The Summer of Cotton Candy by Debbie Viguié Page B

I’ll make sure this whole mess gets straightened out.” She looked into his eyes, and she trusted him. He would make it okay. She believed him. He was Josh, and he had never steered her wrong. He was a good friend. She nodded slowly.
    He put his arm around her shoulders, and together they walked out. Candace refused to look at anyone for fear she’d lose it, but she just stared straight ahead, jaw set and body quivering with anger.
    Josh walked her all the way out to her car, and she was grateful for his support. Once there, she turned to him. “I didn’t take any drugs.”
    “I know,” he assured her.
    “Thank you.”
    “Just go home and try to relax. I’m sure this will all be straightened out by Monday. Think of it this way: you actually get a weekend off.”
    “Yeah,” she managed to say weakly. Another fear rose up in her mind.
    “What will Kurt think?”
    “Kurt will know this is just as bogus as I do.”
    She nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes.
    “See you in a couple days?”
    “Yes,” she said, getting in her car.
    She started the engine and drove off, noticing that Josh watched her out of sight. He was a great guy. As she headed home, she tried to think what she would tell her parents. How could she break it to them without them going postal on her?
    When she walked in the door, she could tell they were way beyond postal. They were both sitting, facing the front door, legs crossed. In her mother’s hand was a letter, and she could just guess at what it said.
    “It’s not true,” she blurted out. “I just got to work and they told me, and I told them that it was impossible. I’ve never done drugs. Josh told me that they would figure everything out Monday when my supervisor gets back. There’s this girl at work who hates me and tried to get me in trouble a few days ago. I think she might have something to do with it. And then a guy named Ron grabbed me, and I told him if he touched me again I would sue him for sexual harassment.” The words came flowing out of her right before she burst into tears and sat down on the floor.
    Her parents were silent but Candace was beyond caring. This just had to be the worst day of her life, and it wasn’t over yet. All she wanted to do was climb into bed with Mr. Huggles, pull the covers over her head, and pray for the nightmare to end. Maybe she would wake up, and it would still be May, and she would have never gotten a job at The Zone. She would let Tamara pay for everything all summer, no matter how mad her dad got, because anything had to be better than this.
    It seemed a long, long time before she heard her dad, his voice floating somewhere above her. “Did this Ron hurt you?”
    She lifted her head and looked at him through her tears. He was next to her, down on one knee, and he had his scary lawyer face on. She shook her head slowly. “He just scared me when he grabbed me, but he didn’t hurt me. I wanted to throw my badge in his face and tell him I quit, but I was afraid that if I did, then everyone would think I really did do the drugs and nobody would straighten it all out.”
    She felt a hand brush her cheek, and she turned to see her mom kneeling on the other side of her. “I think you better tell us everything, starting from the beginning,” her mom said.
    It took two hours, but Candace managed to tell them everything that had happened from the day she had started work at The Zone. Her dad had been furious when he heard about how she had been injured on the railroad tracks, and her mother had some harsh words about Lisa. At some point they all moved into the kitchen where they continued talking over bowls of ice cream.
    Just about the time she was finished with her narrative, the doorbell rang. Her mother rose to get it, and her father gripped her hand tightly. Her mother came back a moment later.
    “It seems you have a visitor,” she said.
    Candace looked up as Josh followed her mom into the kitchen. She stared at him, slack jawed.