Back to Me. Earl Sewell

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      Four

      MAYA

      Keysha and I walked from my house toward Veterans Park, where the festival was being held. As we got closer, we saw throngs of people walking rhythmically into the park, many of them carrying lawn chairs and ice coolers, in search of the perfect spot to set up. There were little kids with painted butterflies on their faces and balloons tied to their wrists. I noticed several teen couples holding hands and kissing each other. That saddened me because it reminded me of how I felt when I was with Misalo. As Keysha and I made our way past a gathering of girls, we both noticed how they looked at us and started laughing for no apparent reason.

      “What was that about?” Keysha asked.

      “I have no idea,” I said as I kept moving forward.

      “I heard that there is supposed to be a fireworks show tonight,” Keysha mentioned.

      “I don’t know if I want to be out here that late. I didn’t bring any bug spray, and you know that we have mosquitoes the size of airplanes around here.”

      “Oh, girl, the mosquitoes aren’t thinking about you. They have way too many people to chew on,” Keysha said jokingly.

      I would’ve laughed, but I honestly just wasn’t in the mood.

      “Do you want to grab something from the concession stand?” Keysha asked.

      “I guess,” I said nonchalantly.

      Keysha ordered cheese nachos and a Coke. I ordered a pretzel and a drink. Once we had our food, we located an empty picnic table and sat down to eat. As Keysha enjoyed her nachos, I casually glanced around to see who I knew. It didn’t take me long to spot Priscilla. She’d just stepped away from the concession stand with a hot dog. Our eyes made contact, and she walked toward me.

      “Is it okay if I sit here with you guys for a minute?” she asked.

      “Hey, Priscilla,” Keysha greeted her. It was cool to see that they’d let all the bad blood between them disappear. However, if Priscilla had ruined my prom dress and my evening the way she’d messed up Keysha’s, I’d still be ticked off. I guess Keysha was more forgiving than I was when it came to stuff like that.

      “How’s the baby doing?” Keysha asked.

      “Please! I don’t want to talk about that right now,” Priscilla said.

      “Girl, isn’t it about time to get your perm touched up?” Keysha asked, glancing at Priscilla’s hair, which was looking like a bird’s nest.

      “Yes, it is, but every dime I have needs to be saved to buy things for the baby. So, right now I can’t afford to see a beautician.”

      “Hasn’t Antonio stepped up and started being a real man yet? I mean, if you had a little help, perhaps things would be different,” I said.

      “No. He still doesn’t believe it’s his. He is going to deny it until the baby arrives and he can have a blood test done. I can’t believe how I fell for his bull,” Priscilla said, taking a bite out of her hot dog.

      “Are you craving anything yet?” Keysha asked.

      “Girl, Chinese food. I swear, the owners at Ming Chow know me by name,” Priscilla said with a chuckle.

      “Is your stomach showing yet?” I asked.

      “Thank God, no. I would hate to be all big and pregnant over the summer,” Priscilla admitted.

      “But that means that during the school year you’ll start showing,” Keysha pointed out.

      “I know,” Priscilla murmured. I could tell she wasn’t very proud of that. “You know, when my dad found out I’d gotten pregnant, he cried.” Priscilla took a deep breath, exhaled and then stopped eating. “That was the first time I’d ever seen my dad cry,” she added, getting emotional.

      Keysha and I looked at each other and then at her. Neither one of us knew what to do, so we didn’t say a word.

      “I’m sorry,” Priscilla took a napkin and dabbed at the tears in her eyes. “I didn’t plan on breaking down.”

      “It’s okay,” I said, giving her a hug.

      “Thanks,” she said, holding back more tears of regret. After getting her emotions under control, she said, “By the way, I wanted to tell you that you need to be careful about who you send photos to.”

      “What are you talking about?” I asked as a feeling of dread filled my heart.

      “Everyone knows about the photos of you posing in your underwear. I’ve also overheard girls saying mean things about you.”

      “Mean things like what?” Keysha asked.

      “Yeah, like what?” I chimed in.

      “Well, this one girl got upset because her boyfriend showed her the photos and he wanted her to do the same thing for him and she got really mad at him,” Priscilla said.

      “I could just choke Misalo!” I hissed.

      “There’s more,” Priscilla continued. “I want you to be careful because people can be very mean.”

      “I’m not worried about what people say,” I said.

      “But you should be. Look at me. Before I got pregnant, I used to have friends. Now those friends have told me that their parents don’t want them hanging around me. They think I might be a bad influence. It sucks how some people can treat a pregnancy as if it’s the plague.” Priscilla started getting emotional once again.

      Both Keysha and I remained silent. I didn’t think we’d given much thought to how a pregnancy or even texting could ruin your reputation. Neither Keysha nor I knew what to make of Priscilla sharing so much of herself.

      “Just don’t let people label you as some kind of sex-crazed girl. Ever since people found out I’m pregnant, boys have been trying to have sex with me. They say stupid stuff like, ‘I can’t get you pregnant twice.’ It’s so annoying and humiliating. One jackass even took a photo of his privates with his cell phone and came up and showed it to me. I told him if he ever did it again, I’d call the cops.”

      “OMG. I’ve gotten text messages from shirtless guys trying to hook up with me,” I confessed.

      “For real?” Keysha asked.

      “Yeah,” СКАЧАТЬ