by Paula Chase
“Hey,” Mina said. She melted into the pillow, ready for girltalk.
“I can’t do this by myself,” Jacinta blurted.
Mina sat upright. “What?”
“This stupid test. Can y’all come over now while I take it?”
“Now?” Mina asked. Jacinta sounded distant, as if she wasn’t holding the phone all the way to her mouth. Mina had to squash the phone to her ear. Even then, she could hear the desperation in Jacinta’s voice.
“Yeah. Did you ask Kelly and Lizzie already?”
“Yeah. But I need to let them know you want us over now.” Mina kicked the covers off. “Let me call them. We’ll be over soon.”
She hung up, then hastily three-wayed the girls. They promised to meet at Jacinta’s within the hour. Mina grabbed a retro brown Scooby Doo tee shirt and brown and pink plaid Bermudas. She slapped her hair into the Pomeranian ponytail and headed to the bathroom. She spent the better half of thirty minutes, lathering slowly, working up the nerve to face her father.
After giving herself a pep talk—you can face him, you can do it. He’s always the good cop, remember? You’ve been through the worst with the late-night mom lecture—she headed down the stairs cautiously, as if expecting someone to pounce on her at the bottom.
Sounds of the TV coming from the sunroom floated inside the empty kitchen. She took a deep breath, crossed herself, and walked on unsteady legs into the sunroom.
Her parents sat on the large sectional, the daily newspaper spread out everywhere around them. She swallowed hard, cleared herself a spot, and sat down between them.
“Well, good morning. The dead has risen,” her father said. He leaned his cheek in for a kiss, and Mina obliged. “Good time last night?”
Mina nodded. She waited, bracing herself for her dad to say something about virginity, disappointment, or punishment for life. But he went back to watching sports highlights.
Mina cleared her throat. “Can I go see Cinny?”
Her father’s eyes stayed on the TV, but she saw his eyebrows rise. He remained silent.
“For what?” her mom asked, bringing the paper down from her face long enough to give Mina a look that spoke volumes.
“She’s…prom wasn’t…she and Raheem are having problems, and she’s…she could really use a friend right now.” Mina cracked her knuckles. “She called and asked if me, Kelly, and Lizzie could come over.”
“Just the girls?” her dad asked. “Or is this one of those the-boys-plan-to-drop-in-later things?”
Mina shook her head. “No. She sounded really sad on the phone. I think she needs someone to talk to.”
Mariah’s eyebrows neared their arch of disapproval. She muttered, “Too many boyfriend problems for me,” before folding the paper. “Jack, can you turn the TV off for a second?”
Her husband obliged.
Here it comes, Mina thought. A thick patch of heat moved from her face to her neck. She looked straight ahead at the now black TV.
“Remember we talked about you getting a job when you got your license?” her mom asked.
Mina scowled, trying to connect the odd question to her pending punishment.
“Well, now’s a good time as any to get one. Your father and I think, once school’s out, you need to go ahead and start working,” Mariah said.
“But I thought you wanted me to wait until September so I could drive myself,” Mina said. “You said you didn’t feel like having one more thing to schlep me to.”
“Well, we drive you to everything else,” her father said gruffly. “This won’t be any more driving than usual.”
“We don’t want you spending the whole summer sitting around the house or thinking you’re going to be out every day at one of your friends,” her mom said.
Or having sex with Brian, Mina added silently.
She’d known she was going to have to work this school year. Had even picked out where she was going to apply, Seventh Heaven. But that was fall, when any employer would have to work around her school and cheer-other activities schedule. If she got a job this summer, she’d likely be working every weekend, all the sucky late shifts during the week and never getting to…see Brian. Which was the point, of course.
My punishment, she thought with glum realization.
She slumped down in the sofa. She wanted to scream, “It’s not fair, it’s not fair. You said September.”
She couldn’t believe her parents were actually willing to go against their own adamant ruling just to keep her and Brian apart.
“What? Is it not fair that you have to give up your summer to work?” her dad asked, reading her mind. He stared her in the eye. And for the first time since she’d sat down, Mina saw the same disappointment in his eyes she’d seen in her mom’s.
She squirmed. “No. I just…this was going to be my last summer off. I didn’t think I’d have to work.”
“Yeah, well, we didn’t think we’d have to help fill your time,” Mina’s mom snapped. Her voice softened. “You were going to be working by September anyway. So it’s not totally out of the blue.”
Yeah, right, Mina thought, nodding in response.
“I’ll go apply at Seventh Heaven, if someone takes me. Sara said they’re hiring now.” Mina looked from one parent to the other as they nodded approval. She waited a few minutes, letting the silence of the room serve as a subject-changing pause, then said, “Can I go see Cinny?”
“Yes,” her mom said. She picked the newspaper back up, then brought it down with a rattle. “Keep your phone on. We’ll probably head out to eat or something later.”
“Okay,” Mina said, feeling like a chastised child. So this is what it was going to be like—them dictating her every movement, scheduling her every second, at least until Brian was off to Durham.
She pushed herself off the sofa, anxious to make her exit. If energy was a physical thing, the energy in the sunroom was swirling angrily above their heads now, threatening to crack into a T-storm at any minute.
Her father was acting normal, but not normal. Her mom’s tone and facial expressions kept changing from neutrally pleasant to near anger. It was as if they were struggling not to mention the virginity thing while also being clear she was being punished for it. It was all very “he who must not be named” making for a thick, bewildering tension.
Tears itched her eyes. She turned to scramble away when her father, being normal again, caught her by the wrist. “No kiss?” His thick eyebrows arched softly, giving his maple syrup-complexioned face the look of a friendly grizzly bear.
In that instant, the tension melted once more. Mina leaned in and pecked him on the lips. Smiling, he popped her on the butt with the remote and flicked the TV back on. Mina walked over, planted a kiss on her mom, then made her getaway.
Positively Negative
“The monkey on your back is the latest trend.”
—The Moldy Peaches, “Anyone Else but You”
The girls crammed into the hall bathroom at Jacinta’s. The bathroom wouldn’t have fit another person in it if they had tried.
Jacinta sat in the tub.
Lizzie sat on the commode, a picture of patience, as Mina stood behind her, curling her hair. Kelly sat cross-legged on the floor, a large bin in her lap, its contents of hair products spilled all over the floor. A curler warmer sat in the middle of the floor. Its cord snaked up toward the sole outlet behind the sink.
Mina slid the curler to the very end of Lizzie’s hair, then swiftly rolled the huge, bristly cylinder into place, patting it to double-check it would stay put. She held her hand out, and Kelly laid another warm curler in her hand.
She went about the business of curling Lizzie’s hair like someone with a lot of experience, instead of someone simply trying to take her mind off real life.
There was no evidence that anything other than a girly gathering was taking place, unless Jacinta, sitting in the tub, hugging her knees to her chest, staring down at a little plastic wand that looked like a thermometer, c
ounted.
She’d been staring down at the test for twenty minutes.
Mina glanced over at Jacinta, biting the urge to scream, “Just take it. Take it.”
Her hands shook, making the curler lopsided. She rerolled it once, twice, five times before it was straight, then took a calming breath to slow the tremor in her fingers. Sliding the tail of the comb through Lizzie’s hair, she took a thin segment of blond hair, combed it more than it needed, and let the movement relax her.
Her hands slowed down, and her mind followed.
“Kell, did you and Greg have fun bowling last night?” she asked.
“Yeah. It was a bunch of us. How’d you know?”
Lizzie raised her hand.
“I can’t believe you went straight cold turkey on Angel,” Mina said, no judgment in her tone.
Kelly’s face, lips tight, eyes soft, was a mix of regret and relief. She pulled out a large curler and handed it to Mina. “I have a hundred text messages from him just from last night.”
“Shoot, only a hundred?” Jacinta muttered.
Mina shook her head. “A hundred? Good thing you have unlimited.”
They tittered nervously.
“Kelly, don’t be offended,” Lizzie said. She turned her head slightly and glanced over and down at Kelly until Mina nudged her head back the right direction. “But this time, stay broken up.”
“I feel like crap that I stood him up, but…” Kelly cut her eyes nervously to Jacinta in the tub. “It felt so nice hanging out with Greg. Am I a bad person because I kind of like a guy who doesn’t come with so much…”
“Drama,” Mina said.
“Baggage,” Lizzie piped in.
“Stress?” Jacinta looked at Kelly’s head, nodding to all three answers. “The way you flaked yesterday was bad. But I’d be lying if I said I was mad. You did the right thing.”
“If Greg hadn’t shown up, would you have gone?” Mina asked. She patted at the curlers that made Lizzie’s head three times bigger than normal.
“Probably,” Kelly said. “And I would have ended up—”
“Like me,” Jacinta said. She scowled at their surprised faces and waved the plastic wand. “I didn’t mean sitting here, holding a pregnancy test.”
They giggled nervously at the mention of the reason they were there.
“I just meant trapped,” Jacinta said.
“You feel trapped with Raheem?” Lizzie asked. “Then break up…I mean, for good this time.”
Jacinta placed her chin in her knee. “I know it sounds like it’s that easy, but it doesn’t feel like it. I mean, I already broke up once, and…even when he leaves for school, if I’m…” She waved the wand again. “It’s like no matter what, we’re Raheem and Cinny. Cinny and Raheem.”
Her voice lowered, forcing the girls to lean in to hear.
“Maybe we are just meant to be together. And I’m fighting a losing battle.” She flipped the wand in the air lightly and caught it with one hand. “Maybe this is a sign.”
Lizzie’s eyebrows knitted into a unibrow. “Cinny, it doesn’t mean that. I know Mina is all fanatical about signs.” Her heavy head wobbled as she turned around and smiled at Mina. “Not saying that’s wrong, Mi. But everything isn’t a sign. Your period’s late or missing or whatever. But that doesn’t mean you’re supposed to be with Raheem forever.”
The girls jumped, gasping when Jacqi, standing in the hallway, said, “Jacinta, this is only a sign that you guys were careless or used faulty contraception.” She moved to the doorway, closing in the already crowded bathroom. “Stop all this madness. Go into my bathroom, and take the test. I let you wait for your friends. They’re here. Now go.”
The girls went back to their hair curling, averting their eyes. They weren’t used to anyone cowing Jacinta. It was like watching a heavyweight fighter take a good hit to the chin.
Jacinta stood up, her face stoic, and stepped out of the tub. She climbed over Kelly. Her Aunt Jacqi took a step back and let her pass.
A few seconds later, a door down the hall shut, and the house grew silent.
“Miss Jacqi?” Mina said. She finally gave up cramming more curlers onto Lizzie’s head and leaned up against the sink. “Cinny said she’s on the pill. So how…I mean, when you said faulty contraception, do you think that’s what happened? The pills were bad?”
Jacqi folded her arms. She stared down the hall at the closed door as she talked. “I don’t know. More than likely, Jacinta skipped some and got thrown off.”
“I’m sorry, but that freaks me out,” Lizzie said. She stood up and had to get help from Mina for balance. “Pregnant on the pill?” She shuddered.
“I guess if she is, the baby will have lots of aunties,” Mina said thoughtfully, looking from Lizzie to Kelly.
Jacqi snorted. “And I’ll be sure to call one of y’all when the baby is crying at three AM.”
She took a few steps toward her bedroom. The girls jumped at her voice, shrill with anxiety, “Cinny, you’re not still just staring at that thing, are you?”
Jacinta’s voice came back muffled. “No.”
“Well, then come on. What does it say?” Jacqi said.
Her nervous energy infected the girls.
Kelly stood up, gathering hair products. A can of hair spray fell out of her full hands and hit the ceramic floor with a clatter.
“Sorry,” Kelly said, scrambling to pick up the can and mistakenly overturning the bin of hair accessories.
Mina bent over, picking up the scattered curlers, pins, and rubber bands, and bumped into Lizzie, who lost her balance and nearly fell over the toilet.
Jacqi shook her head at their bumbling.
“You girls—” she started but abruptly trailed off when Jacinta appeared at her side in the bathroom doorway.
Jacinta stepped into the crowded bathroom and threw the plastic wand onto the basin. “Well, that’s that,” she said, leaning against the wall.
Mina moved and sat on the tub. She patted the empty spot by her side. Jacinta joined her.
The four girls sat in a square, Lizzie’s knees practically touching Mina’s, all three of them looming over Kelly as she remained on the floor.
Jacqi stared at the basin from the doorway.
“Well?” Lizzie asked.
Jacinta flipped open her cell phone. “I’ll know in exactly two minutes.”
“Okay, seriously, why do these things take so long?” Mina whined.
Lizzie chuckled. “Mi, three minutes isn’t long.”
“I don’t care if it’s positive or not. I’m not going to lose my mind over this,” Jacinta said. She looked up at her aunt for reassurance. Jacqi gave her a thin smile before resuming her stare off with the sink.
Jacinta followed her gaze. She eyed the basin wearily, then recoiled slightly as if expecting a snake to slither its way out of it. She kept talking, never taking her eyes off the basin. “I’m just not. I know three girls from The Cove who got pregnant when they were only thirteen.” She chuckled wryly. “I’m a late bloomer compared to them.”
No one shared in her laughter, and the silence broke her resolve momentarily. “What? I wasn’t even gonna take this test except my aunt made me. I told you.” She looked at Mina. “I don’t feel pregnant. I’m not pregnant.”
Her voice cracked. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, for a second, the normal Cinny shone through as she jokingly chastised the girls. “And no matter what the test says, don’t go getting all dramatic on me, bobblehead ’burb girls. Seriously.”
“Well, it wouldn’t be the end of the world,” Jacqi said robotically. She frowned as if realizing she’d spoken aloud.
Lizzie shot a look at Mina, her crinkled brow saying what she didn’t: “Yeah, it would be.”
Jacinta closed her eyes again, seeming to gather strength in the darkness of her mind.
“Is it time yet?” Mina asked. She stood up, reaching over Lizzie to get the test from the basin. It sli
d into the sink. “Oh, my God. I’m sorry, Cinny.”
Mina tripped over Kelly and a stray jar of hair gel getting to the sink. She plucked the test gently from the sink, holding it between her fingers like it was a delicate instrument.
“Don’t worry, Princess. You won’t get pregnant just from touching it,” Jacinta said.
Mina snorted. “I hope me knocking it off didn’t mess up the results.”
Jacinta held out her hand. “Don’t think it works like that.”
Mina dropped it into Jacinta’s palm, then sat back on the tub, asking again, “Is it time yet?”
Jacinta looked down at her cell phone. She nodded that it was time.
“Okay, on the count of three, let’s all look at it together,” Mina said, seeing terror in Jacinta’s face.
Jacqi watched the girls’ ritual from the door, her brown face a rubbery look of pained anxiety.
“Why three?” Jacinta asked. The test, facedown, was pinched between her fingers like the world’s fattest needle.
“Five then,” Kelly said, leaning in.
“Five, three, let’s just count.” Mina scowled down at the test.
“Three,” Lizzie said primly. “Ready?”
Jacinta nodded. She closed her eyes and let out another deep breath.
“Ready.”
“One,” Lizzie started. She looked at Mina and Kelly, beckoning them to join.
“Two…three,” they chorused.
Jacinta turned the test over, and all eyes stared at the results window.
A distant humming came from the kitchen as the bathroom grew silent.
Jacinta’s eyebrows furrowed. She looked up at her aunt. “What does it mean if the line is sort of visible? I mean, it’s not one hundred percent there, but you can see a shadow almost.” She looked expectantly at Jacqi. “It means negative, right? Because you can barely see it. It’s not a solid line.”
The anxiety on Jacqi’s face crumbled into worry creases, making her face even more masklike.
“But it’s hardly there. See.” Jacinta leaned up and shoved the wand over to her aunt.
The girls stared at Jacqi, waiting for an answer. Lizzie grabbed the test’s directions off the sink and translated them aloud. “It says even if the indicator line is faint, you could be pregnant…” Her voice fell, disappointed, as she finished. “And to take again.”