You Had Me at Halo (29 page)

“I’m fine,” she croaked as she willed away the tears. She couldn’t even bite down on her lip or else Vince would know she wanted to cry.

They went the rest of the way to his apartment in silence.

He turned the key and they stepped inside. As she looked at the bathroom, she wondered if she had time for a shower before...
it happened
. Then she vetoed the idea since she had a tendency to die in water.

She pushed open the bedroom door and was just about to take her jacket off when she realized there was a lump in the bed. Holly frowned. She was sure she’d made it before they left this morning. Then she heard a shuffling noise.

“What the—”

“Hi, Vince,” Amy Jenkins drawled, as she poked her head out from under the blanket and revealed a pair of bare shoulders.

Oh. My. God.

Was she naked under there?

Holly felt her knees start to go weak. Was this earth life really so unrelenting? Holly had no recollection of things moving at such a roller coaster pace down here. Where was the peace? Where was the quiet? Suddenly the no-talking-during-a-funeral policy on Level One was starting to make complete and utter sense.

At least the one consolation of knowing she was going to lose her memory was that she would never again be subjected to images of this revolting situation.

Vince,
she hollered at the top of her mental voice.
This one’s for you.

There was no answer and for a minute Holly thought he was going to bail on her again, like he did the first time Amy turned up, but after taking a deep breath, he finally spoke.

“How did you get in?”

“I climbed up onto your window. Pretty handy there’s a porch roof just below.”

Holly almost made a snorting noise but Vince ignored her as he stared at Amy in confusion. “But
why?
” he said. His voice was low and cool and his eyes didn’t flicker as he stared directly at the other girl.

“We have unfinished business, Vince and since everyone was talking about what happened and that you’d taken the rest of the day off, I thought I’d try here.”

In his bed?

“
You shouldn’t have just turned up,” Vince said.

“Oh come on Vince, don’t be like that. We can have some fun together.” Amy leered.

Gross.

Holly glanced at the alarm clock. There was never really a good time to find a naked girl in your bed when you were in fact a girl yourself masquerading in a boy’s body. But could she just say that when she was about to get sent back to a life of torment on Level One...oh like any minute...the timing was particularly lousy.

Especially since there were things she wanted to say to Vince. Not that he necessarily would want to hear them, but still...

“I’m afraid it’s not going to happen.” Vince crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Go Vince. You tell her.

“What do you mean it’s not going to happen?” Amy sat up and dragged the sheet around her unclothed body.

“Like I said, I’m not interested.”

A dark look crossed Amy’s pale face and she got to her feet, still wrapped in the sheet. “You’re still lusting after that stupid cow, Holly Evans, aren’t you?”

“What?” Holly didn’t mean to yell out loud. But seriously,
what?

“Oh please, Vince. I’m not an idiot. I saw how you used to moon over that stuck up bitch.”

He did?

Holly could hear Vince swearing under his breath, but Amy was too busy struggling with a flowing black skirt to notice.

“Guys like you make me sick. That girl didn’t even know you were alive, yet you’d rather not stand a chance with her than look twice at anyone else.”

Well, perhaps if you were a bit nicer.

And took off that horrid white make up.

And stopped breaking into people’s houses and getting all naked, Holly wanted to retort. But she wisely kept her mouth shut.

Vince Murphy had liked her?

How had this happened? How long had it been going on for and why on earth didn’t she know anything about it?

“Look, Amy—”

“Don’t bother.” Amy now grabbed at her black blouse and thrust it over her head while Holly snapped her eyes shut. “I can’t believe I cut short my shift at The Fix and wasted two hundred bucks buying a dress for that lousy ball just because you said you were going to go. You didn’t even turn up, you scumbag. I thought once you got to know me you’d forget about her.”

“Yes, well jumping into bed with someone isn’t the same as getting to know them,” Holly retorted and Vince growled at her to let him handle it. “
Sorry,”
she mentally told him in a contrite voice.

“Oh, don’t go all moralistic on me. There’s nothing wrong with having sex, Vince. If I knew you were such a prude I wouldn’t have bothered going to as much trouble as I did.”

Trouble. What sort of trouble had she gone to? And had she just said Holly was a prude, or did she mean Vince was a prude? Maybe they were both prudes? There should be more prudes in the world.

Holly could tell by the way Vince had his hands balled into two tight fists that he didn’t like Amy one little bit.

She wondered if it was always the case. After all, Vince was a nice, decent guy and knowing him, he would have given Amy a chance. And probably another chance after that, but there was no way he would’ve liked how the girl was all over him. He
definitely
wouldn’t have liked the way she was so eager to whip her clothes off and get down and dirty.

If Amy really knew Vince at all, she would’ve worked out that for herself.

Just like Holly had.

“Vince Murphy you
are
a loser after all.” Amy was almost frothing at the mouth with rage. “You know when Benny dared me to hook up with you, I laughed in his face at first.”

Huh.

Benny? As in the other company goth who worked in Maintenance and looked like he’d been squashed between two trucks after a hard night of no-sleep and too many drugs?

“You were trying to sleep with me for a dare?” Vince narrowed his eyes.

Amy was now lacing up her shoes. “To begin with I was. But you’re a hot guy, Vince. The more I hung round you, the more I became attracted to you. But you weren’t having any of it. Which of course only made me more determined.”

“And they say love is dead,” Holly retorted before remembering she was meant to be Vince.
Whoops.

“You’re pathetic. You know that? Anyway, I’m outta here and don’t try and speak to me again.” Amy spat as she marched toward the door, but just as she was about to step out, her bag caught on the handle and the contents spilled everywhere.

“Shit,” the girl swore as she dropped to her knees and started to scoop up the contents. Boy, what was in that bag? Or more to the point what wasn’t in there?

Even from where she was standing, Holly could see a tangle of jewelry that made her wonder if Amy indulged in a bit of five-finger discounting.

Vince, ever the gentleman, bent down and picked up a pile of stuff and Holly was just about to tell him to let Amy do it on her own, when she caught sight of a packet of tablets with an airplane on the packet.

What are those?
she whispered, even though Amy couldn’t hear their internal conversation.

I don’t know.
Vince turned them over in his hand until they could both clearly see the words, Motion Sickness, stamped across the top.

Oh. My. God.

The pills.

Then things sort of started to flash into sequence in her mind. Amy had started working at The Fix a couple of weeks earlier. This was the place where Holly went practically every other day for a vanilla coffee—even two weeks ago, when she finished work late and was in a hurry to get home and get ready for her date with Todd.

Holly felt her eyes widen. Hadn’t Amy just said she’d been working that night but finished her shift early on the chance of catching Vince at the ball? It certainly wouldn’t have been hard for Amy to grind up the tablets and put them into Holly’s take-out drink.

But why?

All she could think was Amy didn’t want Holly to turn up at the Baker Colwell ball and distract Vince. What a waste. Especially since, as it turned out, Todd had planned to dump her, which meant Holly probably would’ve spent most of the night in the toilets, crying and trying to figure out what had happened.

“Give me those.” Amy snatched them away the moment she saw them in Vince’s hand. “Thanks for nothing, loser.”

“Wait—” Vince started to run after her but Holly dug in her heels.

“No, Vince. She’s not worth it.”

“What are you doing? She’s getting away. Holly, you’ve found out who did it.”

“Look at the time.” Holly lifted his arm up so he could see the face of his watch. It was five minutes to one.

“I don’t understand.”

Holly made him go and stand by the mirror. “Amy freak-zone Jenkins might have ruined my life once, but I’m not going to let her do it again and I want to look at you before I go.”

“But if we don’t catch her and find out once and for all what really happened then you’ll be stuck on Level One.”

“Vince, I’m stuck there anyway. After what I did to Todd, I doubt that machine is ever going to say I’m purged so it doesn’t matter. To be honest I don’t even care anymore. Just tell Gemma and my stepmother about this newest development if you get a chance.”

“Sure.” Vince’s voice sounded gruff. “If that’s what you want.”

Holly wanted to laugh hysterically. The way this scenario was playing out was so from what she wanted that it wasn’t funny. If she had her way she wouldn’t be dead. She would be alive and she would be with Vince.

She reached out and touched his face in the mirror. How had she never noticed how gorgeous he was? But it wasn’t his blue eyes and full lips; it was his inside that was gorgeous as well. Okay so not the literal kidneys and heart stuff. But the
other
stuff. That’s what counted. If only Holly had understood that sooner.

“About what Amy said...that you liked me. Was that true?”

Vince nodded. “Yeah.”

“I remember you asked me out when I first started at Baker Colwell.”

“You said no,” Vince reminded her.

“Well, I haven’t been able to resolve any of my other issues since I’ve been back here, but this is one I might be able to fix.” Holly coughed and stared at his face in the mirror. “I didn’t say yes then, but I’m saying it now. I just wanted you to know that.”

“Thank you,” Vince said softly. “That means something.”

Holly touched the glass again and willed herself to remember what he looked like before walking over to the dresser and picking up the photograph of them both from when they were eight.

“I’ll miss you Vince.”

“I’ll miss you Holly.”

“I won’t forget you,” he said and Holly desperately wished she could say the same thing to him as she clutched at the photo he had given her earlier that morning.

And then there was nothing.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“Right, Miss Holly Elliot Evans, client number XY4588890. The time is one o’clock and this session will commence immediately.”

Holly sat up with a start and tried to work out what was going on. She was in a white room and the man in front of her had ginger hair and chubby fingers. He looked familiar.

“I know you,” she finally said.

Then she turned her attention back to herself. Her arm seemed strange and she held it out. It was shorter than she remembered, and so were her legs. A quick check of her hair confirmed it was hanging down her back. Then she glanced down at the photograph that was still clutched in her hand.

Vince.

“Oh My God.” She jumped up from the couch and waved the photograph around in the air as a series of events came tumbling into her mind. “I remember! I did it.” She spun back to where the man was still patiently sitting. “You’re Dr. Alan Hill and my name’s Holly Evans. My best friend is Gemma Gulliven,” she squealed in excitement. “I’m twenty-two years old and I
love
chocolate. I beat the system. I remember.”

Dr. Hill stood up and pulled an apologetic face. “Miss Evans, calm down.”

“But this is so exciting.” She couldn’t stop smiling. “I remember everything. You love shopping, my Level One tutor was Tyrone and Rochelle Jackson is a big fat tart whose fingers are going to swell so bad that my ring will look
awful
on her. I can’t believe it.”

Dr. Hill raised his hand. “
Miss Evans
. Please. Could you just calm down for a minute, there’s something I need to explain to you.”

“What? That I’m a genius for beating your mind wipe?” She waggled a finger at him and grinned.

“No.” He shook his head and walked toward her; his new white loafers squeaking slightly as he moved. “The reason you can remember everything is because you didn’t have your memory erased in the first place.”