Little White Lies by Jessica Burkhart Read Free Book Online Page A

Georgia—three ninth graders who thought they ruled the stable—walked my way. I brushed my hair off my forehead and folded my arms.
    â€œWhat?” I asked.
    Violet and her friends had tried to initiate Callie, the Trio, and me into their circle. We’d met them at the stable at midnight where they had dared us to ride our horses across campus. Heather and I had refused, but Callie, Julia, and Alison had agreed to do the dare. Before they could start, we’d all been caught by Mr. Conner. All of us were temporarily banned from riding and even though it had all been their idea, I had a feeling they hadn’t let it go. To make things even worse, none of the Belles had been extended invites to try out for the YENT.
    â€œHow was your summer?” Violet asked.
    â€œOh, you know,” I said, slowly. “YENT camp was amazing. Too bad you weren’t there.”
    For a second, I felt a flash of guilt. My snarky comment sounded just like something Heather would say. But those girls deserved it.
    Brianna stepped closer, her eyes on me. “Who wanted to spend all summer riding, anyway? We actually have lives. And whatever—we can still make the YENT at the next tryouts.”
    Georgia smirked. “BTW, did you check your
e-mail
much this summer?”
    My hands clenched at my sides. Georgia Drake, the headmistress’s daughter, had somehow used her mom’s computer to hack into my e-mail account. She’d been the one who passed an e-mail to Violet that had started this whole mess in the first place. I’d written the e-mail
pre
-Eric and
pre
-Jacob-and-Callie, confessing I still had feelings for Jacob. But he never got it. Until, that is, right before the end of school while I was happy with Eric, and Callie and Jacob were together.
    I started to reply to Georgia, but Jasmine sidled up next to the Belles and the older girls enveloped her in their group. I didn’t know if Brianna, Georgia, and Violettrusted Jasmine enough to tell her what they’d done with the e-mail, but I definitely wasn’t about to bring it up if Jasmine didn’t already know.
    â€œI’ve got to go,” I said.
    â€œLike always,” Jas taunted behind my back. “Sasha Silver just walks away.”
    Ignoring Jasmine’s comment, I walked around them and left the stable. There wasn’t room in my brain for the Belles and their nasty tricks.

7
SASHA STARBUCKS
    AT BREAKFAST THE NEXT MORNING, PAIGE AND I swiped our usual table. Paige eyed the cappuccino beside my plate of pancakes.
    â€œWhat’s with that, Starbucks?” she asked. “You never drink coffee in the morning.”
    I sipped the drink. “I know, but this week is insane. I think I’ll fall asleep by history class if I don’t have caffeine.”
    â€œOkay, but only because I don’t want to be known as the BFF of the girl who drooled on her desk,” Paige said, smiling.
    â€œOh, glad to know
that
was your reason.”
    We giggled and I sipped my coffee, waiting for the caffeine to kick in. I’d stayed up last night after Paige hadgone to bed to work on a reading assignment for English. Teachers were already piling on the homework, but the work wasn’t the problem—my concentration was. I kept going back and forth about confessing to Paige about the Jacob sitch. It was weird not to tell Paige everything—she and Callie were my BFFs. But I knew I had to keep this to myself.
    I was drizzling (read: pouring) syrup onto my pancakes when Eric took a chair next to Paige and across from me.
    Just looking at him made me need a little less coffee. He’d paired a vintage-y blue T-shirt with jeans and he still looked sleepy. Adorable.
    â€œPancakes, sure. But coffee?” he asked, smiling at me. “You okay?”
    â€œTotally fine,” I said. “Just needed a jolt for today.”
    His own tray had bacon, scrambled eggs, toast, and a glass of OJ. I leaned over and