“Listen.” Sliding onto the bench alongside me, she set her hurley and helmet down before reaching for my hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. “You know that I love you, right?” She gave me one of those supportive smiles. “And there’s nothing on this planet that you can’t tell me.”
“Obviously.”
“Good.” Another hand squeeze incurred. “So, if there was anything that you wanted to get off your chest, you would tell me, right?”
“What’s this about, Case?” I asked, brows furrowed in confusion.
“You tell me.”
I stared blankly back at her. “I have no idea.”
“Come on, Aoife,” she urged, eyeballing me with what I presumed was meant to be a meaningful stare, but only made her look psychotic. “It’s okay. I’m your best friend. I won’t turn my back on you in your hour of need.”
“Turn your back on me for what?” I laughed, at a loss, but finding her amusing just the same.
“Does your mother know?” she demanded then, huffing out a breath. “I presume Joe knows. That’s a given – oh my god, does Katie know? Because I can understand your mam and Joey knowing, but I swear if you told Katie Wilmot before me then I’m going to be seriously pissed. I don’t care if she’s your next-door neighbor, I’m the one who’s had your back from the dawn of time, bitch.”
“Case, you’re going to need to tell me what the hell you’re talking about, because I’m genuinely lost here, babe.”
Casey stared at me for the longest moment before her blue eyes widened and her brows shot up. “Of course they don’t know,” she mumbled, pressing a hand to her brow like she had a sudden migraine. “Because you don’t know.”
“Don’t know what?”
“Aoif.” My best friend shrugged helplessly, before saying, “I think you might be in the family way.”
I took in the sight of her comical expression and burst out laughing.
“Aoif, I’m being totally serious here.”
“I know you are,” I agreed, still laughing. “That’s what makes it so funny.”
“Aoife.”
“Oh my god, no. I’m not pregnant, Case,” I choked out, trying to sober my features. “Why would you even think that?”
“When was your last period?”
I gaped at her. “What?”
“Your last period,” she urged, tone serious. “When was that exactly?”
“I’m due on,” I told her.
“No.” She shook her head. “No, you’re not.”
“I think I’d know when my period is due,” I replied, tone defensive now, as the funny side of this conversation quickly faded.
“You would think,” she muttered, pressing her fingers to her temples. “Listen to me. Since first year, we’ve always been in sync. The third week of the month. Like clockwork.”
“So?”
“So, you’re either two weeks late on last month’s one, or two weeks early for this month’s one.”
“I’m…no, that can’t be right.” Shaking my head, I reached into my bag and grabbed my phone. “I’m due on.” Tapping furiously on the buttons of my shiny new Nokia 3510i, my secret Santa Christmas present from Nana Healy, I searched through the calendar notes, panic rising in my chest at a rapid speed. “I’m not late – oh, thank Jesus!” Exhaling a ragged breath when I found what I was looking for, I handed the phone to her and physically sagged in relief. “See?”
“What am I looking at here?”
“I knew I wasn’t late,” I told her, pointing at the saved note. “I had a switch up a couple of months back, where it came early, but I’m fine, see? My last one started on the fourteenth.”
“Yeah, that was December, Aoif.”
“What?” I shook my head. “No, no, that was January.”
“No, babe,” she corrected, tapping her long nail against the screen of my phone. “It was December.”
“That can’t be right.”
“Tell me that you had a period last month?” she begged, voice holding a note of anxiety similar to the feeling rising up inside of me. “Aoife, please. Tell me —”
“I did,” I strangled out, snatching my phone back up, and furiously checking through every calendar note and outbox message I could find only to come up empty. “Of course I did. I had one at the end of January…except…”
“Except what?”
“Well, it was weird,” I strangled out, feeling my anxiety rise. “It was super light and only lasted a day or two. It was like some light spotting that just tapered off.”
“Dear Jesus,” Casey cried, slapping the heel of her hand against her forehead. “That could have been implantation bleeding.”
“What the hell is implantation bleeding?” I demanded, eyes wide and full of terror. “Implantation of what?”
“Of Joey’s strongest fucking swimmer!” Casey strangled out. “Seriously, I know what I’m talking about. It’s like this teeny-tiny period like spotting that can trick you into thinking you’re having a period. It happened to my cousin Lisa. You know Lisa, with the twins?”
“Yes, Jesus, I know Lisa,” I wailed. “But that’s not happening to me.”
“You had a lot going on back at Christmas.” My best friend gave me a worrying look. “You know, with Joey going off the rails and stuff. Maybe you missed a pill or something?”
“I’m not pregnant, Casey!” I practically hissed, feeling the blood rush to my head at record speed. Heat encompassed my body, flooding my cheeks, and making me want to run at top speed as far away from this conversation as I could get. “I’m not, okay? I can’t be. And I never miss my pill. Never.”
“I know you don’t,” she was quick to soothe, reaching out to place a hand on mine. “I believe you.” She exhaled heavily before continuing, “It’s just that you and Joey were going through all of that crap in the new year, and your head was a little screwed up. Maybe, it slipped your mind."
“No,” I snapped, rejecting any other thoughts. “Nothing slipped my mind. I’m careful, Case.”
“Were you on antibiotics?” she offered then. “Because certain types can mess with the pill and make it ineffective? Because that’s how my own mam ended up with me.”
“No,” I strangled out, feeling weak. “Nothing like that.”
“Were you sick? Have you had any bugs?”
“Casey!”
“Because your period has deserted you, you’ve been eating like a horse for the past two months, and your boobs have definitely gotten bigger…“ Words trailing off, she reached for the hem of my jersey. “And I mean, no offense, babe, but you do look like you’ve packed a couple of pounds on your lower belly.”
“Stop it!” I cried out, holding a hand up. “Just stop, okay?”
“I’m trying to be supportive here, Aoif,” she defended.