“So,” said Mrs. Evans. “You stood up for the rights of women everywhere, huh?”
“I guess so. It made me mad when he called her a ‘female’, like that,” said Brielle. “It’s just so unfair that it should be all her fault.”
“Go on, girl,” said Mrs. Evans. “I’m really proud of you.” She bent down and hugged Brielle’s shoulders. Brielle smiled up at the woman who was like a second mother.
“Thanks, Auntie,” she said.
“You’re welcome, baby.”
Brielle pasted a letter to her board and then leaned back to make certain it wasn’t crooked.
“What did your mother say about it?” asked Mrs. Evans.
“She said that she was proud of me, too,” said Brielle. “Because I’ve really matured if I can love somebody and still see their faults.”
“I thought you hated Sasha?” asked Sammie. She was cutting out letters and handing them to Brielle to glue to the board.
“I did, at first,” said Brielle. “It was like she stole my man.”
“Oh, you had a man?” said Mrs. Evans with a chuckle.
“You know what I mean,” said Brielle, smiling.
“And?” asked Sammie.
“I realized that she was with him first. I was the jump off girl. And then, I got mad at him for being stupid.”
“Are you ever going to forgive him?” asked Sammie.
“Maybe,” said Brielle. “Even my mom felt sorry for him when he found out the baby wasn’t his.”
“It was quite a blow,” said Mrs. Evans.
“I know,” said Brielle. “But still, he’s off the hook. He’s going to go on with his life. Sasha still has the baby and she’s still called the school skank. The boys just get to go on like nothing happened. I mean, they made the same mistake.”
“You’re not Sasha, baby,” said Mrs. Evans.
“But it could have been me,” said Brielle, vehement with conviction. “He said he loved me, but how would he have treated me?”
“Yuck!” said Sammie, with an elaborate shudder. “I just got a chill down my back. It’s a relief to be a virgin. I’m never having sex.”
“From your lips to God’s ears. Hold that thought until you get twenty-five,” said Mrs. Evans. They all laughed.
“He’s not a total villain, is he?” said Mrs. Evans, after she’d sobered.
“No,” said Brielle, looking down at her hands. “He said he loved me. And then he dumped me. And didn’t even tell me why he was dumping me. I had to find out from his sister. Now, he wants to get back with me, like nothing happened. But how do I know if it’s real?” She looked into Mrs. Evans eyes. Mrs. Evans looked back at her with compassion filled eyes.
“We all struggle with the answer to that question,” said Mrs. Evans. “It would be a whole lot easier if we could read minds. All I can say is pray about it and then talk to your mom. Take it slow. Follow your heart.”
“What does all that mean?” asked Brielle.
“That I can’t answer that question,” said Mrs. Evans, honestly. “And I’m floundering around because I don’t have all the answers for you.”
“It’s just so hard,” said Brielle. They all nodded.
June
Brielle and Damon
Brielle was cleaning out her locker. It was the first week in June and school was out next week.
“Hey,” said a deep voice from behind her. Brielle stood up to her full height and turned slowly to look Damon in the eyes. He stood staring at her as though he’d discovered something new and delightful.
“Hey,” she said softly.
For a long moment, he said nothing.
“How’s your hand?” she asked.
He wiggled his fingers. “It’s getting better.”
He shuffled from one foot to the other for a few seconds and dropped his eyes. Then he zeroed in on her so closely that Brielle took a step backwards.
“You are so beautiful,” said Damon, softly.
Brielle felt a little of the old thrill, but suppressed it and scoffed, “Yeah, right, Damon.”
“No, I mean it,” said Damon. “At first I looked at you and it was like okay, she’s nice looking. Every time I look at you, your beauty, it just glows more and more, um, incandescent. It’s like when you get thirty, I’ll only be able to look at you at night because in the day time your beauty is going to be blinding. I’ll have to wear sun glasses all the time.”
“Spit that game, boy,” said Brielle, spitefully. “Maybe someday, some stupid girl will believe it.” Damon dropped his head.
“I thought about what you said,” he mumbled.
“Okay,” she said. He shoved his hands into his pockets.
“You were right,” he said.
“About what?” she asked, not budging an inch. He heaved a big sigh.
“When you said that I was acting like it was all Sasha’s fault,” he said. “I been thinking about it for weeks and maybe the real baby’s father is a dog. And he let her down. So she chose me because I’d been there, too. She was looking for love and I didn’t love her. So I let her down, too.”
“Took you a month to come up with that, huh?” asked Brielle. The knot around her heart loosed a little bit.
“Naw,” he said. “Took me that long to get up the courage to approach you again. Plus, I talked to my dad about it. I just never thought about how girls must feel when they were hanging all over me. It was like they weren’t even people, just sexers, there for my convenience, whether I wanted them or not. I wanted to blame it all on Sasha because she approached me. She was just another sexer. But I could have said no.”
“Yeah, you could have,” said Brielle, tightly. “And Sasha was a girl who cared about you, not a sexer, or whatever you call it.”
“I should have said no,” said Damon. “Because of one
