When Holly didn’t reply after a few minutes, she sent another, saying: If you want to talk about it, come over to mine when your mum’s gone to work tonight xx
11
Josie woke with a start when the front door slammed shut, and she sat up when she heard Holly run into her bedroom. Annoyed to see that it was only 11 a.m. when she squinted at the clock, she pulled on her dressing gown and went out to ask Holly what the hell she was playing at.
‘What’s all the noise about?’ she demanded, marching into her room. ‘And why are you lying in the dark?’ she asked, frowning when she saw Holly curled up in bed with the curtains closed.
‘I’m tired,’ Holly muttered.
‘Are you crying?’ Josie walked over to the bed.
‘No.’
‘You sound like you are.’
‘Well, I’m not,’ Holly said into her pillow.
Concerned now, because weekends were the only free time Holly had and she didn’t usually come home so early, Josie touched her shoulder. ‘What’s up, love?’
‘Nothing.’ Holly dragged the quilt up to hide her face. ‘Leave me alone.’
‘Something’s obviously upset you,’ Josie persisted, perching on the edge of the bed. ‘Have you fallen out with your friends?’
‘No.’
‘It’s not a man, is it?’ Josie asked. ‘Has a man touched you? You know you can tell me, don’t you? Whatever it is, I wouldn’t blame you.’
‘Nothing’s happened,’ Holly sniffed. ‘I don’t feel well.’
‘In what way?’
‘My stomach hurts.’
‘Do you want me to get you some painkillers?’
‘No.’
Tutting, Josie stood up, saying, ‘Suit yourself, but you’re not staying in here all day, so get up.’
‘I don’t want to,’ Holly moaned.
‘Don’t argue. It’s not healthy.’
‘You do it.’
‘Excuse me, lady,’ Josie snapped. ‘I work nights, so I’m entitled to sleep when I come home. What’s your excuse?’
‘I haven’t got one,’ Holly said contritely, wishing she’d kept that last thought to herself. ‘Sorry.’
‘So you should be,’ Josie grumbled. ‘Now I’m awake, I might as well get dressed,’ she added as she headed for the door. ‘And you’d better be up by the time I’ve finished.’
Cursing herself for making a racket and waking her mum, Holly kicked the duvet off and flopped over onto her back. She lay there until she heard her mum going to the bathroom a few minutes later, then reluctantly got up and shuffled into the living room.
An old black-and-white film was playing when she turned the TV on, and she was flicking through the channel guide in search of something better when her mum walked in.
‘Leave this on,’ Josie said. ‘I love that film.’
‘It looks rubbish,’ Holly complained. ‘Can’t we watch Catfish, or Friends or something?’
‘No, they’re all repeats,’ Josie said, going into the kitchen and coming back with a glass of water. ‘Give it a chance, you’ll love it.’
‘Bet I don’t,’ Holly muttered under her breath as she curled up at the end of the sofa.
‘That bloke went missing after his plane crashed,’ Josie said, pointing her glass at a miserable-looking man on the screen. ‘She was his wife’ – another point – ‘and she was going off her head trying to find out what had happened to him. Women didn’t earn much in those days and she was struggling, so she married someone else. But then some explorers found her old hubby living with the natives on an island and brought him home, so now she doesn’t know if her new marriage is legal or . . .’
Already bored, Holly tuned her mum out and stared unseeing at the screen as her thoughts turned back to the argument she’d had with Julie. She mentally re-ran the whole thing from start to finish, adding the cutting comebacks she wished she’d been quick enough to deliver at the time and visualizing herself beating the bitch to a pulp. She hated Julie and couldn’t understand why Bex had started dressing like her and having sleepovers at her place. And as for them calling everyone babes, it was pathetic. They were pathetic, and she hated them both.
Only she didn’t. Not Bex, anyway. They were best mates – or so she’d thought.
‘You haven’t been listening to a word I’ve said, have you?’
‘What?’ Holly snapped out of her thoughts and blinked at her mum, who was walking in from the kitchen, the glass, now refilled, still in her hand.
‘I asked if you fancied going into town for a mooch around the charity shops when the film’s finished?’ Josie said, flopping down beside her. ‘See if we can get you some new trainers.’
Holly shook her head. She knew her mum was trying to cheer her up, but it wasn’t going to work. Bex’s betrayal had cut her to the core and she was never going to get over it.
‘OK, we’ll stay in then,’ Josie said. ‘It’s been ages since we’ve spent a whole day together, hasn’t it?’
‘Mmmm.’
‘I’ve been meaning to take some time off, but we’re understaffed so I can’t just yet.’
‘It’s OK. I’m fine on my own.’
‘Is that a dig?’ Josie’s smile morphed into a frown.
‘Eh?’ Holly pulled a face. ‘What you on about?’
‘You saying you’re fine on your own. Like I’m never here.’
You’re not! Holly thought.
‘I didn’t mean it like that,’ she said, scenting alcohol on her mum’s breath and realizing that it wasn’t water in the glass. ‘I meant I’m OK with things as they are, so you don’t need to worry about me.’
Josie’s expression softened as quickly as it had hardened and she leaned over and squeezed Holly’s hand, purring, ‘You’re a good girl, Holly Wolly. And you know I’d spend more time with you if I could, don’t you?’
‘Yeah, I know,’ Holly said, wishing she’d shut up and concentrate on the film. She always got like this when she’d been drinking, and it was exhausting having to walk on eggshells to avoid saying the wrong thing. She just hoped it wasn’t becoming a problem again, because this was the third
