Rory looked at her absently. "You did?"
"Yes." She smiled. "I am doing an Associate's degree in Business."
Rory grinned. "That's why you like Monopoly."
"Yes," Sue-Ann said, chuckling. "But obviously you guys don't."
Rory shrugged. "I don't mind the game. I had other plans for this evening." His eyes darkened when he said that and Sue-Ann could see that he was thinking about Ruby. He wasn't even looking at her exposed chest, which she knew was more amply endowed than Ruby's.
Maybe she was going about this the wrong way, the thought came to her after Rory hung his head and was once again absorbed in his textbook. Maybe she should be his friend and even Ruby's. One did catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
She tugged back up her top. "What do you guys do on Saturday nights?" she asked after a few minutes ticked by.
Rory looked at her as if he had forgotten that she was there. "We usually play pool over at David's house," he said.
Sue-Ann waited for an invitation but when Rory turned the pages of his book again, she realized that if she wanted to be included in their lives she would have to really push the envelope. She detested David, though. He found everything in a skirt attractive and usually chased accordingly. He was a pastor's kid who believed that college gave him the excuse to do anything he wanted to do without moral restraints. He lived in a house with other like-minded so-called Christian children. She hated them all but she realized that her self-righteous position would mean she was not included in their special group.
She sighed. So this was peer pressure, except that there were no peers pressuring her. She was pressuring herself to fit in because she wanted to get closer to Rory.
"Can I come with you guys?" she asked hesitantly.
Rory looked at her. "Huh?"
"To David's house?" Sue-Ann prompted.
Rory frowned. "Are you sure? They are not exactly your kind of people."
Sue-Ann nodded. "Yes, I'm sure. I realize that I am missing out on a big part of college life. I really don't have many friends."
Rory grunted. "Sure, you can come."
"Are you and Ruby, like, going to get married?" Sue-Ann asked before Rory could read again. "I mean, you two sleep together and stuff."
"Of course we are going to get married. There is nobody else in the world for me but Ruby. I mean, I think of us as already married. I can't imagine loving anybody else, any time else, anywhere else. I'll love her till the day I die."
Sue-Ann swallowed. That was said with such conviction that she actually believed him and her heart broke a little.
"So you guys are going to tie the knot as soon as you graduate?"
Rory sighed. Sue-Ann was obviously in the mood to talk. He placed his book on the settee beside him. "That's the plan. I would marry Ruby right now. I would have married her from the day we graduated high school but everyone says that we are too young. Our mothers both think we are too young. They both said we should wait until college. 'Everybody knows you will find somebody else in college. Emotions will fray; people will disagree and move on.' That hasn't happened to us and it never will."
He shrugged. "She is the one for me; nobody else will do and I will fight tooth and nail with anyone who comes between us."
His words made Sue-Ann shiver.
"I think everybody has a match, and my match is Ruby." He went back to reading and Sue-Ann was glad that he didn't see the tears that were gathered at the sides of her eyes.
*****
"You don't look so good," Sue-Ann said to Ruby, sounding concerned. For the last three months she had deliberately ingratiated herself as Ruby's friend. She had allowed Ruby to give her a makeover, which had given her the opportunity to get closer to her.
She realized that Ruby liked to help people, but she had a weakness for children and animals that Sue-Ann found over the top and nauseating. Every puppy was cute, and every baby was reason for them to stop and smile at it.
She had to admit, even grudgingly, that Ruby was not that bad a person, not at all, and she could see why Rory was so attached to her. She had a lively sense of humor. She was energetic, playful, pretty, and not at all self-conscious.
Ruby seemed to have no body hang-ups and no social awkwardness. If Sue-Ann was a different person she would just leave Ruby and Rory alone but she was who she was and she loved Rory. She loved him now more than ever before. He was different. He acted differently than his repugnant friends. He was responsible and kind and sweet and he even spoke to her voluntarily, especially now that she was Ruby's friend.
She was now allowing Ruby to trim her hair ends. Sue-Ann looked at Ruby in the mirror. She could see a look of pain flash across Ruby's features. Ruby stepped away from Sue-Ann with the scissors in her hand and sat on her bed.
"I don't feel too well," Ruby said, "I feel dizzy and queasy." She lay back on the bed. "Give me a sec while this feeling goes, okay?"
"Okay." Sue-Ann held up her hair. "I started nursing practice at the hospital last week. This hairstyle, though nice, is not compliant with our dress code. I'll have to wear it in a ponytail, anyway."
She turned around and looked at Ruby. "You know, if I didn't know better I'd say you were pregnant, but of course I know you have final exams in a month and you and Rory must be taking precautions against pregnancy."
"Oh my God." Ruby sat up in the bed, her fair complexion looking a little paler than usual. "I think that's it. I skipped the pill a couple of days because of a flu last month, you remember." She groaned. "I do not want to have a baby now. I wanted to get married first, work, buy a house. Do it the old fashioned way. My mother's going to kill me. Rory's mother is going to kill him. My church pastor is going to know what I have been doing it."
She hit the bed and the thump matched the thumping in Sue-Ann's heart. Oh no. Oh no.
Sue-Ann thought she was actually seeing dark spots and her eyes were open. She realized that it was because she was holding her breath. She forced herself to breathe.
Ruby looked over at her and then giggled. "You look so devastated for me. Don't be. I adore babies. I want to have a dozen. This one might hasten the wedding bells, but when Rory finds out he's going to want us to get married straight away."
Sue-Ann got up. "Excuse me a sec, Ruby. I'll soon be back." She ran to her room and closed the door, sliding along the length of it and hyperventilating like she had just run a sprint. Noooo! Her mind shouted. Noooo!
She pressed her hand in her mouth. Please God, remember that Rory is mine. Her mind raced. Rory and Ruby cannot get married. This was not how the script was in her mind.
The way she had written it was that Rory found out how utterly irresistible she was and then realized that what he had with Ruby was just sex. Just lust. They would break up and she would marry him in a spectacular white wedding and then they would live happily ever after.
Ruby would be broken, preferably dead, but there was not supposed to be a baby. No way. No combination of Ruby and Rory in this world.
I have to get rid of that baby, Sue-Ann thought feverishly. She got up off the floor. Her feet felt shaky.
Just yesterday, in the clinic section they had assigned her to for the week, she had seen a woman come in who was undergoing a miscarriage. She had to find out the name of the drug that the doctor had given that lady.
She couldn't wait to go into the hospital today. She went to the shower and after she had finished she dragged out one of her neatly pressed student uniforms. She almost forgot that she had been in Ruby's room about to see about her hair. She hastily pulled it into a ponytail and then put on her shoes.
She knocked on Ruby's door.
"Come on in," Ruby said. Her voice sounded weak and she was lying on her side.
"I feel so terrible," she said to Sue-Ann and then she looked at her fully. "I had no idea that it was time for you to go to work."
"What time is it?" Ruby groaned. "I have study group in ten minutes. Rory is coming to pick me up."
&nb
sp; "No," Sue-Ann said sharply and then softened her tone. "It's not that late. I am going in early today. I really hope you feel better soon."
Ruby nodded. "Thanks Sue-Ann. You know, you have really turned into a gem."
No thanks, Sue-Ann said snidely in her head, not if that gem is a ruby. Instead, she nodded at her rival and headed through the door. She walked the few paces to the bus stop and paced while she waited on a taxi to take her to the hospital. She needed to know more about how to get rid of this accursed baby.
Chapter Fourteen
2003, College Days
When Sue-Ann reached the hospital she headed for the nurses’ station at the clinic.
"You are early," Nurse Gregory, the head nurse, said to her. "Way early." She looked at the clock. "You know, in every class that they send from the university, there is always one eager nurse. I am happy that you are looking forward to working in the profession so eagerly."
Sue-Ann nodded impatiently. She could take or leave nursing any day. She just wanted to know more about the pill right now. She waited for an hour to do her business while she did little chores for Nurse Gregory, who looked really happy that she was there.
"Tell me, Nurse Gregory," she said smiling, hoping that she looked as eager and as humble as she could, "about that lady from yesterday..."
"The one with the miscarriage?" Nurse Gregory asked. "You all looked spooked when you saw her bleeding."
"Yes, her," Sue-Ann said. "What was the pill that the doctor gave her?"
"Ah," Nurse Gregor said. "That pill was Misoprostol. It makes the womb contract. If it was an abortion she would have taken Mifepristone first. It works by blocking the hormone progesterone. Without progesterone, the lining of the uterus breaks down and the pregnancy cannot continue and then she would have to take the Misoprostol to contract the womb."
Sue-Ann almost laughed in giddy relief. It would be child's play to get her hands on those two prescriptions from the doctor's office. It would also be child's play to get Ruby to take them. Maybe she could be magnanimous and feed them to Ruby after her exams. She didn't want Ruby repeating a semester and subjecting herself to watching her and Rory make cow eyes at each other.
She almost flew through her daily tasks with a lightness that she was far from feeling.
*****
"And it's a big plus!" Ruby squealed three days after Sue-Ann suggested that she might be pregnant. She ran around the living room flashing the pregnancy stick.
"Hold on a minute," Rory grinned. "Let me get a picture of that."
Ruby posed with the stick in her hand and crossed her eyes. "I am an unwed single mother to be and I am ridiculously happy; isn't that something?"
Rory grinned. "Not for much longer. You both are mine; as soon as exams are finished we are getting married."
Sue-Ann was in the kitchen watching them; her breath hitched in her throat. When she heard Rory's declaration to Ruby her chest constricted uncomfortably. She would have to move up her plans for Ruby. There was no way she was going to allow those two to get married.
"You have to propose to me first," Ruby was saying playfully.
Rory put his hand on her still flat belly and whispered in her ear, "Later. We have an audience."
Ruby nodded. "Want us to go somewhere to celebrate?" she asked playfully.
"Yes," Rory groaned. "The library. I can't hang around with you, woman. I am about to be a father. I need to graduate from school and get a job."
"You already have a job," Ruby said. "Your uncle is as rich as Croesus. He'll find a place for you in his organization."
Rory laughed, "I am not sure I want to work for my uncle but we'll see. He is setting up an insurance office in town. I might just do something like that for the time being."
Sue-Ann moved closer to the doorway of the kitchen and listened as they talked. She wrapped her arms around herself. Her body felt as if it were on the verge of a shiver.
*****
Ruby was lying in the settee with her head in Rory's lap. "If I have a girl I want to name her Jade. "
Sue-Ann was sitting across from them. It was the very last week of exams and she could barely concentrate. Ruby and her ever giddy attitude was not making it easy for her to concentrate on her studies either. To top it off she had dreams of people warning her to turn away from what she was about to do. The dreams were so vivid that they had her feeling out of sorts and shaky.
"Why Jade?" Rory asked. "I kind of like Onyx."
"Nah," Ruby shook her head. "Do you know anybody named Onyx? Besides, that sounds like a boy's name and I want a girl."
Sue-Ann got up, her mind made up.
She had had it. If she had to listen to one more happy plan she was going to burst. "I got this really nice drink to try out at work today." She forced a brightness in her voice that she was far from feeling. "It is sour sop and lemon together. Want to taste it?"
Rory shook his head. "No thanks." Rory barely looked at her. Sue-Ann's mouth twisted at the reminder that he only had eyes for Ruby. She was back to being a nobody, even though she had tried so hard to be his friend.
Ruby looked at her with a grin on her pink lips. She looked even prettier since the whole pregnancy news, and Sue-Ann almost snarled in frustration.
"Thanks Sue," Ruby said flippantly. "That sounds like an interesting combination."
"And it's good for your heart too," Sue-Ann said, heading for the kitchen. She emptied the two tablets that she had carefully ground into the glass for Ruby and brought it out. She made a show of sipping hers and smiling. "You'll like it."
"Thanks," Ruby said, sitting up. She sipped it. "It has a little kick to it, but it is still good."
She drank it off and Sue-Ann worried a little, the dosage was supposed to be one at a time. Suppose she really killed Ruby and not the baby? The thought had her worrying all night. She didn't want to be a full-blown murderer. She thought of the baby as a non-entity that would destroy all hopes of her being with Rory, but she worried that she would really hurt Ruby.
*****
It was no surprise to her when she got home the evening after and heard that Ruby was admitted to the hospital. Neither did it surprise her when she heard that Ruby had a miscarriage. It made her extremely happy when Ruby came home hollow-eyed and depressed.
She barely finished her exams and then she locked herself in the room for most of the summer, alienating Rory and making a depressed mess of herself. That's when Sue-Ann became Rory's friend. He started talking to her, mostly about his precious Ruby and how sad she was, but she was always ready to listen and commiserate. She was especially happy to hear that their plans for a wedding were shelved.
*****
Ruby barely remembered anything about graduation. She had attended because her mother and her grandmother had insisted. Her 'grammy' had come from America just to see her get the degree but not even when they were together could she shake her sadness. It was even getting on Rory's nerves, her constant moping.
It was sudden, the loss of her baby, and she was going to take as long as she wanted to mourn her Jade. She had known that she was pregnant for barely two weeks but she was mourning. She wanted that child.
She had gotten a little paranoid and had started researching sour sop juice and spontaneous miscarriages but of course that was ridiculous. She was sitting in the living room staring at a stack of books that Sue-Ann had. On top was the Workbook of Anatomy and Physiology. She picked it up absently. Sue-Ann was getting ready to go the hospital. She could hear her in the room whistling. Sue-Ann was ridiculously happy these last few months and like a bulb going off in Ruby's head, she realized that Sue-Ann's happiness coincided with her unhappiness—but that was ridiculous, she reasoned. Sue-Ann was her friend.
Maybe Sue-Ann had found a boyfriend but was not ready to tell her the good news because she had been a monster these last few weeks. She was skimming through the book listlessly when several pieces of paper fell out. She replaced them in the book and put it back o
n the pile.
"Oh there you are," Sue-Ann said cheerfully. "I was going to encourage you to go out today and get some sunshine."
Ruby grunted and looked at Sue-Ann. "What's the sense? Sunshine is for the living; right now I feel dead."
She didn't miss the sudden stiffening of Sue-Ann's body or the way her eyes darted to the floor.
When Ruby followed Sue-Ann's eyes she saw a piece of paper under her feet. It had a pharmacy logo. She picked it up. "What's this? Must have fallen out of your book."
"Yes," Sue-Ann said, snatching it from her, the paper almost tearing from the aggressive tug.
Ruby shrugged. "Geez, one would think you are hiding some top secret."
Sue-Ann smiled nervously and pushed the paper in her pocket. "I didn't realize I still had that."
When Sue-Ann left the house Ruby quickly grabbed her laptop and tried to type in what she remembered seeing on the prescription paper. When the search engine suggested 'mifepristone, abortion pill', she almost fainted.
That flaming two-faced girl was the one who was responsible for killing her baby. She stumbled to her room with a dazed sort of surrealness surrounding her.
Rory came home and found Ruby lying across the bed in the dark.
"What's wrong?" he asked gently.
Ruby's head shot up; her eyes were bloodshot as if she had been crying on and off since Sue-Ann left.
"Sue-Ann is a murderer!" She said it almost hysterically. "She must have ground up that abortion tablet and put it in the juice she offered me and caused a miscarriage. She is a sick girl. She deserves to be in prison!" She started sobbing again.
Rory came over to her and held her to him. "Ruby, you have to calm down."
"I wanted my baby!" Ruby said, her voice muffled in his shirt. "I wanted my baby! That evil Sue-Ann took my baby from me!"
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