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Caitlyn
Caitlyn carefully slipped into the pinned-up skirt of her costume and stood before the mirror on the closet door. Drawstrings around the wrists made the shirt sleeves full and draping. A scoop neckline, midnight blue vest, and a full skirt that hung to the floor gave the outfit a totally medieval look. Yes, she was ready to sew!
“It looks great,” Zoe said. She’d flung herself onto Caitlyn’s bed as soon as she had come over, and she hadn’t moved since. She seemed to want to talk about something, but she sure was taking her time. “I love the back of the skirt. The pleats give you a figure.”
“Thank you.” Caitlyn removed three pins to get out of the skirt.
Zoe sat up. “You and Roland seem to be getting close. He looks for you every day at lunch. Does he ever call?”
“Not really. But I feel like we’re getting close.” A pin poked her as she emerged from the skirt. “I love being his friend.” She wriggled out of the slip and stepped into her denim skirt.
“Do you think he’ll change his mind about dating?”
“You mean courting?” Caitlyn smiled, zipping her skirt. Zoe knew she wasn’t allowed to date.
Zoe smiled, groaned, and slid off the bed. “I have to tell you something.” She stood in front of the mirror, looking at herself sideways and rubbing her flat belly.
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Caitlyn placed the medieval skirt on her lap and grabbed a box of pins.
Zoe watched her through the mirror. “Jarret wants me to have an abortion.”
Caitlyn froze.
Abortion?
The word, coming from the mouth of her pregnant best friend, shuddered through her soul. “You told him you wouldn’t, right?”
Folding her arms, Zoe faced Caitlyn. “You’ll never have to face something like this. It’s horrible. There’re no easy decisions here.” She covered her face with her hands and tipped her head back. “I don’t know what to do.” She went to the window at the head of the bed.
“Well, you can’t have an abortion. That’s a real live baby in you. You can’t just—”
She turned around, her eyes hard. “Don’t tell me what I can’t do. It’s perfectly legal and people do it all the time. No one wants to do it. No one wakes up and says, I think I’d like to have an abortion today. It’s a terrible thing to have to think about.” She returned to the mirror. “I wish this had never happened. I’m too young to have a baby.” Her eyes glistened with tears.
The box of pins tipped over, spilling pins on the skirt. Caitlyn set the skirt aside and scooted off the bed. “Why don’t you carry the baby and let someone else raise it?”
Zoe huffed and walked past Caitlyn without looking at her. “These decisions are so easy for people who aren’t pregnant, for people who aren’t even involved in a relationship.” She curled up on the bed, facing away from Caitlyn.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have gotten into that kind of relationship. Why did you let him do it?” Caitlyn regretted her words and her shrill tone. She blamed Jarret more than Zoe. Seeing Zoe so distraught, knowing her situation, made Caitlyn’s blood boil.
Zoe moaned. “Oh, girlfriend, it just happened. I don’t think he meant for it to happen any more than I did. We were both upset at each other, and we got carried away making up. He was a virgin, too, you know.”
Caitlyn hadn’t known. The rumors she’d heard at school gave her the opposite impression.
She sat beside Zoe and stroked her hair. “Please don’t do anything right away. Take some time and think about it. Okay?”
Zoe nodded just as someone knocked on the bedroom door.
The door opened a crack, and Mom stuck her head in. “Caitlyn, Roland’s here to see you.”
Caitlyn’s eyes popped open and she sucked in a breath. “Roland? To see me?” She jumped up—jostling the skirt and sending pins flying everywhere—and went to the mirror. She hadn’t looked at her hair all day. Why hadn’t he called first?
“You look fine.” Zoe sat up and hugged her knees. “Don’t keep him waiting. Go see what he wants.”
“Come with me.”
“No. He’ll see how upset I am and report to Jarret.”
“No, he won’t.” Caitlyn took her hand and yanked her to her feet. “Not Roland.”
Roland, wearing a black vest over a dark blue shirt, faced the window in the living room and stood with his hands in the front pockets of his faded black jeans. He turned as they came into the room and gave Caitlyn that little smile of his.
Like usual, her heart leaped. “Hi, Roland. You came over. Would you like something to drink?”
He blushed. His eyes turned to the ground then to the door. “Mr. Digby’s waiting on me. I just wanted to ask you something. I guess I should’ve called but—”
“That’s okay.” She stepped closer but not too close, since standing near him made her lightheaded. “You can stop by whenever you want. Is something wrong?”
His steel-gray eyes flickered, and he smiled again. “No, nothing’s wrong. My brother . . .” His gaze flitted to Zoe and back to Caitlyn. “. . . Keefe has a problem.”
Twisting her arms behind her back, Caitlyn risked another step closer. “A problem?”
“Yeah, he, uh, ordered a costume from somewhere, but they’re out of the one he wants, so he went online to find another one, but . . . Well, no one can ship one in time, and I told him . . .” He gulped, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I hope you don’t mind, I told him you’re making your own.” He pulled a folded paper from the back pocket of his jeans and handed it to Caitlyn. “Do you think you could make him one?”
Caitlyn unfolded the paper to find a picture printed from a website. It was a monk in a long brown robe with a hooded cowl.
He reached into a front pocket and brought out some bills, all folded up. “He’ll pay you.”
“Oh, I’m sure I could do it. I’d have to get some measurements.”
“You have our phone number, right?” He stepped closer with the money. “Whatever you need, just call.”
When she took the money, their hands touched. Not wanting to look into his eyes at that moment, she looked at the folded bills. “Oh, this is way too much.” Caitlyn held it out to him.
He backed up, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “No, it’s not. He’d pay that at a store. Just keep it.”
With her spirit as light as a helium balloon, Caitlyn watched him walk down the driveway to Mr. Digby’s big black car. Her heart stirred. Roland turned to her for this! They’d worked together helping the Finns, searching for Toby, putting the party together, and now he came to her for this. Feeling closer to him than ever, she couldn’t wait to see where their friendship would go.
“Let’s go shopping.” Zoe came up behind Caitlyn. “Will you have enough money left over for a cape?”