Web of Lies

“There is no way that actually happened.” 

“It’s true! I swear!” 

“So you mean to tell us that you went cliff jumping at Marianna’s Point?”

“Well you did ask me what the craziest thing I’ve ever done was.”

“And I asked that question because you picked truth.”

“It is true!!”

Kyra rolled her eyes and looked over at the clock. 3am. The grade 11B girls of Hawthorne High had gathered in Kyra’s room over an hour ago to play a few games of truth or dare. It had been a cumbersome task for the girls; tip toeing across the grounds, carefully avoiding the motion sensored camp lights and the watchful eye of stern teachers. Not to mention having to reveal their secrets and do the things they dreaded once they finally made the trek. She hadn’t even wanted to invite all of the girls but many had tagged along, awake out of boredom. But she didn’t expect every girl in the class to come, especially Gen; Kyra’s ex best friend from St. Marks Middle School. Kyra had hated that school and everything she had been back in Midwood. When her mom got a job offer as head engineer at a power plant in Hawthorne, which was across town, she saw her opportunity to reinvent herself in high school. Her freshman year was great, she had made tons of new friends and had genuinely been the girl she had always pretended to be. She was starting to feel like she could finally belong at this school, until she felt everything starting to unravel during her sophomore year. 

Of course Gen had to follow her, serving as a constant reminder of the girl she’d been, threatening to ruin the whole reputation she had made at Hawthorne High. The whole time up until the school camping trip, Gen had felt like an annoying fly buzzing around Kyra and she’d been pushed to the final breaking point when Gen had now claimed that she had once cliff dived at Marianna’s Point. It was clear to her that Gen had no intention of changing her ways.

The girls sat in a big circle around the cabin, some sitting on the floor or the few chairs and some lying every which way on the four bunk beds occupying the small room. What was even the point of this game if people were gonna lie? It was called truth or dare. 

When Gen seemed to notice that Kyra wasn’t going to say anything more, she spoke again now talking to the whole group.

“Yeah, I’ve jumped off Marianna’s Point at least 3 times now, it’s no biggie.”

Most of the girls stared at her in shock, some whispering to each other. 

Gen made an effort of doing an over the top grin. Marianna’s Point is the top of a cliff that towers 18 metres above the rocky shore and icy waters of Lake Beluga. You would have to be a fool to jump off Marianna’s Point. From time to time, reckless teenagers would show off to their friends and jump, all of whom made it to the bottom alive, some only closely scraping by. But like they said, you would have to be a fool to jump. 

“So it’s no biggie?” Matilda, Kyra’s current best friend, asked, and Kyra could sense she had an idea forming in her head. 

Gen replied back as if it was a challenge. 

“No. Biggie.”

At this point, there was no way a teacher would wake from their sleep and catch them out of their cabins, because the silence in the room could have echoed a still night.

Gen and Matilda stared at each other, their eyes connected with a string of tension. When Kyra couldn’t stand the silence anymore, she asked a question that she already knew the answer to.

“What are you saying, Matilda?”

Matilda smiled, a malicious glint in her eye. “Since everyone’s finding a hard time trying to believe Gen’s ‘truth’, why don’t we see if she wants to put her money where her mouth is? Beluga Lake is only a 10 minute walk from the campgrounds and we could be back here before sunrise.” She had been talking to the whole room at this point, but she turned her head to look only at Gen.

“I dare you.”

Even though Kyra predicted this, it was still a shock that her best friend would say that. Matilda had never been one to follow the rules to a tee and she was never caught overthinking the things she wanted to say, which were some of the reasons Kyra loved being friends with her over the past two years. But seeing her now, those qualities she used to admire were scaring her a little.

Matilda and Gen were still looking at each other, almost egging each other on; who would be the first to back out? But Kyra knew Gen’s tenacity could rival Matilda’s. Kyra knew she should put a stop to this right now, but for some reason, after all she and Gen had been through, she stopped herself.

“Deal.” Gen said.

•••

As the girls made their way from the unbearably hot cabin into the cool breeze of the night, Kyra still felt herself heating up. Her brain heating from an override, wondering how the night would end. She could still end this, or at least try to. It would be hard for either Matilda or Gen to back down, unless in front of authority. But Kyra decided against telling the teacher, for fear of being accused of tattling. It was stupid, and she knew that, but a part of her just couldn’t risk it. Although another part of her couldn’t risk anything happen to her friends. As Kyra looked around, she could see the harrowing cliff getting larger and having all odds stacked higher and higher against them with each step. She couldn’t take it anymore.

“You can’t do this, Gen!”

Gen trudged onwards up the cliff, sparing no glance at her. “You can’t tell me what to do and besides, I’ve done this before.”

Gen said that as if her and Kyra weren’t friends before, hadn’t been through what they did. But to be fair, Gen and Hawthorne High Kyra weren’t friends at all.

“Gen, you and I both know that that isn’t true.”

“Well, maybe I’ve changed since middle school, you of all people should know that.”

Kyra’s gaze hardened on her. “Please don’t make this about me. Are you even thinking through this at all?!”

Gen’s iced expression did not falter one bit as she finally turned to look Kyra in the eye. “I know exactly what I’m doing”, she said as she walked away.

There is no way she knew exactly what she was doing, and Kyra was starting to panic now. She tried to talk to Matilda, but she was decidedly more stubborn than Gen, shutting down Kyra’s numerous pleas straight away. She didn’t even know why Matilda wanted to prove Gen wrong so bad. 

A lot of the 11B girls had dropped out throughout the walk to Beluga Lake, saying they were scared of the consequences if the teachers found out, but Kyra suspected they were afraid of the other things that could come out of tonight. Kyra wanted nothing more than to leave with those girls, but these were her best friends, the ones that were making the climb towards something that made Kyra’s stomach feel like an endless pit.  

Kyra, Gen, Matilda, and three other girls, who had to be either brave or ignorant, had made it up the cliff to Marianna’s Point. Whatever Kyra thought of the cliff 15 metres away was nothing compared to the fright she felt being up on that cliff, knowing that something was about to go down.

Gen stood near the edge of the cliff, taking off her jacket so she was just wearing a tank top and shorts, while Matilda stood behind with her arms crossed. Both looked unfazed, even as Gen was about to go through with one of her lies for the first time. Just as she began looking over the edge, probably getting a good sense of the distance, Matilda had clapped her hands together like a teacher to get everyone’s attention.

“Okay Gen, what are you waiting for? It’s just like you said, right? No biggie.” 

Gen pursed her lips together and the first sign of unease flashed across her face for the briefest moment before a look of determination settled. 

“I’m ready.”

Kyra looked at the girls who had stayed, whispering to each other, one trying to cover her eyes. All three probably wishing they had the sense to back out like Kyra had wanted to. Kyra saw the tip of Gen’s sneakers hovering over the edge of the cliff, then pulling back onto the hard surface. Kyra swallowed the rising lump in her throat. 

Matilda tapped her foot impatiently. “I can count you down if you want.”

“5…”

Kyra knew Gen was wavering. She wanted to scream at her that she didn’t have to do this, but Gen would never listen, she had too much pride. Never in their years of being best friends had Gen or Kyra ever had to prove the lies they told. There had been close calls before, but most times people just believed. They had lied about what they’d done, what they’d liked, and almost everything about them except for their names because they had been afraid of middle school and the eyes of kids that followed them through the hallways.

“4…”

They’d been popular at St. Marks Middle School, because of these small white lies they told that had somehow woven together to become a legendary reputation. Something that followed them. After wearing this guise for a while, Kyra couldn’t take it anymore. The small innocent fibs began to accumulate, trapping her. She jumped at the chance to move and made sure that the life she was living there was a life of truth and the chance to genuinely be the girl she had created at Midwood. 

“3…” 

But she couldn’t run from her past. Even now in Hawthorne she was constantly worrying about what others thought of her, every walk through the school corridor was mentally exhausting. She began to hold herself differently and never really say what she felt. And even after everything, she still could never seem to shake the presence of the eyes. Apparently Gen couldn’t either. 

“2…” 

Maybe they both moved across town with the intentions of change. Sure, they changed on the surface, but the same insecurities and anxieties were effervescent in their lives at Hawthorne. And maybe people still judged her as she walked from class to class, and maybe they never had. Maybe they had never cared, too absorbed in their own things like she was. She shouldn’t care. And maybe Gen shouldn’t care either. She did not have to go through with this. 

“1.”

Kyra sprinted towards the cliff. It felt like every action moved in slow motion. Gen’s knees bending, anticipating the jump. Kyra reaching out to grab Gen’s shirt and missing by mere inches. Was she too late? Kyra fell to the ground and reached out for Gen’s arm and caught her wrist. She felt Gen’s hand grab her wrist and felt Gen’s weight as she dangled over the cliff’s edge. The three girls who were watching by the side ran to help Kyra bring Gen up as she struggled on her hands and knees to grasp the rocky edge. With a final pull, Gen collapsed on the ground and both her and Kyra quickly shuffled away from the cliff. 

Only seconds of silence had passed, but to Kyra it felt like hours. Just as the girls looked into the others’ eyes, Gen had bursted into tears. Kyra pulled her into a tight hug. Even after the past two years, it was like nothing had changed. They were still here for each other, untangling their web of fibs and lies.

“Kyra, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know what I was doing,” Gen said, between sniffles.

A wave of relief passed over Kyra. “It’s okay”. They would both be okay. 

She looked over at Matilda, who was processing the power of her words and what they’d almost done, in shock. Kyra would have to talk to Matilda later. She had said things Kyra knew she didn’t mean.

All six girls had gotten back to the cabins safely. As Kyra got into bed she looked at the clock again. 4am. Why do the most life changing events always happen over a small amount of time? Kyra would never know. But one thing she did know was that she finally felt like she had completed what she had always wanted Hawthorne to fix. 

She had destroyed her web of lies, inside and out.