Page 26 of Shadowed Rubies
The blood drained from my face at his words.Surely, they weren’t talking about me. Were they?Meg had convinced me to lifeguard with her one summer. Of course, my body looked nothing like her tiny frame in the skimpy red bathing suit. I’d lasted a week, until the relentless ridiculing from the boys at the pool had convinced me to quit. That was the very last time I’d worn a swimming suit.
Shifting to get a glimpse of the computer screen between their broad shoulders, I realized that it was indeed a photo of me at the same time as I heard Max’s deep voice say, “Oh my God.”
Heartbroken, I covered my mouth with my hand to hold in the sobs as I ran outside.
29
Dani
Iwas ready for a day-long sobfest, complete with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, but the relentless knocking on our front door was distracting. Intent on telling whoever the pushy person was to go away, I flung the door wide open and pinched my face into an angry glare. It wasn’t difficult to maintain the look once I saw who it was.
Molly Malone had the audacity to stand on my family’s front porch and bug her eyes out at me as if I were the problem. Stamping her foot, she accused, “My brother said you’ve been ignoring his calls.”
“Umm, yeah, and I’m going to continue to do so. Tell him to go away and not to contact me ever again.” I had used my no-nonsense tone, but when I went to slam the door in the woman’s face, she stuck her foot in the opening.
Shocked by her brashness, I pushed my foot against hers to shove it out of the way. I was bigger than she was, and I would use brute force if the need arose.
Evidently deciding that I could take her, the woman gave me a pleading gaze and said, “Just listen to what I have to say. Please.”
Deciding that taking her brother’s actions out on her was as bad as what she had tried to do to me over Dean’s treatment of her, I donned my puffy jacket, folded my arms over my chest, and stomped outside to sit on the porch swing. It was way too cold to stay out here for long, so hopefully, the chilly wind would encourage her to keep it quick. Just because I was listening to what she had to say, didn’t mean that it would in any way change my mind about her brother or his dreadful attitude.
She sat beside me on the swing, but didn’t immediately speak. Quickly losing patience with her, I said, “Well?”
Molly fluttered her lashes, obviously flustered by my abrupt treatment of her. I felt a tiny bit guilty for my overt rudeness, but justified it by reminding myself of how Max and his buddies had just been openly making fun of my body.
Since she was obviously here on Max’s behalf, I prompted her, “Did your brother send you over here to say something to me?”
“Yes,” she admitted, before adding, “But I’m going off the script.” After turning on the bench seat to face me, she said, “Look, I don’t know what happened between you two, but Max really likes you. He always has.”
I didn’t bother to hide my eyeroll as the scoffing sound emerged from my throat. “If that’s how he treats someone he likes, then I can’t imagine how horribly he treats his enemies.”
Molly shook her head as if she was completely disgusted with me before saying, “You are so spoiled. I’d give anything for a man to look at me the way my brother looks at you, but you don’t even take notice of it.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” My gaze was unflinching, but so was hers. I could tell she was weighing her options, likely trying to decide whether to reveal something to me or not.
Evidently having made her decision, she said in a soft voice, “Max didn’t always have it easy. In fact, some of the boys at school used to call him maxi pad.”
I nodded to acknowledge that he might have suffered a tiny fraction of the bullying in school that I had. It still didn’t give him any right to treat me the way that he had, though. Molly seemed to be waiting for a shocked response from me, so I shut her down by saying in an unimpressed tone, “Yeah, he mentioned that.”
“Did he mentionwhyhe was called that?”
“I assumed that it was because it went so easily with his name,” I guessed.
“That’s part of it,” Molly nodded. She was silent for so long that I began to wonder if she was going to share the other part. Finally, she said, “Do you remember the day of your Senior Assembly when you got your scholarship?”
I couldn’t believe she was going there. Of course, I remembered that day. It had been one of the proudest, nearly-horrific days of my life. Rather than verbally answering, I merely nodded.
When she spoke again her voice was barely above a whisper. “I’m the one who brought you the sweater in the bathroom.”
I clearly remembered the tiny, strange voice that seemed like a life-saving angel offering me a way to cover the blood that had gotten on the back of my dress just before the assembly that included the entire school.
“That was you?” It was a dumb question, since she wouldn’t have even known about it, if it hadn’t been, but I was surprised to find out who my savior was after all of these years.
At her nod, I said, “Thank you so much. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
“Don’t thank me,” Molly was shaking her head. “Max is the one who sent me in there. He borrowed a sweater from Mrs. Banks for me to give you.”
“Really?” I asked, truly surprised, but not swayed by the thoughtful gesture from the teenaged version of Max.
