Listen for the Lie

by Amy Tintera

He puts a hand on my breast over my shirt. Seriously, no one asked for this. I put a hand on his chest, ready to push him away. His other hand is on my cheek. I smell paint on his fingers.

“Lucy.” His hand is the one on my breast five years ago, I realize. The sounds of laughter and music drifting over from the wedding. He’d slipped one of my straps down, and his thumb was tracing circles over my nipple. He had green paint underneath his fingernails. “I’ve wanted to do this for so long,” he’d said to me, his lips against my neck. He reached for his zipper, and I realized he intended to fuck me right there, with the smells of rotting food drifting over from the nearby dumpster.

Why did Savvy look mad about my making out with Emmett at the wedding? Did she have feelings for— I freeze as the memory comes into focus.

me. “Listen, I wasn’t going to tell you this, but…” Savvy trailed off, making a face. “I slept with him a few months ago.” “Oh.” My voice was too high, betraying my jealousy. I’d thought she knew I had a soft spot for Emmett. He was off-limits.

A knock on the window makes me jump. It’s Emmett. And now I remember.

“What the hell?” Savvy asked, squinting in the darkness. I leaned forward. A truck was parked in the middle of the road. A tall figure stood in front of it. Savvy’s headlights caught his face. Emmett.

I glanced back at Emmett in time to see him lunge at me.

“Hey, Ben. I think Lucy needs a minute. She’ll call you back, okay?” I don’t know whether Ben protests. Emmett ends the call and slides the phone—my phone—into his pocket. He puts a gentle hand on my arm.

“Run, Lucy,” Savvy screams in my head. “Run!”

Emmett lunged, knocking me into Savvy. We both tumbled to the ground.

Emmett ran out from the darkness, something poised over his head. It looked sort of like a hammer, though not the kind used for construction. It was just a metal block at the end of a stick.

screamed as a hand yanked on my hair. I stumbled backward, and a fist connected with my face. Stars danced in my eyes. Even Matt had never hit me that hard.

She dove for it, scrambling across the dirt. He yanked on her ankle, and she yelled as he dragged her back through the dirt.

connected with her skull. She grunted as she hit the ground. I scrambled to her. She slowly sat up, blood pouring from a cut on her head.

“Lucy?” Matt’s voice rang out in the quiet. “Savvy? Emmett? Are y’all out there?”

Emmett cut off my scream with a hammer to the skull. It barely grazed the left side of my head but still knocked me back. Savvy caught me before I hit the ground. “Matt! Help!” she screamed.

I looked up. Emmett had his arm drawn back, eyes locked on mine. “You made me do this,” he growled. The hammer was coming straight at my head.

Savvy shoved me out of the way. He smacked the hammer into her head so hard that the crack reverberated through the trees. She collapsed across my lap. Blood pooled on my dress.

“Savvy?” Matt’s voice was still distant. Emmett looked over his shoulder, cursed, and then swung the hammer again. Everything went black.

“Matt told you I was there that night, didn’t he?” Emmett asks. I blink. “What?” Emmett’s expression goes dark. “He told you I was there. He promised he wouldn’t, but I should have known that asshole wouldn’t be able to keep a secret.” He puts both hands on my cheeks. “I would never hurt you, you know that.”

“I don’t know. It was too hard to follow. But you seemed really upset. She slapped you, and you scratched her. I started to intervene then, but you grabbed the tree branch and just … I don’t think you meant to hit her that hard. You panicked, and started screaming, and you ran.” “You forgot about my head injury,” I say to Emmett. He drops his hands from my cheeks. “What?” “My head injury. You forgot that I got bashed in the head too.”

“To Matt.” “I told him the truth. That I saw you kill Savvy.”

“That must have been a real relief for you.”

should have punched you harder. I’ve had practice.” A knife to the gut would have been better. Savvy was right.

Instead, I see her next to Emmett in her pink dress, blood dripping down her face. “I have an idea,” she says with a grin. “Let’s kill Emmett!” I smile. That’s a great idea.

He grabs a hammer from the shelf—the same sort that he used to kill Savvy, and I realize suddenly that he must have had it in his truck that night. He went back to his truck to grab something to kill me with. This asshole.

Emmett uses one leg for leverage as he dives forward on his knees, yanking the hammer from my grasp. It goes flying. And comes to a stop at Ben’s feet.

“Oh my god, Ben,” Emmett pants. He uses his good leg to scoot away from me. “She’s lost it. She’s fucking lost it. She’s trying to kill me.”

“He killed Savvy, and he tried to kill me.”

“Matt saw him that night,” I continue. “You can ask him. Emmett was there, and he fucking killed her.”

“She was about to kill me! She would have, if you hadn’t come along!” Ben looks down at the hammer in his hand. “Let’s find out,” he says. He tosses me the hammer.

“She’s lying! Why aren’t any of you listening to me?” Emmett’s scream is distant from down the hall somewhere.

“The truth doesn’t matter.” Savvy’s words sound gentle this time. Less angry. I shift my attention back to Ben. “The truth is whatever you say it is.”

“You saw him that night,” I say. Matt has the decency to look embarrassed. “After you,” he says. “You ran away, and then Emmett appeared a second later, crying and saying he’d seen you kill her.” “And you just believed him.” “You said—you said…” He clenches both fists in frustration, and I instinctively take a step back. “You were covered in blood, mumbling something about killing! And you said she deserved it, and ‘Savvy tried to.’ What was I supposed to think?” “She tried to save me,” I say. “That was the end of that sentence. Savvy tried to save me, and he killed her.”

“You lied to them. Hid evidence. Good luck with that.” Mom’s mouth drops open. “We were protecting you,” Matt says. “You have to understand. Me, your parents—we thought we were protecting you.” “No, you didn’t,” I snap. “You protected yourself, Matt. You knew what would happen if I started telling people the truth. You knew what would come out.”

“The only person who ever protected me was Savvy.”