"Seriously?" Bailey thought about it for a minute and finally said, "Yeah I mean sure. I guess I would, as long as it's not with Chaz. That guy's a total perv."

"Deal, but you've gotta let me and my Mom give you a makeover. I'm gonna have you looking so hot they'll be starting up a website to fight over you next."

Bailey laughed. "That's very doubtful but sure. A makeover might be fun. Don't get your hopes up about making me hot though. There's not much to work with. I'm forever cursed with red hair and freckles."

"We'll see about that. I think you have the potential to be a knockout. Yay! I'm so excited. You can come over to my house tonight after school. I'll text you the address. The offer still stands to sit with me for lunch if you want to," she told Bailey but she declined, not wanting to ditch her friend group in the library.

Jolie made her way over to the football table and sat down in the seat that Austin had saved beside him.

"Hey babe," Austin said, leaning over and giving her a kiss on the lips. It was quick and sweet, not like the one he gave her earlier against her locker.

"Hey, how's your day going so far?" she asked, biting into her apple.

"Pretty good now that I've got you back. At least now we know who was behind the lie," he said.

"I sit next to Blaze in English class and he said he was sorry about everything. He said Mandy came up with the whole idea to break us up so she could get you back. She told him she'd sleep with him if he helped her with her little scheme."

"That sounds like something Mandy would do. She's so manipulative. I'm actually surprised she didn't fake a pregnancy or something just to get me back. She's devious. It's so embarrassing that I dated her for 4 months and didn't see through her fake personality sooner."

Jolie noticed that Ryan seemed really interested in their conversation as soon as she mentioned Mandy and she wasn't sure why she said it but she followed her gut and asked "Ryan have you ever slept with Mandy?" and he almost choked on a fry. She wasn't sure what made her ask him that but knowing he was the biggest player in school and she was the head cheerleader, it was just a guess.

"What?" he asked, hoarsely, trying to clear his throat.

"Have you ever slept with Mandy before?"

Ryan looked uncomfortable and kind of fidgeted in his seat.

"That's a weird question to ask, considering she's my best friend's ex."

"Yeah it is a weird question Ryan ....... So what's the answer?" Jolie pressed.

Ryan stammered and rubbed his neck for a second, a tell-tale sign of someone being nervous. Her Dad had taught her all about reading body language because as a defense attorney it was important for him to recognize when he was being lied to.

"No of course I haven't," Ryan said looking at the ground and avoiding eye contact.

His actions were the sure sign of a liar she thought.

Austin looked at him curiously for a second but accepted his answer and changed the subject.

"You coming to watch my game Friday night? It's against East, our biggest rival," Austin asked Ryan.

"Yeah of course. I wouldn't miss it dude. I'll be there."

"Good. I wanted to make sure my best friend would be there for me. I still consider you my best friend even after everything that happened yesterday with you and Jolie. I'm hoping we won't have any more issues like that and we can just move on and forget it ever happened."

"Of course. It's completely forgotten and it'll never happen again man. Your friendship means too much to me to let any girl get between us. You're my brother. I'll always be your best friend. No matter what man," Ryan said giving him a fist bump.

Jolie was hoping Ryan meant what he said but her gut instinct was still telling her not to trust him.

After lunch Jolie had Spanish class with Mandy and Blaze and Chaz. She took a seat up towards the front and didn't speak to any of them. She pulled out her phone and made an appointment tonight for Bailey at the same beauty salon that did her makeover. She was so surprised that there was one opening left, considering how amazing they were. There must have been a last minute cancellation.

"So I heard you're officially his girlfriend now and I see you're wearing his letter jacket. Does that mean the chase is over and there's no hope for the rest of us?" Chaz asked her, leaning down in the aisle next to her seat.

"That's exactly what that means," Jolie said, still looking down at her phone, feeling irritated.

"Even for Ryan?" he laughed and she heard a few other people laugh too.

"Especially for Ryan. But he does like to hook up with his best friend's girls ........... doesn't he Mandy?" Jolie asked, glaring in her direction.

Mandy's eyes got as big as saucers and her mouth dropped open in shock. She sat in stunned silence for a second before asking, "How did you find out about that? We both swore we'd never tell anyone!"

"Call it lawyer's intuition," Jolie smirked. "I learned it from the best."

She was really good at figuring things out that people were hiding and not falling for their mind games. It reminded her of how talented her Dad was with figuring out who was lying during a trial and getting them to confess, solving the case.

'I guess I got that talent from him' she thought. She hoped she could be as good of a lawyer as her Dad one day. She just wished he was as good at being a Dad and a husband as he was being a lawyer.

She saw Mandy furiously typing away to someone on her cell phone and once in a while she would glare back over at her.

After class was over Jolie hurried out so she could go meet Austin by his car but as soon as she walked out in the hall Ryan stepped in front of her and said, "We need to talk" very sternly.

He must've been waiting outside the door for her class to get out. She stepped around him and said, "Sorry I'm busy right now."

He grabbed her tight around both arms and slammed her hard against the locker with a loud bang and sneered "You'll make time," staring aggressively into her eyes and squeezing her arms tight.

"Ow!" she yelled at him. "What's your problem?!"

He got right in her face and glared at her with his hazel eyes and there was something dark behind them. Something scary and it made a chill run down her spine.

"My family's never around so Austin's been like my family. He's all I've got. I can't lose his friendship. You're trying to f*ck things up between me and him and I'm not gonna stand by and let you! Stay out of my business or else you're gonna get hurt! Got that b*tch?!" he screamed in her face, punching the locker right next to her head making her jump with a gasp before barreling down the hallway, knocking into people as he passed.

Jolie stood there in shock unable to breathe, shaking like a leaf. She couldn't believe what just happened. She looked up and Blaze McDaniels was down at his locker looking at her. He walked over and said, "Damn. What did you do to get on Ryan's bad side? He looked really pissed."

"I followed my intuition and made a guess about him sleeping with Mandy and it turned out it was true and it was supposed to be this huge secret that they don't want Austin to know. He just threatened me to keep my mouth shut about it or else I'll get hurt because he doesn't want it to mess up their friendship."

"Well, he's a really scary dude when he's angry if you couldn't tell. It's kind of weird that him and Austin are best friends considering Austin is the straight as an arrow, never get in trouble kind of guy. Ryan gets in trouble more than I do but for really serious sh*t like assault & battery, assaulting an officer, resisting arrest, intimidation with a deadly weapon. The list goes on. He would have a rap sheet a mile long but the charges are always dropped because his family owns this town and pays off whoever they need to to make things go away. He has rage issues, powerful connections and a limitless amount of money. Trust me. He's not somebody you want on your bad side."

Jolie thought this over. "Well even if Ryan gets mad I can't keep this from Austin. I need to tell him what he did to me and the threats he made. Would you come with me as a witness so I have someone to back up what I'm saying? It's better to have a witness even if he does hate you after Mandy cheated on him with you."

"What are you talking about? I didn't start hooking up with Mandy until just recently when she talked me into helping her get Austin back."

"Really? Austin told me she cheated on him with you at a party right before summer during finals. He didn't go because he had to study."

Blaze laughed, "Well now it makes sense why he's been acting like he hates me so much these past few months. I was confused. It wasn't me she cheated on him with at the party that night. It was Ryan, his supposed best friend."

Jolie gasped. "Are you serious? No wonder Ryan wants to keep Mandy such a big secret then! Austin would be furious if he knew Ryan slept with Mandy while they were together! I've gotta go. Austin's waiting for me outside and he's probably wondering where I'm at, but thank you for clearing up a few things for me," she said, turning and hurrying towards the parking lot.

When she got outside he was waiting inside the Jeep looking at his phone.

"Hey beautiful!" he said when he saw her. "What took you so long?"

"I had to put some stuff in my locker and got stuck talking to some people. Sorry about that," she said, leaning over and kissing him.

He kissed her back and said, "That's ok. You wanna come over to my house for a while and work out in the gym before I have to go to football practice?"

"Sorry I can't. I invited Bailey over so I could give her a makeover. I want to help her find a date to Homecoming and then her & her date could ride there with us. Do you think any of your friends might be willing to go with her?"

"With Bailey?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "I don't know. I mean I can ask around but I wouldn't get your hopes up."

"Ok just see what you can do."

Maybe after this makeover people will change their minds about her, Jolie thought hopefully.