Chapter Eleven #2
“August and I are taking care of it. You know your mom and I won’t let anything happen to our girls.”
I sighed, folding my hands in my lap. Our girls.
I was elated that they considered Maria one of their own.
I already loved her like a sister. But the truth is…
they already had let something happen to their first girl.
Something really fucking awful. Something that made my skin crawl every time a guy brushed up against me.
Something that made me shrink back from the way Jackson would sometimes look at me.
Memories that made me hate who I had been.
And who I was. Dreading who I would become.
“I am just so tired of seeing the bad guys win, Daddy.”
The admission surprised him as much as it did me.
Even more surprising were the tears in his eyes when he stepped closer, bending down and hugging me from behind.
I stiffened but slowly let myself lean into his touch.
The same touch that had once made me feel safe and secure and loved.
God, part of me wanted that so bad. Maybe one day.
But right now? I was still a hot mess. In this moment though, I could just be a girl getting a hug from her dad and that would have to be enough.
That night, as I was lying in bed, I woke up to my door creaking open.
In the light spilling from the hall into my dark room, I could see Maria’s silhouette and scooted over as she crawled into bed next to me without a word.
She must have been having nightmares again.
I didn’t mind the company. I even welcomed it.
Cause those nightmares that came and went for her?
They were every damn night for me. Her breathing eventually evened out and I rolled over, letting sleep come over me.
It had been a long damn day. I made a mental note to figure out what pie Momma had referred to.
Something about help? I snuggled deeper under my covers and filed it away for another day.
The next couple of days were spent convincing Maria to still go to prom.
She was scared, I could see that, but I didn’t want that douche ruining her night and told her as much.
I even brought Diego over and eavesdropped as he told her over and over again that he would never let someone hurt her.
My mom even gave it her best shot, telling Maria all about the makeup artist she had hired, and fawning over the dresses when they were delivered to the house.
True to form, she adored Maria’s dress. Mine?
Well, it left her speechless. Pretty sure she almost fainted.
Which just made me love it all the more. At first, prom was just something I was doing for Maria but as it got closer, I found myself growing excited.
The morning of, I still wasn’t sure I had convinced Maria to go. But as I was going through my mother’s jewelry case, Maria barged in. Panting. Out of breath like she had run a mile.
“Ok, here’s the deal.”
I raised an eyebrow at her, putting Mom’s pearl and diamond earrings back into the case. Too flashy.
“I will try on the dress. With the alterations. If it fits, I go. If it doesn’t fit, I stay. It’s like a coin toss.”
“…that dress was custom tailored for you, by some of the best seamstresses in Georgia. If my mother is to be believed.”
“Exactly. So if it doesn’t fit, it’s a sign.”
“Uh-huh.” She frowned at me, so I picked up a necklace and held it out to her. I knew my jewels and this was a gorgeous opal and pink tourmaline pendant that my dad had gifted Mom for one of their anniversaries. “This would go so pretty with your dress.”
She walked over and took it from me. “It’s beautiful. But why do I get the feeling I could buy a house with this?”
“Try a small apartment,” I quipped.
She shook her head at me, “I dunno, Holly. Y’all already paid for my dress. My shoes. And the way your mom talks RuPaul himself is coming to do our makeup.”
“Who the hell is RuPaul?”
She blinked at me. “Wow. That’s just sad.” She edged closer to me, eyeing the jewelry box. Pointing at a black diamond choker that I had literally never seen my mother wear she said, “That would look great on you.”
“My poor mom is going to have a heart attack.”
“Why? You look amazing in your dress!”
I shrugged, taking the choker and making sure she still had the opal pendant. “I dunno. I guess Mom is just used to me being in pageant type dresses. Which are a bit more like yours. My dress is just a bit too—” I hesitated, trying to find the right word.
“Edgy?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
We headed downstairs and Maria reached over, squeezing my hand.
“I’m not a mom yet but just thinking about my little girl growing up, graduating high school, getting a date to prom.
It doesn’t seem real to me. Like I can’t even imagine.
So…I guess for your mom, it’s probably the same.
She still sees you as the little girl you used to be. ”
I stopped at the bottom of the stairs, eyeing my mom who was chatting animatedly with my dad. She hadn’t noticed us yet, and his back was to us. I squeezed Maria’s hand back. “I’m not that little girl. And I don’t ever want to be. I used to blame her. I kinda still do, but I don’t hate her.”
“Does she know that?”
I opened my mouth but stopped. I didn’t have an answer to that, to be honest. Mom finally turned to us, squealing. “Ok, girls. It’s show time!”
I forced back a cringe. She used to say that same thing every time, right before I took the stage.
But if Maria could hold her head high despite everything she was going through, so could I.
So, I smiled at Mom, even though the movement felt foreign.
Mom faltered, before hesitatingly smiling back at me.
“Um, so…the makeup artist will be here in a few hours. I figure we eat. Your dad and I need to refine our threats to the boys. You girls can shower. I’ll do your hair. And by then it’ll be makeup time!”
Maria surprised us all by bouncing on her toes.
Well, it was more like a wobble. But it was still cute, watching her teeter around in excitement.
We spent the morning exactly as Mom suggested.
Maria ate her weight in waffles and took a shower so long I was quite surprised it didn’t use up all our water.
She came out smelling like cherries and sandalwood.
It was a scent uniquely hers. A scent that enveloped me as she stomped her way into my room and brandished her razor at me. I eyed it with suspicion. “What?”
“I can’t reach. Like anything. Not my legs. Not my armpits. Not that annoying tiny sprig of hair on my big toe. I barely managed to shave off the obscene line of hair that has appeared without invitation on my belly.”
“Please tell me you’re not asking me what I think you’re asking.”
She stomped her foot. “Please, Holly!”
I waved my hands at her toweled form, “He won’t even see your legs in that dress!”
“Holly!”
“Oh for Christ’s sake. Can’t you ask Mom?”
“Ohmigawd I cannot ask your mom to shave my legs!”
“Why the hell not? And why am I the first pick?”
Maria pointed her razor at my door, shaking it like a baton. “Well, who else do I have? The cat?”
I dragged a hand across my face. “Are you like 100% sure that Diego isn’t like…into that? Maybe he likes a little extra hair!”
She made a general face of disgust and brandished the razor at me again. When I fixed her with a look, she pouted, brown eyes begging me to give in. In the depths of them, I could see a glimmer of her pain. The need for this night to be perfect if nothing else was.
Which was how I found myself shaving my best friend’s legs as she laid on my bathroom floor.
’Cause she couldn’t stand for long and I didn’t trust myself to work on a vertical canvas that wasn’t me.
When I was done, she preened in the mirror before flouncing out of my room with an ear-to-ear grin.
The things you do for the people you love.
I hopped in the shower and hurried over to my mom’s room after blow-drying my hair.
I had highlights put in a couple days ago, and the mixture of honey blonde and caramel was eye-catching.
Throwing on my silk robe, I made my way towards Mom’s room where she was already working on Maria’s hair.
I perched on a nearby settee, watching the two of them.
They were chatting animatedly, completely enthralled with just how many curls they could pile on Maria’s head.
If I hadn’t been watching so closely, I would’ve missed it.
For a second, one split second, Maria stopped smiling.
Her eyes dimmed. Her brow furrowed. Then my mom said something and immediately, her jovial attitude was back in place.
I frowned at her, but she didn’t see. A little piece of my heart broke as I recognized what she was doing.
Something I had done a million times. Putting on a mask, wearing a front so others didn’t see that you were crying inside.
Maria’s phone buzzed, and her hand trembled just so slightly as she slid it under her leg without checking it. This night was supposed to be about glitter and gowns. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something ugly was coming for us.
CHAPTER 11 * HOLLY
Mom and Dad had wanted to hire a limo, but I knew the threats Jesse had made were not to be taken lightly.
I insisted that we would be safer if we had a getaway car in case he did show up.
Instead of waiting for a driver, we could just dip if things got dicey.
Mom was still hesitant, but I could see that Dad understood.
When Maria chimed in, agreeing with me, that was that.
It was for Maria that I agreed to let Diego drive.
I made several dark promises about what would happen to him if he was not gentle with Sally, but I knew it would make Maria happy, riding up front with her date by her side.