Hush, Hush: Chapter 10
ZeldaQueen: In which the plot stumbles along like a drunken tramp
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 10
ZeldaQueen: Nora wakes up at two in the morning to find her cell phone ringing. You know, the cell phone that wasn't charged? Again, I'm continuing to bring that up for a reason. Anyway, it's Vee on the line and by God is she pissed at Nora for disappearing! She demands to know where Nora went, why she was so late, and where she is now so she (Vee) can strangle her. Now normally, I can sympathize with Vee for being pissed. If my best friend left, disappeared for some amount of time, didn't answer her cell phone, and apparently couldn't be bothered to call from the house phone when she got home, I'd be pretty pissed too. And given how Vee tells Nora how she and Elliot ran around the park, showing people Nora's picture to see if they'd seen her and driving around the parking lot for an hour, we do get a good sense that Vee was very worried.
I am not able to completely agree with Vee though, because Vee quickly regresses to her usual self. As soon as she finds out that Nora hitched a ride home with "Stalker Patch", she starts swooning. She then proceeds to badger Nora for extremely personal details
"'You sound worked up. Really worked up. No, that's not it. You sound agitated ... flustered ... aroused.' I could feel her eyes widen. 'He kissed you, didn't he?'
No answer.
'He did! I knew it! I've seen the way he looks at you. I knew this wascoming. I saw it from a mile away.'
I didn't want to think about it.
'What was it like?' Vee pressed. 'A peach kiss? A plum kiss? Or maybe an al-fal-fa kiss?'
'What?'
'Was it a peck, did mouths part, or was there tongue? Never mind. You don't have to answer that. Patch isn't the kind of guy to deal with preliminaries. There was tongue involved. Guaranteed.'
I covered my face with my hands, hiding behind them. Patch probably thought I didn't have any self-control. I'd fallen apart in his arms. I'd melted like butter. Right before I told him he should go, I was pretty sure I'd made a sound that was a cross between a sigh of sheer bliss and a moan of ecstasy. That would explain his arrogant grin."
ZeldaQueen: God Almighty, what is up with the annoying best friends in young adult novels insisting that the protagonists give them every little detail? Don't these people have any sense of privacy? I mean, asking if he tongued her? The flip?
On that comment about it being obvious that Patch would kiss Nora, what exactly made it so obvious? The endless crude sexual comments? Him pawing her up? Yeeeesss, I think it was quite clear that Patch had something on the mind, Vee. Instead of fishing for details, you should be hooking up Nora with the police and getting her a can of mace.
Finally, on that last bit - don't you just love a guy who gets all arrogant because he turns someone on? And that response, Christ. Who would want to be with a guy who you think is so judgmental? I mean, Patch was sexually harassing flirting with her, so she decides that she inexplicably returns the...erm affections and starts responding. What the fuck? He starts nibbling at her neck and grabbing her hips and gets all smirky because she enjoys it and moans and sighs? Yes Nora, you lowly control-less woman, you should have lay back and thought of England!
And yes, I realize that a lot of people worry about things like that. I'm sure in other circumstances it wouldn't piss me off so much. Somehow though, everything this disgusting couple does just makes me quiver with rage and feel the need to vomit. And that up there? Instead of reading like a girl being a little awkward in a budding relationship, it reads like that damned roller coaster thing - that Patch is deliberately getting reactions from her, and then laughing at her for succumbing to them.
*runs hands across face* Right then, I've said enough on that. Vee makes it clear that she's not going to stop pestering Nora for details, and we learn that they apparently are planning on meeting to go shopping at four. Vee is eager to get out of the house early, as "My mom's having a nervous breakdown. She blames my bad grades on her parenting skills. Apparently spending time together is the solution. Wish me luck". Don't you just hate it when parents try to bond with their kids? Oh, and enjoy that mention of Vee's mother. That's one of maybe two times she comes into this story, which is pretty screwy when you see what happens later.
Vee hangs up and Nora starts getting all dreamy over Patch's smile. I bet the creepy dude has teeth like Jaws. She compares falling for Patch to an incident when she was a child and licked a piece of glass for a dare. In both cases, she knows the outcome will be dangerous and stupid, but still feels the temptation. So she's admitting that she's showing the forethought and common sense of a child here? Interesting.
Oh, and Fitzpatrick? Kind of a backfiring analogy there, if your protagonist is basically saying "I already did something stupid in my life, and now I'm going to do something even more stupid and potentially dangerous". Ever heard of the phrase "Fool me once and shame on you, fool me twice and shame on me"?
Also, at this point, Nora realizes that her cell phone is now fully charged, even though it was dead when she was with Patch at the amusement park. This will be even creepier later, I assure you!
We jump ahead to four o'clock, as Vee and Nora walk through a thunder storm (of course) to go lingerie shopping at Victoria's Secret. Great, now I'm getting Hogwarts Exposed vibes. Vee bitches at the woman who offers to take her measurements, as she's embarrassed by having D-cups. "I'm not ashamed. Why would I be ashamed? The only other sixteen-year-olds with boobs as big as mine are suffused with silicone-and everyone knows it. Why would I have reason to be ashamed?" She then goes rooting around for something to get her boobs to lie flat. Meh, understandable.
There's way too much detail on what lingerie the girls are rooting through, and of course this gets Nora good and horny and thinking of Patch. There's a brief, shining moment where Nora reflects that wanting to date a guy who's been probably dancing through her head literally isn't a great idea. Then, for no reason at all, she decides that she did fall out of the car on the Archangel and that Patch saved her.
First of all, again slight spoilers, but that's exactly the opposite of what happened. And yes, we get more details on that incident. And yes, they are creepy as fuck.
Second of all, this is all very stupid foreshadowing. And people wonder why this is so often compared to Twilight.
Nora decides that it's high time she got Patch out of her mind, which is the smartest thing she's decided this entire book. Of course, she's not actually going to stick to this decision, which is proven when she clumsily compares avoiding Patch to being on a diet, and how the only diet she'd ever been on ended with her binging on chocolate. Ten guesses as to how her "Patch diet" ends.
Nora turns her attention back to Vee, who is taking clearance price tags off of the bras on sale and sticking them on bras not on sale. Somehow, she thinks that this will help her get nice bras for low prices. Actually, I can safely say that it would more likely get her banned from the store, given that the check-out people know what stuff is on sale and what isn't. Nora also makes the very good point that the cashier would figure it out when she scanned the bar code. Vee says that she's sure no one actually scans bar codes anymore. Jesus Christ, I hate to say that there aren't people that stupid, because Not Always Right proves that there are, but what makes Fitzpatrick think we enjoy reading about them? Not to mention that Nora herself doesn't seem to certain that they still scan bar codes, and says that she figures lying is better than seeing Vee get arrested. Isn't Nora supposed to be a straight-A student? (Not to mention that Nora isn't telling Vee not to switch the tags because it's wrong)
To distract Vee, Nora offers her silk panties with red crabs embroidered on them. Ummm...crabs? On silk lingerie? That's...either the biggest oversight I've seen a Suethor make, or the most tasteless thing I've ever seen. Are they secretly shopping in a Spencers?
Nora purchases her various lingerie and tries to stop thinking about Patch by sniffing a bottle of perfume on display, wittily named - wait for it - Dream Angel. *head desk* As she's doing this, she gets That Feeling, the one she gets whenever Patch is creeping up on her. She runs to Vee and says that she thinks they're being followed, and that they ought to leave. Vee asks who's following them, specifically if this person looks like "Pippi Longstocking and the Wicked Witch of the West", which leads to a stupid joke about it being that Marcie Millar girl. For heaven's sake, what has Marcie done thus far, besides being catty once? Patch is allowed to be a crude, stalking creeper because he's a hot guy, but they never let up on how mean this girl is because she's generically rude? Anyway, Nora says that it isn't Marcie and that she suspects that this person was spying on her when she was getting cotton candy. No, I don't know how she's coming to all of these conclusions, but whatever. At least something's happening.
They try unsuccessfully to use the employee's-only back exit, and then Vee proposes that she wear Nora's jacket out and lure off whoever's stalking her. Nora freaks out at this, and says that it's way too dangerous and the person might be armed, a concern which is perfectly valid and which Vee laughs off. You know, if Vee hadn't been so annoying this entire book and if she wasn't treating this like some amusing diversion, I'd say this would be the best act of friendship in this entire book.
Vee then comes up with the idea that she'll lead whoever it is towards the cemetery (SYMBOLISM!!!) and that Nora is to follow behind, and they will then surround this person and demand answers. And this is where I facepalmed because dude, that has got to be the dumbest thing you can do when you're being stalked! Nora is right! If someone is crazy enough to stalk someone to scare her, that person probably would have a knife or a gun or at least a lead pipe! Not to mention that Nora is justifiably scared of this person and Vee's idea is to tell her "It's fine, I'll lure him away to a remote place and you can follow!" Not to, you know, run for the police? Or call for help? Or hide? Or something productive?
*sigh* So no, both girls think this is a grand idea and immediately put it into motion. Even though Vee is supposed to be big and curvy and blonde, Nora's jacket is apparently enough to fool this person, who sets out after her. Nora notes that the stalker has a "feminine" manner of walking, which is never elaborated on so I have no idea what the flip that means. Anyway, Nora follows and to her credit, she does follow in Vee's car. Yes, the plan is still stupid, but at least the car will provide some means of protection and an escape.
The rain starts to pour down and Nora is cruising along when something red smacks her windshield. She stops the car and gets out (hello, stalker?) and sees that it's her umbrella, which Vee took. She is just noting up crumpled and ruined it is, when she hears someone sobbing. She looks around and finds Vee, curled on the ground in pain and having been robbed of her handbag. Nora quickly grabs her cell phone and calls 911 and to her credit, she keeps herself as calm as she can while she gets help and soothes Vee. She also mentions how she's sure that the person spying on her at the amusement park and the person who attacked Vee are the same people (didn't...you already establish that?) and there the chapter ends
Onward to: Chapter 11
Back to: Chapter 9
Return to to: Table of Contents
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 10
ZeldaQueen: Nora wakes up at two in the morning to find her cell phone ringing. You know, the cell phone that wasn't charged? Again, I'm continuing to bring that up for a reason. Anyway, it's Vee on the line and by God is she pissed at Nora for disappearing! She demands to know where Nora went, why she was so late, and where she is now so she (Vee) can strangle her. Now normally, I can sympathize with Vee for being pissed. If my best friend left, disappeared for some amount of time, didn't answer her cell phone, and apparently couldn't be bothered to call from the house phone when she got home, I'd be pretty pissed too. And given how Vee tells Nora how she and Elliot ran around the park, showing people Nora's picture to see if they'd seen her and driving around the parking lot for an hour, we do get a good sense that Vee was very worried.
I am not able to completely agree with Vee though, because Vee quickly regresses to her usual self. As soon as she finds out that Nora hitched a ride home with "Stalker Patch", she starts swooning. She then proceeds to badger Nora for extremely personal details
"'You sound worked up. Really worked up. No, that's not it. You sound agitated ... flustered ... aroused.' I could feel her eyes widen. 'He kissed you, didn't he?'
No answer.
'He did! I knew it! I've seen the way he looks at you. I knew this wascoming. I saw it from a mile away.'
I didn't want to think about it.
'What was it like?' Vee pressed. 'A peach kiss? A plum kiss? Or maybe an al-fal-fa kiss?'
'What?'
'Was it a peck, did mouths part, or was there tongue? Never mind. You don't have to answer that. Patch isn't the kind of guy to deal with preliminaries. There was tongue involved. Guaranteed.'
I covered my face with my hands, hiding behind them. Patch probably thought I didn't have any self-control. I'd fallen apart in his arms. I'd melted like butter. Right before I told him he should go, I was pretty sure I'd made a sound that was a cross between a sigh of sheer bliss and a moan of ecstasy. That would explain his arrogant grin."
ZeldaQueen: God Almighty, what is up with the annoying best friends in young adult novels insisting that the protagonists give them every little detail? Don't these people have any sense of privacy? I mean, asking if he tongued her? The flip?
On that comment about it being obvious that Patch would kiss Nora, what exactly made it so obvious? The endless crude sexual comments? Him pawing her up? Yeeeesss, I think it was quite clear that Patch had something on the mind, Vee. Instead of fishing for details, you should be hooking up Nora with the police and getting her a can of mace.
Finally, on that last bit - don't you just love a guy who gets all arrogant because he turns someone on? And that response, Christ. Who would want to be with a guy who you think is so judgmental? I mean, Patch was sexually harassing flirting with her, so she decides that she inexplicably returns the...erm affections and starts responding. What the fuck? He starts nibbling at her neck and grabbing her hips and gets all smirky because she enjoys it and moans and sighs? Yes Nora, you lowly control-less woman, you should have lay back and thought of England!
And yes, I realize that a lot of people worry about things like that. I'm sure in other circumstances it wouldn't piss me off so much. Somehow though, everything this disgusting couple does just makes me quiver with rage and feel the need to vomit. And that up there? Instead of reading like a girl being a little awkward in a budding relationship, it reads like that damned roller coaster thing - that Patch is deliberately getting reactions from her, and then laughing at her for succumbing to them.
*runs hands across face* Right then, I've said enough on that. Vee makes it clear that she's not going to stop pestering Nora for details, and we learn that they apparently are planning on meeting to go shopping at four. Vee is eager to get out of the house early, as "My mom's having a nervous breakdown. She blames my bad grades on her parenting skills. Apparently spending time together is the solution. Wish me luck". Don't you just hate it when parents try to bond with their kids? Oh, and enjoy that mention of Vee's mother. That's one of maybe two times she comes into this story, which is pretty screwy when you see what happens later.
Vee hangs up and Nora starts getting all dreamy over Patch's smile. I bet the creepy dude has teeth like Jaws. She compares falling for Patch to an incident when she was a child and licked a piece of glass for a dare. In both cases, she knows the outcome will be dangerous and stupid, but still feels the temptation. So she's admitting that she's showing the forethought and common sense of a child here? Interesting.
Oh, and Fitzpatrick? Kind of a backfiring analogy there, if your protagonist is basically saying "I already did something stupid in my life, and now I'm going to do something even more stupid and potentially dangerous". Ever heard of the phrase "Fool me once and shame on you, fool me twice and shame on me"?
Also, at this point, Nora realizes that her cell phone is now fully charged, even though it was dead when she was with Patch at the amusement park. This will be even creepier later, I assure you!
We jump ahead to four o'clock, as Vee and Nora walk through a thunder storm (of course) to go lingerie shopping at Victoria's Secret. Great, now I'm getting Hogwarts Exposed vibes. Vee bitches at the woman who offers to take her measurements, as she's embarrassed by having D-cups. "I'm not ashamed. Why would I be ashamed? The only other sixteen-year-olds with boobs as big as mine are suffused with silicone-and everyone knows it. Why would I have reason to be ashamed?" She then goes rooting around for something to get her boobs to lie flat. Meh, understandable.
There's way too much detail on what lingerie the girls are rooting through, and of course this gets Nora good and horny and thinking of Patch. There's a brief, shining moment where Nora reflects that wanting to date a guy who's been probably dancing through her head literally isn't a great idea. Then, for no reason at all, she decides that she did fall out of the car on the Archangel and that Patch saved her.
First of all, again slight spoilers, but that's exactly the opposite of what happened. And yes, we get more details on that incident. And yes, they are creepy as fuck.
Second of all, this is all very stupid foreshadowing. And people wonder why this is so often compared to Twilight.
Nora decides that it's high time she got Patch out of her mind, which is the smartest thing she's decided this entire book. Of course, she's not actually going to stick to this decision, which is proven when she clumsily compares avoiding Patch to being on a diet, and how the only diet she'd ever been on ended with her binging on chocolate. Ten guesses as to how her "Patch diet" ends.
Nora turns her attention back to Vee, who is taking clearance price tags off of the bras on sale and sticking them on bras not on sale. Somehow, she thinks that this will help her get nice bras for low prices. Actually, I can safely say that it would more likely get her banned from the store, given that the check-out people know what stuff is on sale and what isn't. Nora also makes the very good point that the cashier would figure it out when she scanned the bar code. Vee says that she's sure no one actually scans bar codes anymore. Jesus Christ, I hate to say that there aren't people that stupid, because Not Always Right proves that there are, but what makes Fitzpatrick think we enjoy reading about them? Not to mention that Nora herself doesn't seem to certain that they still scan bar codes, and says that she figures lying is better than seeing Vee get arrested. Isn't Nora supposed to be a straight-A student? (Not to mention that Nora isn't telling Vee not to switch the tags because it's wrong)
To distract Vee, Nora offers her silk panties with red crabs embroidered on them. Ummm...crabs? On silk lingerie? That's...either the biggest oversight I've seen a Suethor make, or the most tasteless thing I've ever seen. Are they secretly shopping in a Spencers?
Nora purchases her various lingerie and tries to stop thinking about Patch by sniffing a bottle of perfume on display, wittily named - wait for it - Dream Angel. *head desk* As she's doing this, she gets That Feeling, the one she gets whenever Patch is creeping up on her. She runs to Vee and says that she thinks they're being followed, and that they ought to leave. Vee asks who's following them, specifically if this person looks like "Pippi Longstocking and the Wicked Witch of the West", which leads to a stupid joke about it being that Marcie Millar girl. For heaven's sake, what has Marcie done thus far, besides being catty once? Patch is allowed to be a crude, stalking creeper because he's a hot guy, but they never let up on how mean this girl is because she's generically rude? Anyway, Nora says that it isn't Marcie and that she suspects that this person was spying on her when she was getting cotton candy. No, I don't know how she's coming to all of these conclusions, but whatever. At least something's happening.
They try unsuccessfully to use the employee's-only back exit, and then Vee proposes that she wear Nora's jacket out and lure off whoever's stalking her. Nora freaks out at this, and says that it's way too dangerous and the person might be armed, a concern which is perfectly valid and which Vee laughs off. You know, if Vee hadn't been so annoying this entire book and if she wasn't treating this like some amusing diversion, I'd say this would be the best act of friendship in this entire book.
Vee then comes up with the idea that she'll lead whoever it is towards the cemetery (SYMBOLISM!!!) and that Nora is to follow behind, and they will then surround this person and demand answers. And this is where I facepalmed because dude, that has got to be the dumbest thing you can do when you're being stalked! Nora is right! If someone is crazy enough to stalk someone to scare her, that person probably would have a knife or a gun or at least a lead pipe! Not to mention that Nora is justifiably scared of this person and Vee's idea is to tell her "It's fine, I'll lure him away to a remote place and you can follow!" Not to, you know, run for the police? Or call for help? Or hide? Or something productive?
*sigh* So no, both girls think this is a grand idea and immediately put it into motion. Even though Vee is supposed to be big and curvy and blonde, Nora's jacket is apparently enough to fool this person, who sets out after her. Nora notes that the stalker has a "feminine" manner of walking, which is never elaborated on so I have no idea what the flip that means. Anyway, Nora follows and to her credit, she does follow in Vee's car. Yes, the plan is still stupid, but at least the car will provide some means of protection and an escape.
The rain starts to pour down and Nora is cruising along when something red smacks her windshield. She stops the car and gets out (hello, stalker?) and sees that it's her umbrella, which Vee took. She is just noting up crumpled and ruined it is, when she hears someone sobbing. She looks around and finds Vee, curled on the ground in pain and having been robbed of her handbag. Nora quickly grabs her cell phone and calls 911 and to her credit, she keeps herself as calm as she can while she gets help and soothes Vee. She also mentions how she's sure that the person spying on her at the amusement park and the person who attacked Vee are the same people (didn't...you already establish that?) and there the chapter ends
Onward to: Chapter 11
Back to: Chapter 9
Return to to: Table of Contents