But just like Gramma, there were moments when the warm exterior betrayed a not-so-pretty side of the town. Thankfully she hadn’t experienced any overt racism, but Trina noticed everyone was a bit set in their ways and seemed to frown on anything a little too out-there or weird. The white people and black people were friendly to each other when they had to work together, but they hardly ever seemed to be friends with each other. There was a real self-made separate-but-equal thing going on, even more than what you found in the city.
Which was a shame, since it made Trina uncomfortable to approach one white boy in particular.
His name was Scott.
She thought he might go by Scotty, but she wasn’t sure. He was in her English 105 class. He had that ‘aw shucks’ lovable country white boy thing going for him, for sure. At least, she thought he was a white boy. He had black hair like Elvis; he was definitely light-skinned, but he seemed to tan differently from the other white people she saw on campus. They usually turned a shade of gold; Scott actually got a tad darker, like bronze. He had broad shoulders, high cheek bones, and goddamn did he have a killer smile.
And he sat right next to her.
“Excuse me,” he said to her, but with his accent it sounded more like ‘scuse me.
“Yes,” Trina responded, and she wanted to follow that word up with you can have me at any time, but she managed to hold herself back.
“Did you get what chapters we’re supposed to read for Thursday?”
And that was it, they made eye contact, and Trina could already feel a moistening between her legs.
“It’s, um,” she stammered. She looked through her notes. “Chapters four and five.”
Scott smiled—aw, shit—and replied, “Thank you much.”
“Thank you,” Trina said. “I mean, you’re welcome.”
~ ~ ~
“Veronica,” Trina said into the phone. “What do you know about white boys?”
Trina was in her room at Gramma’s house, notebooks and papers strewn about on top of her bed, which she knew she probably should be paying attention to but just couldn’t at the moment, and was chatting with Veronica instead.
“White boys?” Veronica started. “Well, I know they have lower melanin counts than most folks…”
“You know what I mean, girl.”
“Hold up, Trina, let me check if boo-boo is around.” There was a momentary pause on the phone. “Alright, I’m back, what’s going on? Who is this white boy you’re seeing?”
Trina laughed, “I’m not seeing anybody; not yet, at least.”
“Well there’s gotta be someone you have in mind if you’re asking.”
“That doesn’t matter right now, Veronica. I just…I want to know, I haven’t any seen any of the races mixing here yet and I want to know if that’s going to be scandalous in this town or not.”
“Well,” Veronica started. “I can tell you what happened to me. It was in high school, I saw this guy named Kent. He was alright, I liked him, the sex was good, but his friends gave him a hard time, I think. They was always nice to my face but I could tell they didn’t really want me around. After a while we just drifted apart and we stopped calling each other frequently and he started seeing this white girl.”
“Just like that, huh?”
“Yeah,” Veronica answered. “I don’t know, that’s high school, though, so it might not be the same bullshit when you’re older. Just be prepared to get lots of looks and have your friends tell you you got the jungle fever, or it’s just a phase or whatever.”
“Hmm,” was all Trina could say at the moment.
“So tell me,” Veronica said. “Who is it?”
“There ain’t nobody,” Trina insisted, and mentally she was surprised at herself that she was already talking country.
“Is it Scott?”
“What!” Trina exclaimed.
“You can’t fool me!” Veronica laughed. “I sit just a couple rows back from you, remember? I see the way you look at him. So are you letting him get all up in there yet?”
“Oh my God, Veronica, you are ratchet as hell,” Trina told her. “No, we haven’t even talked, I’m just asking, lord!”
“Well, whenever you get with him, you make sure you give your girl Veronica all the juicy details, and I mean all the juicy details, ya hear me?”
“I am gonna hang up on you, Veronica,” Trina said. The louder her voice got, the more country was sounding, and it continued to baffle her. “Nobody is gettin’ all up in this and ain’t nothin’ happenin’. I’m just asking!”
They both laughed like high school girls.
What’s coming over me? Trina thought.
~ ~ ~
It was Thursday afternoon and Trina was walking home from the bus stop. While Veronica and her boyfriend were able to give her a ride that morning, their schedules didn’t work out for this afternoon, and so Trina was off on her own two feet once again.
Maybe she was going crazy, but she didn’t mind so much. It was a bright sunny day, and the once foreboding-looking trees were at their lush, bright green best and provided a nice view as she walked by. It was a cool afternoon, but the humidity kept the air thick and comfortable enough, even if it was doing her hair no favors. There were unseen bugs that you could hear chirping everywhere, but on this day, on this walk, it just made the place seem alive, and in a good way.
In fact, if Trina hadn’t known better she would have sworn she had a smile on her face as she walked on the gravel edge on the side of the road.
Her expression turned to one of curiosity—and just a bit of apprehension—as a truck drove past her, she saw the brake lights come on, the vehicle slowed and then pulled over in front of her.
What could this be about?
Trina continued walking, but her pace slowed as she approached.
She saw the arm pop out of the driver’s side window first. It was a white guy, it looked like. Then the head came out. Black hair, fair complexion, high cheek-bones…
It was Scott!
“Now,” Scott said with a warm smirk, his eyes squinted just a bit. “What is a pretty girl like you doing walking along the side of a road like this?”
Trina couldn’t believe it. She quickened her pace, careful not to look like she was desperately running after him.
Scott continued before Trina could respond. “Don’t you know there are rednecks riding around in trucks out there you gotta watch out for?”
Trina laughed, “Is that right? Well I guess I better get on the other side of the road here, then.”
Scott licked his lips and Trina felt her knees get weak at the sight. “Tell you what, though, you get in this ride and I’ll make sure you get to where you’re going without having to worry about them rednecks.”
“Besides you, right?” Trina laughed again.
Scott laughed, too. “Besides me. Of course.”
“I think I might take you up on that offer.”
Trina hopped over to the passenger’s side door and it was already unlocked for her. She opened it and jumped in, probably looking a bit too eager. She dropped her bag between her legs and hooked the seatbelt.
“So where you headed?” he asked. There was no ‘are’ in the sentence.
“I’m going off to my Gramma’s. Just keep going this direction a ways, I’ll tell you when to turn.”
Scott put the car in gear and maneuvered the truck back onto the road.
“Seriously,” Trina said. “Scott, I really do appreciate this.”
“Ah, you’re welcome.” Scott replied. “It’s Tina, right?”
“You’re close,” Tina answered, and she realized she had used his name before they’d even really introduced themselves to each other. “Trina.”
“Got it, Trina. So what happened to your car?”
“Nothing’s wrong with my car. Nope, the car’s totally fine. It’s the license that’s my problem.”
“Why’s that? You get it suspended?”
“Nah, no, it�
�s not that,” Trina explained. “I never had one in the first place; I just have a learner’s permit.”
“Really?” Scott said. “You tried taking the test?”
“I did,” she said. “I’m a good driver, the instructor even said so, but I got tripped up when he asked me to do a roundabout.”
“Do what?”
Oh lord, the way the white boys said ‘do what’ around here was so damn delicious.
Trina answered, “I mean the, um, the turnabout.”
“Oh, the turnabout,” Scott realized. “You don’t know how to do that?”
“Well, I don’t think they test for that in Chicago, where I’m from,” said Trina. “It just got sprung on me on the spot.”
“So what did you do?” Scott asked.
“Okay, don’t laugh at me, but I just basically did this big-ass U-turn. A turnabout, right? I turned it about.”
Scott laughed, “Sorry that is kind of amusing. Well, did he tell you what it actually was? You got to practice since then, right?”
“I didn’t have time to,” Trina explained. “My uncle’s the only person I know around here that’s able to teach me right now, and he got caught up in his business.”
Scott furrowed his brow a bit and moved his lips to the side, thinking. “Well,” he started. “I’ve got a license. I’ve got a vehicle. And as of right now, at least, I have time.” He turned to face her for a second. “Why don’t we practice it now? I mean, if you’ve got the time.”
Fuck yeah, I have the time, Trina thought, but she actually said, “I’d like that. Let’s do it.”
Scott turned into the next neighborhood and pulled over in front of an empty driveway. “Alrighty,” he said. “Let’s do the Chinese fire drill here.”
They both got out of their respective seats, walked around the truck, and got into the opposite seat they were sitting in, Trina in the driver and Scott in the passenger.
“Now, I actually did a little bit of the work for you,” Scott told her.
His left arm was over the rest, in a position so that he would be easily able to turn around and look out the back window.
He continued, “Normally, you’d put on your right turn signal and then slow down and pull over just after the side road or driveway like so. Now, you just reverse and pull to the right to move into the driveway.”
Trina did so. It was a little rough as she wasn’t used to the truck’s transmission, but she backed the truck into the driveway successfully.
“Ok, now that we’re facing the road, we just turn left the way we came,” Scott explained. “Put your signal on, of course.”
“That’s it?” Trina asked as she pulled the vehicle forward out of the driveway.
“That’s it!” Scott told her.
“Well, shit, I can do this!” Trina said. “I can take that test right now and pass the damn thing if I could.”
“Yeah, it gets a little tricky when you’ve got traffic to watch out for, but as far as the maneuver goes, that’s the gist of it.”
“I’m feeling so much better about this,” Trina told him. “Thank you.”
“I’ll let you drive the rest of the way if you like,” Scott said. “Do you want to go back home now, or…”
Trina gave him a look. “Or…?”
Scott smiled again with that ‘aw shucks’ expression. “You got anywhere to be this evening?”
~ ~ ~
“Okay, what is this?” Trina asked.
“Just gimme a second,” Scott told her.
Scott had his hands over Trina’s eyes and she could tell he was leading them through some trees, or some bushes, or something.
Even though Scott had been nothing but a perfect gentleman the entire time, and of course Trina still found him impossibly sexy, her instincts were still firing off at this. A man she had had her first real conversation with only earlier that day was taking her to some unknown territory where nobody knew where she was. That’s how a lot of episodes of America’s Most Wanted start.
Bracing herself for the worst, Trina balled her hands into fists, ready in case Scott were to do anything untoward. Her nostrils flared a bit as she inhaled deeply.
“Hey, listen…” Trina started.
“Okay,” Scott said. “Here you go.”
The hands came off, and Trina’s eyes took a second to adjust to having vision again.
What she saw before her was a simple landscape: rolling hills, trees, but it was so picturesque against the lavender sky and the setting sun that it actually caused her to gasp just a bit.
“My family owns this land,” he told her. It wasn’t quite a whisper, but he was speaking so low and was so close to her ear it might as well have been.
“It’s beautiful,” Trina told him. She had never been one for nature, but she could definitely appreciate the sight before her.
“Me and my friends used to run around and play here when we were kids,” Scott said. His hands rested on her shoulders and not only did she not mind, it felt so natural to her she hardly noticed it.
Scott continued, “But the best part is what happens right about now, at this time of the day. We should still be good at this time of year.”
Trina asked, “What is it we’re looking for?”
“You’ll know it when you see it,” Scott told her. “Any second now.”
Trina blinked, scanned the area for anything that particularly stood out.
Wait. What was that light?
She started noticing more. Little yellow lights that would float in the air for a second and disappear just as fast. It’s like they were… fairies or something.
And then more of them appeared. A big ol’ group of them, like Christmas lights only they formed naturally, and out of thin air, it was almost like it was…
“Magical…” Trina said under her breath in astonishment.
“You know they’re fireflies, right?” Scott asked.
“I figured they had to be,” Trina said. “I’ve never seen them before. They’re so much cooler than I imagined, I never really gave ‘em much thought.”
“It’s great, ain’t it?”
Trina smiled, she reached up and grabbed his hand and turned herself around to face him. His arms fell around her torso, one hand stopping on the small of her back.
“This is wonderful,” Trina said. She let herself melt in his gaze, his face warm and gentle but undeniably masculine. “You…you’re not a normal white boy, are you?”
“I guess not,” he said softly. He moved in closer still. “If it means anything,” he told her. “My mama is from the Philippines.”
“Oh wow,” she said. That would explain a little why he looked all exotical…
Their lips touched, and all rational thought went out the window. He kissed her. She kissed him back. Her arms were above his shoulders, one hand landing on his back and the other on his neck.
She was still sucking on his lower lip when he gently pulled back.
“We gotta get you back home before your grandmother starts worrying.”
As much as she was disappointed in the kiss ending, his concern for Gramma—even if he was just being chivalrous—just endeared him to her all the more.
“Let’s go,” she told him.
~ ~ ~
“Gramma!” Trina hollered as she walked through the front door, Uncle Marvin right behind her.
It was the following week. When Scott had dropped Trina off that day he showed her the turnabout, she knew she was ready, and she called Uncle Marvin up and let him know she was ready to go. They immediately set an appointment for the next test for as soon as they could, and they were returning home with the results.
“I got it!” Trina exclaimed. “Passed with flying colors. Gramma, you are now looking at a licensed driver.”
Gramma was so excited she actually got up from her seat in a speedy manner, and Annie the dog jumped off the sofa, as well. “Oh, I’m so happy for you, child.”
Trina walked up and gave Gramma a b
ig hug. “I’m so happy, too, Gramma.”
Gramma had to steady herself to sit back down. “Now, what’s the name of this white boy we have to thank for giving you lessons?”
Trina’s eyes grew wide. “Do what?” Oh lord, she thought. I’ve been living here too long already, now I’m saying ‘do what’!
“Your grandmother wasn’t born yesterday,” she told her. “I know you spent some time with a handsome young white boy, so spill it already.”
Uncle Marvin raised an eyebrow. “What’s this about?”
Trina proceeded cautiously, not quite being able to read through Gramma’s outer ‘proper’ Southern exterior. “Well, his name’s Scott. We have class together. He gave me a ride home a couple times so I didn’t have to walk, and he helped me with driving. And he’s not a normal white guy, his mom’s a Philippine, so he looks a little unique.”
“Scott, what a lovely name,” Gramma said.
Trina braced herself. What was Gramma going to do?
“Trina,” Gramma started. “Well, now that you have your own car I think you ought to drive on over to his place and make him yours before some other hussy gets him.”
Trina’s eyes grew wider still, “Do what?”
“Listen, child,” Gramma told her. “You’ve been seeing this boy and riding around in his car multiple times and I know you like this boy from the look on your face, and he’s gone so far as to help you out personally, but you ain’t ever spent the night with him. Which tells me one of two things: he’s a homo, in which case he’d probably make a great friend, or he’s a gentleman, and that’s a rarity in this day and age. Either way, he’s a keeper.”
Trina blushed, “Oh, Gramma.”
Gramma smiled and sighed. “I know you think I’m some kind of old fuddy-duddy who would break my own hip before I broke a rule, but let me tell you, I was getting personal with a some fine white boys back when that was a front-page scandal.”
“Mom, please…” Uncle Marvin pleaded.
“I can read a good man like the newspaper, and I don’t even have to meet this Scott fellow to know he’s of good character.”
Greener Pastures - A Sensual Interracial BWWM Romance Short Story from Steam Books Page 2