Page 49 of Little Lies


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Want to?

Tully blanched, puzzled by the question. On the surface it was as simple a question could be—a yes or a no would suffice as an answer. Yet, any answer caught in her throat, because she wasn’t even sure what to say.

Did she want to?

“Does it matter?” She hated it when people answered her questions with another question, yet here she was. Because was there any other way to really answer it?

“Does it matter?” He repeated her question but it dripped with something that sounded like anger without the sting. “No duh it matters.”

She physically had to bite down on her lip to keep herself from asking yet another question:it does?

She couldn’t look away from him for some reason. His attention jumped back and forth from the road to her, but his face was a little red, his eyes a little wide, and his knuckles a little white. And Tully was a little flustered, her gut a little twisted, and her heart a little quick.

Finally, she managed to peel herself to look back out the window because she’d rather die than Nathan be able to see any of that on her face.

Thank God, she didn’t have to answer. He didn’t push it anymore, but a little part of herself sickly figured it was because he could already tell the answer. She was a terrible actress, after all.

“Let’s make a deal,” he cleared his throat. “From now on, I will ask before I touch you, and you give me a simple, yes or no.”

Tully looked back at Nathan. Once again, she was completely blown away that at one point she had ever considered this boy to be on the same level as her sister. He was miles above her. “What’s my end of the deal?” Because no deal like that comes without its drawbacks.

He smiled and pulled off the road into a parking lot. “Buy me dinner.”

* * *

The sign above Betty’s lit them up, and Tully looked around the lot like she expected her sister or Erik to pop out of nowhere. But their cars weren’t there. Still, she couldn’t relax.

Was it too late to go back on a deal made two minutes ago? Maybe she could convince him to go somewhere else.

“This is my favorite stop after a game,” Nathan said as he opened his door and crawled out. “Best burgers and fries in Richmond.”

Okay. Too late.

After the little moment they had, if Nathan wanted Betty’s she would deal with Betty’s. Then she would have fulfilled her side of the deal twofold. Her first time back since . . . earlier. The bile in her throat reminded her of the last time she was here, but she swallowed it and followed Nathan inside.

He immediately walked to a booth, thankfully on the opposite side of the diner than the one she last met Erik in, and she stayed close behind him.

She searched for familiar faces as she sank into the soft cushioned seat across from Nathan. She saw a few, none that she could name, but a few kids she’d seen in the hallway once or twice. She relaxed.

“What are you looking at?” Nathan tried to find what she was searching for, but he’d be unlikely to find them either. A blessing, really. It’s like she expected Erik to be there and for Joliet to pop out of nowhere with him like last time.

It was irrational, she knew, since Joliet obviously dropped Erik the second she got the reaction she wanted from Tully. But it had happened once before and who knows what else Joliet would be pulling out of her bag of snakes now that Tully had gotten on her bad side. She rubbed her hands over the soft material of the jacket sleeves to fight off a chill that wasn’t from the temperature. “Nothing.”

He pushed no further and the waitress stopped by to drop off menus. Tully opened hers and looked over it absentmindedly. She was hungry, but hunger was different than an appetite and that had evaded her the second she saw the blinking neon sign for Betty’s. It’s unfortunate, really, because she did love Betty’s food once too, but now the thought of it left a sour taste in her mouth. She licked her lips as if it would get rid of the bitterness and made a quick decision purely out of politeness.

Nathan, on the other hand, didn’t even touch his menu before the waitress came by to take their order. Tully questioned it for only a second, but then he recited his order—a Betty’s burger with no onions, extra pickles, and a side of fries with a Coke—and she knew he wouldn’t have picked this place if he didn’t know exactly what he wanted.

She ordered a chocolate shake.

“A shake?” Nathan asked. “That’s it?”

The server looked at her too and waited for Tully to answer if she was going to add anything else to her minimal meal. But no, she didn’t plan on it. Her tongue already felt salty enough, and she just wanted something sweet to wash it down. “That’s it,” she said to both him and the waitress.

“In that case, add an extra side of fries,” Nathan said, gathered up the menus, and handed them to the blonde waitress. She disappeared behind the counter and into the back kitchen where they wouldn’t see. “Aren’t you hungry?”

“Not particularly.”

“Now I look like a jerk.”

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