“So you wanna go out with me?” Clifford’s voice cut in on her revelry.
“What?”
He leaned over the counter.
“Do. You. Want. To go eat with me?” he asked slowly.
“Is that all we are gonna do is eat?”
“What is that supposed to mean?” he asked.
Sasha sighed. “It was just a question.”
“Yeah,” he said, with a cocky smile. “That’s all we’ve got time for, Goddess.”
“Don’t call me that,” she said. She could feel tears start behind her nose, but she blinked them back. Pretty, Goddess, fine, bootylicious; all those words meant one thing and wasn’t that how she got into this mess in the first place?
“Why not?”
“Because that means you got something in mind besides eating. I’ve got enough trouble,” said Sasha.
“What’s wrong, Princess?” he asked.
“Last I checked, I got no kingdom,” replied Sasha. “I’m no princess.”
“Beautiful babe like you should be smiling all the time.”
“My life right now, it’s-,” Sasha stopped and sighed.
“You still gotta eat, right?” he persisted.
“Sure,” she said, hesitantly. “But I’m kinda broke.”
“Ain’t we all,” said Clifford. “But just up to the McDonald’s on the corner, okay? My treat.”
“Okay,” said Sasha.
He smiled like the summer sun was shining.
“Let me go put the mop up and I’ll let Miss Tarver know I’ma’ take my break early,” said Clifford. “It’s getting ready to get dark and you don’t want to be wandering around at night by yourself.”
“Okay,” said Sasha. She watched Clifford put the mop back into the yellow plastic bucket and roll it down the hall to the utility closet. She buzzed the supervisor on the intercom. “Miss Tarver, I’d like to take my dinner break now.”
Damon
“What are you doing?” asked Jada, voice fierce. She was sitting next to him in the car. He was driving them home from the football game. She had glared at him at intervals throughout the football game. Whenever she wasn’t engrossed in gossiping with her silly friends, she was giving Damon the evil eye. She even got Sammie in on the group hate, and Damon thought that Sammie was usually the most sensible one out of the bunch. At least she could be counted on the talk about more than hair and makeup. He could literally feel the waves of disgust rolling out of Kyzie’s eyes, but she was evil anyway, so he’d ignored her.
“What do you mean?” he asked, turning on his turn signal. He stopped at the light and waited until traffic cleared before he made a right turn onto Waverly Road.
“I mean, with Brielle,” said Jada.
“Nothing,” he said. “I like her.”
“This is really sudden,” said Jada. “At least on your part.”
“We like each other,” said Damon, shrugging. “What is wrong with that?”
“She is my friend and debutante sister,” said Jada. “I have to spend a lot of time with her.”
“I know that,” he said.
“So if you act crazy and hurt her feelings, then what happens to my friendship with her?” asked Jada. She sounded fighting mad. “Do you ever think about that?”
“Hey,” said Damon. “You’re always telling me that girls try to be your friend to try to get with me. At least you know with Brielle, she really is your friend.” He sounded cocky and sure of himself. Jada punched him in the arm with her fist.
“Ow, girl, quit it,” he said. He pushed her head with his open hand. He didn’t dare hit her back. His father was adamant about him not hitting girls, but sometimes Jada took advantage of the situation. “Brielle is great.”
“That is what you said about that Sasha girl, while you were screwing her over,” said Jada.
“I didn’t do anything to that girl that she didn’t want me to do, except leave her alone,” said Damon, defensively. “Besides, Brielle is different.”
“And I’d like to keep it that way,” said Jada. “If you mess over her like you did that other crazy girl, then she’ll hate our whole family.”
“It’s not even like that,” protested Damon. “I wouldn’t do that.”
“Damon,” said Jada, through clenched teeth. “If you hurt her feelings and wreck our friendship I’m never going to forgive you.”
“Girl, chill.”
“You’re just thinking about yourself and how you can get with Brielle.”
“No, I’m not,” he said. “I’m not that dude anymore.”
“Hmmph.”
“Look,” he said trying to explain. “I was reading about this basketball player, named A. C. Green. He was trying to stay a virgin until he got married. He got committed to it and the other basketball players they’d send him these prostitutes and stuff and he’d turn them down.”
“What does that have to do with Brielle?” asked Jada.
“He got married,” said Damon. “And when he got married, he told everybody how his wife was worth waiting for and that they made the commitment and stuck by it.”
“You are not a virgin,” said Jada. “You’re a dog, so I’ve been told.”
“I cannot believe I’m having this conversation with my little sister,’ said Damon, rolling his eyes. “Anyway, I admit I didn’t do it right the first time but I was reading on the Internet about this thing called secondary virginity. Like you can’t go back and undo what you did, but you can stop doing something wrong and commit to do better.”
“Uh,” said Jada.
“So I didn’t do right with Sasha, but I can with Brielle,” said Damon.
Jada looked at her brother with skepticism.
“You’re serious?”
“Yeah,” said Damon, nodding his head. “I really care about Brielle.”
“You like her that much?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” said Jada. “Show me.”
Brielle
Swim meet. Brielle could smell the excitement and feel the chlorine in the air. She really wanted to do well for her team and for herself. She hunched her shoulders for a full ten seconds and then let them loose and shook them out. She bent over and
