CHAPTER FIVE
Carrie
I pulled myself out of bed Saturday morning, but only because I refused to lay there and wallow in my bad mood any longer. I’d been holding it together pretty well for a pretty long time, putting my wants and feelings second to those of the people who needed me, and I didn’t have the energy for it anymore. I took an extra-long, hot shower and reminded myself of all I had to be happy about, but my heavy mood remained. I couldn’t even garden, because it was pouring rain.
I got dressed, ate breakfast, and picked up the book I was reading, a suspenseful vampire romance, but I put it down after only a couple of pages. I just felt blah, everything seemed blah, and I wanted a change. I wanted some excitement. I’d been so good for so long. I’d done everything I was supposed to do, I followed all the rules, I was always there for the people in my life who needed me, and yet my reward was loneliness and no joy or excitement in my future. “Blech,” I said, disgusted with myself. I was a firm believer that people made their own destiny, so if I was unhappy it was my own fault. Finding a husband wasn’t happening, so maybe I needed to have some of that wild fun I’d missed out on in college and in my early twenties.
And I knew just where to find it.
“Do you have any idea what time it is?” Dilly asked, her voice sleep-filled.
“Um, eight,” I said.
“Right,” she said. “Or the butt crack of dawn as anyone under sixty would call it. Why are you calling me so early? Did some loser strand you after a breakfast date? Or are you stuck at some loser’s house? Please tell me you got laid? How was it?” If I hadn’t known Dilly most of my life, I might have thought she was still drunk from the night before, but that was just how she woke up every day, zero to sixty in under a minute.
“No. I didn’t sleep with anyone. It’s just…I’m ready.”
“Ready?” I waited for her to wake up enough to understand what I was saying. She got it in about thirty seconds and squealed so loud I had to hold the phone away from my ear. “Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack,” I said. “I’ve tried it my way and I’ve failed. I’m ready to try it your way.”
“Have you called Lance, yet?”
“He’s not up before eleven on weekends.”
“Call him,” she said. “He’ll want to wake up for this. I’ll be there in an hour.”
I’d met Lance, a tenth-grade math teacher, my second year working at Pinewood High School. I fell in love with him at first sight. He’s gorgeous, fit, and a better dresser than me. He’s also gay, and my best friend after Dilly. Dilly loved Lance, but Lance was wary of Dilly. He felt she sometimes took advantage of me or pushed her agenda on me, but he usually only said that after I’ve chosen something she suggested over something he suggested. In any case, I knew him better than she did and I knew he’d kill me if I called him before eleven.
So, I didn’t call him. I turned on the T.V. and watched the news until Dilly knocked on my door. She bustled inside, shaking the rain off. She’d left her umbrella on the porch, but the rain was coming down sideways, so she’d still gotten wet. “Oh, my god,” she said. She wrapped me up in a big hug and jumped up and down with me. “My baby has finally decided to become a woman.” She held me out at arm’s length. “I’m so very proud of you, Carrie.”
“Don’t go getting too carried away,” I said. “I’m not going to go completely wild. I’ll still be me, just spiced up a bit.”
“Uh-huh,” she said, letting go of me and stepping into my living room. “Where’s Lance?”
“I haven’t called him, yet.”
“Well, call him, sugar. I’m not going back out in that rain for love or money, but it’s supposed to let up after lunch. We’ve got to start planning and we can’t do this without Lance.”
I called Lance and he screeched louder than Dilly had at the news and said he’d be over in an hour. Then, I sat on my couch with Dilly. She may have been up before her normal wake-up, even during the week the library didn’t open until ten, but she looked alert and chipper and happy.
“Okay,” she said. “What brought about this change?”
“Another bad date. I’m not ready to jump on the bandwagon that says I’m cursed, but it couldn’t hurt to take a break and, during that break, I want to have fun. I want to try out being a bit wild and irresponsible.”
“Tell me all about this guy and the date, so I can thank him.”
I groaned. I just wanted to forget about it. “You know Pauly Pickle?”
Dilly scrunched up her nose. “Eww, why would you go out with him? Isn’t he a junkie?”
I gave her a weak smile. “He just looks like a junkie. Not all of us age well, you know. He’s a janitor at the school and he does a good job, he’s very reliable.”
“So you went out with him?”
I snorted. “No, I went out with his younger brother, Ray Pickle. He was kind of cute in high school.”
“Oh, yeah,” she said, her eyes widening. “I forgot about him. He was cute. Is he still cute? What’s he doing now?”