One Black Rose

  Chapter Seven

  After my run-in with the Cheshire girls, I tried to wait up until Carley got home. I wanted to fill her in on everything and see what she thought, because she knew everyone around here better than I did.

  I put the groceries away and sat down to watch TV, but instead of staying up for Carley, I must have fallen asleep on the couch. That's where I woke up the next morning with a blanket over me and the television turned off. I had no idea when Carley had come home.

  The soft sound of rain against the windows was the only noise in the house. I sat up and stretched. Sleeping sideways on the couch wasn't comfortable.

  I got up and went to my room to shower and change. When I came back down to the kitchen I could hear Carley making breakfast.

  "Good morning," she called, hearing my steps on the stairs.

  "Hey," I said, walking into the kitchen. She was still dressed in her PJs. I still wanted to talk to her about the Cheshire girls.

  "Why'd you fall asleep on the couch?" she asked as she got both of us bowls of Honey Bunches of Oats.

  "You wouldn't believe the night I had," I told her, picking up my spoon and starting to eat.

  "What? Tell me now," she said, sitting down.

  I told her everything. I hadn't had a chance to talk to her about Holt and Samuel both coming into the coffee shop and what they had said, so I also told her that. And I told her all about my walk home and the Cheshire girls confronting me.

  Carley sat through my whole story without saying a word. At particularly important points she might make a little gasp and her eyes would go wide, but that was it. When I had finished, she was outraged. She stood up and paced around the kitchen, ranting about people who thought they were better than others. "Who are they to tell you that you can't see him? The nerve" was something she said at least five times before I got another word in. She also totally disagreed with me that Samuel openly disliked me, but I knew that was only because she was too busy batting her eyelashes and making a pouty face at him to notice his open hatred.

  I wanted to laugh, but I was glad my friend was outraged on my behalf.

  "Weren't you angry yesterday that I was talking to them?" I asked.

  She stopped pacing. "I just think it's odd . . . I mean, why you?" she asked. "They've gone all these years happily ignoring us and suddenly they're following you around town like lovesick puppies. WTF?"

  "I wouldn't say that's what they're doing," I replied, blushing furiously. "Holt and I just hung out once." And he clearly just wants to be friends. If that.

  "Yeah, okay," said Carley, rolling her eyes. "The point is, those girls had no business telling you to stay away from Holt, and if they were going to do that why not tell you to stay away from Samuel as well?"

  "I have no idea. They've obviously decided they don't like me, so I'd think they'd want me to stay away from Samuel more than they'd care about Holt. In the caf? yesterday Leslie glared at Holt when he started talking to me," I said thoughtfully. It really didn't make sense.

  "And Holt wouldn't tell you anything?" she asked.

  I shook my head. "He apologized, but said there was stuff he couldn't tell me. He refuses to answer a lot of my questions."

  "Maybe he's betrothed," Carley suggested. "To one of the Cheshires."

  I stared at her. It was something I hadn't thought of. Actually, I really had no idea why he'd have to stay away from me while Samuel didn't, except that maybe it made sense if he was involved with a Cheshire.

  "Why wouldn't he just say that? And why wouldn't they act like a couple?" I asked reasonably. "Plus, we just hung out once and they're getting pissed."

  "I don't know. Maybe they don't actually like each other or something," said Carley.

  "It's the twenty-first century. Stuff like betrothals doesn't happen anymore," I