Liar Read Online Free PDF

contaminate his eyeballs by actually looking at me. “Like your dad took care of Zach?”
    I want to hurt Brandon. Slap his face, kick his nuts, spit in his eyes. “You’ll never be as good as him. No matter how hard you try.” It’s true, but that doesn’t make it sound any less lame.
    Brandon laughs and moves away from me as quick as he can. He knows he’s won.

    HISTORY OF ME
    Sometimes I am still for hours.
    It’s like I’m waiting. Watching. Biding my time. When I’m ready, I’ll leap.
    Sometimes my whole life feels like that.
    I never said that to Zach but I think he would have understood.
    There’s a lot I didn’t tell Zach that I should have.
    Sometimes thinking about him stills me, shuts everything else down.
    Other times I have trouble sitting still.
    I pace.
    Mom hates it. Dad looks at me nervously.
    When I pace, the apartment is so small I don’t understand how the four of us can fit in it.
    Four? you ask.
    Yes.
    Four.
    Me, Mom, Dad, Jordan.
    My brother. My younger brother. My ten-year-old brother, Jordan.
    He has the opposite effect on me. He is the opposite of Zach.

    BEFORE
    My next big lie of freshman year, after passing first as a boy and then as a hermaphrodite, was getting them to believe that my father was an arms dealer.
    I still can’t believe anyone bought it.
    It started when Dad came to pick me up in a long black limousine. Not just long, but ridiculously long. Almost as long as the block. He was reviewing a new luxury limousine company and had to test all their services, including the champagne and flowers and their promise to drive you wherever and whenever.
    So he picked me up from school, wearing the tuxedo he was married in, looking like James Bond. The chauffeur was at once respectful and jokey with him. They “hey man’d” and “brother’d” each other. Discovered they were both named Isaiah and made jokes about their super-strict religious parents. (Parents Dad does not have. The Greats never go to church.)
    â€œWho’s that?” Chantal asked me as Dad waved. I could see Sarah and Zach looking at my dad and then back at me.
    â€œMy dad,” I said.
    She looked at me sideways as if she could see the truth better from that angle. “No way,” she said.
    I smiled.
    â€œHe’s so cool. What’s he do?”
    â€œStuff,” I said.
    â€œWhat kind of stuff?” Chantal asked, watching Dad walk toward us.
    â€œI gotta go,” I said, and walked up to Dad. He kissed my cheek.
    â€œHurry up,” he told me, sweeping me into the limo. I was relieved to see the brat wasn’t already in there. I enjoyed Chantal and the others watching us.
    â€œWho else are we picking up?”
    â€œNo one,” he said. “I thought we’d cruise for a bit.”
    â€œAnd help the planet warm up some more. Climate change not quick enough for you, Dad?”
    â€œI don’t see you getting out and walking.”
    â€œCan’t,” I said. “They’s watching.”
    â€œ Are watching,” he corrected. “This is Isaiah. Yes, same name as me. He had a shot at the world middleweight title. Back in the early nineties. Isn’t that right, Isaiah?”
    We both climbed up closer to Isaiah. Dad repeated the stuff about Isaiah and boxing.
    â€œIt is,” Isaiah said, nodding. “You must be Micah. Your dad says you’re a handful. That right?”
    â€œNope,” I said. “It’s my brother who’s the bad one.”
    â€œThey’re both bad seeds,” Dad said, patting my head ’cause he knows I hate it.
    â€œDad!” I protested.
    â€œI am cursed,” he told Isaiah, who nodded back at him.
    â€œWho’d have children? Other than the two of us,” Isaiah said, laughing. “Mine are more than a handful. But none of them in jail yet. That’s the blessing I’m counting.”
    Then they started