“Maybe the two of you just need to jump in with both feet,” Holly said, “Stop waiting for the right moment or for things to get less awkward. Just go for it.”
This whole thing with Elda was driving him batty. He wasn’t sure which way was up and which was down. Even though their date had been only okay, she still asked him to hang out after it. But then she blew him off for Dinesh this morning. Frankly, Danny didn’t really want to talk about the date anymore.
The one good part of their conversation, the only time they really clicked yesterday, was when they talked about how Holly never volunteered information about herself. He didn’t want to be the guy who only talked about his own problems. “Can I ask you something?”
Holly shrugged, staring at the road in front of them.
“How did you actually get that scar?”
She immediately covered her mouth. “I thought I told you.” She lowered her hand, trying to give off the illusion of cool. “Street fight.”
“Come on. What’s the real story? I’m not just trying to be nice or get you to like me. I actually want to know.” Danny was being pushy. He backed off. “I mean, if you want to talk about it. You don’t have to.” The scar was just a tiny thing, but the fact that she’d been all cagey about how she got it, had been gnawing at Danny for days. A story lived behind her fib, and Danny needed to know Holly’s stories.
She clutched and unclutched the steering wheel a few times. “All right. I’ll tell you. It’s not a big deal, really. A dog bit me.”
“No way.” Danny craned his neck to see the scar better, but she scooted away and ducked her head, like that was her default response.
She caught herself, though, and turned slightly toward Danny while keeping her eyes on the road, giving him the full view. It was a small scar, really, a white line going from her nose down her upper lip. “It was my dog, actually.”
Danny pointed to her collarbone, where he knew a dog tattoo was hiding under her chunky cardigan. “The tattoo.”
“The tattoo.” Holly bit her lip again, caught herself, and let her mouth relax.
“What happened?” He had to keep her talking, like back when they were working on their gingerbread houses next to each other. He wanted that banter back. Talking to Holly, and it was silly to think this, but it almost gave him the same rush as when he was texting Elda.
“Oh, it was ridiculous.” Holly shook her head. “The dog was on the couch eating a pig ear, and I should’ve known better than to bother her, but I leaned down and kissed her head.” Holly shrugged. “She didn’t growl or anything. She gave me no warning. One second my lips were on her fur, the next, she’d taken a chunk out of my face.”
“Oh shit.” Danny touched his own lip. “What did you do then?”
“It seems so ridiculous, but I ran up to the bathroom and checked the mirror. It looked like someone had shot a bullet through my lip.” She pressed on the scar. “There was blood running down my nose from where she’d clipped me up here, too.” Holly touched the side of her nose, right near the edge of her eyebrow. “She’d missed my eye by, like, half an inch.”
“When did this happen?”
“Like two days before the start of freshman year, which is kind of hilarious because I’d had this huge plan to show up at school looking fabulous, ready to take the world by storm. Instead, I had a massive, gross, oozing wound on my face.” She laughed. “Elda probably would’ve loved it.”
“Totally.” Danny winced. Elda. What did she have to do with any of this?
“The thing ended up on my school I.D. for the entire year, and I became known as Rabies Girl. Hooray.”
“Jackasses.” What kinds of human garbage would do that to somebody? Not only had Holly been attacked by a dog, but she also had to endure name calling and bullying because of it.
She shrugged. “It’s fine. I’ve been living as Rabies Girl for four years now. Just hoping I don’t get mauled by a bear or anything right before college. I’d like to have a fighting chance there.”
“The scar’s barely noticeable,” Danny said.
“It was the first thing you noticed about me.”
“Not because it’s gross or anything, but because it’s interesting…cute.” Danny’s face warmed, and he faced the window again. “I kind of get where you’re coming from, though. I mean, not the bullying or whatever, but,” he gestured to his leg, “I had big plans, too.”
“Yeah, how did your thing happen?”
“Apparently you don’t read the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.”
She shook her head quickly. “Nope. Sure don’t.”
“The reporter showed up to interview me about the upcoming season because our team had a chance to win state. Still does, I guess. All these colleges were looking at me. I had a shot at breaking state records. Everything I’d been dreaming about since I was a kid was right at my fingertips. But on a dare, I went up for a dunk and—crack.”
Holly winced. “Sounds like you and I should stop making plans.”
“We’re doomed to fail. The future is one big wasteland of disappointment and uncertainty.”
Holly pulled into a parking spot and turned off the engine. “I figured you for an optimist, Danny Garland. I like this edgier side of you.”
“You said you like me.” Danny raised his hands in victory. “I totally made up that story to get you to stop hating me. I can’t believe it worked.”
Holly eyed him for a second. “You’re full of shit.”
“Guilty.”
She grinned at Danny, pulling her lip into a sly, crooked smile that was way more than cute.
…
“I mean, it’s terrible. Infuriating. You have to see it to believe it.” Holly leaned back to assess her work. Her showstopper was nearly finished, and she was confident that she had never made anything more beautiful in her life.
Danny was working at a card table a few feet away. After they’d gone shopping, he had Brian wheel over his showstopper on an old wagon so he and Holly could keep each other company while working on their showstoppers. It had been his idea. What was she supposed to tell him? No? She made up some garbage story that Elda had asked her to work on the marzipan figures of their family members. It wasn’t a bad lie. Holly was a sculptor after all.
Danny had been trying to force this renewed friendship all day, and Holly had to admit it was kind of working. She liked spending time with him, talking to him, and she was doing a bang-up job of ignoring her more intense feelings for him.
“Of all the things to be angry about in the world, this seems kind of small potatoes,” he said. “That’s all I’m saying.”
Holly added a bit more royal icing to the railing along the front steps. “Maybe I’m so focused on it because I should be pissed about a trillion other, more important things in this messed up world, but the terrible makeup on Riverdale is something tangible I can really wrap my head around.”
“Okay, I can respect that.” Danny smiled at her.