Read Lies My Girlfriend Told Me for Free Online Page B

silence and death, why do I drive to Crown Hill Cemetery and park at the mausoleum? A few weeks ago Swanee and I came here to see what was inside. From a distance, it looked like a white marble castle rising from the cemetery grounds, and she was sure it was filled with ghosts.
    “My life’s passion is to be a ghost hunter,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “Bet you didn’t know that.”
    At the time, I laughed. But the mausoleum had always creeped me out, and I told her I didn’t want to go in.
    “Because you’re scared of ghosts?”
    “Because it seems, I don’t know, irreverent.”
    “When did you get all religious?”
    “I didn’t. It’s just…” I gazed at the cold marble building full of bodies and shivered. I so didn’t want to go in.
    “Oh, come on,” Swan said. She opened the door, and what could I do but follow her?
    The mausoleum was six floors of deceased people, their caskets stored inside the walls with their names engraved on plaques outside. Some had flowerpots with bouquets in them. Since a lot of the flowers were fresh, I assumed they were renewed frequently. Swan remarked on it: “You wouldn’t want dead people to have dead flowers.” Her voice echoed eerily.
    I remember the stale air and the sense that the walls were closing in on us as we wandered down each hall. And we had to explore every floor. Read every name on every plaque.
    “Swan,” I whispered more than once. “Let’s go.”
    “It’s crazy,” she said. “People spending money on this shit.”
    I felt claustrophobic and dizzy, so I plopped down on a bench and dropped my head between my knees to stop the vertigo. When I could focus again, I lifted my head and saw a small plaque across from me. I got up to read it, ran my fingers across the lettering. Swan returned and stood beside me.
    “This one was only a baby,” I told her. The birth and death dates were five days apart. My mother might have cared for this baby in the neonatal care unit. She might’ve been there when he died.
    Swan said, “You’re not going to cry, are you?”
    I actually thought I might. “Can we please go now?”
    Bumping my shoulder, she said, “Exorcise your inner wuss.”
    I curled a lip at her, but she was right.
    Now I get out of the car and head toward the mausoleum entrance, but stop just short. I can’t go in. Too much death. Too many ghosts.
    Instead, I walk around Crown Hill, noting how the headstones get smaller and smaller the farther out I go, as if the people who died more recently are less important. A guy in a golf cart drives up to me on the path and says, “We’ll be closing in fifteen minutes.”
    I didn’t know graveyards closed. “Okay,” I tell him. I guess you’re only supposed to honor your loved ones between certain hours of the day.
    I send Swanee a mental message as I head back to the car: You’ll never die in my head or heart.
    The next morning, Monday, I ask the librarian if I can eat my lunch in the media center. She gives me the pity look that everyone else has been casting me all morning. “Yes,” she says. “But only for today. Okay?”
    Today is all I need. It’s twelve thirty here, eight thirty in Hawaii.
    I call Joss. This morning she texted me, telling me to call her ASAP and giving me a number. I don’t know where she got the phone, but I am glad she has one because I need to ask her some questions. She picks up on the fourth ring, sounding groggy.
    “Hi,” I say. “It’s Alix.”
    “I need you to get me some stuff from Swan’s room,” she says.
    “Are you having fun?” I ask. Stupid question. I almostask if she’s regrouped, but that’d be two stupid questions in a row.
    “I want my wigs and makeup kit. I have a bunch of clothes in there, but I don’t care about them. I definitely want Swan’s cell. I know she had it on her when she… Look in that hospital bag.”
    I’m barely listening. “Tell me about Liana.”
    She doesn’t say anything.
    “I know her first name,