I smiled.
“’Night, Kaylee-Haylee. And thanks.”
“’Night, Haylee-Kaylee.”
I left her room. She closed the door softly behind me.
When I entered my room, I realized I had been holding my breath and fighting with myself not to just run down the stairs and unload it all in Mother’s lap. If something happened, she would blame me. Envisioning that nightmare actually made me tremble. I had a very hard time falling asleep. Once or twice, I sat up and thought that maybe the way to handle this was to go to Daddy. He could keep a secret. I’d go along with it and have him follow Haylee and then confront this Anthony whoever and bring it to a quick end.
But of course, she would know I had done that. The choice was simple: take the risk and let her dabble in this fantasy romance, finally realizing how foolish it was, or lose her as a sister forever. There was no doubt about that.
I fell back on my pillow and looked up at the dark ceiling, hoping that sleep would take me out of this quandary. It was almost morning when it finally did. The contrast between myself and Haylee at breakfast was very sharp. I could barely keep my eyes open and moved like a turtle. She was full of energy, seeming happier than ever, bouncing about the kitchen, doing this and that for Mother.
“Aren’t you feeling well?” Mother asked me.
Haylee turned to me quickly, her eyes raging with fear and warning.
“I spent too much time studying,” I said. “I’ll be fine.”
“And you?” she asked, turning to Haylee. “Did you study enough?”
“Oh, yes, Mother.”
“I’m looking forward to you having very good grades. Everyone expects children of recent divorces to do poorly in school, but we’re going to show them different, aren’t we?”
“We are,” Haylee said. “In fact, we plan to do better than last quarter, don’t we, Kaylee?”
I looked up at Mother. I knew Haylee was barely doing as well as she had done last quarter. “Yes,” I said.
Mother looked pleased.
Haylee gave me another dirty look full of warnings, and then we finished breakfast and got ready to be driven to school.
“You can’t look like that, morning or afternoon or night,” Haylee lectured when we went upstairs to get ready. “If Mother thinks you’re worrying about something, she’ll drill us like a CIA interrogator, and I don’t have confidence that you’ll hold up your side of it.”
“I can’t help what I can’t help,” I said.
“Well, try harder, especially at Tuesday’s dinner,” she ordered.
I calmed myself by convincing myself that she would back out on her own when it came right down to doing it. She was putting up this brave front just for me, and before Saturday, she would tell me something had happened between her and this Anthony whoever and that whatever had happened had ended it. But on the contrary, she came into my room every night to tell me how excited she was and how excited he was. On Friday, she revealed some more details.
“The reason we’re meeting where we’re meeting is that it’s very close to his home,” she said.
“His home? You’re going to a strange man’s house?”
“He’s not a strange man! How many times do I have to tell you that? We’ve been talking to each other for weeks and weeks. I know far more about him than I do about boys I’ve known for years. He’s very open and honest about himself. The truth is that I haven’t been half as honest and revealing with him as I should be.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means, like I said, I’m taking baby steps. So don’t worry.”
“Where is his house?”
“I don’t know exactly. It’s more like a farm.”
“Haylee, this is so crazy, but okay, okay,” I said quickly, seeing the expression on her face start to change into rage. “If you’re still this confident on Saturday, we’ll follow your plan.”
“Good,” she said. She smiled. “And thank you, Kaylee. I mean it.”