Apple's Angst (32 page)

“Oh, dear. Oh, dear, it can't be that bad,” he said soothingly, grabbing her hand. “Tell me what's wrong. Is it, you know, that time of the month?”

Apple couldn't help but laugh, which came out more as a snort.

“No, it's not. It's just …” Apple said, and started
to sob again. “It's just … well, sometimes it seems like everything is too much, you know?”

She couldn't stand to tell Michael what Fancy Nancy had just told her. She felt like she was letting everyone down. And she certainly didn't want to let Michael down. He had been nothing but supportive to her since her first day. She should have asked Michael if he thought it was a good idea to ask Fancy Nancy for a raise before she had done it. Why hadn't she thought of that?

“I think you're just having a bad day,” Michael said, reaching behind him, grabbing a Kleenex and handing it to Apple. “You have a great life. Fabulous friends, a new hot boyfriend, apparently, a family who love you, not to mention all your
Angst
fans who read you and watch you on television.”

Apple started to sob louder. If Michael only knew that Emme was doing more work on Apple's Angst than she was, that Fancy Nancy was one step away from firing her, that Sloan hadn't returned either her phone messages or her texts today, that her friendship with Brooklyn and Happy was rocky, that her aunt was furious that she hadn't helped out on her wedding at all.

“Think about my life,” Michael said. “I work for
Angst
24/7. I go to parties but don't have that many close friends. Everyone likes me just because they want press in
Angst
. Or at least that's how I feel. I can't really trust anyone, which is probably why I'm single. I don't know if a guy wants to be with me for me, or because he thinks I can do something for him.”

Apple smiled at Michael warmly.

“I can't believe a guy like you is single! You're so sweet and nice,” Apple said.

“Me neither! I'm such a catch!” Michael said, and they laughed.

“You need to put things in perspective,” he continued. “You're young! You have your whole life in front of you. This is just a bad day. Come on, I can't have my star employee in tears. You need to have some fun. Do you have any big parties to go to?”

“Well, I have my aunt's wedding,” Apple said. “It's not exactly a party. It's more like a function.”

“Oh, weddings. Everyone always says you meet people at weddings. Not me! I'm usually stuck at the senior citizens' table or the kids' table. People don't know what to do with me,” Michael said.

“Actually, my parents met at a wedding,” Apple told Michael, her tears drying up. “And now they've been married for twenty years!”

“Dr. Bee Bee Berg met her husband at a wedding?” Michael asked. “Interesting.”

“You know, you should come,” Apple announced, as if she had just come up with the most brilliant of ideas.

“To your aunt's wedding? Won't she wonder who I am and what I'm doing there?” Michael asked, laughing.

“No. She invited her garbage collector this morning. Trust me, she won't notice and she won't care,” Apple said.

Apple could tell Michael needed prodding.

“Come on! You can meet my mother,” Apple teased. “And who knows, you might even meet someone special. If it happened to my mother, it could happen to you. Plus I don't think anyone there is going to be looking for press
in
Angst
magazine! My aunt is going to make sure she's the only topic of conversation that day. Trust me.”

Michael nodded slowly.

“Please, Michael. It will cheer me up if you come,” Apple begged. “For me, please? You'll come?”

“For you,” he said. “But it's kind of strange.”

“So what?” Apple said, and told him she'd e-mail him the details. “Just fawn over my aunt and it will all be good. And like I said, you might meet someone!”

“Well, I guess you never know,” Michael said, though he didn't sound very convinced.

Apple smiled and made a mental note to tell her aunt there was one more guest. She knew her aunt wouldn't mind.

When she got back to the dungeon, Emme was eagerly waiting to hear the news about the meeting with Fancy Nancy. Apple was to mortified to tell her what Fancy Nancy had said.

“She said she'd take it into consideration,” Apple told her, lying through her teeth.

“Well, that's not bad! In fact, that's good! We should go celebrate tonight!”

Though that was the last thing Apple felt like doing—she felt like going home and crying—she had to put on a brave face.

“You go home,” said Emme, practically shooing Apple out. “And I'll finish up here. And then we'll all meet up later.”

Thank God for Emme, thought Apple. Apple didn't want to be at
Angst
. She didn't want to worry about running into Fancy Nancy, that was for certain.

W
hen Apple came downstairs from her nap, her mother, aunt, father, and Guy were all sitting around, looking serious. Apple wondered if something bad had happened.

“What's up?” Apple asked glassy-eyed.

“You tell us,” her mother said.

“Oh, is this because I'm home right now? I wasn't feeling well, so I came home from work early,” said Apple. “I think I may be coming down with something.”

They all glanced at each other.

“What?” Apple asked. Why was everyone looking at her like she had grown a third head?

“I said, ‘What?'” Apple asked impatiently.

“Come down, honey,” her father said, looking at her mother for backup.

“Don't ‘honey' her,” her mother jumped in. “She missed a math exam!”

“And she hasn't been going to classes,” her aunt added.

“Who are you? The police?” Apple asked, looking at her aunt. “How do you know what I've been doing?”

“Um, remember my fiancé?” her aunt said. “He's in the know, you know! He said a lot of the teachers are worried about you, not just him.”

“Right. So just because you're marrying my math teacher you get to find out what I've been doing? It's so not fair,” Apple huffed.

“Well, life isn't fair,” her mother said.

Apple rolled her eyes.

“It's an invasion of privacy,” Apple continued. “No one else is being spied on by her teacher!”

“Tonight you are staying in. Hazel spoke to Jim and he said you could make up the test. So tonight you are in and studying,” her mother said. “You're lucky you're getting this second chance.”

“Yeah!” threw in Hazel. “I had to beg him to let you do this.”

“I have plans,” Apple said, looking her mother directly in the eyes.

“Cancel them,” her mother said, looking Apple straight in the eyes.

“I'm not canceling them,” Apple said.

“Apple, you're grounded,” her mother said.

“Does that mean I don't have to go to Aunt Hazel's wedding next week?” Apple asked.

“I don't know who you think you are, but you had better get your life in order, Apple. I don't like what you're becoming. Do you?” her mother asked.

“This is what people do. If you actually tuned in to modern society, you'd know that it's not about work all the time,” Apple said.

“Yes, it is,” said her mother. “But school comes first. If your grades don't pick up, or you miss one more exam, I'm going to have to put my foot down and you won't be allowed to go to
Angst
even for work.”

“You can't do that!” Apple said. “Part of the job is going out! Don't you know that?”

“I don't think it's part of the job,” said her mother. “I'm going to call Nancy.”

Apple looked at her mother with horror. Who did her mother think she was?

“Mother!” Apple screamed. “You'd better not call her! You don't know anything! You don't even know that your wardrobe is out of style! There are more colors out there than white!”

Apple stormed out of the kitchen. She could see that her mother was going to come after her, and she saw her father pull her mother's arm to hold her back.

Apple jumped into the shower. She didn't want to hear her parents and her aunt “discussing” her, though she knew that was exactly what they were doing.

After her parents went to sleep, Apple snuck out of the house. She was happy that they always went to bed early. Sloan had, finally, sent a short note saying he may be going to the club they had gone to a couple nights earlier but wasn't exactly sure when he was getting out of work. Apple felt like Sloan was pulling back from her, but she plastered on a smile for her friends. Emme had come, and so had Happy and Brooklyn. She could barely
muster up the energy to admit her worries to Happy and Emme when they asked Apple where her “boyfriend” was. She just shrugged and said, “He'll come.”

When Apple saw Sloan come into the club, she felt a huge sense of relief. She may have almost lost her job, but losing her new boyfriend on the same day would be too much. So what if Sloan was hanging out with a bunch of girls? Happy noticed the distressed look on Apple's face when she saw him surrounded and told her that it was part of his job to be nice to fans.

When Apple finally got Sloan alone, she asked him, bluntly, if he'd like to be her date for her aunt's wedding. She pretended not to be bothered that it had taken him almost thirty minutes to come up to her. And even when she found herself talking to him alone, it felt like she was being rushed.

“Like, a date, date?” Sloan asked.

“Well, yes, my date,” Apple said.

“I'm not sure about weddings. That's quite a serious commitment,” said Sloan. Apple knew Sloan was acting far from eager. He was acting, in fact, as if he would rather stay at home and do nothing than to be her date at Hazel's wedding.

“Please,” Apple heard herself beg. “Please come with me.”

Sloan refused to commit.

She couldn't believe this day. Everything was off, from the warning from Fancy Nancy to her parents' lecturing
her, to everything! And now Sloan wouldn't commit to being her date at her aunt's wedding.

“Well, I guess I should go,” Apple said, trying to catch Sloan's eye. She tried not to let it bother her when he barely acknowledged she was leaving, especially right in front of her friends. Apple wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he had had a bad day too, she thought.

She told Sloan that she would call him tomorrow, but he didn't seem to hear her. He was too busy laughing over something Happy, or someone else, had just said.

“He hit on me,” Happy told Apple at the Spiral Staircase the next morning.

“What are you talking about?” Apple asked, trying not to sound as grumpy as she felt.

“Sloan. Right after you left,” Happy said.

“Sloan hit on you?” Apple asked. “Sloan Starr hit on you?”