Summer Fire
Page 44
“So you’re willing to let them bully you, beat you up and pretend it never happened?”
“Yes!”
“Oh, Greta…”
“Bugger them. I’ll show them I don’t care. No matter what they call me or do to me, I will lose weight. Even if they make fun of me every day, I will meet my goal. It’s all I have, Remi—”
“You have me, Greta. We’ll do this together. Fine, if you want me to stay silent, you’ll have to make me one promise. From now on I drive you to and from school. I don’t want you walking home alone anymore, giving them opportunities to attack you again. You must wait for me at the door, okay?”
Choked, beyond words, Greta nodded. Her grasping hands reached for Remi’s and she clung for dear life. “I don’t know what I ever did to deserve you, but I’ve thanked God every day since you came into my miserable life. Remi, no matter what those cold-hearted bitches do to me, as long as I have our friendship, their meanness means less than nothing.”
“Aw, sweetheart.”
“And you’ll be pleased to know that I did stand up to them. Even when they tried to tear off my blouse, I didn’t let them. In fact, I think Cassie might even be sporting a few bruises.”
“Okay! Now that makes me happy. Good for you, my pet. You’ve made me proud.”
Chapter Thirteen
The next morning, Remi dropped Greta off at the main school entrance. As she waved to her friend, she spied a uniformed security officer standing near the open door and waited until most of the kids had disappeared before she approached the older man.
First he examined her in a non-threatening way and then a genuine smile appeared. “Mornin’, lovie. What can I help you with this fine day?”
“I have a friend who goes to this school—”
Not anyone’s fool, the dark-haired officer studied her, and she liked the concerned look on his face. “Right. Greta Morris. She’s one of the nice girls. Mind you, from the look of her face this morning, she seems to have got into a bit of trouble.”
Wary of saying too much, Remi nodded. “I wonder if you could keep a watchful eye on her for a while. Turns out, she has enemies here and I’m worried about their actions.”
His eyes narrowed, his mouth turned down and he nodded. “Want to make a formal complaint?”
“No. Regrettably, she won’t say anything and wouldn’t like me talking either. But I think that the more people who are watching out for her, the better. I’ll be her transportation to and from school for the next few weeks and we’ll see if things calm down. If not, something needs to be done.”
“Good. I’ll watch over her around the premises. If I have to, I’ll have a little talk with those who’re giving her a bad time.”
“You know who they are?”
“I have my suspicions. These girls like to think they run things around here. So far, they’ve kept their shenanigans outside of school property. But if they forget, I’ll be on them like milk on a cow’s tit. And happy to do so! Can’t put up with trollops like those three.”
Happier after soliciting more protection for Greta, Remi walked back to the car. This morning, her young friend had again worn one of her ugly tank tops, her hair had looked lank and she’d refused to meet Remi’s eyes. Sulky, makeup slathered on to cover up her bruises, she’d shown up for their exercise time but had been lackadaisical about her performance. Obviously, the aftermath of her experience had tampered with her enthusiasm.
Remi wouldn’t let her get away with that behaviour for long; it wasn’t healthy. But this morning, she hadn’t the heart to beat up the already beaten teen.
Chapter Fourteen
“What the hell do you mean you need more time up north? Graeme, I need to get home.”
“So you’ve said repeatedly. What was that again? You need to work on your book? I think it’s to see your new girlfriend?”
“She’s my decorator, not my girlfriend.”
“Not yet, but I know you when you set your sights. There isn’t a warm-blooded female human out there who could resist.”
“The female’s name is Remi, as you well know. And yes, I need to start my book, and yes, I want to see her also. We’ve been Skyping each other every night and she’s really nice.”
“Here we go with the ‘nice’ word again. Mums are nice. Girlfriends are gorgeous or hot. What’s with this ‘nice’ adjective?”
“Have it your way then. She is gorgeous and… nice and hot.”
“Oh, boy, you have it bad. How has it got this far? You’ve hardly had any time together.”
“We’ve been talking every day for the last few weeks–sometimes for hours. I like that, but it would be far more fun and less frustrating if we were doing it face to face.”
“Frustrating?” Graeme’s voice held the distinct sound of humor that Eadan wished he was able to extinguish. When they were kids and Graeme pushed him too far, he’d wiped the ground with the tease until he’d yell—teach him respect. “I thought Skyping was face to face.”
“Don’t be daft, man. You know full well what I mean.”
“You mean you want to sleep with her. I get it.”
“No! You don’t get it. She’s perfect. I like her. She makes me laugh and she likes it when I talk about work. I can tell she’s interested, not faking it like Simone used to do until she couldn’t hide the yawns.”
A loudspeaker sounded in the background, calling for Doctor Graeme Fleming. “I’m sorry, bro.” There was genuine remorse now. “They’re calling for me. I wish I could, but it’s impossible for me to leave this lad. He’s barely hanging on and if he has to change doctors at this point, I’m not sure he’ll make it. You know how attached the kids can get to us physicians.”
Eadan understood. He also knew that Graeme had a magic way with the kids who latched onto him. In fact, he himself had had it happen to him a time or two. Heart-heavy, he agreed. “No, you can’t leave him. How much longer do ye think it’ll be before he can be taken off the respirator?”
“It could be anytime. Certainly within the next couple of weeks. Look, man, go across and see the lass on your day off. Goodness, it’s just a hop, skip and a jump.”
“I’d be doing that, if Dad wasn’t suffering from that flu bug he picked up. We’re shorthanded and I haven’t had a day off since you left. Don’t worry! I’ll just hang in here, and hope to hell your boy has a miraculous recovery.”
Chapter Fifteen
Remi kept her promise to drive Greta to school, and within a few days she watched Greta recover her spirits and start to become her enthusiastic friend once again.
Now, each morning, the two girls ran side by side around the track, and both had increased their time and the number of laps. In her sloppy gym clothes, more suitable for a soccer star than a girl, Greta’s changes were difficult to assess but they were there.
Remi noticed those same garments now hung on Greta’s frame, whereas at the beginning they were definitely snug. Mostly, the changes showed up in the teen’s face; she no longer had puffy cheeks and bloated features. Healthy, with sun, good food and exercise doing their part, her friend was coming into her own.
No longer lank and unwashed, her shorter hair took on a life of its own. Clean and shiny, layered to frame her face just like the photo that Remi had pointed out at the salon she’d taken her to, a person could see the effort Greta had made to look cool. In fact, she’d applied bright spray-on red and blue streaks which the hairdresser had shown her how to do, and had even learned how to braid tiny beads and feathers into the sides to add more fun.
Today, for the first time, she’d worn the new jeans they’d bought last weekend and they were kind of big. Not sloppy but roomy. Goodness. The weight was falling off the teen at a ridiculously fast rate.
A thought slammed into Remi with the force of an insult. And after worrying about it all night, she followed through with her inquiries the next morning at the track.
While they were warming up for their run, she faced Greta wit
h the question that had been haunting her. “Greta, are you eating?”
Eyes open wide, about as innocent as a habitual kleptomaniac with stolen goods in her pocket, Greta nodded. “Sure, Remi. When I’m hungry, I eat.”
Remi heard her words and knew instinctively they were lies. “You’re not eating!”
Fear filled Greta’s eyes at the tone of dismay Remi hadn’t tried to hide. “Of course I do. Remi, don’t look at me like that. Please. Don’t be cross. I’m just not as hungry anymore.”
Remi pulled the girl over to the stand and made her sit. Then she planted her hands on her hips and took up a stance in front of her. “When did this foolishness start? And don’t even try to lie to me again.”
Sullen now, Greta refused to answer. She hung her head but there was still attitude, and Remi saw it immediately. “Okay, the deal was we would start a new health plan, right? Health plan. Not by being bulimic or anorexic, but by setting goals and achieving them in a smart way. To stop eating isn’t smart. It’s stupid, dangerous and unhealthy. You want to play those games, you do it alone. I won’t have any part of you making irresponsible choices like those.”
Greta flinched and then returned fire. “You don’t own me, Remi. I just wanted the weight to come off faster. I need to show that Cassie Edwards she’s not the only person who can wear a size eight.” Screaming, her words full of bitterness, Greta wasn’t the same sad, uncared for person from the beginning of their journey. This girl, so full of righteous anger and venom, scared Remi, and made her wonder where she had gone wrong.
“So by harming yourself, and don’t think you aren’t doing damage to your body with this asinine decision, you think you’re showing her? All you’re doing is starting down a road that’s not one I’m willing to share with you. If you don’t promise me right now that you will behave, not only will I stop seeing you, but I will go to your parents and let them know what you’ve begun doing. I’m not playing with you, Greta. I mean what I say.”
“Oh, you’re so perfect, aren’t you? You know everything. Well, you don’t see the smirks or have to suffer the pushes and pinches she likes to give me when no one is looking. Or the insults she shares in her loud, stupid voice so everyone laughs. I’m the one she takes stuff from and throws in the rubbish. And—”
“And you’re the one who lets her do all of those things, aren’t you? When you could have made a complaint, you refused. Never once have I heard about how you put a stop to her nonsense. Only how poor-little-me has to suffer. Well, wake up, kiddo, welcome to the real world. You don’t have to take it! And you certainly don’t have to make yourself sick over the bitch.”
Greta surged to her feet, fury and tears fighting for prominence in her glowing eyes and red face. “It’s so easy for you to give advice. So damn easy! Try living it in today’s world!” Hands fisted at her sides, Greta stomped her feet, broke into a run and was gone.
Knowing she couldn’t follow her or back down from the stance she’d taken, Remi made her own way back to the building. Heavy with guilt and fear, her mind darted from one thought to another, trying to find an answer.
Chapter Sixteen
When Eadan surprised her by calling the next afternoon, Remi wasn’t the same cheerful friend he’d come to know. This time, she seemed worried and distracted, even sad.
“Remi, something’s bothering you. Is there anything I can do? Are you having troubles with the renovations? I know you have the various contractors in the place now. Hopefully, they’re not giving you any trouble.”
“No… no, the work is coming along really well. I’ve dealt with these same businesses many times and the staff are very professional and excellent at what they do.”
“Is it your young friend who came for help the other day? I didn’t want to be nosy or question you further about her problems after you said it had all worked out, but maybe I can help.”
Remi heard the sincerity in Eadan’s tone and it soothed the uneasiness she hadn’t been able to hide. All yesterday and today, she’d prayed that Greta would come back, but she hadn’t seen any sign of the girl. If she’d gone to school, she hadn’t come for her ride. Not being able to stand the suspense, this morning, Remi had driven past the front entrance, but there had been no sign of Greta. That worried her all the more. The girl hated to miss her classes. She took pleasure in her high marks. It was a pride thing that Remi understood, since she’d acted the same when Greta’s age. Needing to have something to be good at, top grades had become huge to her self-esteem.
A cough brought her back to the ongoing telephone conversation. His smile lit up her heart and the want to share became too hard to ignore. “Sorry, I was trying to figure out how I could tell you about Greta. I want to. I really do. But it isn’t my tale to share. There’s a confidence issue. But I can tell you about my own story. It’s similar and you might be able to relate.”
“I’m listening, sweetheart.” Elbows on the desk, he framed his wonderful strong jaw with his hands and supported his chin. “Thankfully, everything is quiet right now, so I’m all yours.”
If only! Mine! Sweetheart! Nothing could have persuaded her more than his endearments at the very time when she felt so raw.
Remi gathered her thoughts and then started. “First, you need to know that I love my parents very much. But… they were adults with careers that they cared about to the extent that our home life came in a distant second. My father is a publicist with a large publishing company, and Mother is the senior partner for an accounting firm that’s growing every year.
I’m not sure why they had children, but I know I never felt very important in that busy world they’d created. As a youngster, and later a teenager, I took to filling the loneliness with food. Treats, mostly sweet ones, and I became quite a pudge. Of course, this didn’t help me in the outside world. All it got me was bullied and disparaged by my peers. And it was a vicious cycle: the more they made fun, the more I ached and the more I needed the sweets. By now I was a teenager and very unhappy.”
“You’re breaking my heart here, Remi. I wished I had known that sad little girl.”
“She was a loser. You wouldn’t have liked her. She didn’t take control of her choices. Instead she played the martyr and used all the goading and hurtful jeers to give herself permission to eat even more.”
Eadan shook his head, concern etched on every feature. “Aren’t you being too hard on yourself?”
“No! Like any path one chooses, the decisions all come back to the traveller. No one forced those chocolate bars into my mouth. No one made me eat chips rather than vegetables. Once I grew older, I knew what I did every time I reached for the wrong foods. My parents bought healthy stuff, but they also gave me an allowance and the solitude to eat what I wanted. I bought the rubbish, and I stuffed it in.”
“Poor baby. So, what happened?”
“One of my teachers made me see the truth. My nemesis, the one who liked to bully, cornered me by the lockers in secondary school and was singing her typical song of disgust at my size and laughing at my predictable tears. Only this time, my P.E. teacher had been listening. She put the run on the culprit and called me into her office. There, in a way I thought of as cruel, she dealt me what she saw as a necessary rebuke.”
Totally enthralled, his soft brown eyes acting like balm to her bruised spirit, Eadan asked, “What could she have said that resonated so much to make you change?”
“You know how people talk about pivotal moments in life? This was a huge one for me. She told me to grow up.”
“That was it? She didn’t want you to give the girl back some of her own medicine?”
“Certainly not! There was a no-tolerance policy for any physical abuse and we were expected to act like ladies at all times.”
“Yet the other girl didn’t get in trouble for acting like a bitch?”
“Not that I ever saw.”
“I don’t get it? She just blamed you.”
“Not quite. She made me understand that I
must be getting something from the behavior—either I enjoyed the insults because they gave me excuses to be a martyr or I needed the attention, however sick. If not, I’d have put a stop to the sick perversion. After all, I had the power to make the changes. It was all a matter of turning the switch in my head from fat and unhappy to healthy and slimmer.”
His left eyebrow rose and his expression became fascinated. “Those sentiments worked?”
“Like a neon sign. I guess I needed to hear them from someone who didn’t feel pity or disgust. She told it the way it was—a simple fact.”
“And left you to make the choice.”
“Yes. I started working on it that very day, but it’s a work in progress. Sometimes, I get busy and fall back on old patterns.”
“Is this why you were trying to help Greta? To change her habits? I’ve seen the girl and she’ll be a doctor’s problem at a very young age if she doesn’t mend her ways.”
“I know. And she’s been doing so well with her exercising, healthy foods and smaller portions.”
“Until?”
“Let’s just say smaller portions can be carried too far.”
Eadan didn’t say anything at first, just nodded his head like a doctor listening to a case. “Yes, I see. That must be nipped in the bud.”
“Exactly what I tried to do. Now I’ll have to give her the space she needs to figure it out. Will she understand? If she has the sense God gave a duck, she should.”
“Ah… we’re back to her choices again,”
“Yes.”
“Bless you, darling, she’ll be back. The girl won’t want to give up her time with you. Bloody hell, I know how hard it’s been for me. I hate being away.”
“You do?” Flames of happiness burst inside Remi and it was all she could do not to kiss the screen. But… could she believe he meant what she thought he did?