Gldngirl: so whus up B, do u want an early graduation gift or what? ?
Mina looked up from the screen. Outside, Brian wrestled with a long white vacuum tube in the darkness. Anger blurred her vision. She blinked hard for twenty seconds before it cleared. Fear coursed quickly through her veins. She felt like a fish at the end of a hook, struggling for air.
An early graduation gift?
Going to DC next weekend?
Brian was going to DC next weekend to hook up with this girl.
The whole conversation swirled in Mina’s head. She imagined Brian’s face as he typed back—smiling, maybe licking his lips in anticipation of doing some ass tapping?
Her stomach clenched, and before she realized it, she was walking out to the patio, her short legs carrying her across the kitchen in seconds.
“Who is Golden Girl?” she blurted, sounding every bit as pouty as she felt. She folded her arms tight against her chest as if to hold back some of the emotion leaking out of every orifice. It took every ounce of willpower in her body not to throw herself on the patio, kicking and screaming, demanding to know why he was flirting with some girl who obviously already knew all about his “skills” off the hardwood.
Brian scowled. He wrestled with the tangled tube, cursing when the long white, Slinky-like contraption slipped from his hands and splashed water all over his sneakers. “What?” he asked, distracted.
Mina took a deep breath, told herself to calm down, but her voice rose another octave as she pronounced every word distinctly. “Who is Golden Girl?” She closed the distance between them and stood right next to him beside the pool. “Golden Girl, the person you were IMing before I got here. The one you’re going to see next weekend so she can try out your skills for old time’s sake.”
By the time she got to the last sentence, her voice was muddled by tears.
Brian calmly fed the vacuum into the pool. He squatted to set it right before answering her. “She’s just a chick I used to…”
“I know what y’all used to do, Brian. That’s pretty obvious from the IM.”
Tears dripped down Mina’s face and neck. She kept her arms folded.
Brian’s face was hard to read in the dark. The light from the patio only reached the edge of the pool, not touching the pool’s far side. But his voice came out of the darkness, irritated.
“Mina, don’t start tripping. Yeah, she’s my ex,” Brian said. He stood up, stared down at the pump once more as if expecting it to worm out of the pool and wrestle with him again, then finally faced Mina. “Why are you reading my IMs?”
“Oh, my God, Brian, don’t do that,” Mina exploded. “Do not go all ‘why you all up in my business’ on me. I was turning the PC off for you when the IM came in. Yeah, I read the whole thing. So?”
His sigh was thinly masked by the sudden churning of the pump. He let the grinding fill the air for a few minutes before walking away, back toward the house.
“Me and her was just flirting, that’s all,” he said over his shoulder.
Mina stood on the patio alone, stunned, as if Brian had smacked her instead of answering her question. Her legs moved automatically when he appeared back in the doorway, asking her, “You coming?”
When she got to the kitchen, he was shutting the PC down. Mina wondered if he’d bothered to say bye to Golden Girl or if he’d just IM her later, apologizing ’cause his psycho girlfriend busted his groove.
“That’s it? That’s all you’re gonna say?” Mina asked. Her tears were dry, burned off by the anger that was once again spreading from her toes to her head. “I’m supposed to be cool with you going to see her next weekend?”
“So that’s what I said to her?” He cocked his right eyebrow. “That I was coming to DC to see her?”
“You may as well have said it, Brian.” Mina wanted to stay angry, but the fear returned, making her feel cold. She walked toward the warmth of the family room, and Brian caught her by the elbow.
“Did I tell her in the IM that I was coming to see her?”
He held her elbow gently, his gaze intent, not letting go. It forced her to look back.
“No,” she answered meekly.
“You knew I was going to DC next weekend. My aunt asked me to help her paint her house. And JZ and Todd are going with me. Remember?” Brian said. He sat atop one of the stools at the counter and pulled Mina toward him. “So what part of the IM are you so hot about?”
Mina blinked, and the tears rolled again. If this was what it was going to be like when he went off to college, she might as well check herself into the nearest mental facility. She was already a basket case.
She forced the IM from her mind. All she wanted was for Brian to hold her until August fifteenth, the dreaded day he’d hit the road to Durham.
The words to answer him wouldn’t come.
Instead, she wept quietly and let herself be pulled into his embrace.
He kissed her ear, then whispered, “You were ready head to DC and drop them bows on her, weren’t you, toughie?”
Mina chuckled through the tears, sniffling as she nodded.
She lifted her face to Brian’s, and they kissed…and kissed, and this time when it went beyond the kissing, she didn’t stop.
Virginity Pact
“Time may change me, But I can’t trace time.”
—David Bowie, “Changes”
Lizzie knew something was wrong when Mina and Brian stepped through the door.
No, not wrong. Different, she thought, watching Mina and Brian weave through the crowded tables of the Ria. Brian stopped to give pounds or handshakes to people, and Mina waited patiently behind him each time until they moved on.
Normally, Mina would be running her mouth, chatting it up with everyone they passed, or she’d say quick hellos and make a beeline for the clique. As they got closer, Lizzie could see Mina’s eyes were rimmed in red.
They had probably had a fight. Then again, Lizzie couldn’t say that for sure.
With the countdown to Brian’s departure imminent, Mina had been moody lately. One minute, happy and soaring, babbling nonstop about prom; the next, sad and sullen, thinking about life without Brian. She was testy with everyone. It wasn’t far-fetched to think Mina had burst into tears spontaneously thinking about him leaving.
Lizzie was still trying to get used to her best friend’s seesawing emotions.
Once the couple reached the table, JZ greeted them with a reprimand. “It’s about time. We starving, waiting on y’all.” He and Brian exchanged a pound before Brian made the rounds to Todd and Michael. JZ scowled at Mina. “What’s wrong with you?”
Mina rolled her eyes at him. “Now, since when you wait on anybody to order food?” She took the open seat next to Kelly. “Sorry, Lizzie, Cinny, Michael, Kelly, and Todd, that we took so long. Brian had to clean out the pool first.”
Lizzie watched as Mina’s sullen demeanor slowly slipped away.
Minutes later, she was her old self, deep in several conversations, talking across the table to Michael about her prom dress, asking Lizzie about her upcoming driver’s license test, and fending off a sleeper hold from JZ, who found a reason to pick at Mina like a big brother unable to resist tripping up his younger one.
The two of them exchanged playful barbs, going at it with their usual lusty verve.
JZ flexed his muscle and patted his arm, bragging about his sculpted frame.
Mina