by Paula Chase
Crazylegs: u at least tell Mina yet?
MikeMan: started 2 last Sunday ... changed my mind. Lizzie the only one who knows.
Crazylegs: not tryna pressure u. cuz it ain’t like admitting u prefer pepperoni 2 sausage
Michael laughed out loud at the analogy. His hands zipped a reply.
MikeMan: it kind of is. ROFL
Crazylegs: LOL ok mayb sausage was a poor choice of words. Im sayin I kno its gon’ b rough. But I b here 4 u.
MikeMan: I kno. Check it, I know wht u sayin’. I respect it. But respect tht I gotta do whut I gotta do. In a yr and a half JZ b on his way and I b on mine. Jus let it lie son. Don’t hate cuz im handling mine different.
Michael’s breathing slowed as he waited for, but hoped against, Rob’s wrath. He knew staying in the closet was against everything Rob believed in. It would crush him if Rob turned his back on him, for his choice, but it was the chance he was willing to take.
Crazylegs: real talk?
MikeMan: always
Crazylegs: u gon’ always feel torn. n honestly if JZ trash y’all friendship cuz of this y’all was never friends anyway. BUT respect son, do whut u gotta. I ain’t mad.
Michael blew his breath out, relieved.
MikeMan: thx
Crazylegs: welcome. Jus focus on rocking the runway Sean Gianni. ur moment in the spotlight coming up. remember u only as hot as ur last design.
MikeMan: LOL bye hater Crazylegs: LOL deuces
Michael clicked the message box closed. His hands trembled. He’d dodged a bullet. Rob had every right to ice him. He’d been there for Michael for three years, through every doubt, concern, and struggle as Michael came to terms with the duality of being gay with an ultrastraight alpha male best friend. Michael owed Rob and himself—maybe even JZ, being honest. Torn was an understatement to describe how he felt lately. But it wasn’t new. He’d been conflicted this long, doing it for another 465 days was a cake walk.
Groupie Girlfriend
“Take this, haters.”
—Kanye West, “Stronger”
“Rule number one,” Mina said, raising her voice to be heard over the clique’s buzzing. “This is not couples hour. So break it up right now.” She grabbed Lizzie’s hand, pulled her up from the sofa in JZ’s game room, and walked her to the opposite end of the couch away from Todd.
Lizzie gave Todd a forlorn look and waved.
“What’s rule number two?” Kelly asked, removing herself from Greg before being assigned a seat. She sat beside Michael, who’d already been forbidden from sitting anywhere but on the sofa.
Mina double-checked her handy work.
Lizzie on one end of the couch next to Jacinta.
Todd and Greg, lonely, on the opposite end.
JZ in the back of the room, at the pool table, refusing to be told where to sit.
Michael and Kelly in the middle of the sofa.
Satisfied, Mina sat in the middle between Michael and Kelly. “There is no rule number two. Y’all can still talk to your honey boos ... just from across the sofa.”
“Lizzie, catch,” Todd said, tossing her a note.
Lizzie opened it, pretending to read the empty paper. “Meet me in the bathroom in five.” She winked. “Got it!”
Mina laughed. “T, the only thing that’s gonna happen in the bathroom is you leaving miserable.”
Everyone laughed, and Todd popped his middle finger up and down at her as if it were a jack-in-the-box.
“Thanks, Mi.” His eyes suddenly gleamed with hope. “That’s okay. Only three months and four days before the pact expires.”
“Not knowing the expiration date down to the day,” Jacinta said, snorting.
“Shh, the game’s on,” Mina said. She turned the sound up on the television.
The room filled with the voice of announcers rolling off stats of the intense Maryland versus Duke rivalry. A sea of red filled the camera as it panned Maryland’s packed arena.
“Sold-out game,” Michael said.
“Always is, when Duke comes this way,” Todd said. “I think the Terps might give ’em a run today.”
“Not even,” Greg said. “I know rivalries get the blood pumping, but Duke’s been on fire.”
“God, it’s killing me. He’s only like thirty minutes away and I can’t see him,” Mina said, openly wistful.
“It’s so weird watching Brian on TV,” Lizzie said.
“Speaking of TV ...” JZ said, from the back of the room, “Mina, if you’re going to force us to watch the games with you, at least let people sit where they want.” He bent to take a shot. “Besides, this my crib. I’m gon’ sit where I want anyway.”
“Don’t make me hurt you,” Mina said over her shoulder. Her head whipped back to the television as the announcer said Brian’s name.
“Like you could,” JZ retorted, a laugh in his voice. He was behind the sofa in an instant, his forearm around Mina’s neck in a hold.
“Stop, Jay,” Mina said, smacking at his arm, never taking her eyes off the television.
“Be nice and I’ll tell you a secret.” His grip relaxed into a snuggly hug draped around her shoulder.
“What secret?” Mina asked.
“Is it that Brian’s ranking at Groupie Love went from number twenty-five to top five?” Greg said, his voice all awe and respect.
Kelly shot him a look.
“Not that I ever really look at that site.” Greg smiled innocently, before scowling. “Nasty groupies.”
Todd dapped him up as they snickered.
“That site is tacky,” Lizzie said. “Can you say ripe for a crazy stalker?”
“Not that I see a lot of lacrosse players on it,” Jacinta said, teasing.
“So Greg don’t need worry about no stalkers.”
Greg thumbed his nose at her and Kelly muffled a giggle as Jacinta slyly put her hand out for some dap. She tapped it softly, blowing Greg a kiss at the same time to cover up her duplicity.
“Y’all wrong.” Greg pouted, playfully. “I could get a stalker.”
“Did I miss the fad where having a stalker is in?” Michael said.
Mina smiled, grateful for the moral support. Groupie Love had become one of the clique’s new obsessions. The guys admired Brian’s rising status on the site, talking about where they might rank once they joined the collegiate athletic arena, while the girls condemned the very notion that a site like it existed.
JZ cupped his hands around his mouth, shouting, “Okay, I guess nobody wants to know my secret.”
Mina sighed loudly. There was going to be no watching this game until JZ was heard. She patted his arm as if she were a patient mother trying to appease a toddler. “Okay, Jay. What’s your secret, Boo?”
“I know you hate Groupie Love, Mina, and some of the facts on there straight bull.” JZ sat on the back of the sofa, addressing his friends. “But some of the information on there is real, especially if you register as a member.”
Mina’s eyes rolled. “Oh my god, you registered?”
“Yeah, cause we were curious.”
“We?” Lizzie said, throwing Todd the evil eye.
He shrugged, his grin sheepish.
“Anyway,” JZ said, loudly shushing her. “You get a lot more personal info if you register.”
Jacinta scowled. “More personal than their class schedule?” “Y’all gon’ let me finish or what?” JZ said.
The clique answered with silence.
“Okay, yeah, so me, Todd, and Greg registered. If y’all ever go on there, we’re Cutieboomd.”
He got up and knocked fists with Greg and Todd as they laughed. The girls rolled their eyes, but kept silent. Michael chuckled, shaking his head.
“We’re totally Brian James’s number-one fan,” Todd said, batting his eyes.
“So if he ever tries to hook up with us, Mina, we’ll let you know,” Greg said.
The guys howled, enjoying their farce. There was another round of hand slapping and fist knocking.
>
“The secret?” Mina said, her patience thin.
She’d been anxious for this game. Having Brian playing just down the beltway at University of Maryland was as close as she’d get to him until spring. She wanted to actually watch the game. She kept one eye on the game as JZ talked.
“The secret is, there’s a password protected section on the site that gives out ultra-secret spots where you can catch sight of some of the guys,” JZ said. He smiled when Mina turned around in the seat, curious. “Got your attention now, don’t I?”
“So what does that have to do with anything?” Jacinta asked.
“Mina knows,” JZ said, staring in her eye for acknowledgment.
She nodded. “You mean you know a spot at College Park we could hit and see Brian today, don’t you?” Mina asked, grinning.
JZ smiled in answer.
“You want us to ride up to the Comcast Center now?” Lizzie asked.
Todd jumped up. “Road trip!”
Kelly groaned. “Remember our last road trip?”
“We’re just riding up to College Park,” JZ said, already standing. “We’ll be back by eight o’clock.”
“So where’s the spot?” Michael asked.
“It’s this area of the arena where the visiting guys exit to get on their bus.” JZ shrugged. “If nothing else, Mi, you’ll get to catch a quick look at Brian. He might be able to talk to you ... if they win. But if they don’t, forget it. Coach will hustle them on the bus.”
Mina’s head swiveled from the game on television to JZ’s excited face.
Jacinta squeezed her knee. “Come on, Princess. Let’s go see your man.”
JZ headed up the stairs, yelling to his parents. “Ma, can I take the truck? We’re running out.”
Mina turned the TV off and filed behind the rest of the clique as they herded up the stairs talking over one another. Just before she slipped out the door, JZ’s mother invoked the standard rules of using her truck, including seat belts, remembering to use the Bluetooth if he used the phone, and gassing it up if the tank went below a quarter full.
Mina shook her head, marveling at the things JZ’s mother didn’t ask, which Mina’s certainly would have, like where all eight of them were going to in such a rush. An exhilarated thrill flooded her chest, thinking about the impromptu road trip and the prospect of seeing Brian. She barely remembered the forty minute drive, a blur of loud music, bad singing, and joke cracking. Squeezed in the third-row seat between Michael and Lizzie, she was more than ready to stretch her legs when they arrived on the campus of University of Maryland.
JZ’s truck circled the vast parking lots, all full, five times before Michael cried out, “Son, park anywhere. It’s mad cramped back here. Cinny, you’re sitting back here on the way home.”
“All right, all right,” Jacinta said.
“Oh, I thought we had to sit boy, girl, boy, girl,” Todd said from the second row. He turned around and grinned Mina’s way.
She waved him off, laughing as Michael stretched his leg over the seat, dangling his foot next to Todd’s head.
“This third row only good for like a ten-minute drive, not a forty-minute one,” Michael said.
“Jay, dude, park quick,” Todd said. “Mike’s dogs are killing me.”
“Everybody chill,” JZ said, frustrated. “I didn’t think about where we’d park.”
“Groupie Love didn’t tell you which lot to use?” Lizzie said, snickering.
“Oh, ha-ha.” JZ rolled his eyes. He pulled the large Sequoia up to a curb. “Here, y’all girls go ahead and get out. I’ll park and then we’ll meet y’all back here.”
The girls filed out of the truck. Michael hopped out of the back, like he’d been torched from a cannon, and took Jacinta’s shotgun seat.
The girls huddled in the cold.
Several tall dorms stood to their right and a large lecture hall to their left. The campus was alive with activity as people passed in the dimming evening, their conversations hurried and excited as their pace in the cold.
“I love this campus,” Kelly said. Her head swiveled from right to left taking in the expansive grounds. “It’s pretty.”
“Yeah, it’s nice,” Mina said, blowing into her gloved hands. “Where’s the arena?”
“I think it’s up that way,” Lizzie said, pointing straight ahead. “I remember seeing it the tenth time Jay drove by.”
Jacinta sunk her hands deep into her jacket pocket as she nudged Mina. “Excited?”
“Very,” Mina said. “But all I keep thinking is we’re gonna get to this spot and there’s going to be like a million girls there waiting.”
“Maybe not a million,” Kelly said. She chuckled. “Fifteen thousand, maybe.”
Mina elbowed her.
“You mean thirty-five thousand,” Lizzie said. “His friend numbers are growing crazy.”
“And I needed to be reminded of this because?” Mina said, her eyebrow raised.
“Sorry, Mi.” Lizzie linked arms with her. “When we left, the game had just started. So we’re here early enough. At least you’ll be the first groupie there.”
She and Mina shared a friendly squeeze.
“Wait, I know we not planning on standing out here till the game ends,” Jacinta said.
She jumped when JZ came up and goosed her from behind. “Boy, don’t do that,” she fussed, turning to face him. “Are we standing out here for another hour?”
JZ sucked his teeth. “No.”
“Oh, good,” Jacinta said.
“Another seventy minutes ... you forgot to calculate halftime,” JZ said, jumping back as Jacinta took a swipe at him.
“So what are we supposed to do until the game ends?” Kelly said.
“Just jokes, baby girl. The game should be over in about thirty, so let’s find the spot first,” JZ said, walking in the direction Lizzie had pointed. “We’ll decide after that.”
The clique walked the path leading to the Comcast Center. Clouds of cold smoke rose above their heads as they analyzed the campus and speculated exactly how much longer the game had to go. Muted sounds of crowd noise and game music wafted in the air as they neared the large arena. A nondescript luxury bus sat in a large empty parking lot behind it.
“See, there’s the Duke bus,” JZ said proudly, as if someone had openly doubted him. His neck craned toward the arena and he squinted, taking in the back of the building. Suddenly he smiled. “Okay, right there. The players should come out right there.”
Mina’s neck snapped toward the building. She was relieved to see the area was empty. “Guess Brian doesn’t have any groupies in Maryland,” she said, cheering inside.
“Puhh, please.” JZ’s eyes rolled. “Watch. They’ll be out here before the game ends. Wanna bet?”
Mina pursed her lips and smacked away his pinky. “No.”
“ ’Cause you know I’m right,” JZ teased.
“Seriously, what now?” Jacinta asked. She scoped out the area, which was barren of seating or anywhere to stand without obviously loitering. “If we just stand here, won’t security roll up on us?”
“Not like we’ll be the only ones security gotta move,” JZ said, head nodding toward the arena.
Mina’s face fell. Even in the growing darkness, she saw a group of girls were gathering near the arena’s back door. She counted five, but within minutes the numbers grew until she’d lost count. The campus’s streetlights popped on and Mina was able to see that some of the girls had players’ numbers painted on their faces, others had decorated tee shirts with the grinning Blue Devil mascot—bold since they were deep in Terrapin territory.
“Brian’s the man,” Todd said. He and Greg touched fingers in a light dap.
Mina frowned. “How do you know they’re all for Brian?”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Todd said. “It doesn’t even matter. With all those girls lining up, even the benchwarmers bound to get a little action from the runover.”
The guys howled an
d exchanged pounds and snickers of “I know that’s right.”
JZ embraced Mina for a fleeting second. “Come on, you know I wouldn’t bring you all the way up here if I didn’t have a way for you to talk to him.”
Mina’s eyes lit with anticipation.
Michael opened his cell phone. “The game should be over now. Where should we stand?”
JZ beckoned them away from the growing crowd until they were in a field of grass next to the parking lot, only a few feet away from the team bus. They stood in the shadows, just outside the nearest streetlight.
Mina waited, her heart simultaneously heavy and light. Her head tick-tocked between JZ and the crowd near the arena’s back entrance.
Jacinta snorted. “Chicks is tripping. I’m not sitting around no door waiting on some dude just to catch a glance of him.” She threw Mina an apologetic glance. “Sorry, Mi. I didn’t mean you.” She nodded toward the bulging crowd. “I meant I’m not doing that for some dude that don’t even know me.”
“I knew what you meant,” Mina said quietly. She was too wired to argue or joke.
The crowd of girls finally drew security. They managed the crowd, pushing them away from the exit, forcing them to make a gauntlet on either side of the door. The girls were obedient, but their numbers kept growing. In minutes, it went from a single line on each side of the path leading from the door to several rows deep on both sides.
Mina looked around the empty field. People walking by paid them no mind, but she still felt as if she were a statue, on full display, in the large grassy area. “Jay, I feel stupid.” Her eyes swept across the crowd of girls. “Cinny’s right, I’m just as crazy as the other girls, waiting out here like I’m desperate.”
“You are desperate.” JZ knocked shoulders with Mina. “But he’s your boyfriend. It ain’t the same, so stop rummin.”
Suddenly a high-pitched collective squeal burst from the gauntlet of groupies.
“Uh-uh, not screaming.” Jacinta scowled. She covered her ears. “Umph, they act like it’s Chris Brown or something.”