Read Online Give Me Strength by Kate McCarthy - Free Book Online

won’t take a
second.”
    “Mac,” I shouted down the phone. “Really, it’s
okay. I can—”
    “No, no,” she cut me off. “It’s all good. Travis
said he’d love to help out.” I heard a loud thump and a muffled ouch . “He’s going to deliver them to you, okay? Just hang
tight. He’ll be there in half an hour.”
    “Uh…well I think—”
    She cut me off again with, “Anyway, I have to
go. Thanks so much Quinn. I’ll see you tomorrow,” and hung up the
phone.
    My fingers dialled Lucy in a panic. Yes, she
only lived next door, but there was no time for such pleasantries
as knocking on the door.
    “Yo, Quinny,” she answered.
    “Lucy.” I poured out two wines and tucking my
phone between my ear and my shoulder, I raced into the bedroom and
sat them on the bedside table. “I have a problem and I need you
here yesterday.”
    I flung open the wardrobe door.
    “Calm down and tell Lucy what’s wrong,” Lucy
said in her fake, soothing voice. I know it’s fake because it takes
on a low, drawn-out pitch when she thinks I’m behaving like a five
year old, which quite frankly, I knew I was doing right now, but I
had good reason.
    “It’s Travis,” I half yelled as I rummaged
through my shelves for something I could wear. “He’s on his way
here. And if you speak in the third person again, I’ll slap you,” I
added as an afterthought.
    “Oh Em Gee, Quinn!” she squealed. “You rang him
after all. You sneaky hooha! You told me you never got his
number.”
    “I didn’t.” God. Where to begin with that? “I
don’t have time for explanations. I need you.”
    “Fine, but you better tell me everything when I
get there. I’ll just grab my bag of tricks and be right over.” She
hung up.
    Lucy’s bag of tricks was actually a suitcase
sized bag of makeup, hair products, and all types of beauty
related, mind-boggling, electrical devices. This bag had wheels and
a combination lock that Lucy gave to no one, not even me. Not that
I ever had much use for it until now.
    I rummaged through all my clothes, lamenting
that nothing was clean. All my favourite items of clothing, like
the dark, skinny jeans that made me look taller, or the soft pink
knit that made my skin less pasty, were in the laundry. I held up a
pair of denim shorts that I rarely, if ever, wore, but I bought
them for the colour. They were hot pink with black piping along the
pockets—bought in a mindless splurge simply because they were a
bargain. Emerging from the wardrobe, I found Lucy striding in,
wheeling her suitcase behind her.
    She looked at me and flinched. “You invited him
over looking like this?”
    “I didn’t invite—”
    “Just shut up,” she snapped, her eyes flashing.
“I’m so disappointed in you. There’s no time to perform miracles
here.”
    Crouching, she unzipped her suitcase and pulled
out her curling wand. She plugged it in and left it to heat on my
bedside table. Next she moved to the wine I’d set out and took a
large gulp, leaving me feeling like I had somehow become Jack
Bauer, starring in my very own series of 24 . Between the
hours of six pm and seven pm …..
    I picked up mine and took a sip, using my other
hand to toss the shorts I was holding at her. “Everything’s in the
laundry. Are these too short?” She looked at them and opened her
mouth to speak. “Don’t answer that. I know they’re too short.”
    She set her wine down and held them up.
“Rubbish. For a little person, you have great legs and a cute butt.
Put them on,” she ordered. She flung them back at me and took a
turn in the wardrobe, coming out with a loose turquoise cotton top
that fitted snugly around the waist and fell off one shoulder.
    “What about this thing? It looks casual enough
to think you were just lounging around at home looking sexy. He’ll
take one look at the flawless skin on that shoulder of yours and
want to lick it all up like a lollipop. Trust me.”
    I had no choice but to trust her because I was
running