Chapter Twenty

      Holly immediately leaped out of bed, threw on a tracksuit and drove to her nearest newsagent. She reached the newspaper stand and began to leaf through the pages in search of what Sharon had been raving about. The man behind the counter coughed loudly and Holly looked up at him.

      ‘This is not a library, young lady. You’ll have to buy that,’ he said, nodding at the newspaper in her hand.

      ‘I know that,’ she said, irritated by his rudeness. Honestly, how on earth was anyone supposed to know which paper they wanted to buy if they didn’t even know which paper had what they were looking for? She ended up picking up every single newspaper from the stand and slammed them down on the counter, smiling sweetly at him.

      The man looked startled and started to scan them into the register one by one. A queue began to form behind her.

      Holly stared longingly at the selection of chocolate bars displayed in front of her and looked around to see if anyone was looking at her. Everyone was staring. She quickly turned back to face the counter. Finally her arm jumped up and grabbed the two king-size chocolate bars nearest to her on the shelf from the bottom of the pile. One by one the rest of the chocolate began to slide on to the floor. The teenager behind her snorted and looked away, laughing, as Holly bent down with a red face and began to pick them up. So many had fallen she had to make several trips up and down. The shop was silent apart from a few coughs from the impatient queue behind her. She sneakily added another few packets of sweets to her pile, ‘For the kids,’ she said loudly to the newsagent, hoping everyone behind her would also hear.

      He just grunted at her and continued scanning the items. Then she remembered she needed to get milk so she rushed from the queue to the end of the shop to retrieve a pint of milk from the fridge. A few women tutted loudly as she made her way back to the top of the queue where she added the milk to her pile. The newsagent stopped scanning to stare at her, she stared back blankly at him.

      ‘Mark,’ he yelled.

      A spotty young teenager appeared from one of the shopping aisles with a pricing gun in his hand. ‘Yeah?’ he said grumpily.

      ‘Open the other till, will ya, son? We might be here for a while.’ The newsagent glared at Holly.

      She made a face at him.

      Mark dragged his body over to the second till, all the time staring at Holly. What? she thought defensively. Don’t blame me for you having to do your job. He took over the till and the entire queue behind her rushed over to the other side.

      Satisfied that no one was staring at her any more she grabbed a few packets of crisps from below the counter and added them to her purchases. ‘Birthday party,’ she mumbled.

      In the queue beside her, the teenager quietly asked for a packet of cigarettes.

      ‘Got any ID?’ Mark asked loudly.

      The teenager looked around in embarrassment with a red face. Holly snorted at him and looked away.

      ‘Anything else?’ the newsagent asked sarcastically.

      ‘No, thank you, that will be all,’ she said through gritted teeth. She paid her money and fumbled with her purse, trying to put all the change back in.

      ‘Next,’ the newsagent nodded to the customer behind her.

      ‘Hiya, can I have twenty Benson and—’

      ‘Excuse me,’ Holly interrupted the man, ‘could I have a bag please?’ She stared at the huge pile of groceries in front of her.

      ‘Just a moment,’ he said rudely, ‘I’ll deal with this gentleman first. Yes, sir, cigarettes, is it?’

      ‘Please,’ the customer said, looking at Holly apologetically.

      ‘Now,’ the newsagent said, returning to Holly, ‘what can I get you?’

      ‘A bag.’ She clenched her jaw.

      ‘That’ll be twenty cents please.’

      Holly sighed loudly and reached into her handbag, searching through the mess to find her purse again. Another queue formed behind her.

      ‘Mark, take over the till again, will you?’ the man said arrogantly.

      Holly took the coin out of her purse, slammed it down on the counter and began to fill the bag with her items.

      ‘Next,’ the newsagent said again, looking over her shoulder to the next customer. Holly felt under pressure to get out of the way and began stuffing the bag full in panic.

      ‘I’ll wait till the lady here is ready,’ the customer said politely.

      Holly smiled at him appreciatively and turned to leave the shop. She was walking away grumbling to herself when Mark, the boy behind the counter, startled her by yelling, ‘Hey, I know you! You’re the girl from the telly!’

      Holly swirled round in surprise and the plastic handle broke from the weight of all the newspapers. Everything fell onto the floor and her chocolate, sweets and crisps went rolling in all directions.

      The friendly customer got down on his knees to help her gather her belongings while the rest of the shop watched in amusement, wondering who the girl from the telly was.

      ‘It is you, isn’t it?’ the boy laughed.

      Holly smiled up weakly at him from the floor.

      ‘I knew it!’ He clapped his hands together with excitement. ‘You’re cool!’

      Yeah,