Evie listened curiously, needfully, to the other girl's chatter. It was good to hear a friendly voice, even one that lacked the comforting accent of home. She watched the girl out of the corner of her eye, not wanting to impose but also definitely not wanting to out and out ignore her. The books were forgotten, although one hand lingered over the spines of the ones on the shelf in front of her.
The girl was talking about something that tugged at her own heart. She remembered asking again and again to have a pet, but her parents had always said no. They were traveling too often to take care of one. Even after Madison had gone away, she was not allowed one. Well, if she was honest with herself it was because she never asked again. Now, she was on her own. She was ashamed to admit that she was afraid of having a baby. Not only was it a fear of all that messy, gory stuff that they had been showing about childbirth but the cold, gripping fear that she would make a poor mother.
Getting a cat was her promise to herself. It was a training exercise, but it was also to keep her mind off of every thing else going on. She wanted someone to want her. Almost all the girls had left the sorority now. Every tearful goodbye made a part of her soul weep. It was agonizing, because there was no way to make it stop. All the sappy movies, boxes of tissues and chocolate samplers in the world could not staunch the tears.
But the short story about this girl's childhood made her quirk a smile. She loosened her death grip on her jacket just the slightest as she answered, "How did that go, eh?"