"Yeah, I"d say it"s time we go again. Doug"s great when it comes to cheering up brokenhearted women. He"ll be a good companion for Katie."
"Doug doesn"t have a girlfriend yet? I thought he would have met somebody by now."
"Nope. He told me once that he thought he knew who G.o.d wanted him to marry, but he was waiting for the girl to figure it out. He wouldn"t tell me who it was."
"You think it might be Tracy?" Christy asked. "They went out for a while."
"I don"t know. He wouldn"t give me any hints. Could be Katie, for all we know. Doesn"t matter though. Doug"s sure that G.o.d will work it all out."
"I guess Katie and I will drive up together on Friday night as soon as I get off work. We"ll get to Bob and Marti"s after ten. Is that too late for you guys? I mean, do you want to get together on Friday night, or wait and do something on Sat.u.r.day?"
"Whatever," Todd said amiably. "We"ll take it as it comes."
"I"m looking forward to seeing you," Christy said softly.
"Yeah, I"m looking forward to seeing you too."
"Bye."
"Later."
Christy made a quick phone call to Katie and filled her in on the plans. Even though Katie sounded tired at first, she spoke up when Christy mentioned Doug.
"I don"t want charity," Katie said. "Doug is not interested in me-he never has been, and he never will be. I don"t want him coming along just to give me all his little hugs and try to make me feel better."
"Okay, fine. Doug might not even come. But we"re still going to Disneyland, and that will be fun," Christy said. trying to sound cheerful.
"Yeah, right. You, Todd, and me. What a fun day that will be. Is Todd going to hold hands with both of us so I won"t feel left out?"
Christy was beginning to get irritated. "Katie, will you stop it? We"re going to the pet store tomorrow after school, and then you and I are going to drive up to Newport, stay at my aunt and uncle"s, probably go to Disneyland on Sat.u.r.day and then church with Todd on Sunday, and you are going to have a wonderful time. Got it?"
"Sorry," Katie said. "I"ll try not to be a brat this weekend. I appreciate your making room for me in your plans."
"It"ll be fun, Katie. You"ll see. I"m really looking forward to it."
"Me too," Katie sighed. "I wonder what Michael is going to do this weekend? I guess it doesn"t matter, does it?"
Christy didn"t answer.
"Well," Katie said, snapping back to a more positive tone of voice, "I have some more homework to finish. I"ll see you tomorrow. Thanks again, Christy. This is the true test of a best friend. Thanks for sticking with me through all this."
"There"s nothing to thank me for, Katie. I"ll see you after school. Good night."
Christy hung up, thinking, If you only knew how selfish I"m feeling right now about having to share Todd with you this weekend, you wouldn"t be thanking me.
"Oh, Miss Chris," Fred said the minute Christy walked into yearbook cla.s.s on Friday. "May I have a moment of your time?"
"What do you want, Fred?" Christy was not in the mood to deal with him.
"Do you remember yesterday, right before I left to take the photo of the volleyball team. I said I wanted to talk to you about something?"
Christy didn"t remember, but she wanted to speed this conversation along, so she nodded and waited for Fred"s reply, expecting another invitation to the prom.
"I wanted to ask you something."
"What, Fred?" she said, her irritation showing.
"I wanted to ask you what church you went to."
"Why?" Christy asked, surprised.
"I kind of wanted to try going sometime."
"Why?" Christy asked, and the minute she did, she realized how rude she sounded.
"It"s a free country," Fred said, puffing out his chest a little. "At least, the last time I checked it was. I"ve never been to church before. I thought I might like to try it sometime."
"That"s great, Fred." Christy said, quickly changing her tone. "I think you"ll like it. It"s a really good church." She gave him directions and specifics on when the high school group met and when church services were held.
"Thanks," Fred said. "I"ll see you there this Sunday."
"Oh. Is that why you wanted to go to church? Just because I do?"
"No!" Fred answered defensively.
"Well. I"m not going to be there this Sunday. I"m going to be at my aunt and uncle"s for the weekend." Then, trying to sound nice, she added, "Some other people from school go there, so I"m sure you"ll see somebody you know."
"Like Katie?"
"Actually, Katie is going to be with me. There are other people, though. I think you"ll like it; you should go."
"I will," Fred said. "Are you ready to work on these last two collage pages with me? We have to have everything done by next Wednesday. That"s the final, final, drop-dead deadline."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. I"m sure."
Christy couldn"t help but wonder about Fred"s interest in attending church. She would have liked to believe he was becoming interested in Christianity. Maybe somehow she had been a witness to him, although she wasn"t sure how. Most of the year she had been rude to him and had never tried talking to him about spiritual things. Somehow, she couldn"t help but wonder if it was one of his tactics to spend time with her, especially since they would be done with their mutual projects by next Wednesday. They wouldn"t have too many other reasons to talk to each other after the yearbook was done. That is, unless Fred started going to her church.
She told Katie about it on the way to work after school that afternoon. It had been months since Katie and Christy had talked like this, and Katie said she didn"t even know Fred had been chasing Christy.
"Only all year," Christy said.
"Man," Katie said with a sigh, "we"ve missed a lot this year, haven"t we? I mean, our whole senior year is almost over, and you and I barely know what"s going on with each other."
"I know."
"I regret that, Christy, and I know it"s all my fault because I was so wrapped up in Michael."
"It"s not all your fault. I didn"t exactly make things comfortable for either of us. I could have done a lot more to keep our friendship close, but I didn"t. I"m sorry I didn"t try harder."
"Let"s promise each other that we"ll never do that again," Katie said, looking solemn. "Let"s promise that we"ll never in our whole lives let a guy come between us. Even when we"re old and senile, we"ll still be best friends."
"Promise." Christy said. "Although, if I"m senile, I can"t promise that I"ll exactly remember who you are from day to day."
"Then we"ll just have to make sure they check us both into a rest home where all the patients wear name tags."
The two friends laughed together-something they hadn"t done for months.
The evening at the pet store zipped by. Christy had quietly let Jon know that Katie and Michael had broken up, and Jon made sure Katie kept busy in the stock room, helping him rearrange supplies. Jon kept her laughing too with all his stories about crazy customers.
Just as the two girls were about to leave the store. Christy sidled up to Jon and said, "Remind me to do something nice for you someday."
Jon smiled and whispered, "She"s not through the worst of it yet. It"ll hit her pretty hard. Probably sometime this weekend. Anyone who"s had a broken heart knows it gets worse before it gets better."
Jon"s expression and tender words made Christy wonder who had once broken his heart. Maybe he had never recovered, since he was in his early thirties and still not married.
"You want ice cream or frozen yogurt or something before the long drive up to Newport Beach?" Christy asked as she and Katie headed for the car. "We could stop by Baskin-Robbins on our way out of town."
Katie didn"t answer.
Christy unlocked the pa.s.senger door, and Katie got in, fastened her seat belt, and looked straight ahead, as if in a daze.
"h.e.l.lo, Earth to Katie. Do you want to stop by Baskin-Robbins or not?" Then Christy noticed a stream of tears pouring down Katie"s cheeks.
"That"s the first place we ever went together. Remember? It was the day we met. Right after school, I told Michael I was going to educate him on how many vitamins could be found in a scoop of Jamoca Almond Fudge ice cream."
Christy swallowed hard. Things had been going so well at work. She hadn"t expected this kind of sorrow attack. "We don"t have to stop there. We don"t have to stop anywhere. We can just drive straight to Bob and Marti"s. Forget I suggested it. Bad suggestion."
Maneuvering the car out of the parking lot, Christy checked Katie"s face each time they pa.s.sed a streetlight to see if the tears were letting up.
"Do you realize," Christy said, "this is the first time since we went to San Diego about this time last year that you and I have gone anywhere together, just the two of us? And can you believe my parents actually let me take the car for the whole weekend? This is really a first, Katie."
Katie leaned back against the headrest and closed her eyes. In a choked voice she said. "Take me home, Christy. I can"t do this."
"Sure you can," Christy said cheerfully. "We"re going to have a great time together this weekend. You"ll forget all about Michael."
"I don"t want to forget about Michael!" Katie raised her voice. "There are no bad memories to try to forget. Everything was wonderful. You don"t get it, do you? I loved him. I still love him!"
Christy drove silently onto the freeway and moved into the middle lane. They pa.s.sed the off-ramp for Katie"s house, but Katie said nothing. Christy a.s.sumed Katie didn"t really want to go home. She just needed to get away. Christy decided it was up to her to convince Katie that they were going to have a good time.
Christy drove a little faster. The farther Katie got from home, the less realistic it would be for them to turn around and go back, and the more enthusiastic she might become about the weekend.
They continued in silence. Christy felt relieved that traffic was light. They should make it to Bob and Marti"s in about an hour and a half. She wondered if she should turn on the radio. No, a song might come on that would remind Katie of Michael, although Christy didn"t know what song that might be. She realized how little she knew about Michael and Katie and the things that were special to them. Maybe they should talk about anything unrelated to Michael.
"Did I tell you we have until Wednesday to finish up everything on the yearbook? I think it turned out really well. It"s been a lot of fun. Maybe I"ll take some courses like that in college. That reminds me. I never heard what you decided about college next year. Did you hear back from any of the ones you applied to?"
Katie pursed her lips. "I was accepted at the Queens University in Belfast. That"s where Michael is going next year."
"Belfast? You mean in Ireland? I didn"t know you even applied. Are you still going there? What am I saying? Of course you"re not. What"s your next choice?"
"I don"t know. I didn"t have any backup plans."
Christy could see the tears starting to slide down Katie"s freckled cheeks again. She knew she"d better start talking fast. "I guess I"m going to Palomar Community College, at least for my freshman year. My aunt wants me to go to a state university. You know they started a college savings account for me several years ago. Well, there"s probably enough for my first year. But my parents think I should wait until I have a better idea of what I want my major to be before I go to a university. That way I can get all the generaled courses out of the way. Palomar is pretty good, from what I hear. Why don"t you go to Palomar with me? It"d be great. Katie. We could even take some cla.s.ses together."
By now they were well on their way down the freeway and were driving past Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base. Katie stared blankly out the window.
"Maybe I"ll join the army." Katie mumbled.
"The army?" Christy questioned with a laugh.
"All right, then, the air force."
"Katie, you crack me up. You belong in a drama cla.s.s."
"I"m not being dramatic," Katie said, facing Christy. Katie"s eyes looked puffy in the dim light.
"What I mean is, you seem like you would be great as the star in a school play. I can see you going to college and majoring in acting much more than I picture you in the c.o.c.kpit of a fighter plane."
"Acting, huh?"
"I think you would be great in drama. You have a natural flare for it. I always said you would be the next Lucille Ball."
"I don"t feel like I"m going to be the next anything. I hurt so bad. Christy. You can"t imagine how bad this hurts."
"That"s because you keep thinking about it. Try to get your mind on something else. Let"s play a game or something. I know. I"m thinking of an animal that starts with the letter g."
"It"s giraffe, and I don"t want to play."
"How did you know it was a giraffe?"
"You pick a giraffe first every time we play this stupid game."
"Okay," Christy said, still trying to move the conversation off Michael. "Your turn. You pick one."
"Christy," Katie said sharply, "you don"t get it, do you? I don"t want to play any stupid games. I"m hurting. Just let me hurt, will you!"
Christy recoiled, trying hard not to let her wounded feelings show. Now she was the one who wanted to turn around and take Katie home. With Katie so set on feeling sorry for herself, it was bound to be a miserable weekend.
If only Katie and Michael hadn"t broken up. What am I thinking? I prayed for this for months, and now I wish she was still with him? I"m so confused! What am I supposed to say to cheer her up? I can"t understand why she"s hurting so much-she did the right thing, and she knows it.
"Katie," Christy began softly, "you"re right. I don"t totally understand what you"re feeling. I"m trying to say the right things here, and I don"t seem to be helping at all. Maybe you can help me understand. I mean, you broke up with Michael because you were convinced G.o.d told you to break up with him. Tell me what you"re feeling now."
Katie shook her head. "There"s no way of explaining it. It"s like a death, Christy, a loss of something precious. It doesn"t matter how prepared you are for that death, it still hurts. It just really, really hurts."
"I"m sorry. I wish I could do something."
"Just let me hurt."