Stay Sweet(83)
Her adrenaline surging, Amelia says, “Wait. Give me the pin back.”
When Cate turns around, her face is contorted into a pucker that Amelia has never seen before. A line in their friendship has been crossed that Amelia isn’t sure she’ll be able to get back over.
Cate takes off the pin and sets it on the desk. Then she peels off her polo shirt so she’s in just a tank top, and drops it into the trash can on her way out, the door whacking against the stand so hard that one of the milk bottles tumbles off its roof beam and shatters.
The girls stare in stunned silence.
Amelia goes into the office. Pushing her muffins aside, she lays her head down on the desk and cries.
*
Amelia’s not sure exactly how long she spends crying, but when she reemerges from the office, she has a splitting headache. But the three newbies are still there, having cleaned up the mess from the party. And not just them. All of the girls are there now.
Minus Cate.
Jen notices Amelia first, elbows Mansi. Then all the girls turn to face her.
“I’m so sorry,” Amelia announces, her voice breaking. “I never wanted to fight with Cate in front of you, never mind fire her.”
Liz says, “It’s okay, Amelia.”
Sophie says, “You were right. Cate wasn’t a very good manager.”
“She was super fun,” Mansi adds.
“But not, like, good at the job part of the job,” Sophie says.
“It was worse than you know, actually. Cate was always late with the schedule.”
“She basically never did any chores.”
“We seriously don’t care if you’re dating Grady. That’s your business.”
Amelia shakes her head. “No. I made a promise. And Grady is my boss. It’s not right.”
Bern shakes her head. “You’re the boss of this place, Amelia.”
Amelia manages a weak smile. It would be the ultimate compliment, if not for the fact of everything.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
AMELIA IS STILL WAITING FOR word from Grady when she climbs into bed for the night. And she’s trying everything she can to relax until he reaches out. A scented candle flickers on her nightstand, and she’s wearing a calming face mask that she’d forgotten to use before prom. But as she lies back on her pillow, eyes closed, the wet mask sheet clinging to her face, a lump bobs tight in her throat, making it almost impossible to swallow even the smallest sips of her chamomile tea.
The cruel reality is that, no matter how things go with Grady and his dad, Amelia has already forever lost the summer she’d hoped to have. One that would reinforce her friendship with Cate, make it strong enough to withstand the distance and change that college would bring. In fact, Amelia’s not sure if she’ll ever hear from her best friend again.
Yes, Cate was a terrible Head Girl, but had Amelia really been any better? Using Grady’s promotion of Cate as a Band-Aid, hoping it would smooth over their problems so she wouldn’t have to tackle them head-on. Amelia’s letting things slide only made the problems worse. In that way, hadn’t she set Cate up to fail?
After the mask is done, she dabs her face dry with a tissue and tosses it into her wastebasket. On her night table, next to the candle, is Molly’s diary.
As Molly’s entries have closed in on the end of the war, Amelia has hesitated to keep reading, knowing the terrible things coming. Both in the war itself—Amelia still feels sick thinking of her country dropping a bomb that instantly killed over 80,000 innocent people in Hiroshima—as well as the most painful parts of Molly Meade’s life, the death of Wayne Lumsden. But tonight, she decides to read straight through until the very end, wanting to poke the bruise.
There is another gap in Wayne’s letters, one that Molly attributes to their fight about her ice cream. Initially, Molly is indignant, filling the pages of her diary with news of how business is booming. As summer comes to a close, it’s as if clarity returns to Molly.
August 14, 1945
When the news came in from the president on the radio—Japan unconditionally surrenders—every girl in the stand froze.
Tiggy and I had been scooping two cones. She dropped hers right on the floor, rushed forward, and hugged me. The others pushed out the door, screaming, crying, grabbing the folks in line who hadn’t heard. People in the cars turned up their radios. Horns were beeping, people sprinting.
Mother and Daddy came running down not five minutes later. Mother lifted her skirt and danced the jitterbug—which I didn’t even know she knew how to do—with Daddy right there in the stand, and they kissed like newlyweds.
Everyone rushed out to Main Street. All of Sand Lake.
I’ve never seen the streets so full. The entire town hugging and weeping and cheering in the street. I had so many conflicting feelings, all those innocent people killed, but the war was over now. No one else would die. Our boys will come home. My brothers and Wayne back as if they never left.
I wonder when I will hear from Wayne.
Will he still want to marry me when he gets back?
Or have I ruined things between us?
When the stand closes, at the end of August, Molly has nothing to occupy her mind. Every entry is full of worry about Wayne, regrets, and fears.
In her last entry, dated September 2, 1945, Molly described how she invited the girls for ice cream at the lake to celebrate the official end of the war. But the night was unseasonably cold and the girls were all worrying about their figures again.