Part 17 (1/2)
But Kylie hating me? Okay, maybe a little just because the food-poisoning rumors she'd launched against me hadn't taken. But enough so she'd move back from Arizona? I couldn't believe I had that kind of power.
”Kylie didn't even look at me from, like, when we worked in the caf together until last week,” I protested.
She held up her palms as if to say duh!
”What-the throwing-up thing?”
She nodded.
”That's crazy. She had the flu.”
”Tell her that. And Rascal feeds off it, teases her. Think about her nickname, Nic. Chunky? Blowing chunks.” She exhaled through her nose. ”You were the only girl at Hillside she wouldn't tolerate taking her place.”
A lump lodged in my throat, the size of, well, Arizona. ”And you know this-how?”
”From Jared. Rascal shoots his mouth off when he plays pool.”
Yeah, Jared told me.
Okay-a.s.suming I believed this-that was cold. Ice cold. What would Rascal have done if his stunt had backfired and Kylie hadn't come home? Would he have stood me up?
A jab of pain from my ring finger told me to stop twisting and refocus. Besides, Rascal was a jerk. Kylie was an idiot. Why should this surprise me?
But it didn't take long to make the next logical connection. That Alison had not said a word to me. Until now. When she was mad.
”When?” I asked. ”When did Jared hear this?”
”At the beginning of the summer.”
”And he told you right away?”
She nodded.
”And you kept it from me?”
She shrugged, and for a moment the animosity died out of her tone. She sounded like my friend again. ”You were already heartbroken. Why make it worse?”
I turned away to privately digest all this. I understood protecting a best friend. But I hated to think she had been keeping secrets while I had whined to her about my unrequited love and my unworn prom dress, probably looking like the superloser I was.
And Jared? He knew I'd been duped, too. And besides being furious at Rascal, did he feel sorry for me?
Oh, G.o.d ...
Heat flared up my neck.
But in the midst of my humiliation, there was something left that wasn't adding up: Rascal and his roaming hands. ”So if Rascal isn't into me at all, why'd he come over last Sunday?”
She pressed her lips together, as if choosing her words. ”Jared says Rascal's been telling the guys that he's not getting enough from Kylie. So figure it out. There were rumors about you giving it up easy to my brother. Rascal already knew you kinda liked him. Either he was trying to get some on the side, or make Kylie jealous so she'd give in herself.”
My thoughts cartwheeled. Knowing Rascal and his Teflon conscience, it was probably both. But as disheartening as this was, I couldn't think about it now.
I had to stay on Alison and me. While part of me (calmly, rationally) appreciated and understood why she'd kept this painful stuff from me, another part really resented it. And hated the fact that it had come out in anger.
”Thanks for finally telling me ... I guess.” I swallowed hard. ”And I suppose we're even now.”
”Even?”
”Yeah, since I've been making you crazy lately.” I didn't say with her brother. I didn't have to. Let her do her head-in-the-sand act and think I meant Rascal if she wanted.
Besides, while it was true that Jared and I were spending time together, he was still only a friend. Whether I liked it or not. So why go rubbing salt in Alison's wounds when nothing was bound to change?
She grumbled something meaningless and walked away.
Maybe she needed a feet-up, clear-your-head weekend, too.
Mom wasn't home. But since she hadn't expected me to be home at this hour, either, she hadn't left a note.
I couldn't quite bring myself to unplug the phone, but I made myself a promise to only answer if Mom's cell number flashed on the caller ID. Or Dad's.
I grabbed a DVD off our shelf. Bring It On, where one best friend gets together with the other's brother, was usually a favorite, but now? It hit a little too close to home. Instead I popped in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Mom shuffled in the door sometime after five. The business suit and the heavy lines around her eyes announced that her outing had not been a pleasure cruise. I looked back at the TV. Part of me did not want to know.
”The bosses called me in,” she said, and let out this scratchy sigh. ”I've been put on a sixty-day suspension. At which time they will reevaluate my 'place in the company.' ”
I paused the movie. Johnny Depp stood frozen with a devilish half grin. But believe me, no one outside the screen was smiling.
”You told them it was me, right? That you had nothing to do with the flyers?”
She nodded and leaned over to pat my arm. ”Maybe it's for the best. Maybe I should take this as a sign to find a new job.”
Considering how much she hated it and how bad she was at it? Uh, yeah! But what I said was ”At least you have the time to look around some.”
She moved toward the kitchen. Probably to make something complicated and yummy that I totally did not deserve. I couldn't get my head back into the movie, so I followed to help.
As I pulled the silverware drawer open, my gaze drifted to the cluttered refrigerator door and a gaping hole in the midst of the photos/notes/coupons mess.
”The list,” I said, and pointed to the mess. ”It's gone.”
”Oh, that-I was cleaning up last night and pitched it.” She threw me an over-her-shoulder look. ”It was just a joke, right?”
”Right.” A joke. No matter how many so-called uses I'd come up with lately, I certainly hadn't committed them to paper. Still ...
”I started thinking, honey,” she said as she started pulling things out of the fridge, ”that maybe it was wrong of me to get on you about that dress. Your first formal dress is very special, like a rite of pa.s.sage. And since you didn't actually get to wear it, you should be able to keep it on the back of your door or wherever you like for as long as you like.”
Emotion sort of jammed in my throat. Wow.
”You remember when Grandma died?” she continued, her question, of course, rhetorical. ”Up in her attic, I found the dress I'd worn to my senior prom.”