Outcome

knew it. I just didn’t care enough to do anything about it.

'So do you have any great plans for tonight?' I shook my head, my hand flying up to my mouth to stop a ravioli avalanche as I had shoved too much in my mouth. Haley grinned at me, handing me a napkin as I had pretty much destroyed mine. Grateful, I took it, wiping my chin and mouth.

'Nope.' I finally managed.

'Good. Want to come over and watch a movie?'

'At your house?' She nodded. 'Oh,' I felt really stupid. Oh? I knew I was nervous about the idea, feeling like I’d just been invited to step onto sacred territory, hallowed ground. 'Sure.' I smiled, trying to hide my stupidity behind it.

'Great.' She smiled. 'Have you seen The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, yet?' I shook my head. 'No? Oh my god, Andi. Where have you been?'

'I guess not roaming around in Mordor.'

'I’ll get you to the twenty-first century yet.'

'Ha ha.'

The Corregan house was very nice, a two story with five bedrooms and a bunch of bathrooms. Haley headed downstairs to the basement, and I followed. A pool table was in a nook toward the back of the room, a Wurlitzer 1050 juke box against the wall. A bar, much like the one in my own house, lined one wall, an upright piano the opposite.

'Nice piano. Do you play?'

'A little.' Haley headed for the big screen TV and the surrounding entertainment cabinets. She opened a door to reveal what must have been hundreds of DVDs. Kneeling down to read through them, finally she reached in and grabbed one. 'I hope you have some time, because this is one long movie.'

'Works for me.'

'Have a seat.'

I looked around to see a nice, black leather couch with matching arm chair. I sat on the couch, waited for the show to begin.

'Do you want anything? Drink? Food? Sweats?' I put my hand on my stomach, shaking my head.

'God, no. I can’t eat another bite.'

'Okay. Sweats? I’m going to get comfortable, so you’re more than welcome to, too.'

'Um, that’s okay.' I smiled, feeling slightly weird about wearing her clothes for some reason. Almost as if by simply wearing them, I’d ruin them for her.

'You’re sure?' she asked, hand on the door that would take her upstairs. I nodded. 'Okay. Be right back. Oh, and the bathroom is right down that hallway if you need it.' She smiled, then was gone. I looked around as the DVD got started, movie previews starting up with a loud rush. I looked around, seeing where Haley’s dad had hooked up all kinds of speakers for surround sound, and stereo, and just about anything else some electronic- savvy guy could muster.

As I sat there, legs together, hands in my lap, I felt like some sort of an intruder. I rarely went over to Tracy’s house, and she never went to mine, so this was new to me. Never in all my school years had I had a close friend, a good friend to go to each other’s house on the weekends, get to know their family. I had seen on shows and movies where friends actually called their friend’s parents mom and dad. That had always seemed like such an odd thing for me, like it was only in the movies. But as I sat here in the Corregan’s basement, I felt like that may be possible, like maybe it wasn’t just fiction.

The basement door opened, and suddenly I couldn’t see. I reached up and removed the clothing from my head, seeing Haley staring at me with a wide grin.

'Just in cast you changed your mind.' I looked at the pair of green sweats that were in my hand, knowing that they would be much more comfortable than the jeans I wore, and much warmer, too.

'Fine, fine. I will, for the first time in my life, submit to a bit of peer pressure.' I stood, sweats in hand.

'Shall I take a picture?' She grinned, I glared, headed toward the bathroom.

My god! These things are huge! I didn’t think Haley was that much taller than me, but I guess I was wrong. I pulled the pants up to my hips, the legs dragging on the ground. So, I leaned down, scrunched them up over my feet, and stood, pulling the waistband up as far as it would go. With a bit of stretching, it went up over my breasts. Grinning, I headed out to Haley.

'Hey, those actually don’t fit too bad.' She looked me over, seeing where the legs were scrunched up just a bit. I stared at her, amused. She finally looked up to catch my eyes, and that’s when I lifted my sweat shirt to reveal the pants pulled up. Haley’s eyes got huge, then she burst into laughter, followed by my own chuckles. 'Okay, okay, so they’re a little big.'

I pulled the pants down to their normal place, the extra material bagging around my legs. She was larger than I was all the way around.

'Come sit. The movie is about to start.'

I sat, transfixed, for over three hours as the elves, dwarfs, hobbits and humans of Middle Earth fought together to protect, and eventually destroy, the ring. I don’t think I said one word to Haley during the entire film. Finally the credits rolled, and I felt eyes on me. I turned to see her looking expectantly at me.

'So?'

'That was way cool.' She grinned, clapping her hands together.

'I’m so glad you liked it. I had a feeling you would, Andi.'

'Oh, I did.' A yawn escaped me, my hand going to my mouth to cover it.

'Tired?' I looked at her with heavy eyes, nodded. It was after midnight, nearly one in the morning, and after a long day at school, then work, I was beat. 'I’m pretty gone, too. Why don’t you just stay here?' I looked at her for a second, surprised. Me, stay here? Oh, my. 'Come on, we’ve got the room, and I’m way too tired to drive. I’ll kill us both.' She grinned, and so did I.

'Okay.'

'Cool. Come on.'

Haley lead me back upstairs, and up again until we ended up in her bedroom. It was actually decorated quite simply. A few posters of various sports stars, especially soccer, such as the large print of Mia Hamm, hanging on the closet door. There were two twin beds on walls lined up at a ninety degree angle so the heads of both beds were nearly touching diagonally. I looked at her, a brow raised.

'I used to have sleep overs all the time as a kid, so my parents got me the double beds so the poor girl would have somewhere to sleep. I just never got rid of them.' She shrugged sheepishly.

'Okay.'

I pulled off my sweatshirt, grateful I had a tank underneath it. I would keep the sweats on, most likely. Being alone so often, I had grown to be very modest. Haley whipped off her shirt, a tee under, and pushed her flannel pants down her legs.

'Well, goodnight, Andi.' She yawned, turning out the light.

'Night.'

Part 4

I looked at my finger, wrapped in the Snoopy Band-Aid that the school nurse gave me. I understand she works at different schools, including the elementary school, but does she have to let it spill over into the high school? Never in my life had I had a cartoon character wrapped around my finger.

I shoved my hand in my pocket, feeling stupid that I needed a Band-Aid in the first place. I had been in Biology class working on an experiment when the beaker had cracked, then broken, slicing my finger as it went. Man, that had hurt.

It was kind of nice, though, the halls quiet as everyone sat in class. I watched the light from the window at the end of the hall, bouncing and twisting off the cracks and seams in the white linoleum, buffed to a shine. Lockers surrounded me on both sides of the hall, interrupted once in a while by a classroom door. I could hear the loud voices of the students in gym class coming up just at the end where I would turn to head back to class.