“So why was the old room a dream room?” Ally put a pink butterfly on the blue nail. An orange butterfly on the green nail. She reached for the TV remote and turned down thevolume on the country music. “What did you like best about it?”
“One wall had ten tiny mirrors in gold frames. Every frame was different. One had angels carved in it, and another one had a dragon. But mostly they were just really swirly. I liked those little mirrors.”
“But your dad didn’t pack those up?” Ally lifted her hand and tilted it to see the side in the light.
“No. None of the decor came with us.”
They were both quiet for a moment. Sarah was trying to figure out how she felt about that—her father leaving so much behind—when Ally spoke.
“I used to think that packing up and moving away would solve my problems.”
“As in…run away?”
Ally pulled another butterfly out of the jar with a pair of tweezers. “Yeah. I used to think about it a lot last fall when nothing was going right. But the thing is, you can’t run away from yourself.”
“I don’t get it.” She shook her head. “What do you mean?”
“You can move to a new place where everything around you is different. But ifyou’reno different, the problems are just going to come with you.” Ally shrugged. “Well, that’s how I worked it out in my head. I figured I’d wait and get a fresh start after I fixedmefirst.”
Sarah’s problems had definitely followed her to Heartache. Leaving Florida hadn’t fixed anything, although it had given her some time with her dad. Staying in Heartache might not necessarily make anything better for her. Theresa kept telling her she needed to face her grief about her mom instead of ignoring it.
That answer seemed so painful, though.
“I don’t think you need fixing, Ally. You seem pretty great to me.” She looked around the gorgeous bedroom. “Great home. Cute guy. Fun job at the salon. And you got into a really good college.”
“I put a lot of energy into making everything around me look perfect because I didn’t feel perfect inside. I was like this walking stress nightmare.” Ally slid a hand under hers and tilted it so she could see. “Look how pretty!”
“They’re beautiful. I love how bright the colors are.” But she couldn’t get as excited about her nails thinking about Ally stressing herself out. “So you’re better now?”
“Mostly. I mean, my parents are still walking a tightrope, and I’m scared they won’t stay together, but Ethan tells me that’s their issue, not mine.” Ally capped the topcoat and turned on a little fan so their nails would dry faster.
“It’s cool you can talk about it.” She, on the other hand, was not comfortable with sharing a lot of personal stuff. In fact, she’d pushed herself to stay quiet about so many things that she kissed boys instead of talking to them. Before that, she’d have drinks with them instead of having conversations.
There was something pretty messed up about it.
“It kinda helps working in a salon. The women there dish all the time, but it’s not mean and gossipy like at school. They give advice and try to help each other, or they just talk to…de-stress.”
A pounding on a door nearby made Ally jump.
“I hope that’s not my father,” Sarah said. “Every time I go somewhere lately he shows up to bring me home.” She followed her friend out of the bedroom and down to the living room where Ally’s mother was pulling open the door.
It wasn’t her dad though.
“Evening, Mrs. Finley.” Three guys dressed in work overalls stood on the porch. Behind them, a truck with “Finleys’ Building Supplies” painted on one side sat in the driveway. “We’ve got a delivery to make if you don’t mind pointing us in the direction of the game room.”
“But I didn’t order anything.” Ally’s mom folded her arms. The woman was so thin Sarah had the urge to go cook her something to eat.
She might not know how to talk about her problems the way Ally had learned to, but she could cook comfort food like nobody’s business.
“Mr. Finley did, ma’am. He asked for you to call him if there was any problem.”
“No. No problem.” Mrs. Finley shook her head, her hair slipping out of a ponytail. “Girls, will you show them where to go?”
“Sure. It’s this way.” Ally waved the main delivery man forward while the other two went back to their truck.
Sarah followed, careful not to let her nails touch anything as Ally brought the man past an in-home theater to a big, empty room with hardwood floors and leaf-green walls. A few framed photos of Ally as a young girl hung on the walls, along with some cute paintings that looked like school art projects.
“Great.” The dude turned in a slow circle and then knocked on walls in a few places. “We’ll try to be in and out as quickly as we can, but I think it’ll still take an hour or two to set things up. It might be a better surprise for your mom if she waits to come in until the end.”
