You Had Me at Halo

He did?

Holly could hear Vince swearing under his breath, but Amy was too busy struggling with a flowing black skirt to notice.

“Guys like you make me sick. That girl didn’t even know you were alive, yet you’d rather not stand a chance with her than look twice at anyone else.”

Well, perhaps if you were a bit nicer.

And took off that horrid white make up.

And stopped breaking into people’s houses and getting all naked, Holly wanted to retort. But she wisely kept her mouth shut.

Vince Murphy had liked her?

How had this happened? How long had it been going on for and why on earth didn’t she know anything about it?

“Look, Amy—”

“Don’t bother.” Amy now grabbed at her black blouse and thrust it over her head while Holly snapped her eyes shut. “I can’t believe I cut short my shift at The Fix and wasted two hundred bucks buying a dress for that lousy ball just because you said you were going to go. You didn’t even turn up, you scumbag. I thought once you got to know me you’d forget about her.”

“Yes, well jumping into bed with someone isn’t the same as getting to know them,” Holly retorted and Vince growled at her to let him handle it. “Sorry,” she mentally told him in a contrite voice.

“Oh, don’t go all moralistic on me. There’s nothing wrong with having sex, Vince. If I knew you were such a prude I wouldn’t have bothered going to as much trouble as I did.”

Trouble. What sort of trouble had she gone to? And had she just said Holly was a prude, or did she mean Vince was a prude? Maybe they were both prudes? There should be more prudes in the world.

Holly could tell by the way Vince had his hands balled into two tight fists that he didn’t like Amy one little bit.

She wondered if it was always the case. After all, Vince was a nice, decent guy and knowing him, he would have given Amy a chance. And probably another chance after that, but there was no way he would’ve liked how the girl was all over him. He definitely wouldn’t have liked the way she was so eager to whip her clothes off and get down and dirty.

If Amy really knew Vince at all, she would’ve worked out that for herself.

Just like Holly had.

“Vince Murphy you are a loser after all.” Amy was almost frothing at the mouth with rage. “You know when Benny dared me to hook up with you, I laughed in his face at first.”

Huh.

Benny? As in the other company goth who worked in Maintenance and looked like he’d been squashed between two trucks after a hard night of no-sleep and too many drugs?

“You were trying to sleep with me for a dare?” Vince narrowed his eyes.

Amy was now lacing up her shoes. “To begin with I was. But you’re a hot guy, Vince. The more I hung round you, the more I became attracted to you. But you weren’t having any of it. Which of course only made me more determined.”

“And they say love is dead,” Holly retorted before remembering she was meant to be Vince. Whoops.

“You’re pathetic. You know that? Anyway, I’m outta here and don’t try and speak to me again.” Amy spat as she marched toward the door, but just as she was about to step out, her bag caught on the handle and the contents spilled everywhere.

“Shit,” the girl swore as she dropped to her knees and started to scoop up the contents. Boy, what was in that bag? Or more to the point what wasn’t in there?

Even from where she was standing, Holly could see a tangle of jewelry that made her wonder if Amy indulged in a bit of five-finger discounting.

Vince, ever the gentleman, bent down and picked up a pile of stuff and Holly was just about to tell him to let Amy do it on her own, when she caught sight of a packet of tablets with an airplane on the packet.

What are those? she whispered, even though Amy couldn’t hear their internal conversation.

I don’t know. Vince turned them over in his hand until they could both clearly see the words, Motion Sickness, stamped across the top.

Oh. My. God.

The pills.

Then things sort of started to flash into sequence in her mind. Amy had started working at The Fix a couple of weeks earlier. This was the place where Holly went practically every other day for a vanilla coffee—even two weeks ago, when she finished work late and was in a hurry to get home and get ready for her date with Todd.

Holly felt her eyes widen. Hadn’t Amy just said she’d been working that night but finished her shift early on the chance of catching Vince at the ball? It certainly wouldn’t have been hard for Amy to grind up the tablets and put them into Holly’s take-out drink.

But why?

All she could think was Amy didn’t want Holly to turn up at the Baker Colwell ball and distract Vince. What a waste. Especially since, as it turned out, Todd had planned to dump her, which meant Holly probably would’ve spent most of the night in the toilets, crying and trying to figure out what had happened.

“Give me those.” Amy snatched them away the moment she saw them in Vince’s hand. “Thanks for nothing, loser.”

“Wait—” Vince started to run after her but Holly dug in her heels.

“No, Vince. She’s not worth it.”

“What are you doing? She’s getting away. Holly, you’ve found out who did it.”

“Look at the time.” Holly lifted his arm up so he could see the face of his watch. It was five minutes to one.

“I don’t understand.”

Holly made him go and stand by the mirror. “Amy freak-zone Jenkins might have ruined my life once, but I’m not going to let her do it again and I want to look at you before I go.”

“But if we don’t catch her and find out once and for all what really happened then you’ll be stuck on Level One.”

“Vince, I’m stuck there anyway. After what I did to Todd, I doubt that machine is ever going to say I’m purged so it doesn’t matter. To be honest I don’t even care anymore. Just tell Gemma and my stepmother about this newest development if you get a chance.”

“Sure.” Vince’s voice sounded gruff. “If that’s what you want.”

Holly wanted to laugh hysterically. The way this scenario was playing out was so from what she wanted that it wasn’t funny. If she had her way she wouldn’t be dead. She would be alive and she would be with Vince.

She reached out and touched his face in the mirror. How had she never noticed how gorgeous he was? But it wasn’t his blue eyes and full lips; it was his inside that was gorgeous as well. Okay so not the literal kidneys and heart stuff. But the other stuff. That’s what counted. If only Holly had understood that sooner.

“About what Amy said…that you liked me. Was that true?”

Vince nodded. “Yeah.”

“I remember you asked me out when I first started at Baker Colwell.”

“You said no,” Vince reminded her.

“Well, I haven’t been able to resolve any of my other issues since I’ve been back here, but this is one I might be able to fix.” Holly coughed and stared at his face in the mirror. “I didn’t say yes then, but I’m saying it now. I just wanted you to know that.”

“Thank you,” Vince said softly. “That means something.”

Holly touched the glass again and willed herself to remember what he looked like before walking over to the dresser and picking up the photograph of them both from when they were eight.