Holly Hearts Headlines (Holly Hearts Hollywood Book 2) (22 page)

Later, 3:15pm—On the plane

There are five babies on this flight.

Later, 3:30pm—On the plane

And they all apparently don’t like planes.

Later, 3:35pm—On the plane

And
they’re all hungry.

Later, 5:00pm—Still on the plane

What if this doesn’t work? There’s a huge possibility that this is all going to blow up in my face. I can’t go home empty handed. Then I’ll be an even bigger pile of trash than I already was.

Later, 6:00pm—Still on the plane

I just got an email from Serena! Colleen published the article with my one-on-one on the
US Weekly
blog, and it has already taken off. Serena is very proud of me for trying to make everything right. Things are going my way. For once.

Later, 8:30pm—Des Moines International Airport

Oh my God, I’m actually here. For a while I actually thought there was a pretty good chance that I’d never set foot here again. I’m currently waiting for my luggage on the spinning carousel of doom thing and I’m trying to get my heartbeat under control. I thought I left this part of me behind forever, and now I have to return to it.

I don’t know what to expect. What will people do when they see me? Will it be like it was before when they used to throw food at me and call me names? Or will they have completely forgotten about me?

I am, after all, wearing designer clothes with a designer hairdo. I’m totally ballin’.

April 25
^th
, 12:00PM—Half Moon Diner

I’m so nervous that my hands are sweating and my pen keeps slipping out my hand. I’ve dropped my pen like, seven times, and this old guy in front of me keeps turning around giving me dirty looks. He’s currently complaining about me to his wife. “Young people these days and their electronics. They don’t even know how to hold onto a pen correctly. In my day … ” He’s rambling on now about how his second grade teacher once glued his pencil to his hand with wood glue to teach him how to write correctly. Sounds like your teacher probably gave you some kind of complex, dude.

The waitress at the diner recognized me. When I first got here and sat down, half an hour early because I couldn’t stand to wait in my hotel room at the Embassy Suites for that long; she didn’t know who I was at first.

“Welcome to the Half Moon Diner, would you like to try our world famous cottage cheese platter?” she asked. I didn’t want to try the “world famous” cottage cheese platter because I had, in fact, eaten it many times. It’s good, but I don’t think cottage cheese stands a snowball’s chance in hell of being world famous.

“No, I think I’ll just start with an iced tea,” I said.

“Holly?” I looked up at my waitress and saw that it was
Rachel Pritchard
, queen bee of Cedar Junction High School and my nemesis. Okay, she’s probably not
really
my nemesis. Not like in the way that real people have enemies. Like Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty or Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan circa 2002. But she’s still not my favorite person.

“Rachel!” I said brightly, suddenly super aware of my outfit (Elie Tahari mock-layer sweater and Lucky jeans thankfully).

Rachel looked me up and down. “I didn’t recognize you,” she said, obviously thrown by my mere presence not to mention my sudden transformation. It felt like that moment in
She’s All That
when Rachel Leigh Cook shows up to that party in her new short haircut and cute dress.

“Oh, well it has been a while,” I said. I had to stop myself from getting extra sassy and being like “oh I have famous friends now and I go get my hair done by a muscular German man in a tiny shirt.” But I took the high road and did not say those things.

“Yeah I guess so. Are you moving back or what?”

I highly doubted that Rachel was desperate for me to move back home. The relief was obvious on her face when I answered, “No, I’m just visiting.”

She exhaled. “Oh, okay. I’ll go get your iced tea then.” I watched her hustle away and whisper to a bunch of other waitresses urgently. Judging by the looks on their faces as they sneak looks at me over their shoulder I’m “big news.”

To be honest, I’m not sure what I’m doing here. I mean, I know the plan and everything but I don’t know what I’m trying to accomplish. Is this actually going to help anyone or am I really doing this just to feel better about myself? I mean I’ve been kind of awful these past couple weeks, and I need to seriously make up for it. But is this the right way to do it?

Amanda just walked in. I guess it’s too late to change my mind.

Later, 1:30pm—Ladies’ Restroom at the Half Moon Diner

When Amanda came in the diner I have to admit I was little nervous. This was the longest amount of time we’d gone without seeing each other since her family dragged her on a camping trip to Maquoketa where they spent a whole week hiking around in moldy old caves. She smelled like mildew for days after that.

Amanda didn’t recognize me at first. I saw her look at me and then look past me as she scanned the faces in the diner for me. I put my hand up and waved.

“Amanda!” I said.

She turned toward me, and a look of shock crossed her face. “Holly, is that you?”

I nodded and then braced myself for the worst. I have been so horrible to her recently that I expected her to give me the cold shoulder or to tell me off. Instead, she walked over to my side and pulled me into a tight hug.

“I missed you so much!” she squealed. Her sleek, black hair smelled like Herbal Essences shampoo like always.

“You missed me?” I asked. “I thought you were mad at me?” Some of her hair got into my mouth, and I tried to subtly spit it out.

“Oh don’t get me wrong I’m still ticked off at you. But it’s been so long that I’m going to put aside my feelings of irritation for a few minutes.”

She released me finally, and I took a deep breath. “Well thanks, I guess.”

The plan was for Amanda and me to catch up for a while before part two of the plan went underway, but things went awry really fast. Just moments after we sat down in the booth MEREDITH
WALKED
INTO
THE
DINER.

I choked on my water when I saw her walk in. She was early. Way too early. I was supposed to have time with Amanda so that I could talk to her about the break-up and then Meredith would arrive and I would reunite them and help them fall back in love! My whole goal coming out here was to be a grand, romantic savior, and then my friends would be happy and forgive me for being terrible. But Meredith had to come early and ruin everything.

“So how’s school?” I asked a little loudly. I was panicking inside. Meredith and Amanda had just broken up and now they were in the same space together. I didn’t want to cause any drama. I was trying to
fix
it.

“Hey guys,” Meredith said.

“Oh, Meredith!” I said with false happiness. “Hi, what are you doing here?” I feigned surprise and gave her a big hug.

Amanda rolled her eyes. “Please,” she said dryly, “We know that you invited us both here so you could try to get us back together.”

I felt so embarrassed I practically shrank into myself. “Oh, you figured that out?”

Meredith sat down in the booth with us and laughed. “Holly, you are the worst at pretending you’re not up to anything. Every time you ever try to pull anything on us you always giggle and turn red like a tomato.”

“I do not!” I protested.

Amanda casually sipped her glass of water and said, “Your face is red right now.”

My hands flew to my face and I could feel the flaming heat of my cheeks on my fingertips. “Dang it,” I mumbled. I stopped for a minute with the realization that the last thirty seconds of conversation had been normal, not tense and certainly didn’t sound like the kind of talk coming from people who hadn’t seen each other in weeks.

“What happened, guys?” I asked. “You’re one of the most solid couples I know. You guys are great together.”

Meredith and Amanda looked at each other. “It was my fault,” Meredith admitted. “With college and small town pressure I just … cracked. I couldn’t handle being one of the only lesbians in town anymore. Plus, I thought I’d spare Amanda and me the heartbreak and break up now before we both go to different schools.”

“You guys aren’t going to Columbia anymore?”

Amanda shrugged. “We haven’t gotten anything from them yet, and Meredith is
convinced
that I’m going to get in and she isn’t.”

“Meredith you’re totally going to get in! You’re amazing.”

She looked at the tabletop shyly. “We’ll see.”

“Look, I’m all for you guys and making decisions that are in your best interest. Sometimes you have to make tough choices to have a happier life in the long term. But is breaking up right now
really
the right thing?”

I started to monologue then. I mean it; I was like some pompous character from a Shakespeare tragedy that goes on and on about something while the cast falls asleep on stage. I mean I would not shut up. I just kept talking about how love is super important and that when you meet “the one” you can’t just let them go. Amanda and Meredith just sat there and occasionally nodded their heads. Eventually I finally ran out of steam and stopped talking. I’m not sure how much time passed. For all I know it could have been centuries since I started babbling or only a few minutes. My throat was dry so I took a huge gulp of water. It was the kind of gulp you could hear a mile away.

“Holly, you really shouldn’t worry so much,” Meredith said.

“I have every reason to worry! I’ve been a bad friend to you guys and now you’re going through a crisis. I have to be here for you.”

“Seriously, Holly, you’re stressing over nothing,” Amanda added.

“Nothing?” I parroted. “You’re calling the end of your beautiful relationship ‘nothing?’”

Meredith and Amanda smirked at me. They looked like a couple of cats that swallowed the canary.

“What?” I asked. “Am I missing something?”

“Meredith and I got back together,” Amanda said.

Her words bounced around my skull and left me reeling. “What did you just say?”

Meredith put her arm around Amanda and squeezed her. “Yesterday we had a talk about everything and we realized that we were complete idiots and got back together.”

“So you just let me sit here and
monologue
?”

Amanda laughed. “It was hilarious.”

“I’m glad you find my concern for you amusing.”

“We are touched that you came all the way out here to help us,” Meredith said. “We really appreciated the gesture, even if we did already do all the work for you,” she laughed.

“Well, you guys aren’t the only reason I’m out here,” I confessed.

Meredith and Amanda perked up. “Really?” Meredith asked. “Why are you here?”

So I updated them. I told them the whole situation and about my brilliant plan.

“Holly, that’s great!” Amanda said. “That’s going to be amazing.”

I nodded. “Hopefully, as long as everything goes smoothly.”

“How can we help?” Meredith asked.

We ended up staying at the diner for another hour chatting, planning, and catching up. I really needed that. I feel like I’ve been sick for the last few weeks, and I finally got my first dose of medicine. I think I’m ready to do this now.

April 26
^th
, 2:00am—My Room at the Embassy Suites

It is the middle of the night, and I’m literally swimming in an ice cold sweat. I think my body is trying to tell me to stop this stupid plan and just go home. “This plan is dumb, Holly,” my brain is saying. “It’s a half-baked scheme that’s going to blow up in your face, like everything else you try to do.”

How am I supposed to be confident? Seriously, I know a few people who are confident to a fault. Serena is so sure of herself. My mom knows
exactly
who she is. Even Ivy, who seems to be constantly trying to “find herself,” is confident and self-assured in everything she does. What do I have to do to be like that? Is there a spell or some kind of ritual that will turn me into the confident, brave, badass woman I dream of being?

How does Hilary Clinton do it?

Later, 8:00am—My Room at the Embassy Suites

Meredith and Amanda are waiting in the lobby for me but I can’t make my feet move. I have everything I need in my purse. My makeup is done. I spent twenty minutes obsessively blow-drying my hair. I’m more than ready to go. But I just can’t. If I can’t pull this off the way I planned then I’m going to feel like a big fat failure when I come home.

I haven’t been doing anything right lately. I haven’t treated my friends (or former friends, like Lacey, for that matter) right. If I can do this then maybe I can make up for all of it. But in order to do that, I have to actually leave this hotel room.

Come on, Holly. You can do it. Just get up and
go
.

Later, 10:00am—Hart Family Farm

I’m here. I’m actually here. The last time I was here was almost two years ago. Even though Grandma and Grandpa Hart lived only twenty minutes away, we never visited. Things were just too …
strained
between them and my mom. When I was a little kid, I used to LOVE coming here. I would sit in the barn in the hay and play with the barn cats all day long.