Diary of an Ugly Duckling by Langhorne, Karyn (general ebook reader .txt) 📕

striking kind of female

handsomeness that would have its own admirers in

time. Audra couldn’t stop herself from thinking

how much she looked like her father, which pro-

bably would have been fine if the girl had been a

boy. Under the circumstances, however, Audra sus-

pected looking so much like Daddy might be a

problem.

“Audra Marks, my daughter, Penny Bradshaw.”

Audra hitched the yellow shawl over her shoul-

der again and fumbled with her tiny new purse,

DIARY OF AN UGLY DUCKLING

67

pulling out the small wrapped box and stretching it

toward the girl. “Happy birthday.”

Penny Bradshaw blinked her light brown eyes at

Audra for a long second, then turned to her father,

shaking her head in dismay. “Oh, Dad,” she whined

in an utterly teenaged way. “Not again!”

Bradshaw’s frown deepened. “What are you—”

“I want to go home,” Penny announced, and

without so much as a “how do you do” she stomped

away from them, elbowing her way across the dance

floor and out of sight.

“And she calls other people rude,” Bradshaw

muttered under his breath, before giving Audra his

eyes for the brief second it took him to say, “Don’t

mind her. She’s sixteen.” He frowned toward the

ladies’ room, and kept his eyes in that direction as

he continued, “A drink?”

I want to go home, too, Audra thought. Right now. I

want to rip off this stupid top and the silly pointed high-

heeled shoes and—

“No, I can’t stay,” she said quickly, before the last

of her bravura evaporated and she melted into a

puddle of snuffling tears. “Silly me, I forgot I had a

prior engagement. A . . . friend of mine . . .” she con-

tinued conjuring a quick lie. “Bachelorette party.

Wild night ahead, you know?”

Art Bradshaw wasn’t listening. His head swung

from the hallway where the lovely Esmeralda Prince

had disappeared to the dance floor, where his

daughter had vanished from view. “Uh-huh,” he

muttered.

Audra’s heart sank like the Titanic, settling itself

somewhere near the pit of her stomach. She felt tired

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Karyn Langhorne

and sick and sad and lonelier than she could ever re-

member.

“I’ll just . . . put this . . . here,” she said, lowering

the birthday present to the table behind him.

Bradshaw sighed and swung his face toward

Audra.

“Sorry, Marks. She’s been acting like this ever

since Esmeralda showed up—”

“No problem,” Audra said, not wanting hear any

more about Esmeralda Prince than was strictly

necessary—especially since the only thing that re-

ally mattered about the woman was abundantly

clear from the expression of concern on Bradshaw’s

face—and the chick had only gone to the ladies’

room. Audra made her shoulders a little more

square and her upper lip a little stiffer than she felt.

“Good night, Bradshaw.” She made a perfect silver-

screen-star flounce door-ward, and even if he had

called out “Audra, wait!” romantic hero-style, she

would have been too far ahead to hear him.

“Nice meeting you, Penny.”

She was leaning against the wall, in the same spot

where the smoking girl had been, her sleeveless

brown arms crossed against the night’s chill. The

girl’s eyes met hers, as calm and steely as any a

grown rival’s.

“I wish I could leave,” she said.

“But it’s your party! Don’t you want to—?”

“These kids don’t like me. They laugh at me in the

halls. Call me Bigfoot. Sasquatch,” she said angrily,

but Audra could see tears glistening unshed in her

DIARY OF AN UGLY DUCKLING

69

eyes. “Not one of the guys has even asked me

dance.” Her forehead crumpled. “I’m taller than

most of them, anyway. They’re just here to dance

and hang out.”

“Then why—”

“It was my father’s dumb idea. Same reason he in-

vited you. He actually thought it would help,” she

rolled her eyes. “But nothing helps. Nothing will

ever help,” she finished with teenaged drama.

Audra ignored it, her own dejection forgotten in

the girl’s self-indulgent revelations.

“I think it’s nice, your dad caring enough to

throw this bash for you,” she said slowly. “But what

do I have to do with it—?”

“Oh don’t pretend to be innocent!” The girl ex-

claimed. She inhaled as if gathering up all the attrib-

utes of her most grown-up self. “I know all about

this plan you and my father have cooked up.”

Audra blinked at her for a long second, recovering

from the pure shock of Penny Bradshaw’s accusa-

tions. Then she let her hand slip to her hip and shook

her head. “Look, sweetie. I’m not sure what you think

is happening here but—”

“I know exactly what’s happening here,” the girl

spat with teenaged venom. “You think you’re the

first ugly woman my father’s asked to ‘talk to me’?

You think this is the first time he’s invited one of

his homely co-workers or one of his ‘great person-

ality’ friends to meet me?” She shook her head.

“Please.”

Her words settled over Audra like a shroud.

Homely co-workers . . . “great personality” friends . . .

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Karyn Langhorne

“What—what are you talking about, Penny?” she

demanded.

“The minute I saw you, I knew he was doing it

again,” Penny continued, almost as though she

hadn’t heard Audra’s question. “Trying to find me

someone to talk to about being a big, ugly giant. A

tenth-grade freak on the road to becoming a grown-

up freak—”

Audra’s heart stilled, stopped. Homely co-workers . . .

“great personality” friends . . . Talk to my daughter, he’d

asked her . Talk to my—

“I—I don’t believe your father thinks you’re a

freak—” she stammered in a tiny, uncertain voice.

Penny didn’t hear it. “Of course not. He’s my fa-

ther! He has to say that I’m beautiful—but I know

what he really thinks,” Penny railed on to the night,

seeming barely aware of Audra standing beside her

in her rage. “I know, because he keeps introducing

me to the ugliest women he can find!” Her eyes

found Audra’s, no longer hard with fury but wet

with unshed tears. “Women like you.”

It felt like the last straw—the last brick—bringing

down any remaining illusions Audra had about her-

self. Ugly, ugly, ugly . . . the word was coming at her

from all sides now . . . and there were no movie-

queen lines, no quips or character to erase it. That

was the reason she was here