29
It looks like the Perfect Liars were always deeply flawed
Okay, it was me who was going to end up dead .
. . from the shock of seeing Eli. With my legs trembling and on the verge of passing out, I edged forward to the front of the stage to get a better view of the screen.
I looked closely at the video to see if it was a recording, but no; Eli was speaking live.
Behind her I could see a vast field dotted with trees typical of Asian landscapes.
There were even people walking behind. She looked stunning, the kind of girl whose natural beauty was intimidating, effortless yet enough to upstage anyone. She spoke coherently and charmingly.
That girl wasn’t dead, kidnapped, or being tortured; she was simply living her best life somewhere else.
“So, I hope you enjoy the fair!” Eli finished off her stream a few moments later. “And I also hope to be back in class next year, once my spiritual journey is over.”
She blew a kiss into the camera and the stream cut off.
Everyone started clapping. Regan threw Aegan a serious look.
If they were stupid, they would’ve lunged at each other for the mic, but they were clever, vengeful, and held themselves back.
Regan stayed still. Then Aegan started speaking eloquently, like a natural-born leader.
I noticed that Kiana, Dash, and even Artie—who standing next to a bored Adrik, nibbling on cotton candy like he was waiting to die—were all staring at me.
Their eyes were saying, Come on, it’s your time to shine, get on the stage and do what we planned, break up with him in front of everyone and humiliate him.
It was the perfect moment: nothing could be heard but Aegan’s booming, legendary voice, and everyone was listening carefully.
Hanging on to his every word. It would be epic if I went up there and humiliated him by breaking up with him in front of everyone, just like Kiana, Dash, and Artie were hoping.
But just for a moment.
Then it would gradually be forgotten. It wouldn’t go the way I’d imagined Eli’s murder reveal would go, which had been my real plan that I’d kept from them.
Seeing me just standing there, Dash waved his hands at me, as if to say, Come on, let’s go! Kiana widened her eyes and nodded toward the platform. Her lips moved in a silent You can do it!
Devastated, I realized that I couldn’t go through with it, because if Eli wasn’t dead, I had nothing to use against him.
Nothing.
So, I didn’t move. I couldn’t step onto the platform and humiliate him in front of everyone like I’d planned. I froze, defeated.
Although . . . something was about to give him his due on my behalf.
It happened out of the blue. Aegan was speaking, on a roll, when suddenly his wide mouth froze, poised to utter the next word into the mic. Then his whole face froze. His eyes, usually filled with malice, widened in astonishment. There was a profound silence.
People were staring at him, expectant and confused. Regan looked him up and down, confused. What was wrong with him? Was he going to destroy his big moment?
Regan tried to ask him something. Aegan didn’t react; he stayed so still that most people were starting to get scared. Was he going to kick the bucket or what? Oh, fuck.
Regan asked him something again. And he responded, but not with words.
Amid the expectant silence of the fair, beneath the starry night sky, in front of the students of Tagus, Aegan let out a long, loud, wet, and revolting fart. And everyone heard it, amplified by the mic.
Turns out Aegan needed a toilet.
The fourth event: “The Explosion.”
I put my hands to my mouth in astonishment. Other people did too. Hundreds of people were looking at him in shock. Some people were starting to laugh, while others looked completely gobsmacked. Had the flawless Aegan just done that? In front of the crowd?
And then I remembered: the laxative. The laxative had finally done the trick.
Holy fuck! Hahahahah!
Just as someone in the crowd let out a loud, mocking laugh, and before another joined in, then another, Aegan threw the mic to the ground and bolted off the stage in search of a bathroom.
“Oh, fucking hell!” I heard someone nearby say, about to burst out laughing, but still in shock. “Did Aegan Cash just shit himself?”
It sure as hell looked like it.
Laughter spread throughout the crowd. Everyone started making comments. There was hustle and bustle all over the fair. I saw Regan on the stage grab the mic to say something. He was holding back a laugh, likely chuffed that his half brother had failed in his attempt to hijack the speech.
That was undoubtedly amazing, but I couldn’t enjoy it. I still hadn’t shaken off the shock of Eli’s live stream. I kept thinking I was going to pass out, my mind struggling to fully grasp my failure. I just . . . I just needed answers.
And I went to get them.
I quickly weaved through people laughing and gossiping about Aegan to get to the bathroom. I heard comments along the way: “He must’ve eaten tacos from the stand near the stage, they tasted weird.” Nobody suspected a laxative, or me.
I reached the portable toilets, four of them lined up in a row of blue. I found him right away. A big, funny fart rang out from inside. I would’ve fainted from laughing so hard if I hadn’t still been reeling from seeing Eli’s face.
“Aegan, are you in there?” I asked, standing in front of the door.
“What do you want?” he blurted out from inside, sounding pissed off. “Go away.”
I couldn’t.
“Listen, that girl from the live stream . . .”
“She’s my ex, yeah!” he admitted, sounding impatient and kind of sad. “Now get the hell out of here. Oh, fuck,” he complained at his own stomach.
In the background, Regan’s voice was boomed around the fair, honoring Tagus alumni.
Aegan’s ass let out a big liquid fart in protest.
“She had vanished,” I said.
“What?” he said, sounding surprised. And pissed off, but mostly surprised.
“I heard it somewhere,” I lied, searching for answers. “I heard she left one day and never came back.”
“Yeah, to a spiritual retreat, just like she said on the live stream,” he replied, like it was obvious.
“But her social networks and,” I said hesitantly, “and you never mentioned her . . .”
“Why would I speak to my girlfriend about my ex?” he shot back angrily, before letting out an explosive fart. “Retreats like that make you cut yourself off from the real world, including social media. I think that’s why she deleted them.”
I analyzed his voice because I couldn’t see his face, although I imagined it was red and swollen. By this stage, I knew him all too well. He actually sounded kind of genuine—farting aside—not over-the-top like when he was lying or mocking people.
“But it seemed like . . .” I tried to say, before thinking better of it.
“What?” he asked right back. He then seemed to get it. “That something happened to her? Or that I’d done something to her?”
I didn’t reply. My lips were trembling with nerves. I couldn’t quite understand it. I couldn’t understand how the pieces that had previously seemed to fit together no longer did. Or had I always had the wrong pieces?
“Jude, I really don’t understand how you can like me if you think I’m a monster,” Aegan said. “Fuck, and here I was, actually thinking about proposing a truce.”
Wait, what?
“A truce?” I was even more gobsmacked.
A chorus of farts and groans echoed from inside the bathroom.
“Get out of here, Jude!” he demanded, hurt and pissed off.
“But why a truce?” I insisted. This . . . to be quite honest, was surprising, I didn’t have a clue what was going on.
“Can’t you even consider that maybe you’re wrong about something just this fucking once?” he shot back, before complaining, “Oh, fuck, what the hell did I eat?”
Holy fuck. Well, since Eli was alive, he obviously hadn’t killed her, and there was nothing more to say about it. He wasn’t a murderer. I couldn’t hate him for that.
I heard him say, “What did I eat? What caused this fucking diarrhea?” and I even felt a tiny bit sorry for him. Well, I wasn’t that sorry. He was still an asshole, but what had he meant?
“What am I wrong about?” I asked. “Is it something about you?”
“You know what? I’m fucking fed up,” he said. “I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to see you ever again. I want nothing to do with you. We’re done.”
“Are you breaking up with me?” I said, stunned.
“Yeah,” he said, without giving me a chance to respond, like he was issuing a command. “If you really want to get back with me, you’ll have to prove it!”
Was this idiot breaking up with me? Is that what I wanted?
I had no idea what to do now.
I was about to say something when he suddenly got it; he was an asshole, yeah, but still very smart.
“It was you!” he suddenly shouted, having a lightbulb moment.
“The only strange thing I’ve taken is the pill you gave me!
Look, Jude, you’d better get out of here, because if I come out of this bathroom and you’re still there, I’m going to .
. . !” A stomach cramp cut him off, making him groan in pain. “Oh, fuck!”
I took several steps back, on alert. I even thought he’d come out of the bathroom with his ass hanging out, covered in diarrhea, just to hang me.
I thought about running because I needed to lock myself in my room, sit on my bed, and really think.
Think about everything that had happened that day.
I needed to analyze, to reflect, to ask myself where the hell I’d gone wrong and what my next move would be. Should I leave? Stay?
Somebody touched my shoulder. I spun around in defense mode. When I saw Adrik standing in front of me, I froze. He’d eaten all his cotton candy. His black sweatshirt and jeans were flawless. Oh, fuck.
“What do you want?” I blurted out, doing my best to look strong.
“I don’t know why Artie doesn’t want to come and tell you, but we need you to lend us your apartment key. She forgot hers, and we want to go there.”
Oh, wow. My apartment key, so they could get it on there. That was the final straw. The nerve.
Noticing my confused silence, he added, “Please.”
I was cursing on the inside, just like Aegan was cursing to the beat of his farts.
And then I gave him the key. Why? No idea.
Basically, I wasn’t going to make a scene or ask him not to hook up with Artie in the apartment, no matter how much I wanted to.
He was a liar, just like his brothers. I shouldn’t let myself like him! Could I stop though?
The keys fell into Adrik’s hand, the hand that not so long ago had touched me. He threw an apathetic glance over my shoulder toward the portable toilet. Then he looked at me. I spotted a smirk on his face. I fucking hated that smirk.
“Have fun with your boyfriend,” he said.
And off he went. I watched him head to find Artie. Oh, happy ending for me, right?
No friend.
Hated by the guy I actually liked.
Dumped by my asshole ex-boyfriend.
Seen as a coward by Kiana and Dash for not following through with my plan to publicly break up with Aegan.
Summary of the night at the fair: a complete disaster.
Now what would I do?