Secret Diaries (Heartlake Cliche #1)

Chapter Three

      “Hi, Rachelle. You probably don’t know me but I’m Grace Enriquez,” she greeted, extending her right hand.

      Rachelle smiled in recognition and shook Grace’s hand.

      “Hello. And I do know you. You’re from the St. James Chronicles, right? I remember you with Haley when she did a feature article about me.”

      “Oh. That was more than a year ago. And I was merely assisting our features editor. You still remember?” Grace said with disbelief.

      “Yes,” Rachelle replied with a small laugh. “I thought you were one of the production assistants and I asked you to watch over my bag. It was only when I was talking with Haley that I found out you were actually her associate editor. I apologized and you said it was alright,” she narrated while leading the two of them to one of the nearby benches.

      Grace smiled, remembering. “I see. You must have a very sharp memory.”

      Rachelle shook her head. “Nope. Not really. It’s just that you’re quite easy to remember. Especially since I also thought that you would have been a great model if you were taller. Long, black hair and amber eyes have a certain appeal after all,” she said, looking at the other girl with admiration.

      Grace blushed. “Oh no. There’s no need to say that,” she said, embarrassed. Grace was only five feet four inches and never in her life had she thought herself beautiful. Pretty maybe. But nothing more than that.

      Rachelle laughed. “There’s no need to be embarrassed about that. We girls should always think of ourselves as the most beautiful creatures ever made. If we don’t, who will?” she said with an arch of her right brow.

      Grace decided then and there that she liked Rachelle Harlow. Probably more than she could like the entire female population of the graduating class.

      “Anyway,” Rachelle asked while trying to wipe her face with a towel, “I heard Haley’s editor-in-chief now. So have you been promoted too?”

      “Yes. I took over Haley’s job,” Grace said with a hint of pride.

      “Wow! Congratulations. I read the Chronicles once in a while and I know that you are a group of superb writers,” she said, still smiling.

      A few tendrils of Rachelle’s long hair had broken loose from her ponytail and she was starting to look a bit uncomfortable due to her sticky clothes. Model that she was, she still tried her best to hide her discomfort. Grace noticed however and she figured the time for chitchat was over.

      “By the way, I was in Central Park last night,” she said, taking out the brown notebook from her bag, “and I found this under the bench.”

      Rachelle turned to look at what she was holding, and was not able to move. She obviously couldn’t believe it. “My journal! I called the park’s lost and found office during lunch break but no one had surrendered any brown notebook. It was depressing but I still told the office to call me if they ever got a report. So this was why they didn’t get any!” she rattled with a mix of disbelief and amazement.

      She took the journal with unsteady hands and clutched it to her chest. And then, she threw her arms around a surprised Grace because she couldn’t help it.

      “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she said, hugging her journal’s savior tighter.

      “Easy,” Grace told her. “I guess that diary is really important to you, huh?” She got out of Rachelle’s bear hug.

      “Yes!” she exclaimed. “More than all of my photos combined. Oh my god!” She shook Grace with her excitement. “How can I repay you? Is there anything I can do? Just tell me, please.”

     “You don’t have to do anything. It’s not like I saved your life, anyway.”

      “Of course you did,” Rachelle took her hand. “If this journal went to the wrong hands I wonder what would have happened to me,” she laughed. “I’d probably be the center of all embarrassment by now. A laughingstock. So you see, you did save my life.”

      “Well, I guess that’s a different way of looking at it,” Grace replied.

      After a short pause, “I read a sentence or two but that’s about it,” she said, feeling the need to tell the truth.

      “That’s alright. I’m glad you told me.” Rachelle stood up and gestured for Grace to do the same.

      “I’ll just take a shower and get out of my sweaty clothes but can you please wait for me at the school lobby? I want to treat you to something,” she shrugged. “It’s the least I could do. Ice cream maybe?”

      Grace thought that Rachelle would insist on it no matter what so she smiled and agreed. “Ice cream, it is.”

 *****

      They had their ice cream at a nearby shop and an hour had passed before Rachelle noticed that it was getting late. Before they knew it, they had talked about almost everything St. James-related and even some personal matters that they felt were safe issues to disclose to each other. Rachelle’s journal had not only been brought back but with it came a new friend.

      Rachelle didn’t have many girlfriends similar to Grace. Most of her friends were also models or the partying, wild and reckless type. Girls who had a similar description as Grace—short, simple and ordinary by society’s standards—seemed to either openly hate her or completely avoid her. She didn’t blame them though. She thought that had she been like them, she would probably have done the same. This made her admire Grace a lot more. Her new friend was probably as uncomfortable as she was during the first few minutes of their meeting but she was brave enough to step out of her comfort zone to talk to someone who was completely out of her league.

      She stopped walking and turned to Grace. “Thanks for bringing my journal back to me,” her eyes softened as she took both of Grace’s hands, “and for being my new friend.” She smiled.

      Grace was obviously not used to being called a friend by someone like Rachelle and she almost took her hand away. Rachelle’s sincerity was reflected in her eyes, however, and it made the other girl believe that they could really be friends.

      “You’re welcome. I feel honored to be your friend,” she said, squeezing Rachelle’s hands as a gesture of comfort and friendship.

      They continued walking along the sidewalk on their way to the train station. Not five minutes had passed however, when someone tried to pull Rachelle’s left hand—the one holding her phone. Thinking it was a snatcher, she reacted immediately by raising her curved right arm in an attempt to hit the man’s face using her elbow. Grace thought the same thing and decided to use her bag as a weapon to hit the man on the head. He was fast enough to dodge Rachelle’s elbow by moving a bit to his left but since Grace was there and ready to use her bag, he had not completely avoided being assaulted by these two eighteen-year-old girls.

      The man tried to cover his face to keep from suffering any injuries due to a handbag being pounded on him. When he found an opening, he took hold of Grace’s wrists to keep her from moving. She tried to get away and when she couldn’t, she tried to kick him.

      “Stop! Stop it, Grace!” Rachelle shouted over the noise and tried to pull her away from the man. “He’s not a snatcher.”

      “What?” Grace cried out, adrenaline still rushing through her veins. She turned to face the man, ready to hit him again. “He tried to take your—” She finally saw his face and froze.

      “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Nicholas Cleveland barked.