✩ #17 in body positivity ✩
Holly needs a job. And some cash.
That's how she ends up at Cafe by the Sea, hired by the assistant manager, Oliver, who's cute, annoying, and totally unattainable. She's not really looking to fall in love though - it's...
Quite literally a blur, because Holly was drunk (possibly drugged?), probably experiencing shock, and on the edge of passing out.
She only managed to piece together the events of that night from what other people told her.
She woke up in the hospital, her mother asleep in a chair beside her bed, her hands damp and clammy around Holly's.
Her mom immediately shot up, her neck making a noticeable cracking sound as she straightened.
"Holly? Oh thank God you're awake. Oh thank God."
She reached, hands shaking, to tuck a piece of stray hair behind Holly's ear. Her face was pale, and her eyes looked puffy, as if she'd been crying.
Holly tried to speak, but she only croaked again.
"Wait here, let me get you some water, sweetie." Her mom immediately left the room in a flurry, leaving Holly alone with the silence and a pounding headache.
What had happened?
The last thing she really remembered was having that drink with Rohan. Everything else was...her head hurt more trying to think about it.
"Holly?"
Holly looked up. Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head when she saw Oliver standing in the doorway. He scratched his nose, looking uncomfortable.
She realized he wasn't sure if he could come in.
She patted the chair beside her, where her mom had been sitting. She hoped her mom didn't mind, but she didn't see an alternative right now.
"Are you alright?"
Holly nodded.
Oliver sighed, running a hand through his hair. It looked like it hadn't been combed, and she could see a hint of a five o' clock shadow.
"Are you alright?" she managed to rasp out.
Oliver stared at her, like she'd grown another head. Holly self-consciously tucked another piece of hair behind her head, and while doing so, checked that she actually hadn't grown another head.
"Holly, you — I — I can't believe you actually did it. I was so worried, do you know just how worried I was?"
He dropped his face into his hands. Tufts of his blonde brown hair stuck out into the air, and Holly reached, patting his head gently, smoothing the hair down.
I'm alright, she was trying to say.
When he was by her, she really did feel alright. She wasn't happy that she'd made him worried, and she'd yet to even think about the consequences of her actions, but she felt oddly glad to see him right now.
"I called the police after you left. I told them what you might try. And then I...I went to your house. When you applied for a job, you had to write down a home address, so I went there. I called Sadie on the way, and she met me at your house. And then we told your mom everything. I think your mom tried to call you a few times, but you didn't pick up."
Oliver was trembling slightly now. But he didn't look at her.
"We all went to the beach. The cops were already there, but they couldn't find you. They checked Tiki Stands, but by that time, you'd probably already left. So we all split up. We didn't know where you'd gone."
Her mom came into the room then, a cup of water in her hand.
She gave Oliver a nod, then sat on the edge of the bed.
Holly took the water. It was cold and delicious, and it ran down her throat like cold fire. She could feel it as it wound its way into her stomach, and replacing hot, tense coil she hadn't even realized was there.
"Why did you do that, Holly?"
Her mother looked at her with utter disbelief, and shook her head.
Holly shook her head too.
She couldn't explain. It had just...felt so right at the time. She hadn't thought about it in terms of whether she should do it or not, or exactly made a list of pros or cons. She'd just...had an idea, and acted on it.
"Do you know how worried we were?"
Her mother's voice was loud in the quiet room. It demanded an explanation, something she could stomach.
Holly couldn't give it.
"Holly, look at me."
Holly looked up.
Her mother's eyes bored into hers.
Thwap!
Time sped up: a burning sensation along her cheek, the strange feeling of her face moving through the air.
She touched her cheek, staring numbly at her mom.
"Mom?"
Her mom had never hit her before in her life. She'd berated her, for sure, chided her, scolded her, but her mother had never raised a hand against her.
Her mother was crying, tears flooding down her cheeks. She grabbed Holly's face, her hands cold and clammy.
"Holly, do you understand how worried we were? Holly, honey. Sweetie. I was so...I saw being carried in a stretcher away. They said it wasn't serious, you had just blacked out, either from shock or...or...something else, they couldn't be sure. But when I saw you lying on that stretcher, lying on that hospital bed...I could only think the worse."
Holly watched the curtains blowing in her hospital room. They were a kind of gauzy white, lifting gently as the breeze whispered by.
She knew she should respond to her mother somehow. Hug her even. But she couldn't. She could only watch the curtains, mesmerized.
She didn't even notice when the tears ran down her cheeks, waterfalls down the soft cliff faces of her mother's fingers.
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