The Art of Being Emily - Katie MacAlister Page 0,35
it for a week—we have a whole month of WE in January. I'm thinking of asking if I can go up to my aunt's in Scotland. She lives on a sheep farm; that ought to qualify as work experience, don't you think?
There's so much to tell you, I don't know where to begin, but first...
I bought some condoms for this weekend and hid them under my pillow. Ribbed. You don't think that was too pushy of me, do you? I mean, won't V have some of his own? What if he doesn't? What if he wants to do it and I pull out my ribbed condoms and he thinks I'm, like, slutty? Should I just mention them casually, or say nothing? GOD! This is SO stressful!
Deep breath, girlfriend. First of all, you are not slutty for having condoms. Sheesh, even my mom offered to get me condoms if I wanted them (I didn't, but that's only because Bess gave me some a couple of months ago). That's just smart, and you know it. You don't want to end up like Marvel and have a baby before you graduate. One of my mom's cousins had a girl who got pregnant when she was fourteen. She's almost nineteen now, and she has THREE KIDS!
OK, safe-sex lecture over. Ribbed is very cool, I'm sure. Vance will love them. Just be sure you tell me everything afterward. There's so much no one tells us—if you're going to go first, you have a duty to tell me stuff so I don't make a fool of myself. My big news is Aidan, Aidan, Aidan, the perfect Mr. Hottie. I saw him heading into the library when I was going to French (calamity du jour: toothache. I think Madame Grayson is getting suspicious, though, 'cause she fired a whole lot of French at me and didn't seem too happy when I mumbled into the palm of my hand). Now, you know that I had to be mondo cool with Aidan, since everyone (you and Bess and Holly and Peg and everyone) says he owes me an apology, so I just looked through him and continued my way on to French. He said something, but I couldn't hear what. So I went in to French, and then started worrying. What if the thing that he'd said to me was an apology, and I just walked away from it? He'd think I was being snotty just like the Snickerers said, and then I'd never, ever have him! Obviously I was going to have to go to the library and just hang out and see if he said anything else, or if he acted cold to me, which meant that he had apologized and I hadn't heard it, and then I'd have to apologize to him for not hearing his apology.
I got out of French for a few minutes by having a really loud case of the hiccups that annoyed Miss Grayson until she told me to go drink some water. I ran all the way to the library, then strolled in like I had a free period and was just looking for something. Aidan was sitting with a couple of sixth formers near the front desk. I hung around the career section waiting for him to notice me, which he finally did. He smiled, which was a good sign. It meant that he A) wasn't pissed at me about the night at the club, and B) wasn't pissed that I hadn't heard his apology. If that's what he had said to me.
“There you are. I've been hoping to see you before lunch.”
“Oh, Aidan? I didn't see you there,” I lied, browsing in the career pamphlets. “I just stopped by for a quick look at info about being a” –I looked down at the pamphlet in my hand—” “um, mortician.”
He gave a little laugh and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. “Mortician?”
“It's a lost art,” I said, and waited.
He took the pamphlet from my hands and pulled me over to the career corner where no one ever goes. “I wanted to talk to you, but I was sick with a cold for a few days—”
A cold! Why didn't I think of that? He had a cold! It wasn't me after all! Whew.
“—but I wanted to apologize for Friday. I had a bit too much to drink, you know how it is, out with your