Chapter 18: I am a master con artist

We got home. I knew what was about to happen, I'm not dumb. The school is going to call, if they haven't already, Luke and I'm going to get in serious trouble.

It took me a minute to pump myself up and open the car door. The house has never looked so scary, well it has, but you know what I mean. I deviously walk to my room. I'm almost at the stairs when I hear a deep voice coming from behind me. "Going somewhere?"

I can feel myself pale. "Uh,uh, w-w-well y-you see uhhh" I stutter. There's no point in lying but I can deny the truth.

"Mhmm. Tell me, how was school? What did you learn?" He asks knowing I can't answer him.

"Uhhh we, um. Well we, um. Okay fine I don't know, BUT I do know whatever they would've taught so if you think about it, I'm not really missing anything." I tell him.

"Who said anything about missing? I was just wondering what you learned today." He said. He totally was not asking about my day.

My mouth hung agape. This little bit- "Answer me. Did you or did you not skip your classes." He imputed.

I huffed "Fine yes, I did skip my classes. So? Like I already said, I already know all that stuff so why should I learn it again?" I told him sassily.

"Do not have that tone with my young lady. Do you know how much trouble you're in?" He said it so calmly it scared me.

My head was going haywire. Flashbacks of Carl kept popping up in my vision. Luke. Carl. Luke. Carl. Luke. Carl.

Carl was walking up to me, no stalking up to me. I was frozen in fear. His beady eyes gleaming with mischief. "What do you think your doing Little Lamb? Running away? You can never ever run away from me."

As he finishes his sentence I'm brought to wake. My head hurts and I'm dizzy. I could use this to my advantage. I start swaying, acting like I'm drunk. "Curly? Curly are you okay?" Luke is shaking me awake. "C'mon Curly what's wrong?" His voice sounds concerned but his face shows nothing of the sort.

"W-what. Yeah I-I'm fine. Just a little dizzy. Could you help me up the stairs?" I ask him, feeling more like a burden than I already am.

"Of course" He replies. He swoops me up and carries me bridal style.

He carries me up the stairs, my head pounding. It feels like I'm drunk and hung over all at the same time. I wonder if they're going to ask me about it. Probably. Well then, I'll just have to come with an impeccable lie. He kicks the door and lays me on my bed.

Everything from the shoulders up hurts. It's no mystery why. My brain got confused, thinking I was in the hands of Carl. One side of my brain knew better but the other one just saw Carl. My mind fighting each other, neither one giving up. In result pain occurs.

At this point I'm half conscious half passed out. I finally lose consciousness, sleep over powering everything.

I awake and step by step, I make it downstairs. When I reach the bottom of the stairs I realize something, I didn't check if my makeup looked fine. I know that sounds really girly but seriously, not checking my makeup could ruin everything.

I'm met with a hug. I'm surprised the person didn't get whiplash when they hugged me. "OhmygoshLittleLadyIwassoworried!" A voice yelled. I blinked, trying to process what the person just said.

"Umm come again?" I said, trying to clarify what they just said.

Sasha pulled back, "Oh my gosh Little Lady I was so worried! You can't do that to me!" She scolded.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry you I just-well I don't know what I did, but I promise I didn't mean to!" I said, hoping they wouldn't punish me. I always mess things up. Everyday.

"Oh baby I know you didn't. I'm just so glad that you're okay." She's sighs in relief.

"Curly, meet me in my office. Now." Luke said. Oh great. Now I'm going to get kicked out. The streets here I come.

We went into his office and sat down. This is the same office from when he told me those rules. It feels like a lifetime ago. I sat in the chair in front of him and he sat in the big, comfy, leather spiny chair. "So Curly, I suspect you know why you're here?" Luke says, his voice indifferent.

Like any kid in trouble, I lie. "I'm guessing skipping school? Well I promise I'll never skip it again. Plus, I already learned everything they teach so I can skip some lessons." I try to reason.

"Although that is very mature of you to say," I nod in pride, "that is not what we are discussing," I frown, "we are talking about your passing out. Remember?"

Great. Just great. Of course he has to bring that up. Right now I really, really don't want to bring that up. But of course my brothers have no personal boundaries.

I came up with the best thing in my mind. Granted it was also the first but I will take what I can get. "Oh yes, uh that. What do you want to know? Wait- don't answer that. First I must warn you, I really, really want to forget that." I plead. Pulling the guilt card was my only choice, screw me.

His face looked more calculating than normal. I pretty sure he found his answer when he said "Why? Why would you like to forget what happened?"

Of course he just had to ask that. Out of all my brothers he is the most skillful thinker. Well guess what? Out of all of us, I am the preeminent of using my brain.

"I- I just don't want to seem weak in front of you. I mean... you all are the big bad White brothers. You have no weaknesses. I'm just a plain old girl. I have many many weaknesses" Throughout my whole speech thing, my voice cracked and wavered. Small fake tears streamed down my face.

His face somewhat softened. "Curly," he brushed a hair out of my face, "you are one of us. No matter what anyone says, you are apart of this family." He says, no doubt trying to make me feel better.

I have come to realize that I am the master of lying. I made even the slyest of men believe it. I am so going to hell for this.

I gave him a small smile and sniffled. "Well I guess we are all done here. Be good Curly. I will see you at dinner" I nodded my head and walked out the door.

I kept up my façade the whole way to my room. Strutted into my bathroom. Now I hate mirrors but I couldn't help look at myself. I am a liar. I am a con artist. I am all things horrible and I am going to hell.

But do I care? Ha. Carl has broken me enough to not care.

I can not tell you how sorry I am for not posting. First my mental health was not very good and then I found a good Netflix show. Do not expect a scheduled update. I will update whenever possible. I hope you like it and don't forget to vote, comment and obviously like :)