Author's Note: The response I'm getting is amazing! It's pretty hard to believe that this is the second-to-last chapter!

For 33sheenaxzelos33 and anyone else who's wondering, Yes, this story is definitely Cassie. Sorry. Maybe I'll write a little Massington for you guys later. If you have a request for me, though, just click on over to my requests forum. ;)

JUST SO YOU KNOW: This chapter is written ENTIRELY in CAM'S POV. Next chapter will be all Massie's to make up for it.

Disclaimer: (See chapter one for general disclaimer.) Cam's song is "White Lies," by Paolo Nutini.

CHAPTER FOUR: LIAR, LIAR, SHORTS ON FIRE

000

There's a heart on the line,
And it rests with your eyes.
Please don't fade and please don't cry,
'Cause it's all white lies.

000

Imagine the most awkward situation you've ever been in. Fallen on your face in front of the entire school? Stepped in something brown and squishy? Got a horrible haircut? Yeah, whatever, take that and multiply it by infinity. Then you've got your whiny girlfriend waking you up at some godforsaken hour of the morning to go jogging — jogging for God's sake!— when you bump into her sister, wearing only a bra, stumbling out of her bandmate's bedroom.

After repeating each other's names in incredulous tones for about five minutes, Massie's face lit up with an absolutely Derek-inspired smirk. "Hey, Kuh-laire," she drawled, mocking her sister's weird way of talking, "nice shorts."

Claire beamed. "Thanks! I just love them! Aren't they hawt?" She spun around in slow-motion, and while her face was to the wall, the taller, older, brunette twin rolled her eyes at me. I chuckled a bit; back home in Westchester, Claire was the most popular girl at our high school. No one made fun of her. No one except her sister, apparently.

"It's hard to tell that you guys are twins."

Claire paused, mid-twirl.

Massie's eyes lit up.

Claire bit her lip.

Massie clenched her jaw.

"What. Is. He. Talking. About. Kuh-laire?" Her voice was harder and more intense than it was on any of her albums, even her more hardcore sophomore attempt. Whatever was happening, was a completely serious matter.

Keeping her eyes firmly on her Keds sneakers, Claire mumbled something along the lines of, "Nothing really."

For the first time ever, Massie seemed to realize that she was only wearing a bra and a pair of ridiculously tight jeans. "Cam. Give me your sweater."

"But..." My voice trailed off. This is my favourite sweater. "Why can't you use Claire's?"

She gave me a saccharine-sweet smile. Begrudgingly, and not without a few muttered curses, I pulled off my Briarwood Academy soccer team hoodie (with FISHER and my number, 24, emblazoned on the back) and passed it to the grouchy brunette. Was it her time of the month or something?

I have to admit, it was pretty hot to see Massie wearing my sweater. All the guys on the team got their girlfriends to wear their jerseys during the week of our final match against Grayson. Claire claimed mine was "too gross" and "sweaty" for her gorgeousness to touch. I think she might have actually used the word "gorgeousness."

Claire kind of squirmed around aimlessly for a couple minutes, before she squared her shoulders and took a deep, cleansing breath. "I have a confession to make."

Talk about dramatic?

"Massie is nawt my twin. She's my stepsister. And my real name is Claire Lyons. Nawt Block. When my mom married Mass' —"

"Don't call me Mass!"

"Fine, whatevs. When my mom married Massie's father, I took her name. Nawt long after that, though, Miss Massie, here, got all famous and quit OCD. So I just pretended like she was my long-lost twin."

"That is the stupidest thing I ever heard. Claire, why would you lie about that?"

As Claire opened her over-glossed mouth to explain, Massie held up her pointer finger. "Forget it. I don't care. You're just a...just a... What's that lame-ass acronym you came up for major dorks?"

"LBR?" The blonde suggested, twitching her bottom lip like she always did just before she succumbed to heaving sobs.

"That's it. Now, if you don't mind, I have band practice in a couple hours and I need a couple hours of sleep." She saluted a tear-drenched Claire. "I'm off."

"Wait!"

She turned around, a bemused expression on her face, and gave me The Look. "Yes, Cammiekins?"

"You're not leaving until you make up with Claire."

"Then," she pronounced with a dramatic flutter of her hand on her delicate cheek, "I guess I'm never leaving."

000

Now you move with the tide, and,
I've heard you've found peace of mind.
And I know that life's design
Moves around white lies, white lies, white lies, white lies.

000

About two hours, seventeen minutes and forty-two seconds later, (Not that I've been keeping track.) Claire's tears are all dried up and she sniffles out a weak, "I'm so sorry, Massie!" I hand her a tissue like the perfect boyfriend I am and she gives me a grateful look before blowing her nose like an off-key clarinet or, perhaps, a dying duck.

Massie mouths, "Gross," but smiles bitterly and proclaims that Claire Lyons Block is forgiven. At the sound of those two words ("You're forgiven.") Claire jumps from the carpeted floor where she's curled up into the fetal position and gives her quasi-sister a bone-crushing hug. It looked awkward and uncomfortable and I'm pretty sure Massie let out a breath of relief when it was over, but I was still glad all this drama was over. Until, I hear the strangest words ever to come out of Claire's mouth.

"Cam," she states simply, through blurry vision, mascara-stained cheeks, and a stuffed nose, "I'm breaking up with you."

WHAT?

Claire is breaking up with...me??

"Yes, Cam." She nods her head wisely, as if I protested aloud. "I think we're going separate ways in life." (Again: WTF? We're only eighteen; we haven't even graduated high school yet.) "It would just be better for us to go at it alone." (Go at what, exactly?) "Besides," she finishes with a wry grin, "it's pretty obvi-ous to see that you've got your eye on someone else."

"Wh— Who?" I manage to spit out.

Her French-manicured finger twists circles in the air before landing on the slim-boned brunette who's fallen asleep again after acepting Claire's apology.

"Massie?"

She rolls her blue eyes. "Ehmagawd, Cam. Obvi!"

Obvi.