Read Online Diamonds Are a Teen's Best Friend by Allison Rushby - Free Book Online Page B

to rub my eyes. How funny can sociology/microbiology be? And, besides all that, I don’t quite know what to do now. Do I go over? Do I leave them alone? After all, they seem to be having a pretty good time without me. My dad – I don’t think I’ve seen him look so happy since … gosh, I can’t even remember. Oh. Right. Since Jessica, maybe?
    My heart sinks when I remember her. Jessica. She was a woman my dad dated for a while. I didn’t really like her all that much. Well, no, that’s not exactly true. Jessica was okay. It just hadn’t worked out. They’d both broken it off, really. Yes. Jessica was okay, but she was no … well, she was no Holly. My eyes lift up as I think this and I take a second look at my dad. And Holly.
    Oh, no. No.
    I hope my dad doesn’t think that Holly being nice to him means the same thing that Jessica being nice to him meant. I mean, Jessica and Holly … they’re kind of different people. Jessica was a psychologist. A normal-looking, normal person with a normal job (so she had a few quirks, like putting salt on her porridge, but don’t we all have a fewquirks?). But Holly – Holly’s in a different league. I keep watching them, laughing and talking, talking and laughing, and my heart sinks even further (if that’s possible).
    No. This is not good. Not good at all.
    Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I think Holly’s too good for my dad because she’s so pretty, or because she’s famous, or anything like that. It’s just that … well, how on earth would it ever work out? I mean, my dad and Holly Isles. She lives in LA, we’re going to live in Paris (well, for a year, at least). She’s a world-famous actress, he’s a professor of sociology. She dates famous actors, he dates … rarely. Get my drift? Their two worlds – they just couldn’t merge and …
    ‘Hey, Nessa! How’s it going?’
    I whip around on the spot. Marc. Marc is walking up the deck towards me. Oh, no. No. What do I do? I start to freak out and then wonder why I’m freaking out at all. What have I got to freak out about? I haven’t done anything wrong. (This must be a first …)
    ‘Hey, yourself!’ I wave back at him and then realise instantly what the problem is: I don’t want him to see Holly and my dad. I don’t know why, I just don’t. So, now, I race up towards him, grab his arm and spin him around.‘Let’s go for a walk!’ I say brightly. Too brightly, I think. ‘Not on this deck, though, it’s too windy. Or maybe we can catch a movie, or something? Yes. A movie would be great. Any movie. I don’t care. Do you care? We could get popcorn and everything.’
    Marc gives me a strange look (I don’t blame him) and his head twists back for a second, as if he realises I’m trying to divert his attention away from whatever’s up ahead. Don’t see them, I chant in my head, don’t see them, don’t see them, don’t see them, don’t see them, don’t see them. But it’s no good. He’s looking so far back around his shoulder now that he must see them. And just when I’m getting ready for him to say something, his head twists back and his eyes meet mine before he shrugs.
    ‘I saw a movie this morning, but a walk would be great. As big as this boat is, it’s making me feel cooped up.’
    ‘Great!’ I say, still too brightly. But inside my head I think, That’s funny, I was sure he’d seen Holly and my dad just then. Positive, even. If he has, though, Marc doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t say anything about it at all.

    From: ‘Alexa Milton’
To: ‘NJM’
Subject: What? What?! What?!! What?!!! What?!!!! What?!!!!!
    Let me get this straight. You are Holly Isles’s new best friend and you are helping her find a new guy? Um, Nessa Joanne Mulholland (to quote your dad), if even 1 per cent of any of what you have told me turns out to be true, I will bury myself alive with all the other dead dusties out here. Email me back.