Love Songs (Secret Songbook #1) (21 page)

It certainly wasn’t fair, but that was life. She couldn’t change the natural order of things.

Kaley went to her windows to close her curtains. As she did, she caught a glimpse of Harvey sitting in front of his computer. He had open textbooks piled high on one side while he typed on the keyboard. He was obviously diligently working away on something for one of his classes. Or several, by the look of all the books.

She couldn’t help but smile to herself, he had such concentration on his face. He always pursed his lips together when he thought about something, it was almost a frown. He had done it when he was eight and he still did it when he was sixteen. He would probably still be doing it when he was eighty, too.

Thinking back to the dinner conversation, Kaley couldn’t believe her parents. She had no idea why they would suddenly be talking about Harvey, they had never done so before.

Between them and Harper, it was like there was a conspiracy against her, a master plan to get them together. She didn’t even really know for sure if Harvey felt that way. She only saw him as a friend, surely that’s how he thought too.

You can’t just change how you feel about someone overnight, right? Surely the heart didn’t work that way – it wasn’t that fickle.

The sound of the phone brought her back to reality. It was a text message tone, no need for her to hurry to answer it. She shook her head to remove the thoughts and closed the curtains. Harvey was a good friend, one of her best friends, and that’s the way it would stay. It was complete nonsense to think otherwise.

She retrieved her phone from her handbag on the floor and brought up the text message. It was from Eli:

Goodnight Kaley, have sweet dreams. x Eli.

A smile spread across her lips as she replied. Usually her texts were from Harper, reminding her about something for school or giving her a gossip update about something she had overheard.

It was nice getting a goodnight message from her boyfriend. She could hardly believe she could actually say those words. She had a boyfriend, that’s right, a
boyfriend
. Eli Stone was her boyfriend. It seemed so surreal.

If only she could bottle the feelings that were coursing through her body, she would make millions selling it.

Chapter 22

“So Cooper’s band is playing at eight o’clock, I think we should go,” Harper said as she paid for her lunch. They both picked up their trays and started to cross the lunchroom. Students were everyone, sitting and standing on every available surface.

“Do you think our parents will let us?” Kaley liked the plan in theory, but it was hardly going to be easy to convince others.

She could picture the conversation now – ‘Hey Mom, Harper and I want to sneak into a club where we are underage to watch a guy perform that Harper is currently stalking. Cool, okay, yeah?’.

“I was going to sneak out, but your parents will probably let you go.”

Kaley thought it through, there was probably some merit to Harper’s comment. Georgie liked being the cool mom, perhaps she wouldn’t be as against it as she thought.

Or perhaps she would surprise her and actually put her foot down. She would only get one shot at it, if it didn’t go as planned, then she would be stuffed.

“I can’t ask Mother Barbie, it might be the day she starts to act like a mom,” Kaley answered. “I guess I’ll be sneaking out too. How do we even do that?”

“I’m led to believe you have to creep out your window, accidently make a noise, almost get caught, but ultimately get away with it. Just like in every movie ever written.”

“Sounds like a plan then. What are we going to do for transport?”

Harper obviously hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Um, I’ve got to work out the finer details.”

“You do that,” Kaley giggled. She couldn’t wait until her next birthday when she could finally get her full driver’s license. She would reach the milestone just before Harper.

As they walked around the cafeteria to try and find a vacant table, Kaley didn’t have time to see Abigail before she was right in front of her. In the next instant, Abigail flicked Kaley’s tray against her, sending the entire contents down her front.

“Oops, someone’s a little clumsy,” Abigail feigned surprise. “Or just stupid.”

She grinned and strutted away with her minions in tow while the rest of the cafeteria erupted into laughter. Kaley was still in shock as they started to register in her mind.

Everyone, every single person there, was either pointing or laughing at her as the combination of mashed potato, gravy, chips, and chocolate milkshake slid down her chest.

Kaley exchanged a glance with Harper, both of them unable to move with the humiliation of what had just happened. Kaley let her now-empty tray fall to the floor as she fled. She didn’t look at the people all around her as she ran. She didn’t need to see them, she could still hear their laughter running through her head.

She didn’t stop until she reached the girls’ bathroom, Harper right behind her – her lunch tray still in hand.

“Kaley, are you okay?” she asked in a panic, concerned more for the damage the hot food may have caused than the mental scars.

Tears stung at her eyes, caused not only from the humiliation but a slow burning rage for Abigail too. She wasn’t sure which one was worse. “How can she do that? Everyone saw.”

“Because Abigail is evil, pure and simple. She doesn’t have feelings and doesn’t care about anyone except herself.”

“They all laughed, I’ve never been so embarrassed in my entire life before.”

“I’m sure they’ll forget about it.”

Harper helped her first scoop up and then soak up the mess that was her lunch. It left a horrible brown stain right across her pale yellow shirt. There was no way to hide it.

“At least you’re probably not invisible anymore,” Harper tried to tease, but even she didn’t have the heart for it. “Too soon?”

Kaley let out a chuckle, despite how horrible she felt. “Maybe just a little too soon.”

“I’ll save the rest for later then, I have some good ones.” Harper grinned cheekily, hoping to cheer her up.

They were interrupted by the door to the bathroom opening. They both spun around, ready to be on the defensive if Abigail was there for another round. They sighed with relief when Harvey poked his head through the door.

“Is it safe to come in?” he asked.

“It’s just us in here,” Kaley confirmed.

Harvey closed the door behind him and studied the scene. All he could see was how upset Kaley was. “I saw cyclone Abigail striking out there. Are you okay?”

She didn’t know how to answer, she wasn’t okay. She was embarrassed, humiliated, angry, sad, and about a hundred different other emotions all rolled into one.

But the only words she could mutter were about her top. “My shirt’s ruined.”

“Nothing Mother Barbie can’t handle,” Harper said reassuringly. “I have a spare top in my locker, I’ll go get it for you.”

Kaley nodded as she left them alone, turning to Harvey. “Was it really horrible?”

“Nah.” Harvey waved it away like it was nothing. “Just some light entertainment for an otherwise boring day. The look on your face was pretty classic.”

“Everyone had a good laugh about it.”

“It’s already yesterday’s news.” He took a step closer as he saw the tears running down her cheeks. She let him put his arms around her, feeling the comfort of a friend.

He was very careful not to get too close for fear of contamination, but she didn’t blame him. She wouldn’t want potato, gravy, and milk on her shirt either. She held on to the back of his shoulders, letting herself take the moment to cry in earnest.

The door to the bathroom opened again, Kaley hoped to see Harper returning with the shirt and prayed it wasn’t some random person. She let Harvey go quickly, but it was too late, Eli had stepped into the bathroom and seen them. Harvey turned to see who had interrupted, frowning as he did so.

“Kaley, I just heard what happened,” Eli said as he took in the state of her shirt. “You okay?”

“I’ll survive,” Kaley replied, wiping away her tears. She knew she must look a mess from head to toe by now. The tears and streaked makeup probably wasn’t helping, either.

Eli turned his attention to Harvey for a moment. “I’ve got this. You can go now.”

“Let me know if you need me,” Harvey said directly to Kaley. She nodded a silent thank you before he left. She stood with Eli awkwardly, wishing Harper would hurry.

“I’ll talk to Abigail again,” Eli started. “She can’t be acting like this, it’s ridiculous. We aren’t in kindergarten anymore.”

“Please don’t.”

“Why? Someone has to stop her.”

Kaley was too emotionally exhausted to sidestep the truth. “Because talking to her in the first place is probably what caused her to do this today. She doesn’t like being told what she can and can’t do. Please let me handle this.”

Eli looked taken aback. “You think I caused this?”

“No, but I think it’s easy to provoke her into doing this. I think it would just be better if we ignored her.”

“She’s a little hard to ignore.”

Kaley laughed, pulling at her top. “You think?”

The door opened once again as Harper returned, shirt in hand. “Harper Monroe saves the day.” She took one look at Eli and added, “There is about to be some partial nudity in here. I suggest you wait outside.”

Eli nodded and stepped outside. Harper handed her not only the shirt, but a bra too. Kaley looked at it curiously. “Why do you have a spare bra in your locker? A shirt I can understand, accidents happen. But a bra?”

“I like to be prepared for any situation.”

“What situation would require a spare bra?”

“Oh, I don’t know, this one?”

Kaley couldn’t argue with that logic. She quickly removed her own clothes and replaced them with Harper’s borrowed ones. They were the same size in clothes, but definitely not bra size. Kaley looked down at her inflated chest, the additional cup size feeling huge.

“Should I stuff them with tissues?” she asked, wondering how on earth to make it look normal.

“Why not?” Harper pulled off a few handfuls of toilet paper and helped her stuff the bra. By the time they were done, it still looked like she was auditioning for a trashy reality show.

“I guess it will have to do. Thank you Harper, you are my life saver.” She gave her a hug, grateful for having such a wonderful best friend.

“It beats smelling gravy and milk all afternoon.”

“That it does.”

They left the girls’ bathroom and stepped into the corridor. Eli was waiting for them, leaning against the wall. He didn’t mention her new look, but his eye line didn’t immediately meet her face. The three of them headed off, hoping and praying they wouldn’t encounter Abigail again.

Chapter 23

Harper practically had to drag Kaley along the corridor after school, just like she did for every other one of their dance decorating committee meetings. Today was going to be especially brutal, considering Abigail would be there with all her minions.

“I don’t want to go,” Kaley moaned. “I just want to go home.”

“And let her believe she’s won?”

“She has won.”

Harper stopped, staring her straight in the eyes. “Kaley Maria Thorne, she has not won. You still have Eli, you are still the better person, you can’t let her get to you. Show her you aren’t going to back down. Be strong.”

“Not going to happen, it’s like poking a wild bear.”

“Don’t let her win.”

She started moving again, still gripping Kaley’s arm. They were almost at Miss Aberdean’s classroom. If she was going to avoid the whole situation, she would have to make the break quickly.

At the door, they got a glimpse inside. Abigail, Macy, and Madison were seated primly in the front row. They each looked as innocent as a daisy flower.

Kaley caught Abigail’s eye and saw the faintest smirk cross her lips. If she blinked, she would have missed it, but she didn’t. She saw how satisfied Abigail was with herself.

“You can let go,” Kaley said.

“Not until you’re inside and the door is closed,” Harper replied.

“It’s okay, I’m staying.”

Harper eyed her suspiciously, wondering if it was merely an escape tactic. She slowly let her fingers fall loose around her arm, but she didn’t move. She let go completely as they stepped into the classroom.

Miss Aberdean clapped her hands for attention as they were seated. “Thank you all for coming. Today we are going to make paper chains out of crepe paper!” She appeared much more excited about cutting up paper just to glue it back together than she should have. The activity didn’t deserve that much enthusiasm.

Abigail raised her hand. “I request that Kaley Thorne be expelled from this committee. She isn’t even going to the dance and has personally threatened me.”

Kaley’s eyes opened wide in shock at what she was hearing. Probably the most surprising part of the whole statement was the fact Abigail now knew her name – her full name. She must have been doing her research.

“Kaley?” Miss Aberdean looked at her. “Is this true?”

“No, it’s not. I’ve never threatened her.”

“Yes, she has,” Abigail insisted, her voice so high and mighty. “Macy and Madison are my witnesses.”

Harper couldn’t keep her mouth shut. “And I’m Kaley’s witness that nothing like that has happened. Abigail is just a jealous, little-”

Kaley closed her down before she got the both of them expelled from school, let alone the committee. “Nothing has happened.”

Miss Aberdean looked to the ceiling for inspiration before getting back to them. “Anything going on between you should be discussed with the guidance counselor. Until then, you are both welcome in this committee. Now, let’s get to it.”

She started distributing rolls of crepe paper while Abigail shot Kaley a look to kill. She ignored her, wishing she could rewind time and erase the last four weeks of her life. The bad parts anyway, the good parts with Eli in the forest could stay. But everything else, for sure.

The crepe paper chains weren’t complicated to make. It involved cutting the paper into strips and then taping them in a circle, joining the ‘links’ to make the chain. It was apparently as creative as Miss Aberdean got.

The chains, accompanied by the hundreds of hearts they had previously cut out, were going to make one kitsch dance. This seemed to bother no-one else besides Kaley.

As she moved on to her third completed chain, each one having thirty-two links, she was starting to get completely over hearing Abigail’s voice. No matter what the rest of them talked about, everything always came back to her opinion. It was like nobody else’s mattered. And Kaley was certain everything she said was a dig at her.

“I think the dance should be invitation only,” Abigail started, not caring who else had something to say. “I don’t want to look at sad and lonely people all night. They should stay home.”

She looked straight at Kaley. This time, it was blatantly directed at her, she was certain. She didn’t retaliate, if Abigail wanted her to bite then she wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction. It took two people to have an argument and she wasn’t going to play.

“I completely agree,” Macy said from her left hand side. “Only people who have dates should be allowed to go. We should have some kind of standards to the dance, they only ruin it for everybody else.”

“Who are they going to dance with anyway?” Abigail was fuelled by her minions now. “They’d have to do the solo shuffle, so sad. It would be a community service banning them, really. We wouldn’t want to rub our boyfriends in their faces.”

“Or our happiness,” Madison added.

The three of them giggled, a cruel and evil cackle amongst themselves. Kaley could tell Harper was getting angry at her side. She had a look of thunder on her face, ready to crack at any moment. Kaley placed a hand on her arm, giving her a shake of the head that silently said ‘they’re not worth it’.

The rest of the meeting was spent in the same torture. Kaley tried to focus on her red and pink chains but it didn’t stop her ears from hearing things they didn’t want to.

At every opportunity she got, Abigail would take a half-veiled shot at Kaley. She wasn’t just being paranoid, Abigail was being outright mean. What she wanted to do most was get out of that room and away from them, but she didn’t want to give in.

For once in her life, she didn’t want Abigail to win. And running would have been a big triumph for her. It was only pure determination to not let that happen that forced Kaley to remain in her seat.

When the dance decorating committee broke for the afternoon, it was a whole different picture. She walked home by herself, Harvey long gone. She was glad, she didn’t want his company that afternoon. She didn’t want to explain to him why she was crying and so upset. It was bad enough letting the tears fall in public, let alone in front of her best friends.

Home couldn’t come quick enough. Kaley didn’t have the energy to hurry, every step was enough just to put one foot in front of the other. When she finally walked through the front door, she was ready to hide underneath her bed and never come out again.

“Hi, honey,” Georgie called out from the kitchen. At least she sounded like
she’d
had a good day.

“Hi, Mom,” Kaley called back, trying to make her voice sound as chirpy as her. She couldn’t pull it off, it cracked right on the last syllable. She stood in the hallway like a zombie, unsure what she needed or wanted.

Georgie poked her head around the corner, she only needed to take one look at her daughter to know something wasn’t right. She hurried down the hallway and enveloped her in a hug.

“Kaley, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

Kaley let it all out along with the tears. She told her mother about everything from the lunch incident to the committee meeting. She sobbed her way through every word of it, sounding like a hysterical sixteen year old girl.

Which she was.

When it was all over, Georgie felt like killing someone. Nobody hurt her baby girl. “I’ll go talk to the school tomorrow, this has to stop. She’s a plain bully.”

“No, Mom, you can’t. It will only make it worse.” The very idea of Mother Barbie giving her teachers a good talking to was horrifying. It would result in as much good as Eli had done.

“But this has to stop. I’m not having my daughter bullied at school. They have to provide a safe place for you.”

“I can handle it. It’s just a lot to take in right now.”

Georgie handed her a tissue, concern plastered across her face. “I can’t sit by and do nothing. What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing, please. Abigail will find some other girl to harass soon enough, she’ll grow bored with me.” Kaley sniffled. It felt better telling her mother everything, even though she couldn’t change any of it. “I’m not playing her game, she’ll move on.”

“I’ve seen documentaries like this, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I’ll be fine, really.”

Georgie gave her one last hug, holding her against her chest the way she used to when she was a little girl. She had been able to fix anything back then, before teenagehood complicated everything. “Promise me you’ll tell me if it gets worse? I don’t want you thinking you have to deal with this alone. We are a family, a team, we have each other’s backs. Do you understand?”

Kaley nodded. “I do.”

“Then promise me.”

“I promise.”

They sat on the living room sofa until the last of the tears were dry. After Kaley insisted she was fine, Georgie went to check on the dinner cooking in the kitchen.

Kaley didn’t feel like sitting in the front of the television, she needed some therapy after the day she had. She went into her bedroom and did the only thing guaranteed to make her feel better.

She spent the rest of the night playing the guitar and releasing all her emotions.

The song she sang was new – one inspired by the day’s events. All her feelings and emotions about Abigail and her minions were translated into notes and lyrics. Her fingers strummed the pain and humiliation, her voice carried the sadness she felt.

From beginning to end, the song conveyed everything she couldn’t say. It was her voice for the words that wouldn’t come.