Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have...

Full Title: Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have...

Type: short story

Part: 1/6

Rating: 15+; language, suggestive situations

The first part is probably the raciest, but I did put the rating, so you've been warned, kids.

Part I.

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Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have…

I.

That summer was when everything changed between the three of us. We’d been friends since middle school; Alex and I had known each other longer. But there was always something between him and Eana, even when we were in seventh grade.

Our junior year of high school was unlike any we’d had before. Everything started happening for us. Alex came back from summer, utterly changed; taller, smoother and, dare I say, sexier than he’d ever been. His band started becoming more popular around the city and got signed by a small indie label. Despite how busy he was composing and recording, though, he had plenty of time for girls. More specifically, one girl: Eana.

Although he had become quite the ladies’ man in his new-found sex appeal, the only girl he ever committed to was Eana. Still, he was popular with… well, just about everyone. Rumors about him flew around us constantly. Try as she might not to, Eana let the rumors get the better of her. She could often be found stewing over Alex’s latest fabricated teté-a-teté.

When she and her family left Chicago for their two-month escape to their summer home on Lake Michigan, she was actually happy to get away for awhile.

“Promise me you’ll look after him, Madalyn,” she said to me as we relaxed in my room the day before her departure. “I mean, not that I’m worried… just cuz… you know. He needs look after sometimes.”

I put my arm up in the air, pointing up my index finger, so she could see it from her vantage point on my bed.

“Consider him looked after,” I said. Eana laughed a little, gratified.

“Thanks, Mad,” she said. I could hear the smile and the relief in her voice. “We’ve just… ever since we started dating, we’ve never been apart this long. So he doesn’t really… I don’t really know how it’s going to work… I mean, not being together for two months…”

Something in her tone of voice struck me. I jolted up in a flash.

“Together?” I asked. “As in together together? Eana!” I sat flabbergasted, disbelieving.

“No! Oh geez, I didn’t mean it that way! Madalyn, get your mind out of the gutter!” Eana was beet-red with embarrassment. “If that had happened, trust me, you would know about it… Geez, you are so dirty!”

She hit me on the head with a pillow but all I could do was laugh.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry! Sorry! I didn’t mean it!”

As we spent that afternoon together, talking and laughing like idiots, I was almost not worried at all that things would change during my friend’s absence. However, I was stupid to think that for two months in the summer things wouldn’t happen. That was the final time I would be that way with her.

* * *

It is with mixed feelings that I recall all that happened in Eana’s absence. It was during her two-month sojourn that my envy, my ugly green-eyed demon deep inside became clear. I hate myself for what I did, I hate that I even entertained the idea, let alone gone through with the act.

Alex went through girls like most people went through tissues. He was publicly with Eana; he was secretly with everyone else. I loved the kid to death but there wasn’t much to be said for his fidelity.

There was but one time I can recall when he was faithful. I did my best to keep my promise to Eana. Surprisingly, I did an exceptional job. I confronted Alex about his lady-killing habits and beseeched him to spare Eana that pain this summer; I begged him not to greet her with heartache when she came home at the end of the summer. He agreed, but it was little over three weeks before he broke that promise and I helped him.

I almost cried when I went through with it, but contained myself. I took a deep shuddering breath as he wrapped his arm around my waist, kissing me just behind the ear. I sniffled.

“Hey,” he said suddenly, “you okay?” I tried to shrug away from his grip, but he pulled me closer. He turned me around so I would look at him. “Hey. Look at me. Look, this… this is good, you and me. The two of us, we work. Come, now, don’t be upset.”

“But, Eana…” I stuttered. “I… I made a promise to her, I told her I’d… told her I’d look after you…”

Kissing my forehead, Alex answered, “Who’s to say you haven’t?”

I slipped my arms under him, twirling the curly black tendrils at the base of his neck.

“You and me, Mad,” he whispered in my ear, running his fingers through my long chestnut brown hair, “you and me, we work. We’re… we’re perfect. Eana is going to have to accept that. She’ll have to see it.” Alex and Madalyn. Him and me. Us. For that short period, he had me fooled.

* * *

It happened several more times. But the day Eana came back from Lake Michigan, Alex changed. He took my heart, something akin to fragile glass, took it and shattered it, threw it against a brick wall. He took me and broke me.

Alex and I had decorated his apartment in anticipation of Eana’s homecoming, but we went a bit overboard to compensate for our discretions. Our last time was the day before she got home and even just before she arrived, Alex gave me a peck on the lips. I wanted to extend it longer, but he pulled away – an early sign. A second later, the doorbell rang.

His black waves flopping in his icy blue eyes, Alex headed toward the door. Although he wasn’t wearing tight-fitting clothes, you could see Alex’s lean muscles through his t-shirt, every line and contour. Or maybe that was just because I’d seen him naked.

I hung back in the kitchen with a clear view of the door. Alex hadn’t spent much time outside the last two months – he never did like the sun – but when Eana came through the French doors at the from of Alex’s apartment, it was clear her entire summer had been spent on the water. Her normally fair skin had turned a deep bronze, her dishwater brown hair sun-kissed, streaked with natural honey blonde. Her chocolate eyes remained unchanged, but they sparkled with joy at the sight of Alex.

Eana leapt into his arms and he spun her around a massive grin on his face. They showered each other with kisses. I’d never seen them so happy. The sight of it gave me the feeling of my heart being ripped from my chest. I had never thought of what it would be like when Eana came home… well, I had but this was definitely not how I’d imagined it.

It struck me as I squealed and hugged Eana that Alex had lied to me. He had told me that when Eana got home, we would talk to her, tell her that we were in love, we belonged together.

Perhaps he was waiting for a while, for a week or so after school started, so she wouldn’t be heartbroken right when she got home – although if she were a good friend, she would be happy for us. But in the back of my mind, I knew that wasn’t how it was going to work. I wasn’t going to win. I never win.

We were watching our second movie of the night when I decided to confront Alex. I would do it discreetly but directly. I would be firm.

“Alex,” I said with a clearing-my-throat cough. “Help get some more drinks?”

“Oh, sure,” he replied, completely unsuspecting.

“Alex,” I said seriously once we were in the kitchen and out of Eana’s earshot. “What the hell have you been doing?”

“I haven’t seen my girlfriend all summer,” he answered with terrifying honestly. “I’m enjoying her company.”

“Are you serious?” I demanded. “You’re acting like none of it ever happened? What about you and me? Alex and Madalyn? Us?!”

“Sorry, babe, but you didn’t really think that was gonna last past summer, did you? Two months without someone to kiss, to keep me company? Couldn’t handle it. Getting sex – and I do believe, your, ahem, V-card – out of the deal was just a bonus.”

My eyes widened in disbelief, every word shocking me. It was all true, every crushing syllable. I had, as he put it, cashed in my V-card and was sure he’d done the same – but that apparently was not what happened.

I was at a loss for words. Finally, after a few moments of horrifying silence, I exclaimed, “But… you told me… us… I was your booty call?! I can’t believe this!” With that I delivered a good hard slap to Alex’s cheek, sending him stumbling backwards.

Hearing my anguished shouts and crying, Eana came running. I immediately regretted my outburst. Alex was still glaring at me but I was trying – badly – to cover up my urge to cry. As I said, it wasn’t working out too well.

“I’m sorry, Eana,” I said, “but a family thing came up. I have to go.”

“Aw, I’m sorry,” said Eana, giving me a hug. “See you tomorrow?”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” I lied, zipping up my purse and slinging it over my shoulder. “Tomorrow.” With that, I left the apartment. Tears streamed down my face as I walked home.