Free The Edge of Juniper by Lora Richardson

love to come with you, Aunt Donna.  Come on, Celia. Let’s go grab some spending money.”
    As we passed by Abe’s door, Celia pounded it once with her palm.  “Yo, Abe, we have to vacate the premises.  Get your shoes on.”
    He opened the door, a look of confusion on his face.  I didn’t blame him.  He’d been told to help with the groceries, then told to clean up his mess, then told to go to his room, then told to get ready to go to town.  That’s the life of a kid, I guess.  You spend a lot of time being where people tell you to be.
     
     
    The next day, Uncle Todd was at work and it was as though we could all catch our breath, now that his mood wasn’t holding us hostage.  “Ronan and I are heading out now.” Celia shot me a meaningful look.  She and I had accomplished our mission the previous afternoon.  Celia, chicken that she was, wouldn’t come down the prophylactic aisle with me.  She claimed it was because someone she knows might have seen her and told her mother.  She warned me to be quick, because the same was likely also true if anyone we knew saw me buying them.  I wasn’t worried about it, but I told her I would be covert.
    Celia decided her job was to distract her mom and Abe. She asked them to help pick out a new shirt to give Uncle Todd for Father’s Day, which was coming up.  I told them I was going to browse, and then walked directly to the health and pharmacy section.  I first stopped in the aisle next to the condom aisle and smelled a few shampoos, so I wouldn’t draw attention, then I slipped into the condom aisle.  I grabbed the first pack I saw, paid for them with money Celia gave me, and tucked them in my purse.  Being sneaky had been rather exhilarating.
    I had hoped that once Celia had her hands on the condoms, reality would shake her out of her enthusiasm. But she had the condoms now, and she was still chomping at the bit to execute her surprise.  I didn’t mean to tell her what to do with her life, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Ronan was not good for her.  I pulled her away from Ronan, and into the hallway.  “Celia, are you sure about this?”
    She wrenched her hand out of mine.  “I’m sure, Fay.  Quit asking me that.  It’s not the big deal to everybody that it is to you.”  I understood that, but it was written all over her nervous face and shaky hands how big of a deal it was to her.
    I wanted to give her an out, an excuse in case she was just waiting for one she could latch onto.  “I thought we were going to hang out this afternoon.”  At lunch, she had mentioned watching a movie.  I tried not to mind that our plans had gone out the window as soon as Ronan called.
    “We have all summer to hang out.  Ronan practically never gets an afternoon off, but today his division got the time because some of the machinery was broken.  Give me this one.”
    “This is just like when we were little and I wanted to play Scrabble and you kept telling me we had plenty of time and we’d get around to it.  I think we only got around to it once.”
    “I have you for longer than a few days this time.  We have plenty of time to play Scrabble and anything else you want to do.  Let me go play with Ronan this afternoon,” Celia said, and winked at me.  She wasn’t a natural winker, and the awkward scrunching of her face made me laugh.  She grinned and walked back into the living room. “I’m ready Ronan, let’s go.”
    After they left, I flopped back onto the couch. Abe came into the room with a bag of chips, and sat down beside me and crunched.  Crumbs drifted down onto the couch.  Though I had just eaten lunch, I held out my hand, and he dropped in a handful of sour cream and onion goodness.
    “Abe, your sister keeps ditching me.  I think I’m going to have to come up with my own summer plans.”  More than that, I didn’t really want to be in this house with Donna if I could find an alternative.  Even when Todd was gone, being here