Read Online No One Needs to Know by Amanda Grace - Free Book Online Page A

what everyone thinks of me,” Zoey snaps. “An insult or two here and there, fine . But it’s been a three-year smear campaign. Take your fucking blinders off and get a clue, will you?”
    “They’re not blinders,” I say, my anger flashing to meet hers. “It’s called loyalty. Maybe if you had some, you wouldn’t be such a pariah in the first place.”
    “People were loyal to Hitler too, you know. It’s not always a good quality.”
    I scowl and stare back out at the water, wondering why I’m even talking to her, and where the hell my brother went, and why she has such a chip on her shoulder, and …
    “Ava’s a good person,” I say. “We both are. It’s not my fault you two don’t get along.”
    “You know, I thought you were smarter than that,” Zoey says. “I thought you’d see through her bullshit eventually. But maybe you never will.”
    And she spins on her heel and stalks off, leaving me huddled there in the darkness.

ZOEY
    I don’t know why I’m doing this.
    I don’t owe Olivia Reynolds anything , most definitely not a birthday party, or whatever this is going to become.
    The thing is, I can’t get that image out of my head—of Olivia out on her deck alone in the darkness, staring out at the water, her shoulders slumped. The more I’m around her, the more I see this fragility about her, something a little cracked and broken behind the façade.
    And I keep remembering what Liam said—that she’s been clinging to him.
    And now it’s her birthday, and he’s two hours away at the beach, and she’s … she must be alone. I heard her, yesterday at school, telling Ava that she’d see her when she got back. I don’t know where Ava’s going, but it sure as hell sounds like out of town.
    Which leaves one Olivia Reynolds alone on her birthday.
    I grit my teeth, wondering why, for the millionth time, I’ve decided that Olivia needs me. She could probably rent some friends for the weekend.
    “This will just take a second, okay?” I say, glancing over at Carolyn in the passenger seat.
    “But I want to come with you,” she whines. “ Pleeeeeeaaaaaaase?”
    I put my mom’s battered old car in park and look up at the buildings that comprise Ruston Point.
    “I’ll only be a minute.”
    “But it looks so cool,” she says, “and I want to ride in the elevator.”
    God, how pathetic is it that my sister, age ten, so rarely rides in elevators that it’s a point of excitement?
    “Fine. Come on. But don’t say anything, okay? My friend might not even be home.”
    “Deal.” She beams, jumping out of the car before I can change my mind.
    I’m regretting the decision already, but I don’t order her back into our dilapidated car. I simply walk to the front entry, pausing at the call box. I rake in an oddly shaky breath before I tap in 403 , and then, just as it starts to ring, I panic.
    There was no call box on the wall inside their condo, like in all those old Friends episodes, so it’s gotta be ringing someone’s phone. I don’t even know where it’s ringing—their parents’ phones, wherever the hell those would be, since their parents don’t seem to be around much—or Liam’s phone, or—
    “Hello?”
    Relief. It’s Olivia. Maybe they have a house phone or something just for this purpose, or maybe it rings her cell.
    “Um, hey, it’s Zoey.”
    Silence. I glance over at Carolyn.
    “Uh, Liam’s out of town.”
    “I know. I was driving by on the way to the zoo with my little sister, and we passed your building. And then I just … I don’t know, I turned around and thought I’d see if you wanted to come with us.”
    I press my finger to my lip in a shhhh sign when Carolyn opens her mouth to correct me. I hadn’t driven past at all. I told Carolyn, when we left our place, that we were going to make a stop along the way.
    “Oh.”
    “My mom got some free passes from her coworker. Three of them. So if you want to go … ” My voice trails off because I don’t know what