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“Okay, I'll have a word with her.”
I saunter behind my mother, and she stops in the middle of the hall when she realizes I’m right behind her.
"Go to school, Logan. Your friend will be here when you’re finished.”
Yeah that's not happening.
I cross my arms, and my mother mimics my stance.
"Are you really going to disobey me?"
I keep still.
"I see. Well, you might as well make yourself useful,” she counters, going into one of my sister’s rooms and getting a notebook and a pen. She writes down a list and then hands it back to me.
“Go to the store and pharmacy. Buy everything I've written down, and then come straight back home. I'll call the school and tell them what happened, so they don’t send out the search party looking for you two. Do you have Mr. Rossi's phone number? I'll have to call him, too.”
I nod and scroll through my contacts to hand the info back to my mom.
"Okay. Go before I change my mind," she says, and I run in haste downstairs.
Val is shifting from one foot to the other in our foyer when I reach her.
“Are you okay?” I ask at the same time she says it was a bad idea coming over. I’m about to say it’s not, when my mom appears at our side.
"Hi, sweetheart. I heard you had a tiny mishap on your first day."
Val bites into her lower lip, her head still bowed to the floor.
"Come with me, Val. Let’s get you washed and into some clean clothes. Logan is going to be out for a minute, but he'll be back with some provisions for you.”
"You okay with that? I can stay if you want."
"I’ll be okay. You can go."
I lean in and kiss her cheek, my eyes going to my mother, begging her to help my friend.
"She's in good hands, baby. Go on now. We'll be here when you get back."
I nod and reluctantly leave them both. I grab my pink bike and peddle my way as fast as I can to the local grocery store. The list Mom made has most of the stuff I would expect on it and some I never knew was a must have when a girl was on her period. Aside from tampons and pads, there was plenty of junk food like chocolates and ice cream on the list, too. I had forty bucks in my wallet that I was saving up, but used all of it to buy every chocolate bar I could find. After buying some painkillers at the pharmacy, I flew to my bike and peddled my way back, like I was a professional cyclist training for the Tour de France.
When I finally get home, Val's hair is still damp from her shower, wearing my sister Cassidy's pj’s. Both Mom and her are talking animatedly in the kitchen, and even though the ice cream is melting in the plastic bag, I don't want to interrupt them. Val is the first to feel my presence, and the grateful happy smile that plays on her lips has me star-struck to the spot.
"Give it here, Logan. I'll pack these things up and make some lunch for you. Sloppy joes good for you, sweetheart?"
Val nods with the same bright smile to her face.
“Good. How about you kids go and watch a movie or something while I get this fixed up.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Cooper. For everything.”
"No need to thank me. You’re a friend of Logan’s, which means you’re family now. If there is ever anything you need, just pop on by and we can talk, okay?”
Val nods and then jumps off the kitchen stool, walking over to me. I take her hand and lead us over to the living room.
"What do you want to watch?"
"Something funny. Anything that will take my mind off today and how I totally screwed up my first day of school,” she says upbeat, looking and sounding more like herself.
