Read Online Lying Out Loud by Kody Keplinger - Free Book Online Page B

out the right words, but eventually, I had it.
    Hey. So, I know we have our issues, but you’ve been talking to Amy, right? She’s my best friend, and as awful as you think I am, I do want her to be happy. So can we play nice? Call a truce? For her, at the least. — S
    I’ll be honest — writing some of that made me nauseous. I had to fight the urge to rip up the paper and just write the truth, that it was me he’d been talking to. But I knew that would get me nowhere. He’d just think I was lying, ironically. Or that it had all been some mean joke.
    Before I could second-guess my decision, I folded up the slip of paper, tapped Ryder on the shoulder, and tossed it into his lap. I watched him eye it for a minute, not touching the paper. Like he thought it might explode or contain anthrax or something.
    “Don’t be so dramatic,” I whispered.
    He sighed, just loud enough for me to hear, then picked up the note. Slowly, he unfolded it and began to read.
    It took him forever . His eyes must have scanned over the words a thousand times. It was agonizing. But, at last, he picked up a pen and began to scribble his own response.
    I held my breath as Ryder folded the paper back up, neater than I had, and quickly tossed it over his shoulder onto my desk.
    I scooped it up and almost tore the paper as I scrambled to read.
    Fine. For Amy’s sake — truce.
    I grinned as every muscle in my body relaxed, relieved.
    Only to then go rigid once more as Mr. Buckley’s lecture shifted away from some Henry or another and onto Ryder.
    “Mr. Cross,” he said. “Did I just see you pass Ms. Ardmore a note?”
    “Uh …”
    “Because I don’t know how they did things at your old school in Washington, DC” — Mr. Buckley paused as some of our classmates chuckled — “but at Hamilton, we don’t condone note passing.”
    “Mr. Buckley, I —” Ryder began.
    “He wasn’t passing me a note,” I cut in.
    Mr. Buckley and Ryder both turned to face me. But I was totally cool. Because while communicating with Ryder may have made me a nervous wreck, lying about it was something I could do in my sleep.
    “Excuse me, Ms. Ardmore?”
    “Ryder wasn’t passing me a note,” I said. I’d already swiped the paper off my desk and hidden it in my lap while Mr. Buckley was looking at Ryder. “He was … tossing me something else.”
    “Oh? And what’s that?”
    “I’m not sure if I should say, Mr. Buckley.”
    “You can either say it to me or the principal, Ms. Ardmore. Your choice.”
    “Oh, okay. Ryder was tossing me a … uh … sanitary napkin. It fell out of my purse and he was giving it back to me.”
    “A … oh.” Mr. Buckley’s face had turned quite red.
    Ryder, however, looked confused. I wondered if he’d ever heard a pad referred to as a sanitary napkin. Since he hadn’t grown up reading Judy Blume novels, I doubted it.
    “Sorry about that, Ms. Ardmore,” Mr. Buckley choked out. “I didn’t mean to draw attention to … such a private matter.”
    “No big deal,” I said. “It’s just a pad.”
    Now Ryder had caught up. But, to his credit, he looked only slightly uncomfortable. Which was more than I could say for Mr. Buckley. While the class broke out into giggles, he looked totally mortified.
    God, male teachers were so easy.
    “Let’s get back to England, shall we?” He turned to the board.
    I sat back in my chair, fighting a smirk. It paid to be shameless.
    After another half hour of taking notes, the bell rang. I leaned forward as Ryder shoved papers into his neatly labeled history folder.
    “Sorry if I embarrassed you,” I said.
    “You didn’t.”
    His voice was stiff, and he didn’t look at me as he got to his feet. I stood, too, and for a minute, I thought he was going to walk out of the classroom without another word. But to my surprise, he turned to face me.
    “Thank you,” he said. “For the lie. The weird, slightly over-the-top lie that, nonetheless, kept me out of trouble.”
    Did he just