Daydream (Maple Hills, #3)(105)
On the drive home Halle called her boss and told him she wouldn’t be in this week, and also called Inayah to cancel book club. Then she called Mrs. Astor and asked if she’d mind looking after Joy for a few days while she stayed with a friend. For some reason, the way she said friend made me feel unhappy. Maybe it was because I wanted to bring Joy with us, but apparently testing if Robbie is lying about his cat allergy is mean and probably illegal.
“Mrs. Astor tells me I look like her husband every time I talk to her. I asked to see a picture and he’s an old white guy with no hair,” I say to Halle when I get back from taking Joy next door.
Halle looks up from packing her bag and laughs; it’s the brightest I’ve heard her sound in weeks. “She means future husband. It’s a joke she and my nana used to share. A bit like a, Oh, you feel like boyfriend material type thing. Like, Oh, you look like my husband. Which one? My next one. She’s hitting on you, Hen.”
“Are you going to go fight for me?” I ask, watching her immediately roll her eyes.
“Absolutely not.”
“You answered that quick. Why not?”
“Because I’ve known that lady since I was a baby,” Halle says. “And mainly because I know she did martial arts in the seventies.”
“I’d fight for you if Mrs. Astor was a Mr. Astor, may he rest in peace.”
She adds what I hope is the final thing to her bag, then starts to zip it up. “I’d never want you to fight for me with anyone over anything. Fighting is for fools, and you are not a fool.”
My eyebrow creeps up a little. “Fighting is for fools?”
She laughs, rubbing her fingers against her temple, which tells me she’s due more medicine soon. “Grayson used to get into fights all the time when we were younger, and it’s something my mom said to him. She had it made into one of those motivational cross-stitch quote frame things. Like the ones you get about Jesus. I think he still has it; I’ll get him to send a picture if he has.”
“Fights about what?”
She sighs. “I don’t even know. Mom used to say it was just boys being boys, which is a bullshit excuse in my opinion. Grayson wanted to live with Dad when our parents split up, but Dad didn’t fight for custody of us. Then we moved to Arizona, which Grayson hated. He was horribly bullied for sounding different, and he was small but really broad when everyone else was having a growth spurt and thinning out. I think it all just made him a super angry kid.”
“Is he still like that now?”
“Angry? No, he’s actually pretty chill now, just quiet. It was really hard on Mom because she was pregnant with Maisie. She had Gianna half the time, and Gi just didn’t understand why she suddenly had this woman acting like her mom, so she was a terror. And then every other day, Grayson’s school was on the phone saying he was going to get kicked out if he didn’t fix his behavior.”
“How did you feel about it?”
“I hated Grayson coming home bruised; it used to really stress me out because it made me think maybe I’d get bullied when I went to high school. I was taller than the other girls in my class and puberty slammed into me like I was the running back. I’ve always had bigger boobs, wider hips, thicker thighs, etcetera than everyone else, but I didn’t get bullied. No one paid attention to me really, but I still hate fighting because of how miserable everyone was while Grayson was acting up. Nobody knew about the bullying thing until later.”
Every time Halle tells me something about her life, I’m mad at myself for not asking earlier. I want to sit her down and learn everything there is to know about her. “What made him stop fighting? Was it the cross-stitch?”
“It was not the cross-stitch, I’m afraid.” Halle chuckles, but then it turns into a coughing fit, which reminds me to come back to this later. “So this sounds like it’s been lifted straight out of Forrest Gump, but I swear it’s true! He’d pissed off some guy in his class over something and they were going to fight after school.
“When Gray turned up there was this gang of kids there, so he ran. Our high school football coach saw how fast he was. Found out who he was, which meant finding out that he was an angry little nightmare on the brink of expulsion. He hauled him in, sat him down, and said if he stopped fighting and giving shit to all his teachers, he’d let him train with the players. If he stuck to it for the rest of the year, no incidents, he’d put him on the team.”
“I take it there were no more incidents?”
Halle chokes out a laugh again even though this story isn’t very funny. “No, there were incidents. And every time there was one, Coach reset the clock to zero. But that stubborn old man never gave up on him, and eventually Grayson made the team. Bullying stopped as soon as he was appreciated for being small and wide. His grades improved, he got into college, and the rest is history.”
“And what was happening to you? Grayson was fighting, Maisie was a baby, Gigi was confused. What were you doing?”
There’s a sad smile that she wears sometimes. One that doesn’t meet her eyes like when she truly smiles at me. “Well, we became a football family, so I spent a lot of time sitting on bleachers reading while we supported Grayson. I helped with Maisie’s diaper changes and keeping her entertained so Mom could have a break. Then Gigi moved in full-time, so that was another adjustment for everyone. I spent a lot of time hiding out at Will’s house that summer.”