Diamond Star Girl Read Online Free

head in a moving sawmill, THAT might have been the kind of heroic gesture I could celebrate. Being honest?! An honest-to-God MISTAKE OF A PERSON!
    Ro and Lorna came over to tell me the news and Nick himself phoned an hour later. They left Alice behind because she was actually in tears about it and it wasn’t even about her. Apparently a few of them were at Johnny L’s house and somehow Nick and Donna ended up on the patio kissing. He told her that he was going to the dance with me, but ‘as friends’, which she then told Amber so now half the country knows.
    If Paul says, ‘But he wasn’t officially your boyfriend’, one more time I swear I will do something unnatural. How can that be helpful? It’s like saying to someone whose rented house burned down,
    ‘But it wasn’t yours and you were only living there for two years.’
    Two years is how long I waited for him to ask me out. Two years! Most Hollywood marriages don’t last that long and Paul thinks I can shake it off just because Nick never kissed me or gave me his leather bomber-jacket to wear or whatever. I want to do something, anything to make Nick sorry, but I know I’ll just act really pally with him and Donna next time to make people think I was never into him in that way.
    I cried a bit and then stopped and paced around, and then started joking about hoping Nick was still going to pay me for agreeing to go to the dance with him in the first place. So Lorna thinks I’m over it, but Ro knows me better than that. Tough girls like Lorna and really soft girls like Alice have it easier when it comes to making a fuss. I wish I could shout or cry or anything to get the bad feeling out of me. But instead I am choosing the journal-as-therapy route.
    Even during writing this I have checked my messages so often my thumb is sore from pressing the keys. As if he might be trying desperately to contact me and tell me he has made the biggest mistake of his life and it’s made him see that it’s really me he wants after all.
    And I still have to go to the stupid dinner at The Grange in two hours time.

DAY NINE
    I have decided to have the mumps. Not for real of course, but for the purposes of getting out of being Nick’s friend for the evening of the dance while he makes eyes at Donna who will no doubt be busy being all mature about the situation across the room.
    I called Ro and Paul into my room for an intervention.
    ‘Why can’t he get himself sorted and like me?’ I wailed.
    Paul said something about Nick liking me just not in that way, which was so uncalled for and outrageously too much truth given the situation.Good thing Ro always has a practical-sounding answer that makes me feel good. She is the most practical person I know, she even has her own screwdriver set and emergency cash, which she doesn’t spend on shoe emergencies the way I would. Very weird for someone so fashionable and cute not to be in the least bit flaky. She doesn’t even get crazy over guys, she just sees one she likes, dates him them dumps him when she feels she’s outgrown him (usually after three weeks or so).
    Anyway, when I asked why Nick isn’t into me, she said,
    ‘It’s because he’s a guy and they are always at least five years behind where they should be. My mum said that Dad is now exactly the man she wanted half a decade ago.’
    ‘You could be right,’ I sighed, ‘I mean Paul here only stopped wetting the bed last week! Hey! You’re not allowed punch me when I’m depressed! Hit Ro instead, it’s her theory.’
    ‘Three years from now Nick Collins will be kicking himself,’ Ro continued. ‘And where will you be, Lemony my girl? Off in a private jet with some guy who doesn’t fancy Donna.’
    ‘Or I’ll be here, with you and Paul and a newcinnamon candle and the same problems,’ I said.
    ‘No, Lem. You’ll have much better problems by then,’ Ro smiled.
    ‘We’ll make sure of that,’ Paul added helpfully.
    Somehow I didn’t feel that much better. It