Hyacinth Girls Read Online Free PDF Page B

ice cream and we sat on a wooden bench, licking our cones. She poked holes into her strawberry scoop using her tongue and snorted as she wiped pink ice cream from her nose. “I hope you write this down,” I said. “Because it’s so unbelievable and dramatic.” I crunched my cone, shaking my head. “You’ve got the villain pretending to be a victim. The dim-witted queen who almost allows a great injustice to occur. And then the condemned heroine who’s saved at the last moment by a righteous crowd. Pretty incredible. Don’t you think?”
    “Like a fairy tale,” she said lightly. “Oh, dreams can come true.”
    I wrapped my arm around her freckled shoulders, and the easy sugary feeling lasted until later that night when the phone started to ring. I was already in bed watching a cooking show on TV. “Can we talk?” the woman asked. It was Cerise Doblak. Robyn’s mother.
    “I’ve decided to pull Robyn out of school,” she said tersely. “I don’t know if you’re aware of what Robyn’s had to endure over the past few months, but we just can’t take it anymore.”
    I quickly muted the TV, feeling unfairly ambushed.
    “Robyn used to have friends. She used to be happy. But some of the girls came up with the delightful idea of taunting her about her breasts and now she can’t even walk into a classroom without being barked at like a dog. It’s sickening. And Callie’s little stunt the other day was the absolute last straw.”
    There was a gulping silence on the line, the sound of a woman coming unglued. I tried to maintain my composure.
    “She used to be happy—” she said.
    “I’m sorry she’s unhappy.” I took a breath, propping myself up against the headboard. “But whatever she’s told you about Callie, it isn’t true. Callie wouldn’t hurt a fly. It’s been difficult for us to understand why Robyn’s making up these stories.”
    Cerise gave a horrifying snort of laughter. “Making them up? Has it ever occurred to you that Callie is lying?”
    “Everyone came forward to defend her after
Robyn
lied.”
    “That was a great stunt. Getting everyone to lie. Getting everyone to blame Robyn.”
    I imagined Cerise’s spittle drying on the mouthpiece of her phone. I wondered if she was maybe a little unbalanced.
    “This isn’t some conspiracy.” I lowered my voice. “The class came forward because it was true.”
    “They’ve all turned against her.” Her voice broke. “They hate—”
    “She bothered Callie before,” I said. “She’s said terrible things about Callie’s mother. She told her her mother died because she couldn’t stand to look at her.”
    “She never—” Cerise began. “Robyn wouldn’t.”
    “Maybe she needs help.”
    “She wouldn’t say that,” Cerise protested. “Her own father passed away.”
    “A therapist, maybe.”
    “Robyn can be immature. She doesn’t always notice when she’s irritating people. And I should’ve been more careful about her clothes, but I know she’s not lying. I know when she comes home crying, telling me all the things they’ve done to her…” Cerise’s voice changed then; it became fast and spiteful. “The truth is, Callie targets her. She masquerades as this perfect girl, but she’s cruel underneath. Shehumiliates Robyn and I fear for her future. That kind of person, that kind of—”
    I don’t remember hanging up the phone, but suddenly her voice was gone. I unmuted the TV and stared at the screen. Like mother, like daughter. They both needed help. Bipolar, schizophrenic, messed-up people. I left the phone off the hook so she couldn’t call back, but my stomach bubbled with acid and I clutched it in pain.
    Callie was in the kitchen. She stood beneath the small yellow light in bare feet, staring into the open cupboards. She had opened all of them. A bag of pretzels was on the counter.
    “Cal? Are you okay?”
    She turned to me, her hair loose around her shoulders, her eyes squinty with surprise. “I forgot it was