Pushing Perfect(43)

Raj showed up even sooner than he’d said. I was relieved to see that he hadn’t gone to any great efforts to groom for us, either—he was in sweats and a heavy coat, and his dark hair was rumpled in a way that was clearly more from sleep than styling. “Thanks for coming over,” I said. “We could use your help.”

Alex interrupted before I could explain. “Before we get to that, I just want to say I’m sorry again for what we did at your house. It was my idea, and I was totally wrong, and I’m glad you and Kara have talked it out, but I wanted you to know that she would have done things differently.”

I wasn’t expecting that. I wasn’t sure she was right—she’d come up with the plan, but it’s not like I had any better ideas. And I’d gone along with it. She was trying to take the bullet for me, going way above and beyond what she needed to tell him. But she wasn’t done.

“She told me it was happening to you too—not to break your confidence but because I’m in this up to my neck, just like you guys.” She explained to him about the poker, and the money.

“The timeline makes sense,” he said. “Thanks for telling me this.”

“Sure, yeah, but does that mean you forgive me? Us?”

I understood her concern for saving their friendship, but I still didn’t understand why she was trying so hard to help me. Did she really want me and Raj to get together that badly?

“I do forgive you,” he said. “Both of you. I was angry that you hadn’t trusted me, but I understand. It’s not like I told anyone when it started happening to me.”

Sitting in the living room, just the three of us, I was suddenly reminded of hanging out with Becca and Isabel, how comfortable we were as a trio. How nice it was to have friends. Strange to be thinking about that at a time like this.

“So what kind of help do you need?” he asked. “Not another prescription already.”

“No, I just need to know how to fill it.” I didn’t say that my mother had always filled prescriptions for me in the past; no need to sound like an idiot, even though I felt like one. I ran through my lists of questions.

“All right,” he said. “I can tell you what to do. You don’t need insurance—you can just pay cash. That avoids the credit card problem too. You don’t need an ID, so no need to worry about that. You’re right about the cameras—I usually go to small places that don’t have them, but you don’t have much of a choice here. It’s an easy fix, though—just cover your hair, wear sunglasses and different clothes than you normally would, and look at the ground as much as possible.”

With every sentence I started to calm down. Raj made it sound manageable. Scary, still, but manageable.

“I can help with the outfit and stuff,” Alex said. “And we’ll come with you. Right, Raj?”

“Of course,” he said.

“No way. I’m not risking anyone else getting in trouble for this. I’ll meet you guys after.”

“There’s a diner not too far from the Walmart called the Bayview,” Raj said. “We can meet up there. We won’t see anyone we know. I’ll drive us to Alex’s so you can change, and then we’ll wait for you while you fill the prescription.”

Now that we had a plan, I felt better. I wasn’t in this alone.

We went right to Alex’s house—I wanted to get this over with, so I wanted to be ready to go right at one. Raj took Alex’s massive desk chair while she and I dug through her Closet of Wonders for a disguise. We settled on all black for the pants and shirt, covered with a denim jacket and topped with a scarf to cover my face. I wore my hair in a bun and put on a baseball hat and enormous sunglasses. “Unrecognizable,” Alex pronounced.

It only took about twenty minutes to drive to Redwood City, but it felt like forever. This will be over in under an hour, I reminded myself. Except technically it wouldn’t—there could still be more favors to come, after all. I pulled down the mirror in the sun visor and checked myself out. My face was almost completely hidden. I was tempted to get a face wipe and take off my makeup—that would make me look totally different, for sure—but there was no need to go that far. I looked a little ridiculous, but if the parking lot was any indication, the Walmart was pretty crowded. If the cameras caught me, there wasn’t all that much of me to see.

The front of the Walmart was decorated with wreaths and holly, and there was a giant blow-up Santa waving gently in the breeze. I heard the bell of a Salvation Army volunteer ringing as the electric doors opened. The store was full of Christmas shoppers, their carts full of ornaments and fake plastic trees. I’d never been in this Walmart before, but the layout was pretty basic. Though the store was huge, there were signs above all the aisles explaining what I could find in each one, with an enormous arrow pointing toward the pharmacy.

The thing with stores like Walmart, though, is that they rarely let you get anywhere easily. I had to zigzag through aisles of stuff I didn’t want that Walmart hoped I’d buy anyway, just because it caught my eye: consumer electronics, bath towels, hair products. But I barreled ahead, thinking about all those people on reality TV competitions who insisted they weren’t there to make friends—I wasn’t here to shop. And I didn’t want to risk the cameras or run into anyone I knew, so I kept my head down as best as I could.