Can True Love Survive High School? (13 page)

Holly was exhausted. They'd talked so long the waitress at Vineland had to kick them out so she could close up. It was almost midnight.

Holly was supposed to stop by Mads' house, but it was too late now. She started the car and let the engine idle while she called Mads on her cell phone.

“Where are you?” Mads asked. “Lina's here, but she has to go home in a minute.”

“I know, I'm sorry,” Holly said. “I couldn't get away. But I'll make it up to you. What if all three of us go to the movies tomorrow night to see
Kiss Me, Stinky
?”

“Um,
Kiss Me, Stinky
?” Mads said. Then she paused. Holly thought she heard Mads murmur something to someone in the room with her. Probably Lina.

“Can we see something else?” Mads said. “How about
Rocket to Russia
?”

“What? No,” Holly said. “We agreed. We all want to see
Kiss Me, Stinky
together. Right?”

Another pause. What was going on?

“Mads?”

“Holly, Lina and I already saw it,” Mads said.

Holly thought she must have heard wrong. “What?”

“We already saw it.”

“Without me? But we were going to see it together! We agreed!” Holly felt stung.

“I know,” Mads said. “We called you but you were with Britta. We needed cheering up that night and it was the perfect thing—”

Holly almost felt like crying. “I can't believe you went without me.”

“I'm sorry,” Mads said. “But you're never free. You're always doing something with Britta.”

“You don't understand,” Holly said. “Britta is in a terrible situation. She really needs me!”

“We need you, too,” Mads said.

Holly felt a pang of guilt. She didn't know what to say to that. Had she been neglecting her best friends?

“Lina has to get going,” Mads said. “We'll talk to you tomorrow.”

She hung up. Holly shifted the car into drive and headed for home through the dark, quiet streets of Carlton Bay. She tried to be angry with them—
How could they have gone without me?
But it didn't last. She knew Mads and Lina were right. She'd been neglecting them. And Rob, too. She'd dropped everything to live Britta's big love story with her. It was just that Holly had never been through anything like that, never had anything like that herself. Mads and Lina had their dramatic crushes, their huge ups and downs that depended on what Dan or Sean had said or done that moment. But Britta's love was real.

Holly parked in the driveway and walked slowly along the landscaped path to the house. She opened the door and found Jen waiting for her. “Thank god you're home!” Jen said. “Britta's not with you?”

“No,” Holly said. “We went to Vineland, and then she went home.”

“No, she didn't,” Jen said. “Peggy Fowler just called to talk to Britta. Britta told her she was spending the night here.”

“She did?” Uh-oh. Why didn't Britta warn her? Should she make up a lie to cover for her?

“Peggy wants you to call her right away,” Jen said.

Oh, no,
Holly thought, crossing the room to the kitchen phone. She had a bad feeling about this.

“Britta's not with you?” Peggy Fowler cried. “Where could she be?”

“Well, I'm not sure—” Holly said.

“Holly, we're frantic,” Peggy Fowler said. “She told us she was spending the night with you! She lied to us!” She choked back a sob. “She's been acting so strangely lately. Please, Holly. It's after midnight and we have no idea where she could be. Do you know anything? Did she say anything to you?”

Oh my god,
Holly thought as the truth dawned on her.
She's done it! She ran away to marry Ed!
Holly couldn't help admiring Britta. She wasn't all talk—she was willing to do whatever it took to be with the guy she loved. But the admiration faded to worry, then fear, then panic. Britta had eloped! This was for real. No turning back.

“Holly, we're desperate,” Peggy said. “We're so worried about her! She spends so much time with you. You must have some idea where she could be.”

Holly did have an idea.
But I promised Britta I wouldn't tell,
Holly thought, stalling for time.
How can I betray her?

Peggy started crying. “She's in some kind of trouble, I just know it. Please, Holly. Help me.”

The desperation in Peggy's voice scared Holly. Peggy was terrified. Her daughter had disappeared. Holly knew Britta was probably not in any physical danger. But she was taking a huge step. It would have major consequences, and Holly knew, from talking to her, that Britta hadn't really thought it through. She didn't know what she was getting into. She was blinded by love.

She'd promised not to tell the Fowlers that Britta planned to get married. But they were so worried. As far as they knew, Britta could be dead. Holly couldn't let them think that when it wasn't true. It was too mean.

Holly had no choice. She had to tell the Fowlers what was going on.

She took a deep breath. “I think I know where you can find her,” Holly said. “There's an empty house near the beach, on Sandhill Road. With a ‘For Sale’ sign out front. She and Ed go there. It's their secret hideaway.”

“Why? Why would she be there at this hour?” Peggy asked.

Holly swallowed. “Well, they might be planning to elope.”

“What?” Peggy screamed. “She's going to marry that boy?”

“I could be wrong—” Holly said, but she knew she wasn't.

“Gordon, get the car!” Peggy yelled. She hung up on Holly without saying good-bye.

“Britta Fowler?” Jen gave a throaty chuckle. “Britta Fowler wants to elope? With a boy?”

“It's not funny, Jen,” Holly said.

“Come on, honey,” Jen said. “Miss Future Harvard? The girl who studied all the time and never had a date? You have to admit—”

“It's not funny to her,” Holly said. “She's serious about it.”

“She's serious about everything,” Jen said. “Anyway, honey, I'm glad you told the Fowlers. You did the right thing. She must be out of her mind.”

A few minutes later, Curt came home, having been out late entertaining clients. Or something. The three of them sat at the kitchen table drinking decaf and waiting for news of Britta. Holly started to get nervous. What if she was wrong? What if Britta hadn't eloped? What if something terrible—something truly terrible—had happened to her instead?

After a couple hours of waiting, the phone finally rang. Holly answered it.

“We found her, Holly,” Peggy said. “Right where you said she would be. They were going to get married in the morning.”

“Is she okay?”

“We've got her home safe now. Thank you for your help, Holly. She's very upset.”

Holly felt all mixed up—relieved and guilty at the same time. She was glad Britta was okay. But Holly had betrayed her trust. And she never thought she'd do that to a friend.

“Someday Britta will thank us,” Peggy said. “You did the right thing, Holly.”

I hope so
, Holly thought.
I really do.

19

The Pain in Rain

To: mad4u

From: your daily horoscope

HERE IS TODAY'S HOROSCOPE: VIRGO: You want trouble? You got it!

M
ads, you scooped me,” Autumn Nelson said in the hallway at school. “I had no idea Rain was cheating on Caleb!”

“What?” Mads glanced at Stephen, who was heading to lunch with her, to see if this made any more sense to him than it did to her. He shrugged and shook his head. “Going to lunch?” Autumn asked. “Let's walk and talk.” She marched alongside Mads and Stephen as they walked through the hall. “What I want to know is, how did you catch her? And who is the other guy?”

“Um—” Mads had been waiting all morning for the fallout from her blind gossip item about Sean and Jane to bear fruit. But Jane didn't go to RSAGE—she was in college—and Mads hadn't seen Sean around anywhere. Autumn seemed to be talking about something that happened in a parallel universe. A girl cheating on her boyfriend, yes. But who were Caleb and Rain?

“Everybody's talking about it,” Autumn said. “We're just waiting for the two of them to implode. So tell me, who is it? Is it Mo?”

“Um, Autumn? What are you talking about?” Mads asked. They reached the lunchroom and hesitated at the threshold. Autumn and Mads didn't usually sit together, and the rigid code of the lunchroom was rarely breached. Mads didn't want to sit with her, anyway. She wanted to have a nice quiet lunch with Stephen.

Autumn waved to her friends across the room, as if to say “Be there in a minute.” “Hello?” she said to Mads. “You wrote it? On your blog? El Diarrhea?”

Mads flinched. “Funny, that's what my sister calls it, too.”

“You said a swimmer's girlfriend was cheating on him and she's blond and her name rhymes with ‘pain,’” Autumn said. “Who else could it be?”

Mads hadn't thought of that. Now that Autumn mentioned it, there was a swimmer named Caleb on the team, and there was a blond girl in the senior class named Rain Something-or-other. But Mads had no idea they were going out. And she'd also said the swimmer's girlfriend was leggy, and Mads wouldn't exactly call Rain leggy. Unless leggy could describe short, powerful soccer-type legs, which was what Rain had.

While Mads thought all this through, Stephen said, “I'll go save us a spot at the table,” and went with his bag lunch to their usual place.

“Autumn, I hardly know them,” Mads said. “Caleb and Rain, I mean. I—”

“Autumn!” Rebecca Hulse screeched across the lunchroom. “Get over here!”

Autumn sighed. “She's such a bitch. All right, we'll talk later.” She hurried over to her table. Mads joined Stephen at theirs.

“This is about that blind item on your blog, isn't it,” Stephen said.

“You read it?” Mads had kind of hoped he'd skip that part.

“Of course,” Stephen said. “I check the Dating Game every day for new entries. It's my guide to the inner workings of your mind.”

“Really?” Mads was both flattered and horrified. El Diario did reflect some of the inner workings of her mind—the silliest. “I wouldn't take that stuff too seriously, you know. I mean, I'm writing for an audience. It's not a true reflection of my personality—”

“Quit backtracking,” Stephen said. “It's cute. But I don't really get it. Why are you writing gossip about Caleb and Rain? I've never heard you mention them before.”

“It's not about Caleb and Rain,” Mads said. She tried to show her best, most noble and intelligent face to Stephen whenever possible, but she was beginning to think it was too late for that now. And she didn't want him to suspect that she still had a crush on Sean, though sometimes she had a feeling that he suspected anyway.

“It's about Sean and Jane,” Mads said. “I've seen Jane kissing this guy in the play, Damien, more than once. I thought Sean should know.”

“Why?” Stephen asked.

“Well, wouldn't you want to know if I was kissing some other boy?”

“I don't know,” Stephen said. “Maybe. It depends why you're kissing him, how serious it is, and if it's worth getting upset over. Because I would get upset. But what if you just kissed him a few times and I never found out about it and it never affected us? Then I'd be getting upset over nothing.”

“I don't think this is nothing, though,” Mads said. “I think this is something.”

“Maybe. But you don't know exactly what kind of something.”

“I still think Sean has a right to know,” Mads said. “She's deceiving him. If you were cheating on me and Holly knew about it, I'd kill her if she didn't tell me.”

“I guess everybody has different feelings about it,” Stephen said. He glanced at Mads' lunch, which she had unpacked but not yet touched. “Are you going to eat that cookie?”

Mads put her hand over the cookie protectively. “Yes,” she said. “But I brought another one for you.” She reached into her bag and brought out an oatmeal cookie wrapped in foil with a heart drawn on it in red marker.

“Hey, thanks.” Stephen took the cookie. “That's sweet of you.”

“It's not from me. It's from M.C.,” Mads said. Her mother loved Stephen. “But I would have done the same thing if she hadn't thought of it first.”

There was a crash in the cafeteria food line. Rain dropped her tray and ran into the lunchroom, shrieking, followed by a red-faced, bellowing Caleb. “Just tell me his name!” Caleb roared.

“Caleb, I swear it's not true!” Rain cried. He cornered her against the far bank of windows. The lunchroom fell silent.

Caleb threw a slice of pizza against the wall—
splat!
— where it stuck for a moment before sliding down in a stream of grease. “You're lying! I always knew there was something weird going on. All those nights you said you were taking tae kwon do—”

“But I
was
taking tae kwon do,” Rain said. “And I'll prove it!” She reared back and gave Caleb a mighty kick in the chest—“Hee-ya!” Caleb, big as he was, flew backward and landed on his butt. The room burst into laughter and cheers.

Caleb got to his feet. “I'm going to find out who it is, and I'm going to rip his face off!”

“You do that!” Rain shouted. “Look all over school for the guy I'm supposedly cheating with. That ought to keep you busy while I find a real guy who's not paranoid!”

Caleb stormed out of the room. Rain scanned the tables until her eyes settled on Mads. Mads swallowed. Uh-oh.

“Madison Markowitz?” Rain asked, marching to her table.

Mads tried to smile. “Um, you can call me Mads.”

“I'll call you whatever I damn well please,” Rain said. “Why did you print that gossip about me? Why would you want to make up lies about me? I don't even know you!”

“It wasn't supposed to be about you, see—”

“You're trying to get Caleb for yourself, is that it?” Rain said. “That's it, isn't it? You're after Caleb. You're trying to break us up!”

“No, see, I never even really noticed him before—”

“Who's this guy?” Rain asked, jerking her thumb at Stephen.

“Hello, I'm the boyfriend,” Stephen said. “At least, until Caleb replaces me.”

“Stephen!” Mads punched his arm.

“I knew it,” Rain said. She stuck her face up close to Mads'. “Listen to me, Madison Markowitz. You're going to be sorry you wrote lies about Rain Rickenbacker, you lying liar. If I see another word about me on that stupid Web site of yours, I'm going to break your fingers. You won't be able to write a word without a voice recognition system!”