Page 10 of Passing Notes
“Yeah...?” I pulled into my garage and cut the engine. “Let’s get you cleaned up. I have a stack of clean shirts in the laundry room—well, more like a pile since I don’t fold—so help yourself.” She followed me inside, heading into the laundry room while I fixed us drinks. “Keep talking!” I shouted as she changed.
“They used to be close but then it became all about Weston. Turns out she was just hanging around and being nice to us to get close to him.” She entered the kitchen, and I handed her an icy Dr Pepper. “Thanks.”
“To the porch.”
She snagged a bag of popcorn with an amused grin. “Are you ever not sitting out on that dang porch?”
“That would be a no. Come on.” We settled on the swing, and I took a huge sip of coffee—iced, of course, since it was afternoon. I raised my eyebrows and waited for her to continue.
“So, she’d been crushing on him, and was like, waiting for an opening or something. Now that he’s away at college and she found out he broke up with me, she’s become an unsufferable bitch. It started a few weeks before school, mostly on social media—starting rumors about me and stuff like that. But she ramped her shit up today.” She looked like she was on the verge of tears. “First day of school, no Weston around, and with a sprained ankle so I couldn’t even run away? Boom, I get covered in pudding. Ugh, could it get any worse?”
My head reared back in shock. “Back up—you and Weston broke up? What the heck happened, Gracie? Why didn’t you tell me? And was Ruby there when the pudding thing happened? I can’t imagine her not defending you, or at least sticking by you.”
She shot me a look. “She has no idea what happened today, and don’t you go telling her. She’s not like us. She can’t handle shit like this. I mean physical shit—direct confrontations, fights, or whatever. I saw Marianne coming and I knew it would be bad, so I sent Ruby to get something out of my locker.”
“I could see that about her. She’s kind of innocent, right? And Weston?”
“He broke up with me so I could have a fun senior year without having to like, wait around for him or whatever.” She threw her hands in the air, letting me know exactly what she thought of that idea. “He still texts me every morning. He still loves me, and I still love him. It’s the stupid distance that has him all worked up. He doesn’t want to hold me back.”
“So, this is more like a break than a breakup? What a noble little idiot man-boy he is.” That earned me a smile. “I think y’all will be okay. If the two of you are meant to be, it will work out in the end, right?” Says the woman who was dumped hard by the teenage love of her life...
“I guess so. I mean, probably. It still sucks for now though.”
Hating seeing her so sad, I switched the subject. “Let’s put a pin in the Weston thing. We’ll talk that through later. Give me some names, Gracie. Tell me everything.”
She shook her head. “I ratted out Marianne, that’s enough. And you can’t say anything to anyone about any of this. Promise me.”
I held my hands up. “I’m not making any promises. Secrets are bad.” Said the woman who was hiding an entire past relationship with her sister’s teacher...
I was sensing a theme here. Was I destined to keep providing advice I would never, ever take?
Why was I being so encouraging when life so rarely worked out the way you wanted it to? Damn, I was such a hypocrite.
“I don’t want Weston driving back here to protect me. And don’t get me started on Everett and Willa—they have their own crap to deal with. I don’t want them going to prison for murdering my bully bitch trio, okay? Plus, they’re exhausted because no one ever sleeps over there. Toddlers are insane.” Our mother had given Willa and Everett custody of Gracie after they got married, and she lived with them a few streets over from mine.
Did it piss me off that she refused to let me or Sadie take her to live with one of us years ago? Hell yes it did. But now I was just happy that Gracie was with Willa and her hubby, Everett, and that my mother was finally in therapy and trying to atone for how she’d treated us over the years.
I nudged her shoulder with mine. “Oh, but it’s fine if I go to prison? Real nice, Gracie.”
She huffed a laugh and leaned into my side. “We both know you’d never get caught. Besides, I can handle myself. I’ll be fine. I just needed someone to talk this through with. Dealing with stupid boys at school is easy. Marianne and her little minions are not. For whatever reason, they are determined to make me miserable. I am not looking forward to the rest of the year.”
“Mean girls are insidious,” I agreed. “Trust me, I know. You hold tight. I’ll come up with a way to fix this without resorting to murder or violence. I promise. Stealth mode is my best mode.”
“I’ll be fine, Clara. I swear.”
“Yeah, you sure as hell will be. I’m going to make sure of it. You deserve to have an enjoyable senior year. At least one of us Hills is going to have a positive teen experience, damn it. I know you’re missing Weston. You don’t need a bunch of rotten little bitches adding to it.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I love you, Clara.” Her lower lip trembled; she bit it and looked away.
Forget my promise. I was ready to commit murder. All I needed were the names of the other two little Mean Girls’ Plastics wannabes and I’d find a spot in the backyard to bury them in. Metaphorically, of course.
“I love you back. Come here.” I wrapped my arms around her and pushed the swing with my foot. “You tell me everything from now on. I’m fine with no names—for now, anyway. Promise me, Gracie.” I felt her nod against my shoulder, and I relaxed.
It was on.
Sadie, Willa, and I had a miserable time back in high school. Our dad had left, our mom was fully ensconced in her verbally abusive bitch era, and the three of us had acted out in every way a teenage girl could. Cutting school, drinking under the bleachers, running around with boys, and doing all the things we shouldn’t.
Sadie got pregnant and married her dumbass ex-husband straight out of high school. Willa ran away from home to marry her loser boyfriend and had stayed gone for almost a decade. And I had ended up in Nashville secretly stripping at various burlesque clubs to pay my way through college and law school.