Holly Hearts Headlines (Holly Hearts Hollywood Book 2) (16 page)

I shrugged. “We have a casual working relationship. Serena is helping out some local kids put on a fashion show for a fundraiser, and we were hoping to have your assistance by donating some clothes. Of course, you would receive free advertisement,” I said.

She arched her perfect eyebrow at me for a moment and considered my offer. “What kind of clothes are you looking for?” The relief I felt was immediate. I was certain she was going to start to laugh manically, point her finger at the door, and tell me to skedaddle. We spent the next half an hour walking around the store and picking whatever we wanted for the show. Ivy was so happy I was certain she was going to cry.

We left that boutique with bags full of designer skirts, dresses, blouses, pants, jumpers, and a newfound sense of confidence. We decided to treat ourselves to some gourmet (and seriously overpriced) cupcakes. When I started in on my triple chocolate fudge cupcake I had a brief flashback of that time Keller fed me his cupcake, and I momentarily lost my appetite.

“What’s wrong?” Ivy asked around a mouthful of red velvet and cream cheese frosting.

I told her an abbreviated history of Keller, the cupcake feeding, and his douchebaggy behavior. “I just suddenly feel gross eating this,” I said in conclusion.

Ivy swallowed her cupcake and looked at me with that same judging face she uses to shame people who wear crocs in public. “Holly, are you really going to let some guy, a guy who you didn’t even DATE and who wasn’t even NICE to you, ruin a perfectly good cupcake?”

I looked at the cupcake in question. The frosting was piled high like Mount Olympus and I had to admit that it looked pretty good. “I guess not.”

“Damn straight,” Ivy said. “Now you shovel that thing in your mouth. If you don’t have a stomach ache when you’re done, you didn’t eat it fast enough.”

So Ivy and I had a race to see who could finish (and swallow) their oversized cupcake first. She won, but since she had already taken a bite or two of hers before we started, I said we needed a rematch. Ivy’s up there right now waiting for them to bring out their freshest batch of caramel apple cupcakes. I’m actually having a nice time with my sister. What is the world coming to?

Later, 4:30pm—Fitting room at Louis Vuitton

I would do anything for some consistency in my life. One day everything is great, and I’m making out with my boyfriend and going to Disneyland. The next day everything is falling apart, and I feel like a piece of gum stuck on the bottom of Beyonce’s high heel. How did everything go from cupcakes and fashion to me hiding in (yet another) dressing room with my journal? Let me tell you.

Ivy and I were walking down Rodeo Drive to meet up with my mom, who was running late, as usual. She had gotten caught up in some business at the flower shop, which happens pretty much all the time. My mom likes to do everything herself and rarely lets her other employees have full rein.

We were walking past Louis Vuitton when I spotted a familiar gorgeous head of hair out the corner of my eye. I stopped in my tracks and went back to the Louis Vuitton window and there was Grayson looking at a set of Louis Vuitton trunk luggage. You know the kind of luggage that is all old-fashioned looking. It looks like something that the passengers of the Titanic had.

Grayson didn’t see me right away. I stood there and just looked at him like a total weirdo. He looked so handsome. He could’ve been filming a commercial for Louis Vuitton for all I know: he looked THAT good. Grayson must’ve seen me out of the corner of his eye because he turned slowly to look at me. His face lit up when he saw it was me, and he waved for me to come inside.

Ivy, who had finally noticed that I wasn’t walking alongside her anymore, lightly jogged back over to me. “Holly, what are you doing?” She saw Grayson then and she sucked in a breath. “Oh,” she said quietly.

“Just wait here,” I told her. I shoved the bags of clothes I was carrying into her arms and walked into the store.

It smelled like vanilla and overpriced leather inside, and my ears were immediately filled with the sounds of smooth jazz.

“Holly,” Grayson said over the saxophone solo that was playing over the speakers. I walked up to hug him, but then realized that we weren’t alone, so I stood awkwardly a few feet away from him.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi,” he replied. He looked outside at Ivy who was staring at us. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m just doing some stuff with my sister,” I said. All I wanted to do was touch him and smell him. He smells so good. He is the perfect combination of boy smell and soap. “What are you doing here?” I glanced at the luggage set that was next to him.

His face changed from happy to mildly irritated. “Lacey is insisting that we have matching, monogrammed Louis Vuitton luggage for the tour, so here I am,” he said bitterly.

I was immediately and overwhelmingly jealous.
I
wanted to get cute, expensive luggage with Grayson. It just wasn’t fair that Lacey got to do this with him instead of me.

“Oh,” I said softly. “How is the tour stuff going?”

Grayson glanced from side-to-side, but the salespeople are used to working with celebrities so they were a respectful distance away where their hearing would be limited. “It’s terrible,” he said. “Lacey is becoming unhinged. Not only is she making ridiculous demands from costume changes to hotel specifications, but she is so weird about singing. She won’t do vocal warm-ups with me and she won’t do any acoustic covers with me at all,” Grayson sighed. “To be honest, she can’t handle fame very well. The news is being really hard on her, but that happens sometimes. She’s just cracking under the pressure.”

I didn’t let it show on my face, but I was a little
happy
to hear that Lacey was losing it. “This lifestyle isn’t meant for everyone,” I replied.

Grayson nodded. “How are you? How’s your family?”

I rolled my eyes and updated him about the latest thing my grandparents did, which involved an incident where my grandpa shouted “Liberal hippie garbage!” at the Jon Stewart show and
spat
on the TV.

Grayson let me ramble on for a bit, and then he gently interrupted me. “Holly, you probably should take it easy on them.”

I nearly swallowed my tongue, I was so shocked. “What?”

“Think about it.” Grayson moved to put his hand on my shoulder but then stopped himself. “They lost their home and now they are in a very strange place that is a lot different from them. They’re essentially homeless. How do you think you’d feel?”

I was flabbergasted. Grayson’s job, as my boyfriend, is to provide me with his complete support even if I’m totally wrong. At least, that’s what I think boyfriends are supposed to do, but I don’t have a good point of reference. “Do you have any idea what it is like to live with them?” I sputtered. “It’s horrible!”

“I don’t doubt that it is frustrating,” he said. “But you should put yourself in their shoes and be a little more compassionate. I think that losing your home is a little more horrible than what you’re dealing with.”

I felt my heart collapsing inside my chest. Getting lectured by your boyfriend is not my idea of a good time. Grayson must’ve seen that I was dying a slow death because he suddenly changed his tone.

“Don’t take it so hard, Holls. It is just something to think about. Maybe you could try to help them out in some way and make their life a little better.”

Ivy suddenly burst through the front door before I could reply. “I’m not a French Bulldog that you can tie up outside while you shop, Holly!” she declared loudly.

I felt like I was going to burst into tears, and I did not want to do that in front of Grayson AND my sister. I grabbed the nearest piece of clothing I could find off the rack and said, “I think I’m going to try this on,” in a voice on the brink of tears, and then I ran for the fitting room. That’s where I’ve been for the past ten minutes. And I’ve just now noticed that the clothing I brought in here to try on is a men’s extra-large double-breasted coat.

Hmm. The coat actually looks pretty good on me.

Later, 6:30pm—Home

Mom eventually arrived to pick us up, and when she couldn’t find us at the designated meeting spot, she called my sister who told her that I had barricaded myself in Louis Vuitton. Let me just say that the last thing I expected was to have my mother, dusted with dirt from a long day around flowers, burst into the fitting room to give me a stern talking to.

“You can’t just hide in here all day because Grayson said something that challenged you, Holly!” she said.

“Yes I can!” I retorted. It wasn’t my best response, I admit, but it was all I had.

Mom crouched down so that we were eye-to-eye. She smelled like Lily of the Valley which just made me think of funerals, and that made me think about how everyone would think what a horrible granddaughter I am when my grandparents kick the bucket. Which could be any day now; they are old and stressed out from becoming almost homeless, and everyone will blame me for their death because I am the worst.

“What’s wrong, Holly?” Mom asked softly. “I know it is hard to hear criticism about yourself, but is there something else that’s bothering you?”

I sighed and let my guts completely spill out on the expensive, Persian rug. I told her about my fears of being the worst granddaughter in recorded history, messing up my relationship with Lacey, not being there for Meredith and Amanda through their breakup, and being a bad daughter and sister on top of that.

“I just feel like a pile of garbage,” I said in conclusion.

Mom swept me up into a big hug. “I know things have been hard on you. You’ve had a lot of changes in your life, and you’re about to go through a lot more, with college and everything. But it is a part of life. Everyone goes through stuff like this. Just make sure you don’t lose yourself during this growth process, and you’ll come out a stronger and better person in the end!”

We could’ve gone on for a while in our mother-daughter bonding moment, but the Louis Vuitton people had decided they’d had enough of our family antics and kicked us out. Grayson had to leave, or so my sister said, because if he stayed around longer it would look weird. I just wish I would’ve had a chance to talk to him before he left so I could say I was sorry for acting like such a whack job.

TO DO LIST:

1.      Try not to be such a whack job.

2.      Be more sympathetic to other people and their feelings.

3.      Buy laundry detergent.

April 21
^st
, 10:15am—Home

I woke up this morning determined to make some serious changes. I woke up early and helped my mom make breakfast. I said hello to my grandparents willingly and without a bad attitude. Like Grayson advised me, I tried to put myself in their shoes, and it turned out to be surprisingly easy.

I mean I just moved here not too long ago. I left everything I knew and had to make a huge adjustment. Granted, due to my youth and general ability to be “cooler” than my grandparents I had an easier time adjusting. So I tried to think about how hard this move would’ve been if I was old and gross like them. It definitely made me want to be nicer to them.

I decided to keep spreading the niceness, and I texted Amanda and Meredith to ask how they were doing. They keep their read receipts on so I know they’ve both
read
my messages but neither one has replied. I’m sure they’ll respond soon. It’s only been like, two hours since I sent those texts. Can’t be long now.

Later, 2:45pm—Buds of Love Flower Shop

Sometimes in life you have to take risks. I wish I didn’t. I wish I could skate by in life making decisions that were warm, cozy, and safe. But alas, that is not what the universe had in store for me when it plopped me on the face of this planet. Today I took a big risk. It could’ve blown up in my face or worse. I invited my grandparents to go out with me for lunch.

I know, how did I gain such courage? Perhaps I was a brave woman in another life. I could see the past me being either Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth I, or the first woman to wear jean pants. Seriously, that woman must’ve been BRAVE. Did you know that in Tucson, Arizona, it was
illegal
for women to wear pants back in the old days? You got to show respect for those pioneer feminists.

I took them to this really delicious ramen place near Little Tokyo. Normally, I wouldn’t attempt to take my grandparents to any kind of place they would consider “foreign” but I knew they’d like the food if they tried it. Plus, I had a coupon.

I had to drag them into the place kicking and screaming. I mean, they weren’t
actually
kicking and screaming, but you know what I mean. But once I got them in there (and when they stopped complaining about the lack of air conditioning) they actually really liked their food. Which is still a miracle in itself because my grandpa has pretty much existed on a diet of red meat for all three meals for
years
.

Afterward we headed over to my mom’s shop, Buds of Love, so my grandparents could see my mom’s passion in action, and so I could pick up a bunch of stuff Ivy left in the back office. Ivy always seems to lose everything she owns. You know the old saying: “She’d lose her head if it wasn’t attached to her body?” That statement has never been truer than with Ivy. When we were kids, we loved to play in the McDonald’s playground. I, of course, eventually learned that those playgrounds are RIDDLED with germs and refused to set foot in one again. Anyway, one time Ivy realized she’d left her shoes in the playground … half an hour after we got home. Ivy walked to the car from the McDonald’s
barefoot
, sat in the car barefoot, and ran around the front yard for half an hour before she realized she’d left her shoes behind.