“I’m starting to think it should be easier, like, I want a guy to like me for me. Isn’t that what you want?”
I’d like a guy to like me at all, thanks.
Elda picked up the little marzipan figure of herself. “The only time our conversation really clicked was when we were talking about you.”
Holly folded her arms and gazed over at her cousin. “Stop.”
“I mean it. He was all, ‘Holly hates me. What did I do?’ Maybe you should date him.”
Holly giggled. She should date him. Yeah, right. Maybe in some universe that didn’t even exist yet. Her nervous laugh was nearly out of control right from the start. When she was finally able to control herself, she said, “You’re out of your gourd. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’m not being ridiculous. You’re the one who’s had all these meaningful chats with him on my phone. I mean, you two text for hours. Hours, Holly. He bought the architecture tour tickets to impress the girl he thought would appreciate them.”
“He bought them because he thought he was talking to you.”
“Okay, I just spent the afternoon with him, and he was not impressed by me. Not even a bit. But he’s all concerned that you don’t like him. Which I don’t think is true at all. I think you do like him. Very much.”
Holly rolled her eyes. Oh my God, this conversation. Elda had to get off this topic. If people started talking about Holly liking Danny, holy crap, she’d be mortified. She’d be dead. She’d literally not survive the next ten days. “Do I think Danny’s cute? Sure. But who doesn’t? He’s universally attractive.”
“And you think he’s smart and nice. The two of you have a lot in common.”
“And we have one very, very glaring difference—we are not even remotely in the same league. He’s, like, Mr. Super Celebrity, King of Popularity around here, and I’m hiding from the world in my grandma’s garage.”
“Stop selling yourself short.”
“I’m not, Elda. I’m valuating myself at exactly the right price.” Her hand twitched involuntarily. She hadn’t texted Danny in over twenty-four hours, and she was jonesing for a fix. Building the gingerbread showstopper was great, but it couldn’t hold a candle to chatting with her crush, the guy whom she was trying desperately to hand over to her cousin, if only she would take him. “Someone like Danny Garland would never, ever go for a girl like me. Not that I want him to. I don’t like Danny, so let’s stop talking about this, oh my God.”
“Okay.” Elda hoisted herself up from the floor.
“Hey,” Holly said, “you want to run with me out to Wal-Mart in the morning to find more candy?”
Elda shrugged. “Sure. Early?”
“Early,” Holly said. “Like eight?”
“Perfect. And Holly, one more thing. Danny and I were together all day today. He didn’t even try to make a move on me. He patted my shoulder once.” She laughed.
So did Holly, because who patted a shoulder?
“If he was just looking for a meaningless fling with a pretty girl, he would’ve tried harder today.” She raised her eyebrows all the way to her hairline, as if that was supposed to complete her thought.
It did. “Point made,” Holly said. “Even though none of this has anything to do with my situation. I don’t like Danny. And he doesn’t like me.” He liked Elda, he wanted Elda, and Holly would never crush his soul by telling him she’d been the one behind those texts.
Seeing the disappointment in his eyes would ruin her.
Chapter Thirteen
ELDA: Hey.
DANNY: Hi!
ELDA: I’m running out to Wal-Mart tomorrow morning. For candy. Want to come?
DANNY: Okay.
ELDA: 8 AM. I’ll pick you up at Santabucks.
DANNY: See you then!
DANNY: (gif of De Niro from Taxi Driver)
DANNY: (gif of Joe Pesci from Goodfellas)
DANNY: (gif of someone screaming into the abyss)
DANNY: (gif of someone else screaming into the abyss)
DANNY: (gif of a skeleton staring at his phone, waiting for a response)
Chapter Fourteen
Saturday, December 23
“She’ll be here,” Jamison said. “Stop worrying.”
“Whatever.” Danny was sitting at one of the Santabucks tables, waiting for Elda to show up. They were supposed to be going shopping together for extra showstopper supplies, but she was five minutes late. He was picturing a whole slew of scenarios right now—she’d found something unsavory about him online and had lost interest, she’d stopped responding to his texts last night because she’d had a heart attack or someone else had had a heart attack, she was somewhere in North Pole right now making out with Phil Waterston…
An unfamiliar light-blue minivan pulled up outside, and Danny perked up. Elda wasn’t blowing him off. Well, that was progress. Two doors opened, and two girls hopped out. Elda and Holly. Holly. Danny’s emotions were such a mess of confusion, he dropped half his cinnamon crunch muffin on the floor.
The little bell over the door jingled as they entered, and Holly scanned the room. Her eyes stopped on Danny for a moment, but she looked away as fast as it happened. So did he. He leaned down to pick up his breakfast from the coffee shop floor. He had no idea what to say to her at this point, or why he should bother saying anything at all. She was just a tourist in town for Christmas. He owed her nothing. What did it matter if she thought he was a needy loser? Making small talk would only serve to highlight his puppy dog nature.
“Hey.” He waved specifically to Elda.
She ran over and squeezed his shoulder. “Hey.”
Holly, barely glancing at him, went to the counter and ordered a mocha to go.
“You excited to go to Wal-Mart?” Elda asked.
“Is anyone ever?” Danny said with a grin.
She nudged him in the arm as her phone buzzed. “Oh, shoot,” she said after reading the text. She frowned and looked Danny right in the eye. “It’s Dinesh. Apparently he, well, I don’t want to get into the gory details, but there’s a sink-related emergency over at the arcade, and he totally needs my help.” She glanced over at Holly. “I’m sorry, guys. I have to deal with this.” She waved her phone in the air. He saw an actual text from Dinesh on her screen. She was telling the truth.
“We can wait for you,” Danny said.
Holly glared at her cousin. “Yeah,” she said. “We have all day.”
“No, you don’t.” Elda already had one foot out the door. “And this thing with Dinesh could take hours. Like, literally hours. Go on without me.” The bell jingled, and she was gone.
No Elda. No buffer. Just Danny, Holly, and a minivan.
“I really do need to buy more candy,” she said.
“Me, too.” He kept staring at the door, trying to name all the feelings swirling around in his stomach right now. Dread was there, for sure, and annoyance. But also kind of maybe a hint of excitement.
Holly walked over and placed her to-go cup on the table. She bit her upper lip with her lower teeth. And Danny was able to identify another emotion: desire. God, she was cute. Too bad she thought he was the most pathetic person in all of North Pole. “So, are you ready?” she said.
Danny shook his head. “You don’t have to. I’ll get my brother to drive me later.”
“Don’t be silly. Let’s go.” Holly picked up her cup and went to the door, which she held open for him.
He took a deep breath and dragged himself up from his chair. A whole morning alone with Holly. This day was going to end in tears—his. Still, he followed her out to the minivan. Holly grabbed his crutches and tossed them into the back.
“Thanks.” Most people didn’t offer to help him. He wasn’t sure if people just felt awkward about it or if they thought offering to help might offend him. Maybe they figured he was a young, healthy guy with a broken leg, and he could handle himself. They were right about that, for the most part. Danny could handle himself, but it was nice of Holly to sho
w him the courtesy.
“What do you need at the store?” Holly turned the key in the ignition.
“I think, like, M&Ms or something else colorful. I’m building a basketball court, and I want to fill in the stands with little candies.” Already they were talking about things Danny was interested in. Why couldn’t it be this easy with Elda? Maybe because his relationship with Holly was never going to be more than a reluctant friendship. They weren’t trying to impress each other, so they could talk about anything, even stuff as mundane as making candy people for his gingerbread showstopper.
Holly squinted as she pulled onto Main Street. “Jelly beans, maybe? More colors. More variations. The M&Ms might come off too same-y.”
“Good point.” She was dead right. “You’ve really gotten to know your stuff over the past week.”
She blushed. “Gingerbread boot camp, I don’t know.” Her hands kneaded the steering wheel. “Building a basketball court is a really cool idea. I can’t wait to see it.”
Danny suppressed a grin. Deep down—maybe not so deep down—he was just a sad nerd who needed to be liked. Maybe he should stop trying to fight it.
“How was your date with Elda yesterday?” Holly peeked at him out of the corner of her eye.
“All right.” Danny watched the bobblehead Bears player on the dashboard move in rhythm to Holly’s driving. She and Elda had to have talked about the date. Elda had probably told Holly how badly it went, and now Holly was preparing to rub it in. “You mind if I roll the window down?” Without waiting for an answer, he pressed the button and closed his eyes as the cold air whipped his face.
“You like Elda, right?” Holly said. “Like, I mean, you like-like her.”
“Elda’s great.” Danny spoke into the wind. “I just wish things could click easier between us in person. I don’t know if we’re both just super awkward or what.” He’d avoided the actual question. Like-like was such a strong word.
“Elda is really awkward around the guys she likes, if that helps.”
Hey, Holly wasn’t rubbing his inability to properly woo her cousin in his face. That was something. “I think it does. I mean, I’m totally out of practice with this whole dating thing, myself.”
“Maybe the two of you just need to jump in with both feet,” Holly said, “Stop waiting for the right moment or for things to get less awkward. Just go for it.”
This whole thing with Elda was driving him batty. He wasn’t sure which way was up and which was down. Even though their date had been only okay, she still asked him to hang out after it. But then she blew him off for Dinesh this morning. Frankly, Danny didn’t really want to talk about the date anymore.
The one good part of their conversation, the only time they really clicked yesterday, was when they talked about how Holly never volunteered information about herself. He didn’t want to be the guy who only talked about his own problems. “Can I ask you something?”
Holly shrugged, staring at the road in front of them.
“How did you actually get that scar?”
She immediately covered her mouth. “I thought I told you.” She lowered her hand, trying to give off the illusion of cool. “Street fight.”
“Come on. What’s the real story? I’m not just trying to be nice or get you to like me. I actually want to know.” Danny was being pushy. He backed off. “I mean, if you want to talk about it. You don’t have to.” The scar was just a tiny thing, but the fact that she’d been all cagey about how she got it, had been gnawing at Danny for days. A story lived behind her fib, and Danny needed to know Holly’s stories.
She clutched and unclutched the steering wheel a few times. “All right. I’ll tell you. It’s not a big deal, really. A dog bit me.”
“No way.” Danny craned his neck to see the scar better, but she scooted away and ducked her head, like that was her default response.
She caught herself, though, and turned slightly toward Danny while keeping her eyes on the road, giving him the full view. It was a small scar, really, a white line going from her nose down her upper lip. “It was my dog, actually.”
Danny pointed to her collarbone, where he knew a dog tattoo was hiding under her chunky cardigan. “The tattoo.”
“The tattoo.” Holly bit her lip again, caught herself, and let her mouth relax.
“What happened?” He had to keep her talking, like back when they were working on their gingerbread houses next to each other. He wanted that banter back. Talking to Holly, and it was silly to think this, but it almost gave him the same rush as when he was texting Elda.
“Oh, it was ridiculous.” Holly shook her head. “The dog was on the couch eating a pig ear, and I should’ve known better than to bother her, but I leaned down and kissed her head.” Holly shrugged. “She didn’t growl or anything. She gave me no warning. One second my lips were on her fur, the next, she’d taken a chunk out of my face.”
“Oh shit.” Danny touched his own lip. “What did you do then?”
“It seems so ridiculous, but I ran up to the bathroom and checked the mirror. It looked like someone had shot a bullet through my lip.” She pressed on the scar. “There was blood running down my nose from where she’d clipped me up here, too.” Holly touched the side of her nose, right near the edge of her eyebrow. “She’d missed my eye by, like, half an inch.”
“When did this happen?”
“Like two days before the start of freshman year, which is kind of hilarious because I’d had this huge plan to show up at school looking fabulous, ready to take the world by storm. Instead, I had a massive, gross, oozing wound on my face.” She laughed. “Elda probably would’ve loved it.”
“Totally.” Danny winced. Elda. What did she have to do with any of this?
“The thing ended up on my school I.D. for the entire year, and I became known as Rabies Girl. Hooray.”
“Jackasses.” What kinds of human garbage would do that to somebody? Not only had Holly been attacked by a dog, but she also had to endure name calling and bullying because of it.
She shrugged. “It’s fine. I’ve been living as Rabies Girl for four years now. Just hoping I don’t get mauled by a bear or anything right before college. I’d like to have a fighting chance there.”
“The scar’s barely noticeable,” Danny said.
“It was the first thing you noticed about me.”
“Not because it’s gross or anything, but because it’s interesting…cute.” Danny’s face warmed, and he faced the window again. “I kind of get where you’re coming from, though. I mean, not the bullying or whatever, but,” he gestured to his leg, “I had big plans, too.”
“Yeah, how did your thing happen?”
“Apparently you don’t read the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.”
She shook her head quickly. “Nope. Sure don’t.”
“The reporter showed up to interview me about the upcoming season because our team had a chance to win state. Still does, I guess. All these colleges were looking at me. I had a shot at breaking state records. Everything I’d been dreaming about since I was a kid was right at my fingertips. But on a dare, I went up for a dunk and—crack.”
Holly winced. “Sounds like you and I should stop making plans.”
“We’re doomed to fail. The future is one big wasteland of disappointment and uncertainty.”
Holly pulled into a parking spot and turned off the engine. “I figured you for an optimist, Danny Garland. I like this edgier side of you.”
“You said you like me.” Danny raised his hands in victory. “I totally made up that story to get you to stop hating me. I can’t believe it worked.”
Holly eyed him for a second. “You’re full of shit.”
“Guilty.”
She grinned at Danny, pulling her lip into a sly, crooked smile that was way more than cute.
…
“I mean, it’s terrible. Infuriating. You have to see it to believe it.” Holly leaned back to assess her work. Her showstopper was nearly finished, a
nd she was confident that she had never made anything more beautiful in her life.
Danny was working at a card table a few feet away. After they’d gone shopping, he had Brian wheel over his showstopper on an old wagon so he and Holly could keep each other company while working on their showstoppers. It had been his idea. What was she supposed to tell him? No? She made up some garbage story that Elda had asked her to work on the marzipan figures of their family members. It wasn’t a bad lie. Holly was a sculptor after all.
Danny had been trying to force this renewed friendship all day, and Holly had to admit it was kind of working. She liked spending time with him, talking to him, and she was doing a bang-up job of ignoring her more intense feelings for him.
“Of all the things to be angry about in the world, this seems kind of small potatoes,” he said. “That’s all I’m saying.”
Holly added a bit more royal icing to the railing along the front steps. “Maybe I’m so focused on it because I should be pissed about a trillion other, more important things in this messed up world, but the terrible makeup on Riverdale is something tangible I can really wrap my head around.”
“Okay, I can respect that.” Danny smiled at her.
“What about you?” Holly touched her cheek, which was at least five degrees warmer than her hands right now. “What makes you angry?”
Danny leaned back in his chair, surveying his handiwork. His basketball court was definitely coming along. It was super detailed and about the size of large microwave. His idea to shellac the floor with some kind of sugar/gelatin concoction was genius. “You want to know what really gets my goat? Christian Laettner hate.”
“What?” Holly laughed. “And also, who?”
Danny gawked at her and dropped one of his jelly-bean spectators to the floor. “You don’t know who Christian Laettner is?”
Approximately Yours (North Pole, Minnesota) Page 13
