Liar, Liar [4]

(Olivia)

I walk into the restaurant with a sigh that relieves tension from my shoulders. Katy spots me and smiles. I wave at her. She gestures towards the kitchen, where Malory is, and frowns. I shrug and frown back. I take a seat at an empty table and she comes to sit opposite to me.

“Is she okay?” I ask.

“What’s going on?” she asks, worriedly. “She’s been anxious all evening. Getting orders wrong. Shaking. She can’t stay still for two seconds. It’s like she’s getting bad again.”

“It’s my fault,” I admit. “I haven’t spoken to her all week. I’m sure it’s my fault. Things are bothering her and I haven’t been there for her to get it out of her system.”

“You two had a falling out?” she wonders, puzzled. “Is that why the group chat has been a ghost town lately?”

“Did she tell you about the incident with Kyle?” I ask.

“She told you about the bruise?”

I nod. “Well, I found out. Ron found out too. It’s sort of how we fell out.”

“What about it, though? She seemed pretty worried about him.”

I would like to know the whole story, too.

“When did she tell you?” I ask her.

Thinking, she shrugs. “A little while ago. About a week and a half ago? I can’t remember exactly.”

A week and a half?

“Right around the time when he’d stayed away from school? Seriously?” I scoff and roll my eyes. “So she told you but she didn’t want to tell me.”

“She thought you’d try to address the situation,” Katy explains. My face goes sour. “Kind of like you’re doing right now.”

“She didn’t tell me the entire story so I still don’t know everything.” I say.

“Me either. All I know is that there was a fight,” Katy insists.

Malory appears from the kitchen with some drinks. She spots Katy and me and freezes up. I offer her a concerned expression and she inhales deeply to carry the drinks to the table of customers. She’s done her job in less than a minute and rushed off to the back again, only to return with both her hands free. She stands before me and looks away.

“Can I... get you something?”

“Can you give yourself a break?” I ask.

She looks around. There’s need for her as at the moment, so Katy scoots around to give her a place to sit. I stare at my best friend who can’t seem to keep her legs from shaking under the table or her fingers from tapping on top of it. Malory can’t even look at me.

“Are you ready to tell me what’s going on?” I ask.

“Are you done being mad at me?”

I lean in to stare harder and more intently at her. “Malory, do you even know why I’m mad at you?” There’s a pause before I continue. “It’s because you knew something was wrong and you didn’t tell me right away. You tell me everything. And...” Malory just doesn’t stop tapping at the table as she listens, “Clearly something’s still wrong because you look like you’re on the verge of having a panic attack if someone just pokes you.”

“I just have a lot on my mind,” she insists, suddenly. She looks from me to Katy. “I know that I tell both of you everything... and maybe my anxiety is acting up and I do need to release some things so I can feel more at ease but...” she hesitates, searching for words, “there’s something that I... can’t tell you. At least not yet.”

“What happened to Kyle?” I ask.

How did Ron and I not manage to see the bruise when it was worse?

Did Kyle stay away solely to hide it?

Did Malory lie and say he was sick to protect him?

“That’s the one thing I can’t tell you,” Mal says. “Can you at least trust me on this? We do tell each other everything. I will tell you both what happened eventually –if it even matters later on. But for now... can you just accept that he got into a fight and he doesn’t want to talk about it?”

I roll my eyes. “At least tell me you either saw the fight for yourself or he told you the story.”

“He told me about it –when I went over to his place.”

Why do I still feel like she’s lying?

“Why can’t you tell us what happened? It doesn’t have to leave this table,” I tell her.

And anyway, I could always get help from Adrien to find out what the hell is going on. That’s my plan, anyway.

“It doesn’t matter, Olivia,” Mal says, raising her voice. “He probably deserved it anyway.”

I raise a brow. “That’s coming from the girl who became friends with Kyle Davidson and has gone out of her way to look out for him since then.”

“I will tell you what happened in due time,” she insists. “Right now, I need to find a way to calm my nerves. I really can’t get a panic attack here… or now… or anytime soon.”

“What else is bothering you?” I ask, frowning. “You can’t possibly be so much on edge all because of him.”

“I...” she starts off lowly, searching for words again, “I’m not sure. I’m not sure what’s bothering me.”

That doesn’t sound like the Malory I know.

“I feel like that’s a lie,” I state.

Just then, a group of customers enter the restaurant and find seats at a table. Malory stands as though she’s grateful for the intervention. She hurries off to the counter to grab a notebook and head to work.

Katy and I stare at her for a moment before looking at each other and sighing without another word.