Welcome to New Haven (37 page)

When she’d gotten into school, Holly had heard some of the other students talking about the party that they’d been invited to.
 
Stacey had been the main topic of conversation.
 

“No, not yet.
 
What’s she done now?”
 

“Apparently, she hooked up with Jake at Caleb’s party, on Saturday night.
 
The weird thing is…he doesn’t remember any of it.”
 

“Really?” Dev asked, her eyes widening.
 

“Mhmm.
 
I heard that he woke up with his kecks and boxies down to his knees, his T-shirt lifted up under his arms and a used condom wrapper on the nightstand.” Holly said as she looked to make sure nobody was listening in.
 

“What happened then?”

“Well, and this is only what I overheard, she came out of the bathroom and said to him…’good morning sleepyhead, we sure had fun last night’” Holly said in a Stacey voice.
 
Dev was staring at Holly open mouthed.
 

“He must have been
sooo
wasted!
 
He’s another guy that’s turned her down a lot, only to have slept with her at a party.”
 
Dev said. “There was this other guy, called Steve, but he left for college last year.
 
There was a party for the senior leavers that she ‘just happened’ to be at, and she hooked up with him.
 
Same thing too. Woke up with no memory and half-naked.
 
Those guys must’ve been seriously wasted to have gone with her when they’d always turned her down.”
 

“That’s horrible!” Said Holly with a hand over her mouth.
 
Her stomach was rolling, and she felt nauseated. Just the thought of Stacey made her want to vomit.
 

“Tell me about it” Said Dev.

They heard Stacey laughing with Cerise at their table.
 

“He was good, but I’ve had better” they heard her say.
 
They looked at each other with disgusted expressions as Stacey continued.
 

“He was
so
wasted; I
had
to take control.
 
He could barely stand, but he
still
wanted me” Stacey said in a breathy tone and looking at her nails, as if being wanted that bad was normal for her.
 

“Wow, Stace, Jake is one of the hottest guys in school, and you hooked up with him!” Cerise sounded as if she were in awe of her.
 

“Oh. I know.” Said Stacey.
 
“They always admit they want me in the end.”
 

“Ew!” Dev mouthed to Holly.
 

“Sweat!” Holly mouthed back.
 

There was something seriously wrong with that girl.
 
Holly could feel it in her gut.

Dev had a free period so she walked Holly to tech class.
 
Holly’s nerves were shot as she knew Alex and Ben were in that class too. She walked in and took her seat, next to the wall on the left hand side from the front.
 
Holly was there for less than a minute when her skin came up in goosebumps, right before Alex and Ben walked in.
 

Her temperature rose, her heart rate accelerating.
 
She could hear it; it was so loud.
 

Holly kept her head down as she was looking at her phone.
 
She sent a quick text to Dev.

H: I’m not ready for this! :/

D: You’ll be fine sweetie. X

H: Not possible.
 

D: Cold showers not available until later. XD

H: Gee, thanks.
 

D: :)

The tech teacher signalled for the class to boot up their computers.
 
If they wanted to ask each other for help, the chat facility was there.
 
A little window would pop up from whoever had sent a message, and then conversations could ensue.
 
Group chats could be made by clicking the ‘invite to chat’ button.
 

The teacher hadn’t allowed this in previous lessons, that Holly had attended, and she wasn’t looking forward to it. Hopefully, people would overlook her and use the feature to chat to their friends instead.

As Holly’s computer came to life, she opened up her files that contained the program she was working on.
 
Nobody had completed the task yet, but there were still a few weeks to complete the coding that made a dancing kitten appear on the screen.
 
The teacher gave out hints and tips for ten minutes, before the class would get started.

Holly began her work when a chat window opened up.
 
It was from somebody called ‘Taylor’.

T: Hi, Holly.
 
How are you getting on?

H: Fine thanks. You?

Holly really didn’t want to get into a conversation, but she wanted to be polite.

T: Not bad, I guess.
 
Are you doing anything tonight?

‘
What the…? Seriously?’
she thought.

H: Yes I am.

T: How about tomorrow?

H: I have a lot of work to do. I’m playing catch up.

Holly didn’t like to use that excuse, especially since she didn’t need to catch up.
 
She’d told the truth to Jake the first day, but she thought that it would get him off the ‘chat’ quicker.

T: We could play something else. ;)

‘Ugh!’
Holly hit ‘end chat’. N
ot in this lifetime.
 

Alex was still trying to think of what to say to Holly when he saw that she was chatting to somebody.
 
He looked around and noticed Taylor smirking and looking at her.
 
Alex turned back to Holly and saw her scowl and end the chat.
 
Taylor’s face fell. “Oh maaaan!” He heard him say. Alex’s chat box opened. It was Taylor. W
hat the fuck?

T: Hey dude.

A: Hey

T: Your sister’s friends with Holly, right?

A: So?

T: So, do you know if she’s with anyone?

Alex couldn’t believe it! Taylor was asking
him
about Holly.
 
He was pissed.

Oh what the hell…
He thought.

A: I don’t know, but I
do
know she’s into someone.

T: Who?

A: That’s her business. Not ours.

T: Dude, help a guy out!

Alex nudged Ben to read his chat. His eyes widened, and he scowled.
 
Alex invited Ben to his little ‘chat’ with Taylor.

B: Leave it alone Taylor.

T: I was just asking, man.

B: Why? Did you ask her out?

T: Kinda. I asked her if she were doing anything and she said she was busy catching up with her work.

A: I think she was being polite.

T: What’ya mean?

A: Holly was caught up before she started here.

T: That’s cold.

B: Better than being told to fuck off.

T: I guess. So, who’s she into?

A:B: Bye Taylor.

Alex ended the chat, and he and Ben smirked at each other.
 
Alex opened a chat window and Ben was watching.
 
Seeing whom Alex had chosen to chat with, Ben smiled approvingly and went back to his work.

A: Hi Holly.
 
How are you?

Holly didn’t answer right away.
 
Alex watched her reaction and saw that she had stopped what she was doing and was staring at the screen.
 
After a couple of seconds later, she closed her eyes in a long blink and took in
 
a deep breath. She began typing.

H: Hi Alex. I’m fine. You?

A: I’m sound. :)

Alex watched her reaction and was happy that Holly smiled.

H: Good to hear.

A: Is it quiet without Emily?

H: Very, but I miss her.

A: Being that far apart must be hard.

Being far apart from Holly was hard, and she was across the room!

H: It is.

A: She’s very protective.

Alex could see that Holly was smiling as she typed.
 

H: You noticed? I thought she was subtle.

A: I may have spotted the telltale signs. Extreme violence being the main one.

Holly chuckled and Alex felt amazing that he could make her laugh.

H: She’s delightful!

Now, Alex chuckled.
 
He wanted to talk more with Holly.
 
A longer conversation. He wanted to ask questions that would get a longer answer.
 

A: I love our chats. Very informative. I don’t seem to be
 
able to get a word in. You talk too much.

Holly bit her lip, and he saw that her cheeks and ears go pink.
 
He wanted to bite that lip…

H: I’m sorry.
 
I’ll try to curb my impressive communication skills.

A: Don’t

H: No. I’m busy all of the time.

A: ?

Alex didn’t know what was happening, but as he looked over to Holly, he saw that she was typing again.

H: Sorry that wasn’t meant for you. I didn’t click on the other screen before I replied.

A: No problem.
 
Who was it meant for?

H: It was meant for Brad.

A: Did he ask you out?

Anger flowed through Alex’s veins. Somebody else was asking Holly out! And they were using the chat function to do it! He was chatting to her, of course, but he wasn’t going to ask her out that way. He wasn’t a coward.

H: Yes.

A: And you said no.

H: Correct.

A: Taylor too?

H: How did you know about that?

A: Because he asked me if I knew if you were with anybody.

H: What?! What did you say?
 

A: I told him that we were married and that he should stop bugging my wife.

Alex was trying not to laugh when he looked over to see Holly’s reaction. She was staring at the screen in shock, hands hovering over the keyboard.

A: Just kidding! Your reaction was awesome. :D

H: !

A: Honestly though, I told him you were into somebody, to shake him off.

He really wanted to know how she would react to that. He wanted to say ‘I told him you’re into me’ but somehow, he thought that may not go down too well.

H: Did he buy it?

A: I think so. Ben told him to leave it alone when he asked who.

H: Ben?

A: I grouped him in to tag team.
 
He asked Taylor if he asked you out and Taylor said you were busy catching up.
 
I…may have said you were just being polite.

H: Polite?

A: Yeah, because you had caught up before you started.

H: OMG!

A: Ben told him it was better than being told to fuck off.

H: I guess so.
 
I had wanted to tell him that.

A: Why?

Alex saw Holly hesitate before she replied.
 
As if she were deciding if she should tell him… He wanted her to.

H: Because I said I was playing catch up and he said we could ‘play something else’.

A: He did?!

Alex was seething, and he wanted to get out of his seat and punch Taylor right in the mouth for saying those things to her. He decided it wouldn’t be the best thing to do, so he took a deep breath instead.

H: I ended the chat straight away.
 
I wasn’t responding to that.

A: Have the others left you alone?

H: Yes.

A: So, just me that’s bothering you?

H: You’re not bothering me.

Alex smiled to himself.
 
He felt a little lighter from her message, and he wanted to delve further.

A: I usually do though, don’t I?

H: No

A: Then why don’t you talk like this to me in person?
 

It was a least a minute before Holly began typing again.
 
Alex thought that he may have pushed her too far, and now she was giving him the brush off.

H: I’m somewhat verbally challenged.

Alex relaxed that she hadn’t told him to ‘do one’.

A: Not with everybody.
 

H: What can I say? It comes and goes.

A: Somehow I don’t believe you.

H: My typing skills far supersede my conversational skills.

A: I see that. :)

Holly was blushing like mad.
 
She was having a conversation with Alex! A fun one too. She wanted to turn to look at him but was worried she would lose her momentum. She carried on typing.

H: In fact, I may just text everyone instead of talking.
 
Much better.

A: That’s a possibility.
 
Just out of curiosity, you said you were always busy.
 
What do you do?

H: I
was
being polite, but mostly I have plans with the girls and tutoring with Dev.

A: What do you do the other times?

H: I FaceTime Emily and other family, in the UK when they’re free. I work in my garden too.

Holly was feeling a little bold at that point.
 
She’d been holding a conversation, albeit at digital one, with Alex for over fifteen minutes and she was loving it. He was asking questions like he was interested in what she did away from the group.
 
She was interested in what he did too, so she decided to ask too.