“Are you trying to make this hurt more?”
“I don’t know.Maybe.” April tugs again. “You married a stranger.”
“C’mon, Sid isn’t really—”
“You married a stranger! You couldn’t think of some other way to get a bit of stupid money and so you—”
“I didn’t have a choice. We need his citizenship.”
“But what about when we become citizens? This whole problem is temporary, but now you’ve run off and married him—”
“The marriage is temporary, too.” I twist my head to try to see her. She’s clutching the comb so hard her knuckles are white. “Sid says we can get divorced once we’re covered.”
“Divorced?”
“That’s what he says.”
“Kayla! What if he’s tricking you? Is that why you went along with it?”
“No.” I fix her with a firm eye. “I agreed to it before I knew about the divorce thing. He didn’t trick me. He doesn’t even want to have sex.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
I sigh, sinking deeper into the soapy water. “It’s still true.”
April doesn’t have a response to that, but she does go back to untangling my hair. Her hands are gentler now as she mulls this over instead of taking out her anger on my scalp.
“I guess a place with a hospital and a school might have divorce too,” she says at last.
“Right? Oh! And guess what? Downtown, they have a library!”
That brings out a gasp. “Yes! Did you see it? A girl in my English class told me about it. She says it’s even bigger than the one at school.”
“It’samazing. Sid took me after the wedding.”
“You’ve got to take me with you next time!”
“Oh, absolutely.”
She tries to laugh, only for it to catch in her throat. “Kayla… I thought you were stuck forever.”
“No. Just a couple of years.”
“Well… that’s not too bad, then.” She blinks, the relief so intense on her face, she’s obviously struggling not to burst into tears. “You should have told me first, but… I guess it’s better than the government splitting us up.”
“Definitely better.”
“I … I was so worried. I couldn’t handle it if you ruined your life over me.” She rubs her eyes.
“April, if it was for you, it wouldn’t be ruining my life.”
“Shut up and face forward.” She sniffs back the last of her tears. “I need to get this hair tamed.”
She’s in a much better mood after that, chattering about how excited she is to try the makeup on me. Once she’s finished with the matts in my hair, we do our best to squeeze out the excess water and I dry off.
Apparently, this occasion calls for every frilly thing we own. April lends me a seashell necklace of hers we picked up ages ago, and despite my reservations, I don the sunflower dress. April flips to a page in one of her favourite magazines and does her best to recreate something called a cat eye. What this means is she spends an exorbitant amount of time, painting, wiping away, then repaintingthe charcoal cream on my eyelids. Finally, she’s satisfied and blends a small amount of the beetroot into my cheeks before painting my lips a deep red.
“You know, James is right. Now that I know you’ve got your divorce planned, this is hilarious,” she says, pinning the veil securely to my head. “Fun, even.”
