The Devine Doughnut Shop(59)

“Again, I’m sorry,” Kenneth said as they left the ER lobby.

“Audrey and Raelene,” a nurse called out and took the girls right back to a cubicle, where she cleaned and examined their wounds. “Looks to me like butterflies might be all you need, but I’ll let the doctor make that decision. I’m pretty sure you’ll both need tetanus shots since you never know where a pocketknife has been.” She disappeared behind the curtain.

“Why did you take up for Raelene?” Grace asked.

“Because she’s my real friend,” Audrey said. “She helps me and doesn’t demand things from me, like making me hide contraband—or taking whatever I’m wearing, like my favorite bracelet or necklace. ‘If you’re going to be our friend, then you have to share,’ is what Crystal or Kelsey would say, only they never shared back with me.”

Grace felt a ray of hope—almost like a rainbow at the end of a fierce storm—at Audrey’s answer, but that didn’t keep her blood pressure from shooting up again. “That’s bullying. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I wanted to be popular like they are, and they said I had to do whatever they told me, or I couldn’t be their friend,” Audrey said. “They said it was like being in a college sorority.”

A female police officer poked her head around the curtain and asked, “Are you Audrey and Raelene? Could we ask you a few questions?”

“Of course.” Grace motioned her inside.

A male officer followed her, crowding the small cubicle. “We understand that you girls got into a fight at school and a knife was involved. Is that right?”

“Yes, sir, but we are not pressing charges,” Audrey said.

“Doesn’t matter if you do or don’t; we have to investigate.” The lady, who had a tag on her uniform that said Bradford, pulled out a notepad.

“Raelene has been bullied for years by two girls that I thought were my friends. They came in the library, where we were working on lessons, and started bullying her again. They ripped up my algebra paper and threw it on the floor, so I got mad and threw a punch. Kelsey pulled out a knife”—Audrey held up her arm to show the officer the cut—“and Crystal grabbed me and held me while she sliced my arm. Raelene pulled her away and gave her a black eye but got her arm cut while she was doing it. End of story.”

Grace almost smiled. That version was so much shorter than the one that they had told Sarah and Macy on the way to the hospital, but at that moment, she couldn’t have been prouder of her daughter.

“Okay, then,” the male officer said. “We’ll file this report, but if you change your minds . . .”

Raelene looked him in the eye. “We won’t.”

“If you do, give us a call.” Officer Bradford put her pad away, and they disappeared.

Grace turned to Raelene. “Why did you help Audrey when she’d been mean to you all year and you could lose that scholarship for college?”

“She’s my only friend . . .” She paused. “And because family is more important than a scholarship.”





Chapter Thirteen


The weather had finally cleared up and the sun was out, so Grace expected Sarah and Macy to be on the front porch when she got home with the girls, but they weren’t. Sarah’s truck and Macy’s SUV were there, which meant they were either in the shop or taking a nap. Grace couldn’t believe either of them could sleep at a time like this. Her own nerves were frayed at the edges, and all she wanted to do was get back in her vehicle and leave. The gossip vine was probably already smoking and would burst into flames any minute.

“Do you think Crystal and Kelsey’s daddies will really make them do what they threatened to do?” Raelene whispered.

“I hope so, but I wouldn’t count on it,” Grace answered from the front seat of her vehicle. “They should be held accountable for what they’ve done, but Lisa and Carlita will probably sneak around and let them do whatever they want to do.”

“Get ready to start getting up before the crack of dawn.” Audrey sighed. “We’ll both be working in the shop as punishment for basically getting expelled from school.”

Raelene opened the door. “Whatever your mama decides, it was worth it.”

Audrey’s giggle sounded more like a snort. “Yep, it was.”

The two girls got out of the car and walked up to the porch together. But Grace sat there behind the wheel for several minutes, her mind going in circles. She had wanted Audrey to have a good friend, one who didn’t ask her to do unthinkable things, but she sure didn’t expect for her prayers to be answered by her daughter and Raelene getting into a fight.

Her hands began to shake so badly that she couldn’t hold on to the door handle. She’d never been much of a drinker, but right then, a good strong double shot of Jack Daniel’s sounded perfect. She finally laid her arms across the steering wheel, rested her forehead on them, and took several deep breaths. She’d always been a rock until the dust settled, and then she’d fall to pieces. Tears welled up in her eyes and the dam broke and sent them flowing down her cheeks to leave wet spots on her Devine Doughnut T-shirt.

Her precious daughter, whom she’d birthed after all those hours of labor, and then the one whom they’d taken into their home could have bled out right there on the library floor. Would the librarian have expected them to rise up from the dead and clean that up, too?