Angels in Pink: Holly's Story (Lurlene McDaniel (Mass Market)) (4 page)

six

“THIS SUMMER’S GOING by way too fast,” Holly told her friends. It was Saturday, and they were relaxing poolside in lounge chairs under big umbrellas at Raina’s town house complex.

“Way too fast,” Kathleen mumbled dreamily, half asleep.

“School starts in four weeks,” Holly said.

Raina threw a towel at her. “Don’t spoil the day. I’m not ready to go back.” Truth be told, she wasn’t ready for Hunter to leave. Their senior year would start the last week in August, but because he’d gotten a jump start on college last winter, he wouldn’t head off to Indiana until after Labor Day. She was dreading it.

“Aren’t you grouchy?” Holly said. “I’m looking forward to being a senior. Queen of the Hill. Top dog.”

“I can’t wait to graduate and go far, far away,” Raina said.

“How far? I thought we were all going to try for the same college.”

Kathleen raised her head. “University of South Florida for me. It’s where Mom can afford to send me.” The local university was on the north side of Tampa.

“I was hoping we’d all go to Florida or Florida State,” Holly said, disappointed, for they had talked for years about attending the same college and being roommates. “They’re both far enough away that my parents won’t be looking over my shoulder every minute.”

Kathleen shrugged. “I have to live at home. Dorm living costs too much.” She didn’t add that she also felt an obligation to stay nearby for her mother’s sake. A recent flare-up of Mary Ellen’s multiple sclerosis had laid her low, and despite her support system, Mary Ellen had needed Kathleen more than ever. Her form of MS—relapsing-remitting—was like that; it came and went, but the relapses could be incapacitating. Kathleen said, “The bright side is that Carson plans to go to college around here too.” She didn’t mention the community college, which was still being discussed by his parents.

“And I’m looking at colleges closer to Hunter,” Raina said.

“Since when? What about the plans
we
made?” Holly was surprised, then irritated.

“Plans change.”

“When were the two of you going to say something to me? This just stinks!”

Raina and Kathleen exchanged glances. Raina said, “Holly, it’s not a conspiracy against you. It’s just the way things are working out.”

“Money’s a real issue for me,” Kathleen said.

“No,” Holly said coolly. “You both have boyfriends and they’re dictating your plans.”

No one spoke.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” By now Holly was worked up and getting angrier by the moment.

“It’s a combination of things,” Kathleen said. “Yes, Carson will stay in Tampa. But the money—”

“Spare me.” Holly turned to Raina. “And you?”

“All I’ve ever wanted is Hunter,” Raina said quietly. “You’ve always known that.”

Holly felt something inside her explode. “And how about the God stuff? What are you doing about that, Raina? How will you fit into his life if he becomes a pastor? Do you think he wants to drag along an atheist for the rest of his life?” Holly saw that her words were hitting Raina like rocks, but she didn’t care. She was usually the one in the middle, smoothing over Raina’s ruffled feathers or shoring up Kathleen’s sagging ego, and now they were both heading off in different directions without giving her feelings a single thought.

Kathleen attempted to defuse Holly. “Look, it’s not the end of the world. You’re smart, Holly. Your grades are in the stratosphere, and you placed in the top five in our school on the ACT last year. You’ll be accepted to any college you choose. Pick one. Go for the gold.”

“I want to be with my friends,” Holly said through gritted teeth. “What’s crystal clear is that my best friends don’t want to be with me.”

“That’s not true. We have our whole senior year together. And the rest of the summer too. We’re all Pink Angels—”

Holly stood up. “Don’t throw me crumbs. I’m out of here.” She grabbed her towel and stalked toward the gate.

Kathleen jumped up. “Don’t leave.”

Holly unlatched the gate without a backward glance.

“I brought you. Don’t you want a ride home?”

“I’ll call my mommy like a good little girl!” Holly shouted over her shoulder. “She’ll be thrilled that I need her.”

She slammed out of the gate and Kathleen turned to Raina, who still hadn’t recovered from Holly’s verbal assault. Kathleen dropped onto the chair beside Raina. “She . . . she didn’t mean all the things she said. She was just upset. She’ll get over it.”

“She was right, though.” Raina’s voice sounded thick. “What’s Hunter going to do with a girl like me?”

“He’s going to love you, as he has for years.”

“We’re miles apart on a few big issues. They’re like a mountain between us. He needs someone who’s more like him, who can see the world through his eyes.”

“He needs
you,
” Kathleen said emphatically.

“You’re kind to say so, but I’ll just drag him down.”

Kathleen stopped offering protests.

Raina picked up her towel. “Let’s go back to my room. We’ll make some popcorn—” Her voice cracked and Kathleen’s heart went out to her. Raina steadied herself. “Do you think Holly will stay angry at us?”

“No way,” Kathleen said as they walked. “It’s not in her nature.”

Kathleen was wrong. Holly stewed in her anger for the rest of the week, going so far as to ask her mother to drive her to and from the hospital so that she wouldn’t have to ride with Raina and Kathleen.

“Did you all have a falling-out?” her mother asked.

“Can’t I have some privacy on this?”

“I’m not prying. I’m just asking if it’s something you’d like to talk about.”

“No, Mother, I don’t want to talk about it.”

Evelyn didn’t ask again, but she did allow Holly to drive herself to the hospital two days the following week when she didn’t need the car. For that Holly was grateful, because her anger had morphed into deep hurt over Raina and Kathleen’s betrayal. She went online and searched for colleges for herself. She didn’t need her friends. It was time for the Three Musketeers to go their separate ways.

Holly didn’t even cave when Kathleen called and asked if they could go shopping together for school clothes. “I’ve saved enough to buy some things, and you have a fashion eye and I don’t,” Kathleen said enticingly.

“Sorry, I’m busy,” Holly told her.

“We could go another day.”

“Maybe Raina will go with you.”

“Holly . . . ,” Kathleen chided.

“Got to run,” Holly said, and hung up. Then she cried. Only her pride was standing in the way of her being with her friends—
former
friends, she told herself. Yet she couldn’t seem to get over the hurt.

“You going to stay mad at them forever?” Hunter asked one evening, standing in the doorway of her room.

“Maybe,” Holly answered, knowing he was asking because Raina had urged him to.

“Not very mature.”

She stuck out her tongue at him. “They hurt my feelings and I can do whatever I want. Go away.”

He did.

Two weeks before school started, she received an e-mail from Shy Boy.

SHY BOY: Are you still speaking to me?

HOLLY: Yes, but I’m pretty sick and tired of you toying with me. Either we meet or you stop contacting me altogether. It’s been six months already!

She knew she was taking a chance, but at the moment that she hit the Send button, she didn’t care. She was through being so nice to everybody. All that her niceness got her was everybody walking all over her, or taking her for granted.

The next day, Shy Boy responded:

You’re right. We need to meet. When and where?

“I wish I could tuck myself into your suitcase and go with you,” Raina told Hunter with a sigh.

They were alone down by the pool in her complex late one night. The moon scattered fractured light that looked like pale jewels across the surface of the water. They had been swimming, but were now sitting side by side on towels spread on the concrete. The warmth of the day’s sun, long gone, seeped through the terry cloth.

“We’d never get away with it. At my college, coeds are strictly segregated in the dorms.” He said it lightly, but she knew he was telling her the hard truth. He was leaving. She was staying. He put his mouth on her shoulder and sucked the moisture left on her skin by their swim.

Shivers shot up her back. “I’d be quiet as a mouse. No one would know.”

“I’d know.”

Her heart was heavy. School started for her in a week. One week later was when he’d leave. “I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“Enjoy your senior year. You’re doing that Pink Angels credit thing again, aren’t you?”

“Yes. So is Kathleen. I don’t know about Holly.” She sighed. “I don’t know much about your sister these days. She’s still in a snit.”

“It won’t last forever.”

“It’s been almost three weeks already. Kathleen couldn’t even lure her into the mall.”

He pulled Raina into his lap, cradling her in his arms. “She’ll get over it,” he said. “But I’m not getting over wanting to kiss you.”

She smiled up at him. “Don’t let me stand in your way.”

He kissed her cheeks, her forehead, her chin, tangled her hair in his big hands and finally, when every pore on her skin felt on fire, he kissed her long and deep on her mouth, sending fiery darts into her heart. Into her mind. Into her very soul.

Holly discovered that the biggest problem with being mad at her friends was having no one to talk to when something wonderful happened. Shy Boy had agreed to meet her before the Pink Angels awards ceremony that Thursday night. She was proud of herself for thinking of it. The hospital was a very public place, and meeting right before the ceremony meant that she really did have an excuse to duck away if they didn’t mesh, up close and personal. Plus no one would be the wiser, meaning her parents, if they saw her talking to some boy in the lobby before the event.

With only days left before the ceremony, she could hardly wait. Shy Boy—she still didn’t know his name—had sent her e-mails on and off for months, and now she was finally going to meet him.
He’d better be worth the wait,
she told herself as she drove home from the hospital on Tuesday. She itched to pick up her cell phone and call Kathleen and Raina. She quelled the urge. If the meeting went well, she’d forgive them and tell them everything. If it didn’t go well, she’d never tell them. Why humiliate herself?

Holly pulled into the garage, hopped out of the car and bounded into the house. “Mom, I’m home.”

“Up here,” Evelyn called. “I’m in your room.”

Holly rolled her eyes.
Now what?
Were there dust bunnies under her bed? Had she forgotten to do something her mother had asked before she’d gone off that morning? She took the stairs two at a time and skidded to a halt in her doorway, where her mother was standing stone-faced, holding a small three-ring binder—the binder where Holly had stashed six months’ worth of printed-out e-mails from Shy Boy.

seven

“NEVER LEAVE THE cash register unattended.” Kathleen was talking to Bree Sinclair, the girl who would take her place part-time in the gift shop once she returned to school.

“I’d never do that,” Bree said, her big blue eyes looking serious.

She was younger than Kathleen, a sophomore in a high school in an older part of the city, and had been with the Pink Angels program all summer. Now that school was starting, the gift shop would need more hands. Bree had an outgoing, perky personality that reminded Kathleen of Holly in many ways—when Holly was speaking to her.

“This is an inventory sheet, and Mrs. Nesbaum expects us to do an in-depth product count once a month. It’s a pain, but it’s necessary.” The older woman loved Kathleen and often left her in charge of the shop. Kathleen was going to miss the job, and the money it brought her too. Once school resumed, she’d be assigned elsewhere for her credit work. She would keep the gift shop job two Saturdays a month, however.

“This is the refrigerated unit, where we hold the floral bouquets until someone comes to deliver them.” The tall unit was at the back of the shop and contained the morning’s delivery of live arrangements from local florists.

“I’ve done that before,” Bree said. “The floral cart has a bad wheel, so it’s like wrestling with an alligator to make it go the way you want.”

The girl even sounded like Holly.

“Can I have some help here?”

Kathleen spun at the sound of the irritated voice and saw Stephanie Marlow standing at the glass-topped counter, a package of candy in her hand. Kathleen’s heart thudded and her stomach twisted into a knot. She forced a smile. “You’re home. Carson said you were away.”

“And he told me you were working here when I saw him last night.”

The information was given to unnerve Kathleen, and it had the desired effect. “Yes, I’m in charge of the shop.”

“How charming. Did you miss me all summer?”

Not at all.
“We managed.”

Stephanie dropped coins into Kathleen’s hand, careful not to touch her. “I was in Paris, New York, Hawaii and Brazil. My mother’s family lives in Brazil, you know.”

“So Carson’s said.”

“But I’m home now. Ready for my last year at Bryce. With Carson.”

Kathleen put the candy into a bag and handed it over.

“And I’ll be looking forward to the first party of the year. Someone always throws one, you know.”

Kathleen felt her blood boil at Stephanie’s veiled reference to the Christmas party where she’d seen Stephanie and Carson kissing—a kiss he swore she had initiated. Kathleen concentrated on what Carson had shared about a fourteen-year-old Stephanie mixing pills and booze, in an attempt to conjure up sympathy for the girl. But one look at Stephanie’s contemptuous expression and her attempt failed.

“Don’t work too hard.” Stephanie sashayed out of the shop.

“Yikes! Who was that?”

Startled, Kathleen remembered that Bree was standing right behind her. “Just a girl I know.”

“She’s beautiful.”

“She may be pretty, but she acts like a b—” Kathleen stopped short.

Bree giggled. “I know the type. Why doesn’t she like you?”

“A guy.” Kathleen was becoming flustered. Why did she allow Stephanie to rattle her so?

“Let me guess. He likes you better than her. Am I right?”

“So he tells me. I’ve wondered
why
often enough, but I think it’s true.”

Bree laughed. “Well, that’s no mystery. You’re nice and she isn’t. Girls that pretty think they can get anything they want just because of their looks.”

“You’ve figured that out already?”

“My father’s a psychiatrist. I know a lot of that stuff.”

“Is that why you’re a Pink Angel?” Kathleen recalled that that was why Carson had been in the program when they’d first met—because his parents had their practice at this hospital.

“Partly. I needed to get out of the house too. My grandmother is living with us now, and she’s slipping into Alzheimer’s—where no one can visit.” Bree’s sunny expression turned cloudy.

“I—I’m really sorry.”

Bree shrugged. “Mom’s trying to take care of her at home.” She shook her head. “It’s a mess.” She brightened. “Forget I said anything. Show me the rest of what I’m going to be doing in this job.”

Kathleen returned to explaining her duties, but her brain wouldn’t let go of what Bree had told her. Bree’s life was difficult too, and not even having a doctor in her family could save her grandmother from the dark places she was entering. No more than Kathleen could reverse her mother’s journey into advancing MS.

“What did you think they were going to do, sis? Let it slide? You had an e-mail correspondence going with a complete stranger. The guy could be a serial killer, for all you know.” Hunter was standing over Holly in her room.

She sat cross-legged on her bed, a pile of tissues beside her. “Th-they didn’t have to be so mean about it.”

“
Mean?
How do you figure that? You were stuffing the e-mails between your mattress and box spring! You knew what you were doing was wrong. Admit it.”

“I just sat through an hour-long lecture from Mom and Dad,” Holly wailed. “I don’t need another one from you!”

Hunter raked a hand through his hair and sat beside her.

Holly blew her nose, added the tissue to the heap and grabbed another one. “And he’s not a serial killer either.”

“How do you know that? You don’t even know his name!”

“He had his reasons,” Holly insisted.

“Name them.”

She threw herself to one side and cried harder. Of course she couldn’t think of any at the moment. “H-he was clever and smart and we talked about everything! I
like
him, Hunter.”

Hunter sighed deeply and put his hand on her arm sympathetically. “Listen, little sister, you’re too trusting. Any guy who hides his identity for six months from a girl he says he likes is up to no good.” Hunter’s tone was serious enough to make Holly look up. “The world’s full of evil, Holly. Don’t think that just because you believe in God and go to church every Sunday, evil can’t touch you. It can.”

She righted herself. “Is that what you’ve learned in that Christian college? Evil walks among us? All you have to do is turn on the news to know that. Shy Boy isn’t evil! He’s just . . . well . . .
shy,
that’s all.”

“Sheez . . . talking to you is like talking to a wall.”

He started to stand, but she grabbed his arm. She didn’t want to be alone just then, and Hunter’s company beat her parents coming in to give her another blast. “Isn’t God supposed to protect us?”

“Why should he when we do something stupid?”

She grimaced. “You already sound like a preacher.”

He hauled her to her feet and put his arms around her. “Here’s a hug. You need one.”

She buried her face in the front of his shirt, pulling back when a new wave of tears threatened. “Thank you for the hug.”

“So what’s your punishment?”

“Grounded until further notice. I can’t leave the house except to go to school when it starts. No car privileges. No TV for a week. No computer activity, especially e-mail or Net surfing.” Her eyes widened. “You’ve got to do me a favor!”

Hunter eyed her skeptically. “Like what?”

“Dad nixed the Pink Angels awards event Thursday night too. I—I told Shy Boy that I’d meet him in the hospital lobby before it started. Please e-mail him for me and tell him I can’t make it.”

Hunter threw up his hands and backed away. “Oh no. I’m not telling this guy anything.”

“But I can’t go.” Fresh tears brimmed and spilled over. “I begged Dad, but he wouldn’t budge. I’m getting an award and I can’t even go pick it up.”

“I’ll get the award for you, but I won’t do the other.”

She threw herself at him. “Oh, please, Hunter! Just on the outside chance that I’m right about this guy and everyone else isn’t.”

“Can’t you ask Raina? Or Kathleen?”

“You know we’re not speaking.”

“And whose fault is that?”

She shook her finger at him. “Don’t start. I was wrong to shut out my friends, but I did and now I can’t just ask for a favor because I need them. How lame is that?”

“You can call—”

“Did I mention that I’ve lost phone privileges too? I really need you to do this for me. Please.”

Hunter gave a disgusted growl. “If I do it, I’m going to tell him exactly what I think of him for leading my sister on.”

She started to protest, but one look at Hunter’s face changed her mind. Subdued, she said, “Thank you.”

He left her room and she threw herself across her bed and cried some more.

Holly was moping around her room on Saturday when someone knocked. “Friend or foe?” she asked.

“Friends,” Raina and Kathleen said in unison.

Holly grabbed the doorknob and jerked open the door. She threw herself into their arms. “Oh my gosh! I’m so happy to see you two!”

The girls staggered back. “Don’t squeeze us to death!” Raina said.

Holly backed off, glanced down the hall. “How did you get past Cerberus?”

They gave Holly a blank look until Kathleen finally grinned and said, “You mean the three-headed dog that guards the entrance into Hades in Greek mythology?”

“That’s the one.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, girlfriend,” Raina said. “Your mother was quite nice. Although she did set the kitchen timer.”

“Come in,” Holly said. “Excuse the mess, but I’ve been a prisoner in here for days.” She scraped a pile of books, CDs and clothes off her bed and motioned for them to sit.

Kathleen held up a brown paper sack. “We brought snacks and your award from the Pink Angels program. Everybody missed you.”

“What did you tell Sierra?”

Raina said, “That you’d had a run-in with the law, and the law won.”

“Don’t joke.”

“Unavoidable circumstances,” Kathleen said. “She was sorry.” She handed Holly the bag. “Comfort food.”

Holly rummaged inside and found two jars of ice cream toppings, a bag of candy, a box of crackers and two boxes of cookies. At the bottom she saw her award, and lifted it out. The plaque read BEST TEAM SPIRIT, JUNIOR VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR. She’d been awarded top honors. “And I missed the whole thing! That just stinks!”

“I grabbed it out of Hunter’s hands and told him we wanted to bring it, and that he wasn’t to say a word about it to you,” Kathleen said.

“He didn’t.” A lump clogged Holly’s throat. “I—I’m sorry for the way I’ve been acting the past couple of weeks. Forgive me?”

“All forgotten,” Raina said, and Kathleen nodded enthusiastically. “I’ve asked your mother if I can pick you up on the first day of school, and she said okay.”

“Really?” Holly brightened.

Mercifully, neither of her friends asked about Shy Boy, which relieved Holly because she couldn’t talk about it yet. She ripped open a cookie box. “Help yourselves and tell me everything that’s happened since the hostile takeover of my brain by my pride, making me forget just what fabulous friends I have.”

After they left, Holly ventured downstairs, sulking past her parents in the living room, where her father sat at his desk paying bills and her mother worked on the sofa doing needlepoint. The doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” Holly said.

Without comment, her father followed behind her, which made her furious. Did he think she’d bolt down the street once the front door was unlatched?

She opened the door and faced a teen boy with sharp features. He was tall and impossibly skinny, with a full head of wild, curly black hair that hung in shaggy ringlets above bright green eyes.

“Can I help you?” Mike asked from behind Holly.

The boy’s gaze, locked on Holly, shifted up to her father. “Hello, sir. My name is Chad Kyriakidis. I think you know me by my e-mail name, Shy Boy.”