Lizzy Gardner #2_Dead Weight (18 page)

She stepped closer.

The billions of neurons in her brain were unable to register that the person looking back at her was Vivian Hardy, the same girl she’d been looking at for thirty years.

There were no other mirrors in the cabin. Not even in the bathroom.

This was the irst time she was seeing herself in a long while, maybe the irst time ever, since she couldn’t remember the last time she’d taken a good long look at herself.

She raised a hand to her face and brushed her ingertips over her chin and neck. The long T-shirt she wore ended at her knees. Her calves looked small. Every few years she ordered a new pair of boots, but she always had to send them back because she could never get the boots zipped over her calves.

She lifted the T-shirt as high as she could without taking it off, unable to believe what she was seeing. Her stomach looked so much latter. She was no Cindy Crawford, but as far as Vivian was concerned, she was close.

Moving to the bathroom, she looked at the scale as if it was a iery dragon she’d come to conquer. She stepped on it and watched the numbers flicker up and down.

Tears trickled down the side of her face as she looked at her feet and remembered the day she’d considered sawing off her foot in order to escape. She hadn’t been able to go through with it, of course. Thank God.

The numbers on the scale stopped moving. She weighed 197

pounds. Under 200 pounds. Impossible. That would mean she had lost 103 pounds.

No way.

In a daze, she left the bathroom.

She walked into the main room and looked around before heading for the bedside table. She picked up her journal and held it close to her chest.

It would be hot outside. She had a dingy pair of slippers, but no shoes. She went to the pantry and illed a plastic bag with bottled waters. As she collected what she needed for her hike down the mountain, a rattling sound caught her attention.

She stopped what she was doing and listened closely.

Someone was at the door.

It couldn’t be Melbourne. She had another week before he was due to show up.

Setting the bag on the pantry loor, she ran back to the bed, grabbed the cuff and chain and covered the bottom half of her body with blankets. She feigned a look of boredom as the door came open.

***

Hayley stood front and center inside the gym at Oakmont High. The big round clock on the wall told her it was a few minutes past seven pm. There were at least twenty girls in attendance. Not bad for a Monday night.

Lizzy sat in a chair at the side of the room. She was the inisher, the one who would teach the girls a few classic moves.

“If somebody comes up from behind and grabs you,” Hayley told the class, “do not hesitate to turn and knee him in the groin. You want to scream out too. The faster you react, the better chance you have of catching your assailant off guard.”

Hayley pointed to the girl in the front who was raising her hand.

“What if I’m so scared that I freeze up and I can’t move?”

“That’s why you want to practice at home as often as you can. I know it’s scary and no amount of training or practice is going to take the fear out of the situation if it happens to you, but if you are always aware, nobody can catch you completely off guard and that’s half the battle.

Knowing what you’re going to do will give you an extra few seconds.

And those few seconds will allow you to be proactive.”

Hayley heard the door to the gym open. She wouldn’t have paid the sound any mind at all if all of the girls in attendance weren’t staring that way—some giggling, a few looking shyly toward the ground.

“Girls,” Lizzy said with a clap of her hand. “I’d like you all to meet our surprise guest for the night, Tommy Ellis.”

What was the big deal? Hayley wondered. He was a preppy boy, a preppy boy with dark hair and bangs that swept across his forehead.

He was about ive foot eleven and slender. Overall, he looked like a dork.

Lizzy led him to the front of the gym where Hayley was forced to shake his hand.

Slender fingers for a boy. Clammy to the touch. Dork.

He smiled. She didn’t.

He didn’t waste any time stealing the limelight. Turning toward the girls in the gym, he clasped his hands together and smiled brightly.

“At the Self-Defense Institute,” he began, “we want you to feel empowered by the time you leave our irst class. That doesn’t mean we want you to feel over-con ident. It means you leave our classes knowing something about AWARENESS and PREVENTION. The more prepared you are, the less likely you’ll need to be prepared. It’s like buying life insurance. Once you buy it, you no longer need it.”

He laughed, but the kids in the class were too young to have ever thought about buying life insurance. Hayley shook her head. Dork.

“Criminals,” he continued, “have a built-in motivation to go after you. It’s called desire. Once they’re on the prowl, all they need to do is ind a target. Do you think a criminal is going to go after the girl with her head down, a girl who is texting her friend? Or will he go after the girl whose head is up, alert, keys in hand?”

“Girl who is texting,” many said at once.

“That’s right. And don’t get me wrong. We’re not trying to SCARE

you; we’re trying to PREPARE you. The most important thing you need to remember is that you don’t ever want to be caught off guard.”

Said that already
, Hayley thought, but kept it to herself. His little talk was getting redundant.

“Keep your head up,” Tommy added. “Walk with intent. Know where you’re headed. If you drive and you have a set of keys, keep your keys grasped between your ingers, ready to poke out an eye if you need to. Got it?”

Most of the girls nodded. A few looked bored—no one more than Hayley. And that’s when Dorky Boy turned to face her as if he could read her mind. “Hayley, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Could you come here?” He pointed to the space in front of him.

Hayley obliged by coming forward.

“If you’re walking in an unlit and secluded area, are your chances better or worse as far as being approached by a stranger?”

“Worse.”

“That’s right. RISK,” he said to the girls. “Don’t put yourself in situations where the risk is too great. If you ind yourself in that situation, be—” He pointed at Hayley and waited for her to ill in the blank.

Not only was he a dork, he was a very annoying dork. “Be aware,”

she inished with as much enthusiasm as she could muster for Lizzy’s sake.

“That’s right,” he said excitedly as if these girls were ive instead of ifteen. “It’s not about winning. It’s about staying alive. If a criminal takes your purse, let them have it and run the other way. If, for some reason, you are forced to ight back, then remember that there are NO

rules. Use your ingers to poke eyes, bite anything you can get your teeth around, and pull hair. Best thing to do?”

He pointed to a girl raising her hand in the back.

“Kick him in the nuts,” she said, which was automatically followed by laughter.

“That’s right, except for one thing. Hayley, do you mind?”

Hayley raised a skeptical brow. “You want me to kick you in the nuts?”

More laughter.

“Go for it,” he said.

And Hayley did without hesitation. She went for it. He was annoying and she couldn’t wait to put him in his place. Instead of going for his groin, though, she went for his leg, wrapping her leg around his. She had him to the ground in three seconds flat.

“Impressive,” he said as he looked up at her, his voice low enough so he couldn’t be heard. “I guess I should have used one of the girls from the audience.”

“Might have been a good idea.” She held out her hand and helped pull him to his feet.

“Okay,” he said, laying on the charm as he turned to the younger girls. “What just happened was all part of my plan.”

A few giggles erupted. Most of the girls weren’t sure whether or not he was joking, which he was.

“Those moves that Hayley just used on me are for the more advanced. With lots of practice,” he said, giving Hayley a funny look, “that’s what you’ll all be shooting for.”

“So who wants to be my next guinea pig? I need a volunteer, somebody who’s never had the chance to kick a guy in the groin.”

Fifty percent of the hands in the room shot up. A couple of girls jumped up and down, hoping to be picked.

“You,” he said, pointing to the youngest girl in attendance.

“She’s probably ten-years old,” Hayley whispered behind him.

“Thanks, but I’m not taking any chances this time.”

Hayley smiled, despite herself.

***

Class was over and Lizzy needed to take off, but irst she needed to talk to Hayley, so she called her over. Lizzy smiled as Hayley approached. “Thanks for coming tonight. You did great as always and I want you to know that I really appreciate the way you worked with Tommy.”

“Not a problem.”

“I think he likes you.”

“Who?”

“Tommy Ellis.”

“You’re shittin’ me, right?”

Lizzy let the curse word go. Hayley had improved ten-fold since Lizzy met her less than a year ago. “I’m serious,” Lizzy said. “Look at him.”

They both glanced his way. Tommy smiled at them before returning his attention to what he was doing. He was sitting at a table they had set up and kids were introducing him to their parents and trying to get them to sign up for his weekly classes.

“He’s a great guy,” Lizzy went on. “He’s only twenty years old and already part owner of the Self-Defense Institute in Roseville.”

“That’s great. Are you trying to marry me off, or something?”

Lizzy laughed. “Never mind. Forget I said anything.”

“Will do.”

Lizzy shook her head. The girl was as stubborn as a mule. “There is one more thing I need to talk to you about before I go.”

Hayley was getting twitchy, her foot tapping. Patience was not one of Hayley’s virtues.

“Cathy mentioned that you moved out to live with your aunt. As far as I know you don’t have an aunt.”

“True that.”

“Then why did you lie to my sister?”

“Because I didn’t want her to worry.”

“Did Cathy ask you to move out?”

“Not in so many words, but it was obvious she didn’t like me going out at night.”

“Yeah, about that, what are you doing out walking around the streets of Sacramento so late at night? You know better than most that sooner rather than later you’re bound to ind trouble being out that late.”

“Lizzy, I’ve been on my own for a long time now. I care about you and your sister and I really do appreciate everything you’ve both done for me, but I can’t keep living my life the way Cathy and you want me to live it. I’m not anything like either one of you. Your sister is great, but I was beginning to feel like a dog that’s kept in one of those horrible crates. Just thinking about it gives me shivers. I don’t ever want to feel trapped again. I’m sorry.”

“So where are you living?”

“Nowhere in particular; here and there. Cathy still lends me her car three days a week so I can get to school and to work. Jessica has loaned me her car, too. I pay for my own gas. I sleep in the car if it gets chilly.”

Lizzy’s head dropped, her chin nearly hitting her chest.

“I’m used to it. It’s really not that bad.”

Lizzy lifted her head and placed a hand on Hayley’s shoulder.

“Move in with me.”

“I thought you were moving in with Jared.”

“Long story, but that’s all been postponed for now. We’ll talk about that later. I’m begging you, Hayley. Move in with me starting tonight.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I have plans tonight.”

“I have an extra key in my purse,” Lizzy told her. “I’ll give you the key and you come in at any hour. No questions asked.”

“I don’t think it would work.”

“Why not?”

“Because I already know that I’ll come home late.”

“Yeah? So?”

“You get freaked out as it is. You wouldn’t be able to lock all of your dead bolts on your front door. And we both know that no matter how quiet I try to be, you’ll wake up.”

“Okay, so?”

“You’ll start making me hot chocolate or something stupid like that and I’ll feel guilty that I woke you up and then you’ll stagger back to your bedroom, unable to sleep for the rest of the night.”

Lizzy laughed. Mostly because Hayley was absolutely right. “There’s something you missed,” Lizzy said.

Hayley arched a questioning brow.

“If you refuse to come live with me or you don’t come to my place at all and there is no door being opened in the middle of the night, I’ll be up all night worrying about you. I’m not going to sleep anyhow, so you might as well say yes and make me semi-happy.”

“I can’t afford to pay you rent.”

“You can help me take care of Rumpelstiltskin.”

“I’m allergic to cats, but either way, that’s not her name any longer.”

Lizzy frowned. “Who says?”

“Brittany, Jessica, and I changed her name over the weekend.”

“What’s my cat’s name then?”

“Hannah.”

“You can’t be serious? My cat’s name is Hannah?” That was the same name Jared’s perky neighbor picked out. What were the odds?

Hayley nodded.

“Whose idea was that?”

“That lame Hannah Montana show was on and we all went with it.

All three of us agreed. Personally I don’t care what you call the cat, but we took a vote.”

“Okay, well then, your rent will be paid by helping me take care of Hannah. You said you were allergic to cats so you don’t have to pet her. Just feed her once a day and help me change Hannah’s litter box every once in a while.” God, she really didn’t like that name.

“Okay, it’s a deal,” Hayley agreed. “But I can’t make any promises about how long this little arrangement is going to work.”

“One day at a time.”

“Perfect. One day at a time.”

Chapter 26

Friends are Forever

The Mexican restaurant was crowded, which made it easy for Jessica to remain anonymous. She sat on one side of the restaurant and pretended to read a book and sip her iced mocha while she waited for Ellen Woodson to get her lunch.