Said the Liar, A. Swift [inspirational books for women txt] 📗

CH 1

"Next month on the sixteenth Apex turns eighteen and will be getting a new car! Anyone up for a road trip?" Brick threw his fist into the air triumphantly.

A rally of cheering met his words. Brick turned to Apex and grinned. The loud whoops echoed off the bent metal paneling of the warehouse and made the mere twelve voices feel like an army.

I alone hung back and did not add my voice to the tumult. The idea of accompanying some of the other teenagers on a journey somewhere did not inspire me with any fervor or anticipation. I knew Apex only from the time we'd spent together in the warehouse, and nothing else. He didn't even attend the same school that I did. Without the common hangout neither of us would even know the other's name. Not that Apex was his real name. It was obvious that Brick was a nickname, too. Everyone here had one. I had one. It made us all feel safer, I think. Everyone could be a little bit anonymous, act like a different person, or maybe be their real self here, beneath the stained and rusted corrugated metal.

The warehouse wasn't exactly in great shape. It was this big empty building made of metal with broken windows and a pile of empty wooden crates, a bunch of them broken into pieces. But it was our place.

"There's only gonna be room for six in the car." Apex took over now. His voice, though not as deep as Brick's was more commanding. There was no question that he was the real person in charge here.

"So if you want to come along, you'll have to impress me. I like some of you more than others." He folded his arms and looked down on the group, who responded with shouts of dismay and scoffs. The announcement over, everyone dissolved into smaller groups, the biggest being a knot around Apex as people bartered and begged for a seat.

Ruse caught my eye and broke away from the tangle of bodies. She leaned against the cool metal wall beside me. Just in the last week the temperature of the air at night had dropped ten degrees. It was definitely not summer anymore.

"Don't you want to go?" She said brightly. Today her hair was a garish shade of pink. Her deep blue eyes contrasted sharply with her dark pink eye shadow, which extended all the way to her eyebrows. These were also dyed, and Ruse had her signature trio of eyebrow studs bouncing as she made expressions at me. She had a sharp kind of nose, it made me think of a pixie or something similar.

"He didn't even say where he was going." I commented. I was unimpressed by the announcement. There was no possible way to convince me to tag along on that trip. Because that's what it was going to turn into, a trip. I had no doubt that, wherever the destination turned out to be, the car wouldn't get there in one piece, someone or multiple someone's would be arrested, or once they got there at least a few would get too high to be able walk straight for days.

Ruse sidled closer to me. "Probably to Las Vegas. Does it matter? I don't give a crap whether it's out of town or out of country, it'd be a blast to go, just to say you did. Get out and celebrate and stuff." She reached into a pocket of her skirt and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. "Smoke?" She offered.

I just blinked at her. I knew the game she was playing. She knew that I knew.

"I don't smoke." I said flatly. This was my long-standing response to Ruse's shenanigans. Sometimes she backed off, other times she prodded and pushed harder to see if I'd cave. She'd never succeeded yet.

Ruse withdrew the pack and took out a lighter. A moment later she puckered her lips and let out a plume of ash-white smoke. It floated slowly away in the night air, rising and disintegrating out of sight.

"Edge, you need to relax a bit, guy." She informed me. I felt her hip against mine and stood up away from the wall. Ruse followed me.

"Jeesh, sorry. Boy you're touchy today. Somethin' happen at work?"

I looked at her sideways, sizing up her motive. Ruse was always trying to pretend like she and I had something in common. Perhaps under different circumstances I would have been flattered by her attentions, but with Ruse there was always an ulterior motive. Right now I happened to know that she'd just broken up with her latest boyfriend, and was back to her old pastime of trying to get me involved with her. I wasn't interested. I hadn't been two years ago, either when we'd first met. Ruse had more than a little bit of a reputation for getting into trouble in more than one area. Relationships was one of them.

You needed to be particularly wary of yourself when you hung out around the warehouse. Most other kids there didn't mind leaving you to do your own thing, but some always wanted to glom onto you. Apparently I was Ruse's favorite hobby. Everyone else in the 'house knew she was after me, and several had open bets about what the outcome would be. I would have preferred to continue to skulk on the edges without anyone wondering if I'd get 'Rused' into getting high or wasted. So far I'd only been unintentionally intoxicated twice. Both times hadn't ended up being a pleasant experience. Finding yourself passed out in a bathroom of the subway wearing someone else's shirt is not enjoyable.

Ruse had actually pretended to stumble into me and jabbed a needle into my arm on one occasion. That was the first time I'd been 'Rused'. Now anytime she got within five feet of me I was on edge. That was partially how I'd gotten my nickname. After I'd explained once or twice that I didn't intend to participate in recreational drug use or any of the more extreme methods of entertainment, everyone who knew me at all had labeled me for my straight edge ways. I was actually okay with that and so were most of the others around here, but I'd be lying if I said that that status excluded me from some of the stuff that went down.

So I was 'Edge' and Ruse was 'Ruse'.

Right now more people were worried about Apex's news than watching Ruse hunt, lucky me. I didn't need anyone giving her extra encouragement or making wolf whistles at the two of us. I wondered why she had picked me out from everyone else. Was it because I was a harder target? I guess I was ok looking. I had dark hair and grey eyes, and olive colored skin I'd inherited from my mother's side of the family. Not hot or anything, just ok.

"Nothing happened. I'm just not interested in going on the trip." I told her clearly.

Ruse made a face at me. "Party pooper. You might have fun."

"Everyone might die in a wreck." I shot back. "Or get pulled over."

Ruse considered this while she took a long pull of her cigarette. "I guess so. But Apex isn't stupid. We'd be okay."

I didn't respond. I watched the people around me dully, feeling pensive and tense. I couldn't nail down why, I was just irritated that night for no good reason. I thought about going home, but there was nothing to do there, and it wasn't even that late. Besides, it was Friday. I had nothing to do the next day either. If there were plans at the warehouse, I wanted to know what was up just in case.

Ignoring Ruse, I approached the throng of people who were still crowding Apex. Instead of trying to penetrate the mob I skirted the bodies and instead went up to Brick. He was the unofficial second in command at the warehouse so it was likely that he knew what plans there were for this weekend.

"Anything up tomorrow night?"

He looked down at me. Apex might be the unofficial leader of the warehouse and its crew, but Brick was the biggest. He was also the oldest, but he couldn't pass the drivers license tests. At least I think that's why he doesn't drive. Nobody at the warehouse talks much about their personal lives except to complain about their bosses or talk big about what they might do later that night.

Brick's head was four inches above mine, and his chin was twice as thick. So was his nose. I think 'wide' and 'big boned' were accurate to describe Brick. He's built more like a tank, but I guess Brick was OK for a nickname for someone like that. He's the kind of guy you can easily picture playing football as a lineman. The big kind that could squish people and that you didn't want to collide with.

"Might be a big thing going down." He told me. "Apex wants to have some kind of kickoff for the upcoming raid."

"There's a raid coming up?" Ruse spoke close to my ear and I instinctively took a sidestep to put more space between us. She noticed and laughed at me. Brick smiled smugly at both of us. He was one of the many who thought it was funny to watch me get hounded by people.

"He's scared of me." Ruse batted her eyelashes innocently. Yeah, right. Anyone who thought Ruse was innocent had a lower IQ than a tennis shoe. Her ability to sneak up on people was uncanny, and dangerous. Another reason to keep an eye on her. Ruse might not do some of the hardcore drugs, but her extensive uses of narcotics and her willingness to share them so readily, and unpredictably, meant that she was someone to take seriously.

"He should be. You're too much for him to handle." Brick's grin increased. I gave him a bored look, and then, undeterred, I continued with my information seeking.

"The raid?" I prompted. It's unkind of me to think, but Brick is a little bit on the slow side sometimes. He's a pretty simple guy, and it's fairly obvious.

Brick scratched the dark whiskers on his neck with one hand. "Apex says a big character from further North is coming to visit. Apex wants to show him what talent he's got around here. Why, you want in, Edgy?"

Ruse snorted in laughter. I gave her a strange look.

"Edgy." She laughed again. I turned back to Brick.

"I just like to be up to date." I said smoothly. I had no doubt that things were going to get insane around the warehouse once people started pouring in. On any given night of the week, anywhere from five to fifteen regulars showed up to goof off and hang out and talk or do whatever. On weekends those numbers sometimes doubled. Before a raid happened, sometimes as many as fifty people could show up. Things got boisterous fast. It wasn't my idea of a fun time, but I was drawn to the events out of curiosity and a desire to be around people my own age without a lot being expected of me.

"Put it on your calendar so you won't forget." Brick shoved my shoulder jokingly. I took the shove and shot Brick a sarcastic look.

"I won't forget about something happening one day from now."

"Not if I can help it!" Ruse piped up again. She gave me a wild grin. "Edge, you and I should come together. What's your address, I'll come pick you up."

"The raid isn't actually tomorrow. Just some planning stuff. Here." Brick explained to the two of us.

"I'll bring Edge." Ruse said brightly. At this point she was bouncing around Brick and I. She had no idea where I lived other than it was in a south