Inside, Laura and I split up from therest of the group. Jill and my aunt Kathy take off in one direction and my mom,Annie, and my grandma go in another. Nobody seems to mind. In fact, no onereally says anything to me. I’m not sure whether I appreciate it or if I shouldbe offended. At least they’ve quit picking on me for the moment. For now, Iappreciate it. Hopefully, they realized how much their words hurt me.
Luke and another security guy follow us.We go on the hunt for a drugstore but get sidetracked every so often bydifferent stores or vendors lining the middle of the halls, trying to get us tobuy their products.
“We’re at the end.” Laura sits down indefeat.
“We still have the other half of the mallwe haven’t walked down. But if you don’t want to do that, I can call Luke overand have him drive us to a drugstore.”
“No way, not if there’s a chance we canfind one here.”
“Don’t malls usually have directories?Let’s find one. Maybe that will help in our search.” I pull Laura off thebench.
“Let’s go in here.” Laura points to adress shop.
“Ooh, check out that dress. I’m in.” Westroll around the shop, looking through the racks. I’ve always enjoyed shoppingwith Laura. There’s an easiness about it. She goes her way and I go mine, andwe eventually end up in the middle somewhere.
“Look at this dress.” Laura holds up ablue ombre, spandex dress.
“I love the colors.” It reminds mevaguely of the white dress Olivia bought me that’s hanging in the back of mycloset with a large blue stain on it.
“I’m going to try it on.” Laura headsback to the dressing room and I wander around the store some more.
“Kate, come here.” Laura calls from thedressing room.
I walk to the back. “Laura, where areyou?” I whisper down the row of dressing rooms. Laura waves her hand above herhead, then unlocks the door. “Uh, can you say wow, that dress looks great onyou.”
“I know, huh? I love it. It accentuatesmy curves in all the right places.”
“You’re going to get it, right? I’m surethere will be an occasion to wear it while you are here, like tonight.”
Laura’s excitement over the dressfalters. “It’s five hundred dollars. I can’t justify spending that kind ofmoney on a dress.Besides it's onlya knock-off Harvey Ledger bandage dress.” I just stare at her like: no duh,welcome to my world of overpriced designer clothes. I will admit, the more Iwear, the more I like, but I’ll never let Cole know that.
“My treat.”
“No way.” Laura gives me a sympatheticlook. “I mean thanks. I know you can afford it, but I don’t really need thisdress.”
“If you’re sure?” I know exactly howLaura feels, and I’m not going to press her into it unless she tells me shewants it.
“I’m sure. Let’s go find the malldirectory.”
“Oh jeez. Okay, I’ll wait up front foryou.”
The directory doesn’t really help usmuch; there’s a vitamin and supplement store but it doesn’t have any tests. Ourlast hope is a general store that seems to have a bit of everything. “Okay,let’s split up.” I go one way and Laura the other. We scour the shelves untilwe find the aisle with over-the-counter drugs. “Jackpot,” I say, grabbing apregnancy test off the shelf. I wave it around at Laura. “Today’s our luckyday.”
She grabs the box from me, holding itdown and away from me. “I wouldn’t call my predicament lucky.”
“Oh sorry. I just meant…”
“Yeah, yeah, I know what you meant.”Laura yanks me by my arm towards the check out.
The guy behind the counter gives us afunny look, but we smile and ignore him.
“I saw a bathroom over here,” Laurapoints, continuing to drag me along.
In the bathroom, Laura makes me come intothe handicapped stall with her, and then makes me open the box and read thedirections. “Why do they give you three tests?” I ask, handing them to her.“You’d think one would tell you what you do or don’t want to know. Okay, it’seasy enough; you pee on the stick and wait three minutes. Two lines meansyou’re pregnant, one line you’re not. Easy.”
“Yeah, super easy.”
“Here,” I take the tests back from herand then take the lid off one. “I’m sorry, friend, but I can’t pee on it foryou.”
