Read Pieces of Lies for Free Online Page B

we realized that we both thought Dali was overrated, hugged it out, and we’ve been catching up after class ever since.
    Tess was loud, opinionated and sarcastic, which was hard to imagine given her tiny stature and sweet child-like facial features. Her hair was crimson red which was choppy and short and she had dark brown eyes, like myself, and wore very trendy black rimmed Dior glasses. She had an eclectic taste in clothing too. Where my taste was more sleek and modern with a hint of glamor, Tess liked to wear vibrant prints, colors and textures, mixing up different styles and making it all come together to look effortlessly cool and chic.
    “Hey Norah, hey Tess,” Josh said walking up to us. Tess gave Josh a brief smile. They had met a few times before but still struggled to make small talk. Knowing how extroverted Tess was normally, it always surprised me that she clamped up around him. I figured that she either wasn’t fond of him or had a crush on him, but she didn’t lead me to believe either, and I wasn’t about to force a friendship for the sake of pleasantries. She was her own person and whether or not she wanted to bond with Josh was up to her. Our friendship was fairly new after all.
    As we all stood, shifting on our feet back and forth, an awkward silence began to fill the air between us. Tess looked to me, then to Josh and then back to me, raising her eyebrows my way, taking note of the odd tension that was conspicuously evident. I had been dreading this moment with Josh since ‘that’ night and wasn’t sure what I’d say when I finally saw him again.
    “Hey,” I chimed back to Josh, finally breaking the silence. He looked once at Tess and then to me before he decided that her presence wasn’t enough of a deterrent to dive right in.
    “Look, about the party Nor, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.” Josh was clearly testing the water with me. I coughed, looking away but then I thought it was best just to get what I was thinking off my chest.
    “I do,” I said, “you were thinking about yourself. I get it, I really do Josh. You were being selfish and desperate.”
    He looked like someone had winded him but he kept going, not running away from the harshness of my words. “Are we going to be OK?” he asked, trying to sound hopeful.
    I sucked in a big gulp of air and sighed, “It’s not like we haven’t had fights before Josh. We’re best friends and human, and it’s in our nature to make mistakes. Some mistakes are more fucked than others, but I’ll get over this, I’m sure.” He groaned but seemed more relaxed that we were talking again.
    “Do you want to, maybe, hang out this weekend?”
    My eyes darted, “Um, I think I’m busy this weekend, but maybe next week. OK?” I needed more time to deal with the anger and hurt that still coursed inside me. I knew if I was around Josh, he would quickly pick up on just how much I had been affected by what I saw at the party. I didn’t want to drop my guard about those emotions. Josh wasn’t my boyfriend, this I knew, but considering the signals he had been sending me, especially with our ‘almost kiss’ before the party, I felt, in one word, betrayed. I couldn’t help feeling that way, but I did, and I couldn’t push that bit of pain away and out of my mind if Josh was around right now. Our chance of a romantic relationship was so close, we literally almost tasted it, and then it was gone, shoved into the far corners of my heart, until one day I might visit it again. 
    My focus now was to get back to the place where there was a clear line between friendship and more, with me standing firmly behind that friendship line. It was the only way I could go back to being normal around him. I had opened my heart a little for Josh, only to be completely run down by his deception and the vision of him nailing that blond on the desk. I was not ready to open it back up to him, if ever.
    Josh decided not to push the matter anymore,