Sweet Little Lies Read Online Free PDF Page A

knew that Scar thought Madison was a shallow, pretentious bitch who only looked out for herself. No emergency there. Like all of Scarlett’s opinions, she wasn’t shy about voicing it. But as far as Jane could tell, Madison had always been friendly to Scar, inviting her to parties, spa outings, and more. Scar was the one who turned her nose up at stuff like that. She prided herself on being different, apart, an outsider.
    But that was Scar. She could sometimes be too intense and critical when it came to people, especially people in Jane’s universe. Jane knew Scar was just looking out for her, but still. Scar had been this way with a couple of Jane’s friends in high school, and with some of her boyfriends, too, including Caleb (Scar was totally against their long-distance relationship when he started college) and Jesse (whom she rarely referred to by his name, preferring “man-whore” and similarly flattering nicknames).
    Scar was Jane’s best friend, though. And Jane wasway overdue in reaching out to her. Her friendship with Scar wasn’t going so well these days. Like everything else in her life.
    Jane pulled her cell out of her bag and quickly typed: SCAR, IM SO SORRY IVE BEEN OUT OF TOUCH BUT IM BACK AT APT NOW AND ON
    MY WAY TO SANTA BARBARA. IM OKAY. LUV U, JANE
    Jane hit Send and smiled to herself. That was that. She had made first contact after her self-imposed exile. That wasn’t so hard, was it?
    Now she just had to do the same thing with her mom and dad and Trevor and Fiona and whoever else had left messages for her.Yeah, piece of cake, she thought.
    4
    YOU’RE DOING THIS FOR A GOOD REASON
    Considering that it was Christmas Eve, the Blue Dolphin was surprisingly crowded. The blinking neon Santa Claus and the Christmas lights and fishing net that decorated the walls were more depressing than festive and did nothing to disguise its cheap vinyl booths, dingy pool tables, and lame jukebox. (Jimmy Buffett? Seriously?) It was the kind of place where a mostly older crowd could drink a lot of cheap beer, Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    play darts, and yell at whatever game happened to be on the minuscule TV set above the bar.
    It was also perfect for twenty-year-old Madison Parker’s purposes tonight. These people were not PopTV fans; no one would know who she was. And while she usually loved to be seen, she didn’t want to be recognized this evening. As much as she would have preferred meeting her contact at her office—or better yet, over martinis at Bar Marmont—she didn’t dare take the chance, not so soon after the story had broken. Maybe she was being overly paranoid, but better safe than sorry.
    She sat in one of the booths in the corner, her body angled so that she had a view of the room but no one could see her face.
    When her phone buzzed, Madison expected to see a text making excuses about traffic or whatever. She reached into her quilted Chanel bag and pulled out her cell.
    It was from Jane:
    THANK U FOR CABO! U SAVED MY LIFE! IM SO LUCKY TO HAVE YOU AS A FRIEND.
    MERRY XMAS! LUV U, JANE
    Madison’s fingers trembled slightly as she clutched the phone. Her reaction should have been annoyance. She should be scoffing at this sweet little message from sweet little Jane, whose sweetness generally made her want to puke, but for a moment she felt a pang of…what? Guilt? Regret? Jane thought of her as a friend. Agood friend. And for those few days in Cabo, Madison had been just that. It had been fun hanging out on the beach and talking about clothes and boys. Being away from L.A. and from the twenty-four/seven pressure of being “on,” Madison had almost relaxed into normalcy with Jane.
    Madison had never had a best friend growing up. In some ways, ironically, Jane was the closest thing to a best friend she’d ever had.
    Madison shook her head sharply.Stop it, she told herself.You have to focus. You’re doing this for a good reason.
    After all, it