Little White Lies

upgrade and pay for it each time.” Charley chuckled.

“You know-” Lily waved the Food Network chopping knife. “I actually understood that.”

With the weapon in its rightful place, Charley considered re-asking her question, though she maneuvered herself atop a bar stool and stole a carrot beforehand.

The kitchen, while Lily’s domain, remained one of Charley’s favorite places. The bright, red, black and white design had been Lily’s doing. The youngest of the four, her wild spirit infused their home.

“So, uh, Lil?” Charley pitched her voice over Lily’s repetitive chop.

“Yeah?”

“What are you making?” Moving from the colander to the pot in a matter of seconds, Charley couldn’t tell a red pepper from a tomato as they slid in and around.

“Just a stew.” Lily continued to chop and slide.

Much like Charley, Lily had taken on a young persona. She, James and Cael all found themselves in the realm of the teenage years again-each for different reasons.

Unlike Charley, who preferred locks and softness, Lily chose a wispy, iron-flat, mid-back blonde and dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt to suit her age. No one would have believed someone so young could be a master chef- completely at home in her state-of-the-art, stainless steel, double-oven, multi-sink paradise.

Charley propped her elbows on the speckled-black granite, tilted her head to peel off one contact lens; she repeated with the other. Gone were the blue and in their place, the color of her kind. She let her chin rest against clasped fingers.

She caught Lily’s quick lash raise-would have missed it if she’d blinked. The window behind Lily mirrored the ghost of movement, a shift from dark to light and light to dark again.

“Hey, James,” Charley said.

His fingers dug into her shoulders, stretched and pulled muscles she’d worked to relax. She sighed in complete and utter pleasure.

“How was the first day, Charley? Or should I say Mira?”

“Fantastic.” She closed her eyes as he continued to knead.

A little more weight into her shoulder, a whiff of his cologne, and she found James’s head just above the same spot he worked.

“And did you see him?”

“I most certainly did.”

“And?” His fingers continued their discovery into muscles across her arms and pulled her spine tight. She’d made her change earlier that morning, so he knew where she’d still be sore.

“Handsome. Strong. Kind. Conscientious. Nervous.” With each descriptor, Charley let her head shift from one side to the other. The stretch gave her a moment to consider.

“Still can’t believe you’re taking your vacation for this.” Cael’s groggy voice added to his slouched form as he shuffled into the kitchen.

“Mornin’, Cael.” James’s hands left her shoulders and sent a light punch which almost toppled the six-foot- seven Cael.

“Unh.” One hand shot out for balance. “Not mornin’.”

Charley couldn’t help the smile. “You guys truly are brothers.” The quick squeeze from above told her James heard her soft comment.

Cael stumbled his way to the fridge.

A knife-wielding Lily reappeared. “Get outta there! I’ve got dinner coming!”

Cael ignored her in favor of grapes and cheese. Mouth full and tray in hand, he turned to Charley. “You look the part, by the way.” He popped another of the green fruits.

“Thank you.” Charley planted her forearms flat on the counter.

He tilted his head over each shoulder as if to shrug. “So, I gotta ask-” He threw a grape above his head and caught it between his teeth. “Given what happened a year ago with this same boy, what’re you going to do when he falls for you? What happens when… this time… you can’t give him up.”

Charley pulled one hand out from under the other, noting James stopped his massage, and Lily stared at her.

Cael nodded once. “And this time… you don’t have to?”

At the end of the four weeks, could she disappear-return to her made-up homeland of New Zealand-and leave Wyatt none the wiser?

***

Wyatt found her in the cafeteria, surrounded by students. Light danced off her hair, which she had pulled up into a tail. Laughter rang from her entourage. He wanted to run up, scatter the crowd and keep her for himself.

Idiot! You’re hung up on a girl who’s gonna leave.

Instead, he sauntered-not too slow, not too fast-toward the group. A lowly freshman caught his gaze and whispered to another. As soon as Wyatt reached them, the entire group dispersed to other tables. In what used to be the center of the flock, Mira sat, books and bag under her folded arms, relaxed and comfortable.

“Uh, hi!” Wyatt stood, hands in his pockets, longing for a less awkward reunion.

“Hi!” As she tilted her head in his direction, her curls escaped from her band and dropped onto her shoulder.

Wyatt fought the desire to reach out and twirl them, to pull her face right up to his and be the man his friends all thought him. He shook off the fantasy and let himself fall onto the seat next to her.

“So. Um…”

The corners of her mouth turned upward. “Um?”

Idiot! He screamed in his head again. After a number of ‘ahems’ and a few fantastical delusions, he tried a second time. “Sorry, allergies.” The lie worked as well as it could, which he assumed meant not at all. “Uh… so, how’s day number two?”

“It’s okay, I guess.” She shifted in her seat. Her curls fell further as she did.

Stop! Wyatt chastised himself with an internal groan at his stupidity. “Anything I can help with?” Kidney? Liver? My car?

“Well…”

Wyatt left her to her thoughts, though he’d have preferred to take them over. Hands on the table, he entwined and unlinked his fingers. Sure she could see the heat rise in his cheeks, he crossed his arms, propped one foot under the table and pushed to lean back.

“Let me know anything you need. I am the class president and all. I have some pull around here.” He gestured with a thumb toward the doors and levered himself back with his foot.

“Well… the girls? Here earlier?” Her head tilted so her hair trailed to her shoulder.

He itched to tug at it.

“They said there’s a dance coming up, and I should go.” She moved her hands to her lap.

Metal clambered against ceramic as he dropped the feet of his chair to the ground. “You could go with me. I could take you. We could go together.” He pointed back and forth between them. “I mean, I have to go ’cause I’m the-well, being neutral, I wasn’t going to pick a date or anything. But, it’d be great if you went with me. Right? I’d be happy to take you.” He smiled too big, spoke too fast. Heat rushed to his cheeks again, but he forced himself to maintain eye contact.

She looked back at him, her eyes wide. “That sounds like a lovely idea.”

“Cool!” Wyatt slapped his thigh, realizing he’d become a complete dork. One foot back under the table, he lifted the chair’s front legs off the floor again. “So, um, who’re you staying with?” He hadn’t nosed into personal details during their tour the previous day, instead kept it simple and straightforward.

“With a family on Turner Point.”

“No kidding. Wow. That’s a scary hill.” Wyatt scrunched his nose. “At the base?”

She shook her head, bouncing her curls. “The top. Not so bad in the daytime.” Her fingers moved back to the table top, drumming polished nails against it.