Twisted (12 page)

“So who is that horrible gift from?” Olivia wanted to know. She didn’t sound the least bit convinced by my monologue. “The whole thing just screams his name. Maybe he’s completely lost it since Katie’s death. Maybe now that you’re around he’s really slipping, like trying to use you to recreate the past. You know? By stalking you and now giving you the little roses.”

I scoffed in disgust at her absurdity. “I don’t think so. Most of the time it seems like he’s uncomfortable having me around.”

Hailey frowned. “What does that mean?”

“He thinks he’s bad for me,” I tried to explain.

“See!” Olivia exclaimed. “Maybe he’s trying to warn you that he’s going insane and he’s not safe!”

“You’ve gotta be kidding,” Phoebe groaned.

“That’s not what he’s warning me about,” I snapped. “He’s warning me about people like you. With your judgmental attitudes. He’s worried about how that will affect me. He doesn’t want his past to bring me down.
That’s all
!”

Olivia didn’t look convinced.

“Listen,” I said with a weary sigh. “It doesn’t even make sense to think it’s from Ben. Why would he do something like that? I mean, if everyone recognized the box then why would he do something that would so obviously point back to himself? I mean, isn’t it just
too
obvious to really be from him? That just doesn’t make sense.” Not to mention the look on his face. I felt that was a private matter so I kept it to myself.

“Since when do crazy people make sense?” Hailey insisted.

“Enough!” I shouted, holding my hands up as though I could actually stop them. “Seriously! Enough! I do not want to hear another word about it. Understood?”

I looked at Olivia and she bit her lip and looked away, near tears. My heart softened a bit because I believed Olivia really did want what was best for me. Her notions were just extremely misguided.

Hailey shrugged muttering, “Whatever, it’ll be your funeral.”

I sat there a moment, wondering if I should go look at the scattered contents of the box. I decided against it. Phoebe had given me an accurate enough description. I didn’t need to see it.

We drove back to the parking lot in silence. By the time we arrived it was mostly empty. I parked but no one made a move to get out.

I turned sideways in my seat so I could look at Olivia and Hailey. Hailey closed her eyes, took a deep breath and exhaled audibly. “You should go out with Blake,” she finally said. “I know he likes you. He’s been asking me about you. He’s an expert at diversions. He can take your mind off of this whole mess.”

I looked at her, dumbfounded. Her offer was so utterly idiotic it had left me speechless.
That,
and the fact that Hailey used the word “diversions” correctly in a sentence.

She nodded solemnly. “It’s okay. I won’t be mad. I’m not really getting anywhere with him right now anyway. I’m thinking it’s time for me to move on for a while.”

“That’s completely ridiculous,” I seethed. “Blake’s so arrogant I don’t want anything to do with him.”

“Fine, then who?” Hailey asked. “Just let me know. I’ll help make it happen.”

I shrugged. “Okay. I want to go out with Ben.”

“You want to
date
him?” Hailey asked as she practically threw herself over the seat at me. Most likely she realized how potentially scandalous those words were. “Like
go out with him
? I thought you just liked hanging out with him because you felt sorry for him. You know, like a charity case or something. But you actually
like
him?” Her eyebrows had disappeared underneath her razored bangs and had yet to make a reappearance.

I wasn’t sure if I should have admitted it or not. But now that I had blurted it out, I really couldn’t take it back. I didn’t really
want
to take it back. “I do. I
like
him. A lot. And you know why? Because I’ve gotten to know him. He’s a good person. He’s kind and caring and sweet,” I informed them. Really, he was guarded and aloof and distant. But I knew the good qualities were there, they just needed to break through. I was sure of it because I had seen glimpses of them, frequently. And with each one, Ben had worked his way into my heart just a little bit more.

Neither Hailey nor Olivia seemed to have anything to say to that.

“I think we need to go,” Phoebe said, reaching for her door handle. “All of us. Olivia, you can ride with me. I think Maya needs some alone time,” she said as she threw a glance to the backseat.

Olivia and Hailey spilled out of the car and Phoebe reached back in to give me a hug. “I’m dropping her off at Hal’s with Henry whether she likes it or not. After that I have practice. I won’t be home until after nine but you can call if you need to talk, okay?”

I thanked her and waved my goodbyes to Olivia and Hailey.

I turned out of the parking lot and headed toward the park. I didn’t see Ben’s car but I got out anyway. I sat on a bench overlooking the river, hoping Ben would show up eventually. He didn’t.

By morning the parking lot was aflutter with whispers that Ben had left the package. I looked for him but didn’t see him anywhere. However, when I went to my locker I found a small piece of paper that had been slid through the vents. I managed to hide it from my friends until I was safely seated in first hour. I discreetly unfolded it and found the words:

It wasn’t from me.

I tore a small piece of paper out of my own notebook and scribbled a note back. I waited until half way through my first hour class before begging for the bathroom pass so I’d have fewer eyes to avoid. I passed his locker and slid it inside.

I never thought it was. –M

“Talk to me,” Remy said as she flopped down on my bed.

“Uh, sure. Okay,” I said as I turned away from the mirror over my dresser. My make-up brush poised mid-swipe. “About what?”

“School? How are things with your friends?” She paused and flashed me a curious smile. “Ben?”

“What about Ben?”

“Hey,” she said as she gave me a careless shrug, “I’m not judging. I’m just asking.”

“Why are you asking?” I wanted to know. I abandoned my make-up, turned my back to the mirror and leaned against my dresser. With my arms crossed.

“
Why
? Because you seem distraught lately. Because you’ve been through a lot the last few months. Because you’re my sister and I want to know what’s going on in your life. Take your pick,” Remy said.

“School is school,” I told her. “Hailey, well you’ve seen her. She’s self-explanatory. Olivia is still the same Olivia. Phoebe,” I smiled, “I’m really glad I met her. She makes it easier to deal with Hailey and Olivia. Actually, I shouldn’t complain,” I realized. “It was nice to start school actually knowing people for a change. I really do like Hailey and Olivia. I just prefer them in small doses.”

She wasn’t satisfied. “And Ben?”

“There’s not a lot to tell,” I honestly replied. “He tries to avoid me when he can. I know he thinks he’s doing me a favor but I hate it.”

“Things are really that bad for him?” she wondered.

“Yeah, they are. Probably worse than you can imagine.” I hesitated, debating telling Remy about the prank
but I decided against it. I didn’t want her to worry. Besides, I hoped it would blow over.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” I knew she meant it. “If I can do anything to help, or if you want to talk, I’m always here,” she said as she got up and gave me a hug. “In the meantime, how about spending a night with your big sister? We could go to a movie. Or we could rent a movie. We could make a big bowl of popcorn and have a girls’ night at home,” she hopefully suggested.

“Thanks, but no,” I told her.

Remy groaned. “I can’t believe it. It has officially happened.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m an adult. I’m old and I’m boring,” she told me with an astonished look on her face. “I’m too boring for you to want to spend time with me. What else could it be?  I want to talk boys with you and you avoid the subject. This is the third time this week I’ve asked you to do something with me and you’ve shot me down.”

“Rem,” I began but she didn’t let me finish.

“Is this because you caught me clipping coupons the other night? I don’t normally do that. It’s just that laundry detergent has gotten really expensive. And I only like to buy the good stuff. Or is it because I started buying that high fiber cereal? Because if it’s
that
, I only buy it because it’s supposed to make you feel full, therefore helping to maintain a healthy body weight. Not because of any other reasons.”

I gave my sister a peculiar look. I thought she was joking. However, she did have a slightly panicked look about her so I couldn’t be entirely sure. “You’re not old, Rem.”

She ignored me. “I should probably start dying my hair
now
. That way I won’t notice when the gray starts coming in.”

“Yes. And Jeff should take up whittling because, clearly, you are going to need a cane any day now.”

She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

I smiled and whacked her with a pillow.

It seemed to bring her to her senses.

“You’re not boring. I’m just busy!” I told her as I started laughing at the traumatized look on her face.

“Oh,” she said as she sat up straighter. “Doing what?”

“Baking cookies.”

Remy scowled at me. “No, seriously, what are you doing.”

“Seriously,” I told her, “baking cookies.”

“Why?”

“The animal shelter is having a fundraiser this weekend to help with the cost of spaying and neutering the animals. Only they didn’t get enough volunteers. So Olivia offered to pick up the slack and make twelve dozen cookies.”

Remy groaned. “But Olivia is in over her head.”

“Exactly. So Phoebe’s throwing together some recipes. Olivia’s at the grocery store now but she’s in charge of baking. I offered to package them up and label them. Hailey,” I shook my head, “I don’t know. She’ll probably just eat cookie dough until she’s nauseous.”

***

Approximately seven dozen cookies into our evening, Olivia’s phone rang. “I’ve got to take this,” she said as she plopped her spoon back into the dough.

“You’re
busy
!” Hailey admonished.

Olivia gave her an apologetic shrug. “It’s the lady from the shelter. I’m sure she just wants a progress report on the cookies. I’ll be right back. Watch the ones in the oven!” she called over her shoulder.

“Your girlfriend is a total pain in my derriere,” Hailey told Henry. She had dumped out a giant bag of M&Ms so she could put them in piles by color. I wasn’t sure why. I wasn’t sure I cared.

He smiled cheerfully. “Just be glad you aren’t scooping moldy leaves out of rain gutters.” He shuddered. “That was nasty.”

Phoebe had her back to us as she stirred melted chocolate chips on the stove. I saw her shoulders stiffen at Henry’s comment. I knew she felt Olivia took advantage of him. She’d had no idea that Henry would be helping with the cookies. When he’d walked in, she’d looked like she wanted to fall through the floor. Instead, she’d kept herself busy. As if she was in a race against herself to make the most cookies.

Or probably she just wanted to be done so she could leave.

“Where did Olivia put the oatmeal?” Phoebe asked as she finally turned around.

“You’ve got something on your chin,” Henry told her. The corners of his lips quirked up in a smile he tried to force down.

Her pale cheeks immediately flooded with color. She reached her hand up to scrub the offensive substance away. Henry caught her wrist before her hand reached her face.

“You’ll smear it,” he told her. He let her hand go and reached for a napkin. “I’ll get it.”

“How embarrassing,” she groaned. “What is it?”

Henry leaned in, giving her a teasing look as he pretended to sniff her. “Peanut butter, I think.”

The rising color drained from her face. She looked mortified.

“Hey,” Henry said with a shrug, “it happens.”

I couldn’t even pretend to arrange the cookies on their plates. I found the way that Henry carefully wiped Phoebe’s face clean bizarrely captivating. He cupped one side of her face in his palm as he swiped the napkin across her chin. Phoebe looked as though she were actually trembling. If she hadn’t been leaning with her hip against the counter top I would’ve been worried she might tip right over. I mean granted, peanut butter is sticky. But I didn’t think he needed to be quite so thorough.

Hailey apparently felt the same. “Why don’t you just lick it off? We all know you want to,” she said to Henry with a wicked giggle. “It would probably be faster. Besides, it’s not like Olivia’s around to notice.”

Now Phoebe wasn’t the only one who looked embarrassed. He stepped away from her as if he suddenly realized they weren’t alone in the kitchen. Phoebe swung back to the stove to stir her pot again.

“Olivia’s not around to notice what?” Olivia asked as she breezed in.

“That Phoebe is using an ungodly amount of peanut butter,” Hailey answered without missing a beat.

Olivia shrugged. “I bought lots of everything. It’s not a big deal.”

“Actually,” Phoebe said, “I forgot I have a paper due.”

“What?” Olivia asked. “No!”

But Phoebe was already heading for the door.

“Phoebe!” I called to her.

She gave me a helpless look. “This kitchen is just too small.”

I nodded in understanding. “I’ll call you later.”

“Okay,” she said and gave everyone a small wave.

“Phoebe,” Henry crossed the room to her in a few steps. “I’m sorry.”

I hoped I was the only one who realized how forced her laugh was. “Don’t be silly. You didn’t do anything.”

“Okay,” Henry said as he took an unsure step away from her.

“What’s he sorry about?” Olivia asked as Phoebe disappeared through the doorway.

“He’s the one who called her on the excessive usage of peanut butter,” Hailey explained.

“Wait a minute!” I said as I jumped up from my chair. I stuffed the stack of plastic plates I’d been holding into Henry’s hands. “I rode with her! I guess I’m leaving, too.”

Olivia stepped in front of me.

I wasn’t going anywhere.

“I need your help! Henry can drive you home. Right, Henry?”

“Yeah, sure,” he said.

I heard Phoebe’s car start and my chance of escaping dwindled.

“Henry, I probably live way out of your way,” I said as I tried to dart around Olivia.

She wasn’t having it.

“You’re not,” he said, though he couldn’t have known that. “Please, Maya?”

The way he said ‘please’ made me swing back around to face him. He had a pleading look on his face. I couldn’t blame him. We were barely half way done. If I left too, it would just make the night longer for everyone else.

“Fine,” I said with a sigh.

Phoebe had left her recipes on the counter. I took over the no bake cookies. Olivia went back to the actual baking. Henry took over the packaging and Hailey took over the labeling, which was probably a good thing. She put more effort into it than I had. Fancy writing and cute little doodles looked more appealing than my sloppy scrawl.

Henry seemed oddly subdued after Phoebe left. Olivia had received two more phone calls for cookie updates, causing Hailey to growl in aggravation.  The last time the phone had rung, Hailey had lunged for it, wanting to tell the shelter lady just what she could do with her cookies if she didn’t stop calling.

Olivia had nearly jumped over the table to get the phone away from Hailey. She quickly left the room so Hailey’s grumbling couldn’t be heard on the other end.

I agreed with Hailey. I thought it incredibly rude to keep checking in on us. We were baking our little hearts out. We had every intention of finishing. It was hard to think of anything else with Olivia rambling on and on about the importance of spaying and neutering your pets. Pointless, since neither Hailey nor I had pets. Henry’s dog was geriatric and had been fixed over a doggie century ago.

The phone calls seemed to make Olivia nervous and I got the impression she was just jabbering to fill the empty air.

Finally, hours and hours after we started, the impromptu bake-a-thon came to an end. The cookies were packaged, the kitchen was tidied, the excess supplies were stashed away. Olivia gushed her thanks to us. Then plastered a silly, loud, slobbery kiss on Henry that I was infinitely grateful Phoebe had not had to witness.

I was exhausted. And Hailey wasn’t the only one who had eaten enough cookie dough to become nauseous. I suppressed a groan as I slid into Henry’s front seat. I promised myself I would not skip tomorrow’s run. Even though the forecast suggested more rain.

“Tell me how I can fix things with Phoebe,” Henry said as soon as he turned out of Olivia’s driveway. The dashboard lights cast shadows across his face, making him look wild with panic.

So this was why he’d wanted to drive me home.

“You’re going to have to be a bit more specific,” I told him.

He explained that he’d had a thing for Phoebe ever since he moved to Beaumont three years ago. Finally, he convinced himself he had nothing to lose by asking her out. The worst she could do was to tell him she didn’t feel the same way and they could continue on as friends. When she’d agreed to go out with him, he’d been elated. But when her competitions were over, she’d started acting oddly whenever they were together. He’d started to wonder if she’d just used her competitions as an excuse to put him off. The more time that passed after her competitions, the more strained things got between them.

After a while he’d decided that she was freaked out about him asking her out. He thought it had ruined their friendship. He wanted to know how to make Phoebe be his friend again.

“I thought going out with Olivia would fix things,” he admitted.

“How would dating her best friend fix things?” I had dated some, but not much. I was no expert when it came to ridiculous boy-logic. What he said made no sense to me.

“Phoebe was acting so edgy after she found out how I felt about her. I mean, I asked her out. I thought she’d said yes. But then, she must’ve thought about it and changed her mind. Because after that, things got way weird. She was so jittery around me. She could hardly talk to me. I thought if I started dating Olivia, she’d think I was over her. I thought she’d start to feel comfortable around me again. I thought we could go back to how things were before I messed everything up. I mean, I’d rather have her as a friend than not have her around at all. Now,” he said miserably, “it’s even worse than before. She can’t stand to be around me.”