It wasn’t far from the truth.
After weeks of overly loud discussions with her mother about what type of dress she’d wear to Brian’s prom, Michael had stepped in and settled the whole thing by agreeing to help design and make a dress for Mina.
Mina’s vision was Beyoncé on the red carpet at the Oscars—long, slinky, and cut low enough to accentuate the obvious junk in her trunk, while her mom’s was pastels, frills (tulle?! Not!), and every body part covered, except Mina’s arms—more first communion than first prom.
Michael, God bless him, had several things going for him.
He was a master with a sketch pencil and a demon with a sewing machine and needle.
He knew Mina like he knew the back of his hand—hanging out with someone since age four does that.
And most importantly, he could do very little wrong in the eyes of Mariah Mooney. As long as the dress he designed did not have any peekaboo elements or a high wardrobe malfunction capacity, likely Mariah would approve.
In February, when he’d come back with a sketch of a dress that was revealing without being “grown” and flirty without being sexy, both the young and older Mooney fell in love with it immediately. It was no joke that Michael was her mom’s pet.
“Picking him over your own daughter. So wrong,” Mina said dryly.
“Love ya, Boo-Boo,” Mariah laughed. She opened the door to the house, bumping shoulders with Jacinta as she exited.
“Bye, Mrs. Mooney. Thanks for having me over,” Jacinta said.
“You’re welcome, sweetie,” Mariah said. She closed the door behind her.
“Ready?” Jacinta asked.
Mina nodded. Her mind raced as she thought about her behavior today. Had she been acting different? Did she look different? Was she different?
Jacinta hoisted a blue bag with yellow polka dots onto her shoulder. She and Mina walked in sync, their footsteps thudding lightly against the blacktop, silently at first, until Jacinta began to lecture Mina playfully.
“Why are you starting all this nonsense about me and JZ last night? All I need is for some rumor to get back to Raheem that JZ trying to holler, and then I’ve got that drama to deal with.” Jacinta chuckled, barely aware that she was now walking a step ahead of Mina and that Mina hadn’t answered her. Her voice carried, growing more animated as she chattered on. “The messed up part is it’s me Raheem gets all pissy with, not JZ. I mean, he still plays pickup with JZ sometimes. And he don’t say boo to JZ about me. But oh naw, let me be late calling him or answering his call, and I gotta hear…” Her voice deepened, mocking Raheem’s, “Oh, so where you been…with ol’boy?” She sucked her teeth. “I’m like, Raheem, yeah I was with JZ and a billion other people. I can’t help that I like chilling with Jay, though. That’s my boy. Shoot, can I help that he fine as hell, too? Still, you’re not help—”
“Me and Brian did it. We had sex,” Mina blurted, stopping Jacinta in her tracks.
Her bag slipped from her shoulder and hung heavily in the crook of her arm.
Her eyebrows furrowed, then she snorted. “You know what…I knew it.”
Mina’s eyebrows knitted. “You did? How?”
“Was it yesterday?” Jacinta peered at her. “Y’all took too long to roll by the Ria.” She hefted her bag back onto her shoulder. “First, I thought something was wrong. Me and Lizzie kept blowing up your cell, and you never answered. When you finally did, you were just like ‘yeah, we’re on our way.’”
Mina laughed low in her throat, confused. “And that meant we had sex?”
“No,” Jacinta chuckled. “But any other time, you’d give us a game time analysis of everything that was holding you up. Brian had to do this or that. You lost your shoe, or your mother added a new rule, whatever. You would have told us every detail about why you were late.”
She and Mina laughed at the truth in the observation.
The good vibrations of the laughter rolled around in Mina’s head like a pinball, touching her frayed nerves. Telling Jacinta felt really good. Good like what happened between she and Brian wasn’t so alien, after all. Good like maybe she wasn’t a slut. Good like, thank God someone else knows, and the world is still spinning on its axis, good.
Jacinta’s laugh went up a notch. “Good grief, and Lizzie talking about virginity pacts and whatnot.” She shook her head in amusement. “No wonder you were so quiet.” Her voice turned tender. “So…y’all did it, huh?”
The gentle question irritated and soothed Mina. It sounded like the voice someone would use on a person on the brink of a breakdown. But she sort of felt like a person on the edge of a breakdown. And she laughed suddenly, as if to prove it.
By the time she spoke up, they were on Jacinta’s front step. Jacinta placed her bag on the landing, then took a seat on the step. Mina sat beside her, the concrete chilling her butt through the cotton flood pants. She hunkered down and endured the chill rising up her backside.
“It feels like I have an X on my forehead or something,” Mina said. The suffocating feeling pushed its way back up, burdening her once again. She hugged her knees, lying her head on her lap to pass some of the body heat from her upper body to her lower. “Do you think anybody else thought that’s why me and Brian were late? I’m not really ready to broadcast it.”
Jacinta’s face crumbled in concentration as she pondered, then she shook her head. “I mean, Lizzie was worried ’cause you weren’t answering your phone.” She chuckled. “JZ was just worried that we were gonna wait on y’all to order the food. Michael joked that you were probably changing outfits.”
Mina snorted. “Yeah, he did say something like that when we walked in.”
“Honestly, we all believed y’all when you said the pool pump acted stupid. And later, when you told us the two of you had got into an argument, that explained why your eyes were all red.”
“Both were true, actually,” Mina said, brightening.
Normally, this was the exact sort of thing she’d share with Lizzie ASAP, but now, with Liz pushing the whole twelve-month abstinence pact, it felt as if she’d just been uninvited into some sort of special club in which Lizzie was not only a member but also president. Or at least, she’d be uninvited once Lizzie found out. And she’ll have to find out, right? Mina thought, mind whirling between ways to keep it from Lizzie and how to break the news to her.
Her head pounded.
“Do you regret doing it?” Jacinta said.
“Brian asked me the same thing.” She frowned. “I don’t regret it. Well…I mean, I’m not happy I did it, but I’m not sad, either.” She blew out a long breath and sucked her teeth. “That’s stupid, isn’t it?”
“Not really,” Jacinta said.
Mina winced. “You’re just saying that ’cause I’m all to pieces right now.”
“You ’re always all to pieces, Princess,” Jacinta teased. “Over cheer competitions, track meets, what to wear.” She shrugged. “I’m used to it.”
“Real talk, I want to throw up,” Mina said, then laughed. “Not exactly a glowing endorsement for not regretting it. But…” The IMs from Golden Girl blazed in her head. She hugged her knees tighter as the cold moved from her butt to her thighs. She lowered her voice, talking less to Jacinta than to herself. “We were so…close for those few minutes. I don’t regret that. But…”
Her voice hitched as the feeling—wanting Brian to hold her in his bear hug forever—overwhelmed her again. Nausea hit in a swift-rolling wave. She swallowed until the urge to cry or throw up passed.