Brielle
Damon walked up to Brielle in the hall. She was talking to Asia, but Asia drifted off with a little finger wave, at the serious look on Damon’s face.
“See you girl,” said Asia. “Looks like your ex-man has something crucial to discuss with you.” Brielle watched Asia walk away.
“Crucial,” echoed Damon in a dry voice. “There is a big word for a little girl.”
Brielle turned and looked him full in the face.
“How are you?” he asked.
“Fine,” said Brielle.
She looked around the hall, but no one appeared to be paying close attention to either of them. Asia was already out of sight.
Damon stood staring at her for so long that Brielle finally blurted out,
“I see you recovered from your injuries.”
“Yeah,” said Damon.
“I heard you almost got killed,” said Brielle.
“Yeah,” said Damon, with a shudder. “It was crazy.”
“My parents were like, if you hadn’t let that boy go, you’d be banned from dating him. He’s got nothing but troubles.”
They were silent for a long time.
Damon looked around and saw other students slowing to catch a few words.
“Let’s walk, okay?” he asked. Brielle nodded.
“By the way,” said Brielle. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks,” said Damon, and then checked. “About what?”
“I heard you got the Bill Gates Scholarship,” said Brielle. “That’s a great accomplishment. I also hear you’re going to Howard University.”
“Yeah, I’m really excited,” said Damon with a grin.
“I’m glad you could call and let a sister know.”
His grin faded. “I didn’t think you’d talk to me.”
“Guess you didn’t care enough to find out,” said Brielle. “What did you think I was congratulating you about?”
“I thought for a minute you were congratulating me because I don’t have a baby anymore. All the guys at school have been giving me high fives.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, and then winced. “Just got the cast off.”
Brielle said nothing.
“They all think,” said Damon,” that I should be happy, thrilled that I’m not a father.”
“You should get new friends.”
“Even my brothers are like, yo, you dodged an atomic bomb on this one.”
“Okay,” said Brielle, mystified as to why she should care.
“They just don’t really understand,” said Damon.
“I’m sure you didn’t bother to try and explain yourself to them,” said Brielle, bitterly. “I take it they can’t read your mind, either.”
“Brielle, please,” said Damon, voice cracking. She relented slightly.
“I’m really sorry about Ricky,” said Brielle, contrite. “I know how much you cared about him.”
“Yeah, I know,” said Damon. “I got your card.”
“You didn’t call me or anything,” said Brielle. She sounded hurt.
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that,” said Damon. “It’s just that I needed some time to wrap my mind around stuff and deal with this thing. I couldn’t talk about it.”
“But you can talk about it now?” asked Brielle. They had been walking and talking and ended up outside the school sitting on one of the bleachers. Somehow, the deserted football field, the scene of their first real date, seemed like the right place to have this conversation.
“Yeah,” said Damon. “I’m recovering still, but it doesn’t hurt so much.”
Brielle was silent, waiting for him to begin.
“See,” he said, looking off to the south. He stopped talking. The sun was high in the sky but it was only about sixty degrees. Brielle was wearing her leather letter jacket so she was comfortable but she could feel the cold metal of the bleachers through her jeans.
She shifted a little closer to Damon and touched his shoulder with her hand.
“Tell me,” she said.
“When I found out that I was going to be a father,” he said. “I wasn’t ready at all.”
“I know,” said Brielle, remembering her agony when he’d told her she was dumped. She hadn’t been ready for that at all, either.
“For a while, I hated Sasha for destroying my life. It consumed me and blocked out everything else in my life. I didn’t want this and she was going to have the baby anyway. I actually told her that she should get an abortion. I thought that school was over and my life was just wrecked. I couldn’t be with you. That was the freaking worst part of the whole thing.”
Brielle snorted.
Damon continued.
“Then Ricky was born. And I was there. It was like this peace came over me. And he was my son and I was going to teach him all this stuff. I can’t even describe it,” said Damon. “But it was scary and happy and wild, you know?”
Brielle nodded, though she really didn’t understand.
“Sometimes he would scream at night and I thought I was going to go crazy,” said Damon. “I was so scared that I was going to drop him or do something to hurt him. And then he started smiling whenever he saw me and it was like, dang, look what I did.”
“He is really cute,” said Brielle.
“Even though her mother was treating me like I was a monster and Sasha was all mad at me, it was about me and Ricky. Us against the world,” said Damon. He snorted.
“And then, all of a sudden, he wasn’t mine,” said Damon. He stopped and reached up and tugged on Brielle’s braid. “He knew me. He’d stop crying when he heard my voice. That was an incredible feeling, that I could make that much of a difference to a baby. Then he was just gone from my life. I didn’t even get to tell him good-bye.”
“Why not?”
“Sasha wouldn’t let me see him,” said Damon. He passed a hand over his face and squeezed the bridge of his nose before he continued. “I tried calling and I even went by the house. She went crazy. Then she asked the court for a restraining order, like I was stalking her or something.”
“Did she get one?”
“No,” said Damon, clenching his jaw. Brielle caressed his cheek with the
