The Lies we Steal (The Hollow Boys Book 1)

Alistair

“Don’t you have your own dorm?” I recline in my desk chair, “And your own bed?” 

Rook, lifts his head from my pillow, raising his eyebrows, “Can’t I hang out with my two best friends?” 

“Thatcher is in the shower and I’m practically ignoring you. You just don’t want to sit alone in your room.” 

“Silas is at The Graveyard, he wanted to go alone. I’ve got to learn to trust him to do things by himself but if I sit in our room without a distraction, I’ll end up following him to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.” He admits, tossing his zippo into the air above his head, catching it smoothly as it falls back down. 

I nod, turning back to the sketch on the table, my pencil pressing into the paper shading the outside of the rose to give it more dimension. 

“Speaking of Silas,” Rook continues, sitting up and hanging his feet off the edge of my bed. “We are already taking care of Greg, I know. But what are we gonna do about the mayor? We’re just gonna let him live knowing what he did?” 

The lead of my pencil snaps from the pressure I’m applying. 

“It’s not our call.” I say, still looking at the drawing, “It’s Si’s. We handle Greg, get what we can out of him, then we leave it up to Silas if we go after Frank. This is his war. We’re just soldiers.” 

I knew when I told them what I’d seen it would take a minute for it soak in. Let the truth burn the already bleeding wounds we were sporting. Once we confronted Greg about his involvement, once we figured out if he was the one who injected the drugs and wound-up killing Rose, I knew Silas would begin shifting directions. 

The plan was to kill Greg grab the USB before anyone else could and keep it for when we were ready to send it in anonymously to the police. We wanted the ones who had been entangled in Rosemary’s death, not a sex ring. That wasn’t on our agenda, but we couldn’t keep the information to ourselves when we knew there were other girls missing. We would let the police take care of that once we were done getting the revenge we deserved. 

Mayor Donahue would get what was coming for him either way. Whether that be at the hands of me or by the hands of the prison system, he wouldn’t make it out alive. 

I thought about that video for hours upon hours over the past few days. Replaying how easy of a decision it was for Frank. How quickly he’d chosen one of his daughters to bargain. 

Deep down I felt guilty. 

I felt partly to blame because Rosemary’s relationship with us was probably the reason he picked her over her sister. Sage Donahue did not run in or even around our circle. While Rose didn’t mind getting dirty, hanging with ones with a reputation, and letting our antics slide, her sister couldn’t have been more opposite. 

Sage had been a cheerleader, a Ponderosa Springs’ Sweetheart and wouldn’t have been caught dead around people like me. She hadn’t been a bitch to us, rather pretended we didn’t exist. Which was fine, we weren’t going out of our way to be welcoming to her either. 

Silas had said, she always made herself scarce when he came over to see Rose. While they were twins who shared DNA, they couldn’t have been more opposite. Minus the hair color, that was pretty spot-on even if one of them loved bubblegum pink and the other hated it. 

“Would you have done it?” Rook asks, looking over at me his jaw tight. A storm brewing in his mind, that made his eyes so blue I thought they were glowing. 

“Done what?”

“Would you have chosen if you were Frank. Would you have picked between your kids?” 

I jam my pencil behind my ear, pushing my sketchpad away. Crossing my arms in front of my chest and staring at the ceiling. Biting at the skin on the inside of my cheek. 

“I would have let Greg kill me before I was the reason one of my daughters wound up dead.” 

The product of a family who’d chosen early on which son they loved. Not just a small line of favoritism, but I wasn’t even in the running for most loved child. I questioned my existence from my youth. If they hated me so much from the second I came into the world, why would they even have me? 

If Dorian was so perfect, why would they even have another kid? They got it right the first time, right? 

Secrets have a way of creeping up on you in this town and the answer to that, was no different. 

Even as the person who is depicted as evil in everyone’s story. I’d still sacrifice myself before harming someone I cared about. 

A knock at the door stopped this conversation before it could even get started. 

“It’s probably Silas.” Rook announces, hopping out of the bed to open the door. 

Why would he knock though? Wouldn’t he just walk in? 

The door opens slowly, Rook’s stature blocking the hallway from my vision so all I hear is his voice. 

“Well, well, well, I knew you’d come knocking on the devil’s door eventually.” I can practically see the smirk on his face from here. 

Briar’s snarky voice drifts into the room, making me that much more aware of my surroundings. 

Rook turns to face me, jerking his thumb behind him, “That’s all you, dude.” 

I take a breath, pushing myself out of the chair and walking to the cracked door. I wrap my fingers around the top, pulling it open and leaning on the frame as I stare down at Briar. 

Her eyes are glued to my naked chest, taking me all in, the tattoos she hadn’t seen before, all of it, and I let her. 

This allows me to watch her openly, the straight legged jeans she wears all the time, her long sleeve striped shirt that’s cut at the navel exposing the flesh of her stomach. I wonder how many guys in this dorm hall looked at that exact piece of skin as she made her way to my room. 

My fingers tighten on the door, “Finished staring?” It comes out harsher than I intended, but oh well. 

“Yeah, Um, Yeah, I just…cool tattoos.” She tries to cover her blatant eye fucking, failing, miserably. 

I peer down at my chest piece, really the only thing on my front half, besides the coin on lower abdomen. The ram skull and thorns were something I designed myself, Shade got the honors of holding me down for the seven hours it took. 

“Thanks,” I grunt, “Is there a reason you’re here? Or do you just enjoy ending up in places you shouldn’t be?” I raise my eyebrow, watching her rock back and forth on her heels. 

She looks up and down the hallway making sure there is no one around, “I just wanted to say thank you.” The shit lighting in the dorm makes her eyes look dull. 

I knew what she was saying thank you for, but I decided to be an asshole anyway. 

“For making you come? No thanks needed,” I don’t bother fighting the smile off my face when she starts turning pink. Her round cheeks tinted and flushed. 

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.” She hisses, “I’m thanking you for Ada.” 

I sigh, stepping out into the hall, shutting the door behind me and resting my back on it. My arms crossed in front of me. After we bolted from Greg’s office I had the privilege of explaining to her that before we fucked in the closet, I texted Rook to do something so we could get out of there. 

I didn’t know he would burn down a courtyard tree, but it did the trick. Poor Lyra had become an accomplice to arson all because she was trying to wrestle the match out of Rook’s hand, only to knock the flame onto the gas that ignited it. This was also the reason I felt so confident giving away our position while I was buried inside of her. I couldn’t have planned for any better timing, but even if we had of gotten caught, I wasn’t worried. 

Greg West was dead in my book, what was he going to do to either me or Briar if he was six feet under? 

“Don’t make a big deal out of it.” 

“But it is…you know what,” She holds her hands up, like she’s stopping herself from talking by doing that, reaching into her pocket, “It doesn’t matter. I just wanted to return this, a truce of sorts,” The light catches my ring in her palm as she holds it out for me to take. 

I fucking knew she had it. 

After the office, after the sex, after the aftermath. The torment of her dead rat wasn’t necessary. I had enough on her that if she wanted to talk, I’d ruin her. So it wasn’t a big deal that I returned the dumb rodent. 

I should’ve killed it to begin with, it would have been easier than buying supplies and food for the damn thing. A fucking thing that bit me within the first three days I had it in my dorm room. 

I’d had a full-on argument with the white rat, while Thatcher was in class about how it better get its shit together or I was gonna let my roommate really skin it. I hadn’t lied when I said I let Thatcher skin an animal, a squirrel I think. That’s what we used for the note on their dorm door. 

“Now we have our hands clean of each other.” She finishes, waiting for me to take the jewelry from her. “You go your way and I’ll go mine.” 

I almost wanted to laugh, our hands clean of each other?

We’d done quite the opposite in that closet. I’d dirtied my hands and cock with her. My fingers, my lips, they were covered in her smell. The shower after had only made my dick hard. Standing under the burning hot stream of water, her scent rolling off me into the mist making it that much easier to fuck my hand. 

I was stained with her. 

There was no getting clean.

Not now. 

“You know what people here see when they look at you, Briar?” 

The question takes both of us off guard.

She recoils, rolling her eyes at me, “I can’t wait to hear this,” 

I lean my neck towards her, sweeping a piece of her hair behind her ear as I let my eyes glide down her slender throat, towards her shoulder where my teeth marks probably lay. 

“Nothing. They see nothing,” I mutter. 

Her reaction is warranted, the way she swats my hand away, sucking her teeth and standing in a defensive position already regretting coming here to try and offer an olive branch. 

“That’s so sweet of you, Alistair. Really, thank you for reminding me of what a piece of shit you are.” 

I let her walk away from me, just enough for her to feel better about herself, before following after her. My pace steady, knowing I’ll catch her eventually. 

“They see trash,” I continue, “A castoff.” 

These words seem to push her faster until she’s swinging around the banister, about to head down the steps. I follow close behind, so that she’ll hear every single word I say. 

“A girl from a nowhere town who doesn’t belong here. An invisible girl with no purpose, no future.” 

My words are harsh. 

But they are honest. 

The teachers don’t look at her with potential like they do other students. They look at her as if she’s already made it as far as she’ll ever go in life. Just her being here is enough. They don’t see her as intelligent or talented. 

They barely even see her. 

She spins abruptly, frustration and pain twinkling in her eyes. Even though she’s stopped, I don’t. I continue to pursue her, step by step, until she’s pressed into the front of my body. 

Until her back is on the wall and I can smell her. 

“I just wanted this to be over, Alistair. Why are you telling me this? Why are you still doing this?” There is a crack in her voice as she searches my eyes for answers. 

I keep my jaw set, my face impassive. There is nothing for her to see inside of me. 

“Can I tell you something?” I ignore her questions completely. 

“No.” 

I don’t listen, I grab her belt loops hooking my fingers into them and slowly pulling her into me. My mouth breathing the same air as she is, our noses brushing each other. 

“They look at me like that too.” I whisper, my tone grainy. 

I’d come from generations of wealth and was still treated the same as the girl with practically nothing. It had nothing to do with money and everything to do with what was inside of us. 

“They look at me like I’ll be nothing. I’ve learned over the years, I like it. I love being the person they shove in the shadows.” 

Her eyes ignite with passion, as our hips press into one another. My right hand resting at the base of her throat, fingers curling around her neck just a little. I could feel her heartbeat beneath my hand, the fast pasted pitter patter. 

My tongue swipes across my bottom lip, catching hers in the process, “I thrive there. We can do whatever we want inside of the shadows. It’s where I belong. Our invisibility doesn’t make us weak, Little Thief.” 

The pressure of my hand increases, a small whimper falling from her lips. 

“It gives us power.” 

The look in her eyes tests my self-control, it’s the look of need. She wants me to kiss her. Kiss her lips, her neck, the sweet place between her shoulder and throat, her ample tits, the curve of her spine. She wants me all over her, inside of her. 

We can never be clean of each other again. 

I want my words to soak into her skin. Seep into her system so that she understands what damage she can do when she recognizes the dark and twisty pieces of her are not something that need to be hidden away. They need to be what propels her forward. 

It’s the only way she’ll make it out of this place alive. 

I release my grip, pushing off the wall behind her to put distance between us, my cock hating me for taking it away from her warmth. 

Standing there for a moment longer, staring at her, the way her chest rises and falls. How her flushed cheeks make her look even more innocent than she already is. It would be so easy to take her, right here in this hallway. 

Instead I turn around, forcing my legs to move me back towards my dorm room where Rook and Thatcher are probably trying to listen through the door with a glass cup. 

“Wait—Alistair—wait,” I pause giving her the floor to speak, only for a second though, and she knows that. 

“I wanna know,” She breathes, “I wanna know what it is that makes the shadows so great. I want you to show me.” 

My fists clench as fire rushes through my veins, excitement pumping through my blood. I bite my tongue, holding in a smile. 

I knew who Briar was. I knew the girl she was and who she could be the moment I saw her at that party. I knew the damage she could wreak on this place.

Now it was time for her to see that for herself.