by Pamela Wells
“Hello?” Mrs. Daniels answered the phone, snapping Kelly out of her reverie.
“Oh, Mrs. Daniels…”
In the background, Kelly could hear Will’s younger brother, Samuel, screaming about a stuffed toy. His nanny shushed him, and soon after, music played, tinny and tinkly, as if it were a music box.
Kelly switched the phone to her other ear. “Uh…is Will there?” She figured it was a good idea to pretend like she’d called for Will and not his mother. She wanted to be sly about this.
“No, he just left. He’s covering an extra shift at the animal shelter.”
Kelly wished she were working, too. The urge to see Will hatched butterflies in her stomach. Somehow it seemed like everything would be fine if she could just see him.
“Oh.” Feeling a bit bold, she said, “I thought for sure he’d be with Brittany.”
“Brittany?” The confusion in Mrs. Daniels’ tone said she hadn’t yet met Brittany.
“Yeah. She’s this girl Will’s been seeing.”
A long pause. Kelly began to wonder if Mrs. Daniels had hung up. But then she took in a breath and said, “What’s this Brittany like?”
“Well…she’s…” Super-skinny, cultured, smart, classy. All the things Mrs. Daniels wanted in Will’s girlfriend, which Kelly knew because he’d told her. Well, maybe not the skinny part.
There was one thing that Kelly could use against Brittany. “I think she’s a smoker.”
“Ewww,” Mrs. Daniels said.
Score!
“And Will is, like, two-timing us,” Kelly blurted. “He’s seeing me and Brittany at the same time.”
Samuel started screaming again. Chopin, their Maltese dog, barked as the doorbell rang. “Michelle, will you get that?” Mrs. Daniels said, then pulled her attention back to Kelly. “You knew Will was never exclusive, Kelly. For now it’s best if he focuses on school.”
Kelly winced. That was not what she wanted to hear. Kelly had thought the “focus on school” stuff had come from Mr. Daniels, but apparently Mrs. Daniels was in on it, too.
Why had Kelly said anything in the first place? What had she been thinking?
Well, she’d been looking for a sympathetic ear, obviously hoping Mrs. Daniels would say she’d talk some sense into Will.
Ha! Yeah, right. Kelly should have known better.
As a matter of fact, wasn’t that one of the rules? That she wasn’t supposed to talk to The Ex’s parents about the breakup? Or whatever it was that was going on between her and Will?
Great. Just great. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours and already she’d broken a rule.
Way to go, Kel.
“I have to go,” Mrs. Daniels said. “Michelle!” she yelled away from the phone. “Grab Samuel, please, before he makes a mess.”
The line went silent.
Kelly pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it. Mrs. Daniels had just hung up on her!
Wonderful. Her day was going from bad to worse and there was only one thing that would take the crap quota up a few notches.
Chocolate cake.
But chocolate cake was like six hundred calories or something.
I don’t care, she thought. It sounds so good.
God, what was she going to do when Valentine’s Day came around next month? All the stores would overflow with chocolate candy hearts painfully reminding her that she was single. And what better way to deal with the pain of a broken heart than to eat those stupid chocolate hearts?
Ugh!
Kelly headed out of her bedroom but froze in the hallway when she heard a chorus of male voices coming from the kitchen.
She’d forgotten tonight was Todd’s night to host the Saturday poker game.
She looked down to survey her appearance. She was still in her frog-print pajama pants and a stained white tank top. She just hadn’t had the energy to shower yet, and she couldn’t let all of Todd’s friends see her like this!
She hurried back to her room and rifled through her closet. She threw on her gray American Eagle slub hoodie and a pink skirt. She checked her reflection in the mirror on the back of her bedroom door.
There, now. Her outfit was better than pajamas, but still inconspicuous enough to look like she’d been lounging in it all day and hadn’t thrown it on just to impress. She ran her hand over her messy ponytail. Thankfully, it wasn’t greasy yet and the pony would do.
She made her way to the kitchen and found Todd at the counter pouring a bag of Cheetos into a plastic bowl. Matt and Kenny sat at the table discussing a car they’d seen on TV recently. Drew popped up behind the open refrigerator door with a two-liter bottle of cola in his hand.
“Hey, Kel,” he said.
“Hi.” She went over to the counter and pulled herself onto it. She grabbed a handful of Cheetos from the plastic dish. Todd tried smacking her hand away but missed.
“The snackage is not for you,” he said, and moved the bowl to the table.
“I just wanted a few.” She wrinkled her nose at him. Sometimes he was such a pain in the butt.
Drew brought the soda over to the counter and grabbed four glasses from the cupboard to Kelly’s right.
Kelly wanted to be mad at him for breaking up with Sydney. She wanted to snub him or tell him he was a jerk, but Drew had been Kelly’s friend far longer than she’d been friends with Sydney. And besides, Drew just wasn’t a jerk. If he broke up with Sydney, there had to be a good reason.
He was incredibly kind and caring and super-smart. Add in his total hotness and that made him practically perfect in guy terms.
As a matter of fact, Drew had been Kelly’s first crush. She was eleven when he started hanging out with Todd. He was over at their house all the time. Kelly had just been too shy to say anything. Todd probably would have freaked out anyway.
Then Sydney met Drew through Kelly, and before Kelly knew it, Sydney was going out with him. Kelly knew the crush was useless after that, but that didn’t stop her from still admiring Drew.
“Want a glass?” Drew said.
“Huh?”
He laughed. “You’re just staring at me. I thought maybe you were trying to send me a subliminal message that you wanted a glass, too.”
“She’s staring at you because she’s trying to read your brain waves,” Todd said. “Didn’t I tell you I found out she was an alien?”
“Shut up, Todd!” Kelly gave him a shove, but he only budged an inch and then laughed at her.
Drew grabbed a fifth glass out of the cupboard and poured cola into it. “Here.” He handed the glass over.
“Thanks.”
Cola didn’t really go well with chocolate cake, but she didn’t want him to think she was a huge pig, so she’d just wait until they all went downstairs. For now, she took small sips of the soda.
“Anyway,” Todd said, “we’re outta here.” He rolled the Cheetos bag closed and grabbed one glass of soda. “Kenny, grab the snacks, dude.”
Kenny pushed his chair back, stood up, and took the Cheetos bowl. Matt came around the counter, nodded a hello/ good-bye at Kelly, then took two glasses of soda and disappeared downstairs.
“Time to kick butt,” Drew said. “You should come downstairs with us.”
Kelly shook her head. “Nah. It’s guys’ night. Besides, Todd would probably chase me out.”
“I’ll make sure he doesn’t.”
It was tempting to hang out with a bunch of guys like she did when she was a kid, but her mom’s famous chocolate cake was sitting over on the stovetop, calling.
“I can’t,” she said. “I have to get ready to go to Alexia’s in a little bit, anyway.”
“All right. See ya.” He grabbed his soda and left.
Kelly hopped off the counter and went to the stove. She smiled, suddenly giddy. “Well, chocolate cake, it looks like it’s just you and me.”
After serving herself a slice, she sat down at the kitchen table, pushed aside the morning’s newspaper and Monica’s homework, then she
took her first bite.
Mmmmm.
SEVEN
Rule 6: You must perform a ritual with the help of your girls to rid yourself of The Ex’s pictures and any gifts that he gave you.
Alexia was used to being home alone. Her older brother, Kyle, had been out of the house for four years now. He was finishing his senior year of college in Hartford. Her parents were always at some function. They owned a small practice in Birch Falls, but their self-help books made them famous. Now their lives were nonstop. Seminars here, book signings there, radio shows all over the nation. This weekend they were…where were they again? Illinois or something. Alexia couldn’t keep their schedules straight.
They lived in the same house, but Alexia hardly saw her parents. She’d gotten used to entertaining herself when they were gone and her friends were out with their boyfriends. She’d seen every season of America’s Next Top Model (Kahlen was still her favorite, why did that girl not win?). Veronica Mars seemed like her best friend, and she was a Best Week Ever aficionado.
She’d never been the type of person to need social interaction in order to have fun. She was often quite happy being alone in the house. When she was alone, she could do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted.
If she wanted to watch Zoolander for the fiftieth time while eating popcorn covered in pepper, then she could. But now she could hardly wait for some company as she set out lit candles and bowls of chips and salsa. Eventually, hanging out by yourself gets old, and everyone needs some company every now and then to stay sane. What better company than your best friends?
Last night, they’d all decided the ritual for laying The Ex to rest had to be performed right away. The sooner the better, Raven said. As always, she was ready to move on from the ex-boyfriend, but in her old style, she would have moved on to another boy. Now it was The Code. Alexia wasn’t so sure Raven could do it. She was the boy-crazy one out of the four of them.
For some reason, Raven thought being alone was a sign of lameness. Alexia suspected her neediness had something to do with her parents divorcing a few years ago. With her dad gone all the time, Ray kept looking to boys to fill that void. Hopefully, with The Code as her aid, she’d realize she didn’t need a guy to be happy.
The doorbell rang and Alexia grinned. She opened the front door and the night air slipped in, chilling her skin. Goose bumps popped on her forearms.
“Hey, guys!” she said, seeing Raven and Kelly on the porch.
Kelly, as usual, hid in her fur-trimmed hood. Even standing on the enclosed porch out of the chilled wind, she was moving constantly as if trying to get her blood pumping faster.
If you looked at Raven standing next to Kelly, you’d never guess both girls were from the same climate. Raven’s jacket was only a black hooded sweatshirt, a pink skull printed on the front. Her hands were bare, two plastic bags hanging from her wrists.
“Warmth!” Kelly shouted, barreling past Alexia.
Alexia looked over Raven’s shoulder and to the driveway. She saw only Raven’s red Nissan Sentra. “Sydney come with you guys?”
“Sydney,” Raven said, “is a no-show.” She walked in, and Alexia shut the door. They headed to the kitchen. Raven set her bags down on the kitchen island, shoving aside the bowl of fruit. “I called Syd and she said she wasn’t coming.”
“She hasn’t talked to Drew yet,” Kelly explained, pulling out one of the bar stools at the island. “And he’s been at my house half the night.” She slid out of her coat and set it on a stool next to her. “I think Syd’s hoping he’ll call and they’ll make up and everything will be okay.”
Alexia sighed. “Well, hopefully they will make up, but they’ve never broken up before. This seems serious.”
“I tried telling her that,” Raven said. “But she didn’t want to hear it.”
“You guys still want to do the ritual, then?” Alexia couldn’t keep the hint of disappointment out of her voice.
“Of course.” Kelly pushed her ponytail off her shoulder. “I want to lay Will to rest as soon as I can.”
“And I made us all Ex tombstones out of paper,” Raven said. “I figured we could burn them.” She pulled three tombstones out of an envelope and laid them on the table. One said Drew, one Caleb, one Will. They were made out of heavy black cardstock and the names were done in gothic lettering with silver glitter.
“These are so cute!” Kelly picked up Will’s and fingered his name. Some glitter came away, sprinkling onto the moss-colored countertop.
“They aren’t supposed to be cute!” Raven said.
Kelly shrugged. “Well, they are.”
“Leave it to Kelly,” Alexia said, “to find something cute in something that’s supposed to be slightly morbid.”
“She would think a demon was cute if he had good hair,” Raven added.
“Hello, I’m right here.” Kelly waved her hands in the air.
They all laughed.
“Come on, I figured we’d do this in the sunroom.” Alexia led them to the back of the house. The walls and ceiling in the sunroom were made entirely of glass, so the sky was overhead, stars shining brightly in the clear night. There were candles lit all over, the flames reflecting off the glass walls. Alexia had moved all the wicker furniture back to make a place for a roasting pan in the center of the room. She’d taken the big floral cushions off the wicker chairs and set them around the pot.
“For burning things,” Alexia explained, nodding at the roasting pan.
“Of course.” Kelly smiled.
Raven sat on one of the pillows. “Well, let’s get started.” She grabbed her two grocery bags and started unloading them. There was a whole gift box full of letters, a hair scrunchie, a T-shirt, an envelope full of photos, and a sock.
“What is all that stuff?” Kelly asked, grabbing the envelope of pictures.
“Everything that Caleb gave me. Or, if it reminded me of him, I threw it in the bag.”
Alexia poked the sock with her finger. “And this reminded you of him?”
Kelly snorted a laugh.
“He left it at my house,” Raven explained.
Alexia raised her eyebrows. “Oh, I see.”
“What did you bring?” Raven asked Kelly.
Kelly grabbed her purse and dug inside. She pulled out a brochure to the high school’s last art show and one picture of Will speaking at a school assembly that she had obviously taken herself.
“I know,” she said, looking at her pile, then Raven’s. “I had a pathetic relationship with Will.”
Alexia shook her head. “I think the boyfriend was more pathetic than the relationship.”
“Any guy would be lucky to have you, Kel,” Raven said.
Kelly gave an unconvinced smile and nodded. “Thanks, you guys.”
Alexia was pretty sure Kelly suffered from the I’m-not-good-enough syndrome, what Alexia’s parents called self-criticism. But no matter how many times Alexia or Raven or Sydney told her how pretty she was, she always thought she could be thinner or have better skin.
Of course, Alexia’s friends were constantly telling her how pretty she was, and she never seemed to have enough confidence to talk to guys. Maybe she was suffering from self-criticism, too.
Alexia shook a box of matches in her hand. “I’ll start the fire. I have the fire extinguisher close at hand, just in case something goes wrong.”
“I’m so flippin’ ready for this,” Raven said.
“Throw your letters in,” Alexia said to Raven. “That’ll get the fire going.”
Raven dumped the letters out of the box and into the roasting pan. Alexia struck a match, the sulfur filling her nose. She threw it in and the flame burned a hole into one of the letters. Soon they all were lit up. “Now, throw in everything else,” she said. “We’ll do the tombstones last.”
Raven didn’t hesitate. She chucked things in without looking and was done within a minute. Kelly threw in the brochure first but then dwelled on the picture of Will.
�
��Come on, Kel,” Raven said.
Kelly gave Will’s picture one more look and threw it in.
Sydney stared at her computer screen. She refreshed the window to see if she had any new emails.
You have 0 unread mail messages.
She let out a long sigh. Why hadn’t Drew called or emailed or something? Was he deliberately avoiding her? She picked up her cell phone and double-checked her messages. Still nothing. She called his cell and voice mail picked up right away.
“You reached Drew. Leave it after the beep.” Beep.
“Drew, call me!”
She flipped the phone closed and went out to the kitchen. Her mother was at the table, clicking away on her laptop. The laptop and her BlackBerry were permanent tools at her side now that she was an executive at SunBery Vitamins. It’d taken her ten years of hard work but she finally got to the top. Sydney was proud of her for reaching her goal, but it didn’t really feel like she had a mother anymore. Or any parental unit for that matter. Sydney wondered if her mom’s new position was putting a rift in her parents’ relationship.
She watched her father pull a pan of meat loaf out of the oven, floral oven mitts on his hands. He’d taken over the role of Mr. Mom in the last two years. He was getting better at it, but occasionally he forgot to buy toilet paper or misplaced the cable bill, which resulted in an hour’s worth of searching the house. That is, until Sydney logged into their account online and printed out a new bill.
His dinners were improving, too, but Sydney hated meat loaf. It was her mother’s favorite, though, so she couldn’t fault her dad for making it.
Sydney came up beside him. His silver-framed glasses slipped down the bridge of his nose. She noticed more gray hair on his head than black. A year ago, she might have poked fun at him for it, but now he wouldn’t laugh or make fun of himself. He’d just shrug and probably say, “I’m not going to stay young forever.” He was rarely in a good mood anymore.
