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Back Moment of Truth Save as PDF
Chapters (47)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Eight
  11. Nine
  12. Ten
  13. Eleven
  14. Twelve
  15. Thirteen
  16. Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-One
  24. Twenty-Two
  25. Twenty-Three
  26. Twenty-Four
  27. Twenty-Five
  28. Twenty-Six
  29. Twenty-Seven
  30. Twenty-Eight
  31. Twenty-Nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Thirty-One
  34. Thirty-Two
  35. Thirty-Three
  36. Thirty-Four
  37. Thirty-Five
  38. Thirty-Six
  39. Thirty-Seven
  40. Thirty-Eight
  41. Thirty-Nine
  42. 2 Months Later
  43. Acknowledgments
  44. About the Author
  45. Books by Kasie West
  46. Back Ad
  47. About the Publisher

Hey, I’ve told you before. I can admit anything I want behind the anonymity of the mask.

True.

So I know your spiders confession wasn’t a confession at all. What is it you’re really afraid of?

I sighed. Was it time to tell him something real? He hadn’t told anybody about our conversations so far. At least nobody had called me out on chatting with the fake Heath Hall. So I found myself typing some honesty. I’m not even sure, but I know I can never tell my parents what I’m thinking if what I am thinking will be something I know they don’t want to hear. Actually, I can’t tell anyone what I’m thinking if I know they don’t want to hear it.

How do you know they don’t want to hear it?

Because people only want to hear their own thoughts reflected back at them.

And what do you think will happen if they hear something they don’t like?

I don’t know.

So you fear unknown reactions?

Maybe. What was I so afraid of? That my parents would yell at me? It’s not like I’d never been yelled at before. I don’t know. And admitting that was hard to this guy who seemed to not only know exactly what he feared but to embrace those fears and talk about them with everybody.

It seems your mask helps other people reveal their truths too, I typed.

Yes, it does.

Now if only I could reveal mine to the right people, not the anonymous ones.

Twenty

The classroom phone rang midlecture and Mr. Kingston walked to the wall and picked it up. He met my eyes as he talked. He nodded at me like I should know what was being said on the other end. When he hung up, he said, “Hadley, please gather your things and meet your coach in his office.”

I had only one coach, but I still said, “Coach Phillips?”

“Yes.”

As I shut my binder and stuffed it into my backpack, my heart picked up speed. I’d missed the awards banquet. Was this the time where I learned the consequences of that? Was he going to tell me I couldn’t swim next year? Take away a race from me? Lecture me about my irresponsibility? I had a good relationship with Coach but he was a coach—he expected a lot from us. I pushed myself to standing and slowly walked to the door.

Maybe this wasn’t even about the banquet at all. Maybe this was about how awful I’d swum in the relay. He was finally going to talk to me about that. Tell me how disappointed he’d been. Or maybe he knew how much my shoulders had been bugging me. He was going to tell me I shouldn’t be swimming at all.