Innocent Lies Read Online Free PDF Page A

would come
after me. So needless to say, I freaked. When our lease was up the
first of December, I demanded we move. Sarah didn’t quite
understand and I never did share much. But she understood that for
my sanity, we needed a new place. I found the cutest townhouse with
a full time security guard. Deacon had to move in to off-set the
higher cost. I worried about her and Sarah getting along. There was
nothing to worry about, they had hit it off like they had been
together forever.
     
    I had also changed my major from
social work to teaching. I figured I could make a bigger impact on
a child if I got to be with her on a daily basis. The chaos of
switching from one department to another was more than I bargained
for, but by and large, I was happy with the way it had all come
together.
     
    My night with Ethan left me with a
newfound fascination with all things involving constellations. I
had even joined an amateur astronomers group. As peaceful as I had
always found stargazing, not once did it compare to my night with
him. I often wondered where he was. I tried finding him, but even
his biography off the D.A.’s website disappeared. Sometimes I
wondered if I didn’t dream those two nights with him. That couldn’t
have been a possibility either. In my dreams, I would have never
ended our second date the way it did. I finally came to the
conclusion that if it were meant to be we would find each other
again.
     
    “Here, sweetie.” Kathy, the
waitress, slid the plate across the table and refilled my
tea.
     
    “Thanks,” I
replied. “Did you get all the gifts on Ben’s Santa list?” I had
gone to the Pizza House so much trying to find Ethan, the waiters
and even the cooks became my second family.
     
    “ Are you kidding me? That kid of mine is too
much. I did get him an iPad.”
     
    “I need one of those
myself.”
     
    Kathy patted my hand. She never
asked any questions, but I knew she worried. I thought I even saw a
tear the day she realized I had nowhere to go for Christmas. Sarah
begged me to come home with her. I wasn’t in the mood for a big
family love-fest. Holidays had always been the hardest for me. My
dad died the week before Christmas, and I haven’t had a celebration
for anything since. I debated going to see my mom. It had been two
years since I’ve even spoken to her. She made it clear then that I
was dead to her. How she could blame her problems on me was beyond
reason. I had been a child at the time. She made all the choices
that led us to that fateful night.
     
    I had to move on. I stuffed the
last twenty dollar bill I had in my pocket under my plate and
walked out of there for the last time.

Friday, September 19,
2014
     
    “Hey, Tom,” Deacon
said as she plopped down at the kitchen table beside me. I hated
that nickname. I was fully aware that Dylan was a boy’s name, but
that didn’t mean I was a ‘Tom’ boy.
     
    I started shuffling my papers
together. I had to be at the Pizza House in thirty minutes. A place
I had not been in nine months, and it was a place I would had
rather never gone back to.
     
    “I have to meet
Logan in thirty minutes.” I said, and shoved my books in my old
knapsack.
     
    “Who’s Logan?”
Deacon asked, and took a bite out of an apple. “Finally a man? . .
. Oh yeah, I forgot Dylan doesn’t like men or women. Have you ever
liked anybody?” Deacon asked with a mouthful of apple.
     
    “Yeah, she liked one guy.” Sarah
walked in and hopped up on the counter top, motioning for Deacon to
throw her an apple. “An a-hole who left her a day or two after they
met.”
     
    I grabbed my backpack and turned
to leave on that note. I could already feel the tears forming in my
eyes. Sarah wasn’t trying to upset me. I doubted she realized I
still thought of Ethan often, and I was heading to the one place
that was a tomb of memories of him. I heard them laughing as I
closed the door and sighed. I was happy and normal once. Then he
left.
     
    Logan was already