Tell Me by Lisa Jackson

Author:Lisa Jackson [Jackson, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2013-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

I’ve never had a manicure, but I decide not to confess.

“Is this a good idea?” I ask from the backseat

“It’s an idea.” Mim drives down Rose Street.

Past Crudup’s Country Market with the smiling face of Coleman Crudup on a big sign.

Past Crudup’s Corner with another big sign: a smiling Coleman Crudup looking at a cow who looks pretty happy, too.

Past the big sign that mentions there are three other Crudup markets in the five-mile area.

Mim drives past Mabel’s Place and parks across the street in front of Star Nails.

My heart is racing.

I half expect to see a van with a ripped American flag sticker parked in front, just to make things really clear. I look at the Star Nails building—small and white, with steps leading to a porch. The front door has a silver star on it. I look at the upstairs windows. The pink curtains are closed.

Taylor adjusts her sunglasses. “We are undercover. My name is Bianca.”

Oh please.

“You, Anna, are Tess.”

“I don’t want to—”

“And, Mim, you’re—”

“Tired.”

We get out of the car.

“Remember everything,” Taylor whispers.

“And if at any point one of us doesn’t feel safe, we all leave,” Mim mentions. “Agreed?”

Agreed.

“Be exceptionally normal,” Taylor adds. “And, if possible, boring, so we can blend in.”

Mim smiles. “I’m not sure this group is capable of boring.”

We walk up the steps, through the pink door with the silver star on it, and into a large room where Asian women are sitting at tables doing nails.

A smiling man walks up. “Family plan?” he asks, laughing.

Taylor elbows me and we start laughing.

“Three manicures,” Mim tells him.

“Pick color.”

Mim, who doesn’t go wild, picks clear, I pick Whisper Pink, and Taylor, after what seems like ages, goes for a glittering red called Crimson Sparkle.

“Will this color glow in the dark?” Taylor asks the man, who doesn’t laugh.

I’m looking at every face in this place. I don’t see the girl. I’m the only official girl here. Taylor is massively mature.

“Sit, please,” the man says to me. He smiles big. He has a gold tooth. “You sad girl today?”

“No, I’m just . . .”

“She’s an actor,” Taylor explains. “You know. Moody.”

Thanks.

He doesn’t know moody.

“Everybody happy here,” he shouts, and the women who are doing manicures look up and smile. “We make you star,” he tells me. “Okay?”

“Sure,” I say. I’m looking around for the lady I saw in the van. She isn’t here either.

Maybe this whole thing is a joke. Maybe nothing I thought I saw was right.

Mim has one hand soaking in a little bowl.

“What’s your name?” she asks the young woman who is cutting her nails.

I can’t hear what that woman says.

We’re supposed to leave if anyone doesn’t feel safe, right?

Except we don’t have a signal for that.

Taylor shakes her head at me.

And that means what?

A nail lady in a pink Star Nails shirt examines my hands. She rubs them.

“Soft,” she says.

“Thank you.”

My nails are supershort and jagged.

“Bite?” she asks.

“I’m sorry?”

She touches my nails. “You bite?”

“Oh, yes, sometimes. It’s a bad habit.”

“No bite,” she says. “Pretty.”

She rubs stuff on my nails.

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