Free Lie to Me (A Touched Trilogy) by Angela Fristoe

give him some smart remark, but Lily
clutched at my hand as Dylan approached. I looked down at her, wishing I knew
why she was so apprehensive about healing Dylan. Her internal struggle caused
her body to practically vibrate. Odd, since Lily was usually a bit over-eager
to use her gift. She gradually released my hand and went over to Dylan, but
even then, I noticed she didn’t touch him.
    “Guess it’s me then. I’m parked around the block,” I said,
motioning with my hand. “I’ll catch up with you guys, I need to talk to Tonya
for a minute and let Owen know I’m leaving.”
    “Owen?” Nathan raised his eyebrows at me.
    “Yeah, I picked him up on the way here, but I don’t know if
he has a ride home.”
    “Want me to wait?” he asked.
    “Nah, I’ll just be a minute.”
    I watched the three of them head off down the street, then I
turned back to the house. As much as I wanted to make sure Lily was okay, I
couldn’t just ditch Tonya or Owen.
    Everyone inside seemed to have already forgotten the brawl
and were back to full party mode. Even Tonya and Trevor had moved past it, and
were grinding each other in beat to the music. Squeezing between clusters of
people, I wound my way over to them.
    “I’m taking off,” I yelled, hoping to be heard over the
music. She stopped moving, letting go of Trevor to face me.
    “What? Why?”
    I stared at her in shocked realization. She really was
obsessing over this guy. He’d pretty much just humiliated my sister’s boyfriend
by beating the crap out of him, probably scaring the crap out of Lily, and she
wondered why I was leaving? Maybe I’d have stayed if it had been one of Chloe’s
flavor of the month boyfriends, but this was Lils.
    “How am I supposed to get home?” Anger bit her words short.
“You were supposed to drive me home.”
    I cocked an eyebrow. “Since when?”
    She glanced at Trevor, then back to me. “You know Gran can’t
see Trevor drop me off, and you never drink, so I figured...”
    “Yeah, well, maybe you should have stopped your new
boyfriend from beating up Dylan. Now I have to drive him and Lily home.”
    “Why can’t she just drive his car?” she asked.
    Trevor moved in closer and settled an arm around her
shoulder, pulling her to his side. She gave him a smile so sweet I wanted to
puke. Just wait till the honeymoon phase was over and she’d be back to her
bitchy self.
    “I’m leaving. If you want a ride, then let’s go. Otherwise,
I’ll call you tomorrow.”
    “Fine,” she snapped. “Let’s go.”
    “We ain’t ready to go,” Trevor said, finally opening his
mouth. I rolled my eyes and groaned in frustration. “We’ll get a cab.”
    “Bye,” I said and turned away, ignoring Tonya’s call of my
name. I wasn’t going to spend my night listening to them argue. Owen stood over
by the kitchen talking to Nadine and a couple of guys from our biology class
last semester.
    “Hey,” I said when I reached him. “I’ve got to take Lily
home, and I’m going to drop off Nathan and Dylan, too. I can give you a ride,
but we’re leaving now.”
    “That’s okay,” he said. “I’ll catch one with someone.”
    “You sure?”
    “Yeah. Your car is freakin’ small and I don’t really want to
see Lily in action.”
    “I’ll see you Tuesday then. Happy New Year.”
    Waving bye over my shoulder to Owen, I scanned the living
room for Tonya, but she and Trevor had disappeared. I noticed a guy Tonya had
dated briefly last year sitting on the couch and nudged him.
    “Have you seen Tonya?” I asked.
    “She just left with her latest boyfriend,” he said and took
a swig of beer.
    Left? After making a big stink about me leaving and she was
gone before I’d even made it out of the house. I stomped towards the door.
    “Phoebe!” Chloe called out, working her way to me. I stepped
outside, letting her follow me. “What happened?”
    “I’m taking Nathan, Dylan and Lily home.” I wrapped my arms
around me, seriously debating if I