The Harder the Fall

by Lauren Barnholdt

  “You have to get yourself invited to that dinner!” Lyra yells. “It’s important. Immediately! Go on, ask him!”

  Oh my God. I thought she was supposed to be smart. I’m really going to have to explain to her later about how not to stalk boys. Not to mention that she must realize that I can’t talk to her while other people are around. And yet for some ridiculous reason she keeps talking to me.

  “Oh, that sounds fun,” I say. “Um—”

  The bells on the salon door tinkle.

  “That must be my four thirty appointment!” I hear Sharon exclaim from her spot behind the cash register. “Right on time. There’s my favorite customer!”

  I turn around to see who this alleged first, best customer is. Especially since she’s now apparently Sharon’s favorite as well. Whoever it is must be crazy. Probably some kind of senile old woman who doesn’t know that yellowish green is not a good color for nails.

  “Hi, Sharon!” a girl’s voice squeals.

  Huh. So I guess it’s not a crazy old woman after all.

  “I’m ready for my manicure!”

  That voice sounds familiar, but I can’t quite place it.

  It hits me a second before I see her.

  Madison Baker, waltzing into the back of the salon and sitting right down at the other nail station.

  “Hello, Kendall,” she says when she sees me. She gives me a knowing smile. The kind of smile you give someone when you’ve been trying to catch them doing something and now you’ve caught them doing something.

  “Oh, hi, Madison,” I say, trying to keep my voice from catching.

  “I see you’re having a nice time,” she says, looking at me and Micah.

  “Um, not really,” I say nonchalantly. “I’m just, you know, getting my nails done.”

  “Me too. But I always have Sharon do mine.” God, she’s so transparent. She always has Sharon do hers? The place just opened. How many times could she possibly have had Sharon do her nails? And besides, it’s so obvious that the only reason Madison’s here is to hopefully catch me with Micah. Which she’s done, but still.

  “Yeah, well, I wanted Sharon to do mine, too, but she said she had an appointment.”

  “Yeah, I’ll bet you did,” Madison says. She cracks her gum and then pulls her phone out of her purse and takes her time sending a text. “Does Brandon know you’re here?” she asks. The side of her mouth slides up into a sly grin.

  “Of course he does,” I say.

  “Oh, really?” she asks. “That’s good. So if I happen to mention it to him, he won’t be surprised.”

  And then she turns her back to me, signaling that the conversation is over.

  The rest of my day is a big mess.

  Here are the reasons:

  1. Lyra keeps yelling at me about how I messed everything up by not getting myself invited over to her house when Rachel is going to be there. Even when I point out that I hardly even know her brother, she doesn’t want to listen. She just keeps going on and on about how it’s my last chance to see Rachel and figure out what’s going on. Which is ridiculous. Lyra’s only been here a few days. When I explain that to her calmly, and then ask her to please stop talking to me in front of people, because, hello, I can’t answer her, she gets all annoyed and acts like I’m being completely unreasonable. Then she disappears.

  2. Ellie gets grounded for the night, and her mom takes away her cell phone. I’m not sure exactly why, but from what I could gather, it had something to do with Ellie staying up too late, talking on the phone with Kyle when she was supposed to be sleeping. So I had no one to obsess with about what happened today in the salon.

  3. Brandon doesn’t call me all night, and when he finally does, I try to tell him about how I went to get my nails done again today. I want to make sure that he doesn’t hear it from Madison before I have a chance to tell him. But when I tell him, he gets all annoyed with me.

  He keeps asking me why I have to get my nails done there, and I tell him that it’s close to my house and it’s cheap. So then Brandon says that maybe we should just talk about this the next day at school, and so then I say okay. By the time I hang up the phone, I’m feeling sad and confused.

  Needless to say, I get a horrible night’s sleep. I toss and turn the whole night, lying in my bed, waiting to see if Mrs. Dunham is going to show up. She doesn’t, which is a relief.

  But still. When I wake up, I feel totally out of sorts. I don’t even feel like doing my hair, which is so not like me. I put it in two French braids. Then I tie two ribbons at the bottom of each braid. Red and black. I hope the neat style is going to make me feel like my life is orderly.

  When I get downstairs, I pour myself some cereal. My dad went out last night and did some grocery shopping, replacing all the food that spoiled while the power was out.

  “What’s wrong?” he asks when he sees me.

  “Nothing,” I say. “Just tired, I guess.”

  “Okay.” He looks a little nervous, like maybe he’s afraid I’m going to do something crazy, like, you know, freak out about him and Cindy again. But if he’s worried about that, he really shouldn’t be. I have way bigger problems. Problems I obviously can’t talk to him about.

  When I get to school, Ellie’s waiting for me outside the front entrance.

  “Oh my God,” she says. “I’m so sorry about last night. My mom was being completely unreasonable.”

  “She took your phone away?”

  Ellie nods. “She said I was up too late talking to Kyle. Which is ridiculous. Midnight is not too late. And besides, it’s not like he keeps me awake. If I wasn’t talking to him, I’d be doing something else. She treats me like I’m a baby, and it’s so not fair.”

  “Yeah,” I say. I know it probably sounds mean, but I’m not really in the mood for Ellie’s story about how her mom took her phone away. I mean, no offense, but Ellie not being able to talk to Kyle until midnight is not exactly a reason to get all upset.

  “So, what’s up?” Ellie reaches into her bag and pulls out a bottle of water, then takes a long sip. “Is something going on?”

  “Sort of,” I say. “I just . . .” I take a deep breath, and then I realize I have no idea how I’m going to explain this to her. What am I going to say? That Brandon’s mad at me because Madison Baker saw me at the salon with Micah? Ellie’s going to want to know why I keep going to that ridiculous salon.

  She’s already suspicious, and honestly, I don’t blame her. I’d be suspicious too if she kept wanting to go back there when they obviously don’t know what they’re doing.

  I can’t tell her about the ghosts. I can’t tell her about Mrs. Dunham. I can’t tell anyone about anything, and it’s really upsetting.

  “Kendall, what’s wrong?” Ellie asks. And she looks so concerned about me that I can’t take it anymore. And before I know what’s happening, I burst into tears.

  “Come on,” Ellie says, grabbing my arm and leading me toward the school. “You need sugar.”

  We skip first period. I know it’s bad. I’ve actually never skipped a class before, except for one time when I got my schedule mixed up and ended up in gym instead of science. (Don’t ask.)

  But if I get in trouble, I don’t care. I don’t see how things could get worse than they are right now.

  Ellie takes me to a little alcove under the stairs by the math lab, and then spreads out a blanket on the floor.

  “Where’d you get a blanket?” I ask.

  “Oh, I always keep a blanket in my locker,” she says. “The rooms in this school are always so cold.”

  “Oh.”

  “So,” she says. She reaches into her bag and pulls out a doughnut.

  “Where’d you get a doughnut?” I ask.

  “I got three of them,” she says. “I bought them from the cafeteria.”

  I frown. “The cafeteria is open?”

  “It is if you know who to talk to.”

  Wow. Who knew that Ellie was so resourceful? The doughnut is one of t
hose prepackaged ones that has white powdered sugar that gets all over the place, but beggars can’t be choosers.

  “Wow, Ellie,” I say, “you’re kind of turning into a rebel.”

  She smiles. “Now,” she says. “Tell me what the heck is going on.”

  I open my doughnut and take a small bite. “Well,” I say, deciding how much I should reveal. “Brandon and I are having problems.”

  “What kind of problems?”

  “I think he might like Madison Baker.”

  “No way.” Ellie shakes her head. “He definitely doesn’t like Madison Baker.”

  “How do you know?” I ask, my heart soaring just a little. “Did Kyle say something?”

  “Well, no,” she admits. “But how could he like Madison Baker? She’s so . . . so . . . horrible.”

  “I know,” I say. “But guys always like horrible girls. It’s, like, a rule or something. I mean, it’s the basis of pretty much every romantic movie in existence. Only, in movies the guy always ends up with the right girl.”

  “Brandon likes you,” she says. “You guys are perfect for each other.”

  “Maybe,” I say.

  “Look, you just have to stop making it so complicated,” she says. “You can’t always have everything perfect, and when things come up, you have to talk to Brandon about them.”

  “Yeah,” I say, even though that’s obviously not going to happen. Can you imagine? Oh, hi, Brandon. I’m sorry but I had to go to that salon because I’m helping a ghost whose brother works there. Oh, and by the way, the ghost of your mother is stalking me and it might have something to do with my mother, and she totally made all the lights in my house go out.

  The sound of footsteps on the staircase above us comes echoing down the hall, and Ellie and I hold our breath and stay quiet. After a few minutes the sound starts getting fainter, and I breathe a sigh of relief.

  “You need to just work on being honest with him,” Ellie says. “Like I am with Kyle.”

  My eyes fill up with tears again. The thing is, I wish I could be honest with Brandon. I wish I could be honest with everyone. But I can’t. And I think that’s the thing that’s hurting me the most. It’s kind of like my whole life is a complete lie.

  “Oh, Kendall,” Ellie says, and she hugs me.

  “I’m okay,” I say, forcing a smile. “I’m just being dramatic. You know how I can get.”

  “Yeah,” she says. But she’s looking at me with concern, and I can tell that she doesn’t fully believe me.

  Ellie opens her mouth to say something, but before she can, the bell rings.

  “We should go to second period,” I say, gathering up the doughnut wrappers. I can already hear the sound of footsteps thundering down the stairs as our classmates get out of class.

  “Okay,” Ellie says. She stands up and starts to fold up the blanket. “It’s going to be okay, Kendall,” she says. “I promise.”

  “Thanks, Ellie. I know it is.” I paste a smile on my face and hope she believes me.

  When we walk out into the hall, a crazy thing happens.

  I see Micah wandering around by the science rooms. He’s holding his schedule and peering down at it, confused. Almost like he doesn’t know exactly where he’s going. Which would make sense, since he’s new to our school.

  It takes me a second to realize it’s him, like when you see someone out of their normal environment. It’s like he shouldn’t be here, at school with me. He should be back at the salon, sitting behind the nail counter.

  “Hey,” Ellie says. “Isn’t that the guy from the salon?”

  “Hey!” Micah says, raising his hand when he sees us. “What are you guys up to?”

  “Just, you know, at school,” Ellie says.

  “Hi, Kendall,” Micah says. He looks down at my hands and then picks one of them up and looks at it. He has very soft hands, for a boy. Not that I’ve touched that many boys’ hands. But still. “What happened to your green nail polish?” he asks.

  “Oh,” I say. “Um, I accidentally chipped a nail, so I had to, um, take it off.”

  “What green nail polish?” Ellie asks. “You didn’t tell me you were getting green polish. When did you buy it?”

  “Oh, she didn’t buy it,” Micah reports. He’s still holding up my hand and looking at my nails. It’s actually kind of uncomfortable, if you want to know the truth. But I can’t just take my hand back. That would be rude. Wouldn’t it? Since when is he so into hands, anyway? I mean, usually at the salon he acts like he kind of doesn’t know what he’s doing. Now suddenly he’s all into hands?

  “What do you mean, she didn’t buy it?” Ellie asks. She’s looking at me suspiciously.

  “I mean that she came into the salon.” Micah has a twinkle in his eye now.

  “You went to the salon again?” Ellie asks. Her eyes are practically bugging out of her head.

  “Kendall comes in a lot,” Micah says. He’s not looking at my hand anymore, but he’s still holding it. And now he’s sort of . . . ah, caressing my fingers.

  “Oh, really?” Ellie says, crossing her arms over her chest. “She comes in a lot, does she?”

  “Well,” Micah says, and gives me a grin. “It’s probably not just for the manicures.”

  And then the most horrible thing I could image happening happens. While I’m standing there in the hallway, with Micah basically holding my hand, Brandon steps out of his science class.

  “Hey,” he says happily when he sees me. But then he sees Micah. And our hands. His eyes darken, and it looks almost like a storm cloud is moving over his face. “Who’s this?” he asks.

  I immediately pull my hand away from Micah’s. But it’s too late. The damage has been done. Brandon has already seen it.

  “Oh, this is just my friend,” I say, making sure to put emphasis on the word “friend.”

  Brandon comes over and puts his arm around me. “I’m Brandon,” he says. “I’m Kendall’s boyfriend.”

  “Oh.” Micah looks startled. Probably he never thought about the fact that I might have a boyfriend. And honestly, why would he? He apparently thought I was coming into the salon because I had a big crush on him. That thought never even occurred to me, but when you think about it, it totally makes sense. No one needs to get their nails done that often. So you’d need some kind of other reason for going in. And what other reason would that be besides a ridiculous crush on the owner’s son?

  “Oh,” a voice calls out from halfway down the hall. “Look at that! It’s Micah from the salon!”

  I turn around to see Madison Baker waltzing down the hall toward us. Great. Talk about a bunch of bad luck. What are the chances that Brandon would come out of his classroom, and now Madison is here too? It’s like some kind of horrible reunion.

  “You’re Micah from the salon?” Brandon asks. His jaw sets.

  “Yeah,” Micah says. “I’m Micah. I met Kendall at the nail salon. She comes in a lot.” Ohmigod. What the hell is wrong with him? Doesn’t he know that when you start to get challenged by a girl’s boyfriend, you back off immediately? It’s like guy code or something.

  “Um,” I say quickly, moving closer to Brandon. “I wouldn’t call it a lot.”

  “I would,” says Madison helpfully. “I mean, every time I go in there, she’s there.”

  I open my mouth to point out that Madison wouldn’t know I was there so much if she wasn’t there herself, and so maybe she’s the one with the big crush on Micah. But before I can, Micah pipes up.

  “Yup,” he says. “Every time Kendall comes in, I do her nails.”

  “Yeah, well—,” Brandon says, dropping his arm from around my shoulders and taking a step toward Micah.

  Luckily, the warning bell rings.

  “Oh, well, we need to get to class,” I say, taking Brandon’s arm and pulling him down the hall.

  I shoot a look over my shoulder and give Ellie an I’ll explain this to you later look, which of course is a halfway lie, because I have no idea how I’m g
oing to explain it to her. As I turn back around, I can see Madison giving me a smug look.

  “What the heck was that about?” Brandon asks.

  “What do you mean?” I ask, stalling.

  “I mean, why was he holding your hand?”

  “He wasn’t,” I say. “I mean, um, he was, but it wasn’t like that. He was just checking out my nail polish.” I hold my hand up and wiggle my fingers. “See?”

  Brandon shakes his head. “Like any guy really cares about what your nail polish looks like. And what were they talking about, you going in there all the time? Is that true?” His voice has stopped being angry, and now he just sounds kind of . . . sad. Like he’s really hurt that I would lie to him.

  “It’s not that often,” I say. “I mean, I just like to get my nails done.”

  “Kendall,” he says. “Tell me the truth. Do you like Micah?”

  “No.” I shake my head. “I swear. I don’t like him. I’m not going to go back to the salon again.”

  The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. Seriously, it’s like I don’t know what I’m saying. Obviously I can’t promise to never go back to the salon again. How am I going to talk to Micah? Or Sharon? If I can’t talk to Lyra’s mom and brother, I’m never going to be able to figure out how she can move on.

  “I can’t ask you to do that,” Brandon says. “If you like going to get your nails done, you should get your nails done.”

  “No,” I say, shaking my head. “I’m not going to go back there. Seriously, I promise.”

  “I told you, you don’t have to do that,” he says. He takes a deep breath and then runs his fingers through his hair. The final bell rings, signaling that we’re supposed to be in class, but neither one of us moves. “Look, I’m sorry I freaked out back there,” he says. “I trust you, Kendall. I do.”

  “Thanks.” I take a deep breath. “And I trust you. And I hope you don’t believe the things that Madison is telling you. That girl is trouble, Brandon.”

  “Yeah,” he says, “I know.” He takes a step toward me, and I feel myself start to blush. “We need a date,” he says, grinning. “How about Saturday night? Want to do something? Just the two of us?”