Until Harry (9 page)

I relieved myself in the bathroom, and when I was cleaning myself up at the sink, I made a point not to look up into the mirror. I didn’t want to see what everyone else was forced to look at.

I exited the bathroom and headed back down the hallway towards my room. I glared at Kale, who still had his arse parked on the floor right next to my doorway. I shook my head as I stepped over his legs and entered my room, closing the door behind me.

Again, he said nothing to me; he didn’t make a single sound.

Damn stubborn lad.

I busied myself for the next hour with homework and some reading. I couldn’t get into either one, though. Anna’s cruel words and Ally’s shrill laughter replayed over and over in my mind on an endless loop. I glanced at my bedroom door, and after a moment I stood up and walked over to it. I reached out for the handle, and after a few seconds of hesitation, I gripped the handle and pulled the door open.

He was still there.

Still sitting outside my room, waiting for me to let him in.
I st
epped back and opened the door as wide as it would go. I said nothing, but Kale knew what I was offering. He pushed himself to his feet and entered my room.

I closed the door and turned around to face him. He was standing in the middle of my room, with his hands shoved into the front pockets of his jeans as he stared at me. He gazed at me with sad hazel eyes. I was more than ready to tell him off and be mad at him, but when he silently lifted his arms and opened them to me, I broke down.

I felt a lump form in my throat as I walked into his embrace.
I wr
apped my arms around his waist and pressed my head against his chest. His arms tightly closed around me; he even rubbed his right hand up and down my back to soothe me like he usually did when I was sad.

Damn him.

Why does he make it so hard to stay mad at him?
I angrily thought.

I didn’t know how long we stood there holding onto one another, but when I calmed down enough to speak, I pulled back and looked up at him. He smiled down at me, his beautiful barely there dimples creasing his cheeks.

“Hey, Laney Baby,” he whispered.

I burst into tears and rewrapped my arms around his body. He lightly vibrated as he chuckled and put his arms back around me.

I pulled back once more. “I’m sad, Kale.”

He looked at me, his eyes heavy with anguish. “If I have to convince you that Anna O’Leary and Ally Day are just jealous of you, then you aren’t the smart girl I know you are.”

I grunted and moved away from him, and walked over to my mirror, where I glared at my appearance.

“They were right, though,” I said as I gazed at the hideous flaws Anna had evilly pointed out. “Look at me. I’m disgusting.”

Kale came up behind me and looked me in the eye; he was over a head taller than me, so he did this easily.

“Tell me what you see when you look into the mirror and see your reflection,” he urged.

I felt heat stain my cheeks. “A fat, ugly cow.”

He shook his head. “Do you want to know what I see?”

“No, not really,” I replied.

He ignored me and said, “I see a beautiful girl whose smile brightens up a room. I see a beautiful girl whose eyes are so warm and welcoming, they make people feel at ease with one glance. I see a beautiful girl who cares for others and loves so hard it’s impossible not to love her back just as hard. I see a beautiful girl who is so stunningly gorgeous, she will break her father’s and brothers’ hearts when she realises just how incredible she is and decides to give her heart to another. I see a beautiful girl who just doesn’t see how beautiful she really is.”

That was it; I was once again a blubbering mess.

“Damn you, Kale Hunt,” I cried, and turned to him once more, wrapping myself around him.

He held me to him and kissed the crown of my head. “There isn’t a hair on your head that isn’t beautiful, Laney Baby. Everything about you is beautiful; I’ve known that since the first day I saw you.”

I surprisingly laughed through my blubbering. “You first met me when I was two hours old. I probably looked like a shrivelled-up prune.”

“You did,” Kale agreed, “but a beautiful shrivelled-up prune.”

I shoved him, and he laughed, so I laughed with him. I pulled back from him and walked over to my bed.

“How can you remember back so far? You were only three when I was born.” I climbed onto my bed and turned to face Kale, who took a seat on the chair in front of my desk.

“I remember everything about the day I first saw you, Lane. It was the first time I ever saw an angel in the flesh.”

I covered my face as it burned up.

“Shut up. You’re
so
full of it!” I screeched.

He laughed. “Give over – you know you’re my angel.”

On the inside I purred with delight; on the outside I played it off with a roll of my eyes.

“Yeah, well, this angel is getting a makeover,” I said and pushed my long, dull brown hair over my shoulder.

Kale raised his eyebrows. “A makeover? What does that mean exactly?”

I shrugged. “I’m going to get a haircut and buy make-up and clothes that don’t come from the kids’ sections in shops.”

He blinked. “Lane, you don’t need to change your appearance to seek approval from people who don’t matter.”

I shook my head. “I’m not doing this for Anna and Ally; I’m doing it for me. I want to be the one that boys notice. I’m
so
done with being everyone’s ‘friend’.”

The latter was directed at Kale, but he didn’t need to know that.

He stared at me for a long moment, and then he licked his lips and dug his phone out of his pocket when it rang. He answered it and had a brief conversation, then shook his head and looked u
p to me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Just Drew being Drew. Nothing to worry about.”

Drew Summers was his current girlfriend.

I didn’t like her. I never had.

I didn’t like any of Kale’s girlfriends, but Drew was different because she kept reappearing. She and Kale would be together, then break up for a while and then get back together. They were on and off like a light switch. It bugged the hell out of me that she wouldn’t just go away and stay away.

“Are you sure?” I asked, hoping to be a shoulder to cry on if he needed one.

He nodded. “Yep, she’ll get over whatever is up her arse
eventually
.”

I chuckled. “Always the charmer.”

Kale gestured to himself. “But of course.”

I smiled and looked down to my fingers, picking out the dirt from under my nails.

“Can I stay tonight?” he asked.

I looked up and raised an eyebrow. “It’s a Thursday, though. When you stay over, it’s usually on the weekends.”

“I know, but your mum said it was okay for me to crash since you weren’t feeling so hot – uh, I mean good. Shit. I didn’t mean that as in appearances—”

I cut Kale’s brain fart off with my laughter. “I get what you mean, loser.”

He relaxed. “Good.”

I glanced at my bedroom door and then back to him. “Are the lads okay with you staying?”

He snorted. “Please. Your brothers love me.”

Everyone in my house loved Kale; he was part of our family.

Kale never looked at me like anything other than a sister, and while I hated it, I respected his respect for me. He was completely fine with sleeping in my brothers’ room, and so were my brothers.
I s
eemed to be the only person who wanted him to sleep in my room with me; I kept that to myself, though. I kept everything about how I really felt about Kale to myself – unless my Uncle Harry was around for me to vent to.

“So it’s cool to stay?” he asked.

I crossed my eyes at him, making him burst into laughter.

My lip twitched. “Like you even have to ask.”

He thought about this for a second, then said, “True.”

He ignored his phone when it rang again, and switched it off instead. “I’ll have your mum call my mum and let her know I won’t be home. Then I’ll be back, and we can totally talk lads and do each other’s nails.”

I fell sideways on my bed, laughing.

“You’re
such
a freak.”

Kale beamed at me. “If it’ll make you smile, I’ll be the biggest freak this world has ever seen.”

I continued to laugh. “That wouldn’t take much.”

He gripped his chest. “Your words, they wound me deeply.”

“Go call your mum already!” I howled in laughter.

Kale chuckled to himself as he left my room, and I bea
med af
ter him, not surprised that I felt so happy being in his presence afte
r bei
ng so sad without him.

The next day Kale helped me convince my parents to let me have the day off school. He had the week off college and promised my parents he would take me out and help cheer me up. My father wanted to know what that entailed, and Kale had to explain my makeover plan to them.

My father didn’t like it, but my mother was completely on board. She gave Kale a bunch of money from her savings jar and told him to help me make good decisions.

“Come with us, Mrs Edwards – you know more about fashion and hairstyles than I ever will,” Kale said to my mother.

She patted his shoulder and said, “I think a boy’s opinion is what is needed here, not a mother’s, because I think Lane looks beautiful as she is.”

“Then it’s pointless for me to go too, because I wholeheartedly agree with you.”

“My God,” I grumbled as embarrassment heated my cheeks.

We eventually left my house,
without
my mother, and made our way into town, laughing and joking the entire bus ride in. When we got off the bus, we were in shopping heaven. There were clothing shops, nail bars and hair salons in every direction. I’d never come into this part of town before, and the overload of people made me nervous.

“I’ve got you.” Kale threaded his fingers through mine. “Don’t let go; you’re tiny and would get lost in the crowd.”

Oh, my God. I could have died. I could have died right there in the middle of the shopping district.

Kale was holding my hand and leaning protectively into me like a boyfriend would to his girlfriend. I knew we were just friends, and he was making sure I didn’t venture off, but I let myself pretend that it was real and he was really just hanging out with me as his girl.

“Okay, what do you want to get done first? Hair, nails or do you want to hit the clothes shops first?” Kale asked as he leaned his mouth down to my ear so I could hear him over all the voices around us.

I trembled as shivers ran up and down my spine.

“Hair,” I squeaked, and then I cleared my throat. “Hair first.”

“Hair first it is,” he said, weaving us through the crowd until we entered a Toni and Guy hair salon.

I stood staring at all the different hairstyle pictures in black and white on the walls for a long moment, and when Kale pulled on my hand, I almost jumped out of my skin. He laughed at me, and so did the woman behind the counter.

“Follow me,” the woman chirped after she smudged a little white gel behind my ear, a skin test for future appointments that involved hair dye. I didn’t want my hair dyed this time around;
I j
ust wanted a different style, but I did the test anyway.

I swallowed and looked to Kale and found him sitting behind me in the mini waiting section next to the doorway. “I’ll be here and I’ll be able to see you. Go on – you’ll be fine,” he said, and then hesitated. “Just don’t cut too much off, ’kay?”

I smiled and nodded my head, then walked over to a chair to be introduced to Kevin, a stylist. Kevin was in his early twenties, with spiky hair the colour of the rainbow. He also had so many piercings on his face and in his ears that I lost count at fifteen. He was lovely, though, and very excited that he was giving me my first haircut in, well, forever.

“What are we thinking of doing today?” he asked me, his voice bubbly.

I blew out a breath. “Okay, so I don’t like my hair being so dull. I like the colour, because it’s dark brown but it has a natural red-wine tint when the sun hits it. I’m thinking of five inches off the length and a full fringe like that picture over there. With some layers thrown in too.”

Kevin snapped his fingers at me in a “Z” formation. “Honey, your lad over there won’t be able to take his eyes off you when I get done with you.”

I knew Kevin was talking about Kale, but I didn’t correct him because I liked the fact that someone didn’t think it was as crazy an idea as I thought it was. A half hour went by, and after getting my hair washed, cut, blow-dried and cut again, I was ready. Kevin spun me around and told me to open my eyes. I gasped when I saw myself in the mirror. I looked . . . pretty!

Not beautiful or anything, but pretty, and I was so happy
with that.

“Oh, my God,” I squealed. “I love it. I love it
so
much.”

I hadn’t been trying to look older, but I could easily pass for sixteen now, and I thought that was beyond brilliant.

“Told you,” Kevin said, beaming, and ruffled the hair on the sides of my head.