slightly ajar, and I could see what looked like a bathroom. It wasn’t a hallway or a closet, so that was the only thing I could think of. I made my way over to it, and I noticed that I was right after fully opening the door. It was one of those half-bathrooms. There was only a toilet and a sink, no shower.

I quickly used the bathroom, and then I sat down on the closed toilet lid. I didn’t think I could walk back to the bedroom just yet, and I still had that nausea feeling. I dropped my head into my hands and tried again to remember what had happened. I remembered going down to the basement, and I also remembered what I had done in the basement. At least now I know where Jimmy gets all of his hyperness from. I hadn’t been able to sit still, but what else had happened?

”Matt, I’m bored! Dance with me!” I yelled and pulled on his arm. He didn’t budge. We were back on the main floor of the house now, and there were people everywhere. Jimmy had turned a sheet into a toga and was playing a game of quarters, Zacky looked bored out of his mind (dare I say it…I think he missed Raynee), and I couldn’t get Matt to get up.

“I don’t want to dance. Why don’t you dance with Brian?” Matt said without even looking at me. I threw my hands up in a dramatic display and fell back against the scratchy couch cushions.

“I don’t even know where the cocky bastard is!” I yelled and crossed my arms.

“You called?” I twisted my head and saw an upside-down version of Brian smiling at me.

“Dance with Erika, she’s bored,” Matt said, still not looking at me.

“Gladly. Come on, Red! Let’s have some fun!” Brian yelled. He uncrossed my arms and pulled me up, and then we were on the dance floor.

I danced but kept my distance. I didn’t dance with Brian like I did with Matt, for obvious reasons. Brian wasn’t even a friend, so I didn’t know why I was dancing with him in the first place. I looked over at the couch and saw Matt, and he wasn’t alone anymore. I would have loved to have seen Jimmy in his ridiculous toga, but it hadn’t been Jimmy. It was Lisa. She was talking to Matt and smiling, and he was smiling back while nodding his head.

“I’m going to get another drink,” I mumbled before walking off. I’m not sure if Brian heard me, but he walked after me anyway. I marched over to Jimmy’s drinking game and stole the Jack Daniel’s bottle.

“That’s mine!” I raised a finger at Jimmy’s yell, and then I downed a good amount of the bottle’s contents. When I was done I slammed the bottle back onto the table and faintly heard a few cheers. I turned back to Brian, smiling this time, and grabbed the front of his shirt.

“Let’s dance!” This time I moved my hips in time with the beat, and I don’t think I could get any closer to Brian without us being the same person. Brian didn’t seem to mind. If I had to guess, I’d say he enjoyed it. Maybe he enjoyed it a little too much. I felt his fingers digging into my hips, but I didn’t care. I felt his lips skim the side of my neck, but I didn’t care. I saw Matt get off the couch and start towards us, but I didn’t care.

At that, my mind drew a blank. The last thing I remembered was Matt walking towards Brian and me, and then that’s it. My head hurts too much to think about anything else. I pushed myself off the toilet and leaned against the sink. My elbows held me up, and my head dangled right above the pearly white sink. I sucked in a deep breath and turned the water on. I cupped a little in my hands and splashed it on my face. The water fell back into the sink as a pinkish color. Pinkish…

My head snapped up and I looked into the mirror. My hair was all over the place, but a quick brushing would fix it. My usually bright blue eyes were a little dull and bloodshot. My skin was its usual pale, which made the circles under my eyes look darker than usual. None of that was what bothered me though. The left side of my lip was split. It wasn’t a really bad split, but it was bad enough. I was surprised that I hadn’t felt the pain sooner. There was a small bruise right under my bottom lip, next to the split.

Matt didn’t let go of my arm until we were in some bedroom, and he slammed the door behind us. The sound echoed in my ears, but that was the least of my problems. I quickly turned around to stare up at him, and he glared down at me.

“What the fuck were you doing?!” Matt yelled.

“Dancing! And what were you doing?!” I yelled back.

“I was watching my girlfriend act like a whore on the dance floor!”

“Bullshit! You were talking to that whore, Lisa! I saw you!”

“Yeah, I was talking to someone! Not fucking someone on the dance floor!”

“It was just a little dancing, I wasn’t doing anything wrong! You’re the one who wanted me to dance with him! If you hadn’t been so fucking lazy—“ Matt’s hand came out of nowhere and connected with the left side of my face, and I fell against the dresser. I raised my hand up to my lip, and my fingers were red when I pulled them back. I turned my eyes to Matt, but he didn’t even look phased.

“Next time, think before you speak,” Matt said. I nodded my head without even thinking about it, and Matt walked over to the bed. I waited until his breathing was even and deep, and then I eased myself onto the mattress. I fell asleep on my side, trying not to cry.

I felt tears well in my eyes again, but I held them back. I lifted my shirt sleeve and looked at the dark bruises. I’m pretty sure they were an exact match to Matt’s fingers. Then I raised the bottom of my shirt and saw very faint bruises on my hips; those would match Brian’s fingers. The bruises on my hips were an ugly yellow-green color, but the ones on my arm were closer to purple.

For some reason, I couldn’t get angry at Matt. I might not have deserved to get hit, but he had a point. I had never even seen him touch Lisa; he had only talked to her. As for me, I let things go a little too far with Brian. It was something I never should have done, and I felt disgusted at myself. How could I do that to Matt?

“Erika, you in there?” I heard Matt asked from the other side of the bathroom door.

“Yeah, just a minute,” I said. I grabbed a towel and dried my face, and I cleaned my lip up a little. I found a brush and quickly ran it through my hair, and then I walked over to the door. I sucked in a deep breath and opened it, and I saw Matt sitting on the bed. He looked up and opened his arms, and I happily walked over to him. He wrapped his arms around me, and I ignored the small pain from my bruises as I wrapped my arms around his neck.

“What happened to your face?” Matt asked and took my chin between his fingers.

“Don’t you remember?” I asked.

“Nope. The last thing I remember is pulling you away from Brian. You were pretty messed up,” Matt said with a wide smile.

“Yeah, I was. I tripped when we were going up the stairs,. I caught my mouth on one of them. Are you sure you don’t remember? I mean, you were the one that had to help me up,” I said and smiled at him. If he didn’t remember, then I didn’t want to remind him.

“I was pretty wasted last night too. Come on, we need to get you home,” Matt said and stood up. Matt gave me a quick kiss after he stood up, and then he laced his fingers through mine. Matt led me back down the stairs and through the house, and then we were in his car and heading towards my house.

I smiled as he stopped in front of my house, because there weren’t any cars in the driveway. That meant Chris had left for work, and Karen was off doing whatever she feels like doing. Which meant that neither of them would see me when I walked in and question my appearance.

“See you at school Monday?” I asked.

“Yeah. I gotta do my English paper tomorrow,” Matt said. I leaned across the seats and placed my lips on his, and Matt smiled into the kiss. I pulled away a lot sooner than I wanted to, and I gave him a small wave before disappearing into my house.

Once inside, I took a quick shower and then fell into my bed. I had been planning on doing something before taking a nap, but I felt too drained to even stand. So I took a long nap, with no dreams…

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“Erika, honey, what happened to your lip?” Karen asked when I sat down for supper. I raised my hand to my busted lip and tried not to wince.

“I was walking up the stairs to Aiden’s apartment and tripped. The side of my mouth caught one of the stairs,” I said and looked down in what I was hoping looked like embarrassment.

“Oh, you poor thing,” Karen said and lightly squeezed my hand.

“It doesn’t hurt that bad,” I said quietly.

“Did you have a good time at Aiden’s?” Chris asked.

“Yes, sir. She was a little sick, but I think she’s feeling better now,” I said.

“Sick? I hope you didn’t catch anything,” Chris said and sat down. I stared at the meatloaf in the middle of the table, and I felt my stomach give a small lurch. I had been trying to watch my weight, especially lately. I usually only ate supper, but sometimes what we had would make my stomach turn.

“I’m not really feeling that well,” I admitted.

“Do you want me to make you some soup?” Karen asked.

“No, that’s okay. I’ll make myself some,” I said and stood up. Karen grabbed my forearm and smiled down at me.

“Nonsense. You go lay down, and I’ll bring your soup to you, okay?” Karen asked.

“Okay. Thanks, Karen,” I said and wrapped my arms around her. She awkwardly patted my back, and I walked off back to my room. I usually hated lying, but I had told at least three separate lies in one day. And I felt great.