Addicted

He was maneuvering his daddy’s brand-spanking-new ride-on mower, and his shirt was off. I noticed he was growing a goatee. His black, wavy hair, along with his hazel eyes, were sparkling in the sunlight.

As I got up from the ground and wiped the dirt off my knees, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. All the girls noticed and started chanting,

Zoe and Jason

Sitting in a tree

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

First comes love

Then comes marriage

Then comes Zoe with a

baby carriage

Thank goodness he couldn’t hear them over the engine of the lawn mower. I simply would have died. The strangest thing happened at that very moment and I know this is gonna be hard to believe. Looking at Jason and his muscles and his face and his everything made my panties wet. When I went inside, half-scared because nothing like that had ever happened before, I went to the bathroom and discovered I was bleeding. Somehow, my newly discovered puppy love for Jason brought about my first menstrual cycle. Ain’t that a bitch?

Later that evening, Brina and I went to a birthday party at our friend Eugene’s house. Brina was spending the night with me so my mother could drop us both off and pick us up. Her mother was a single parent and had to work late that night.

The party was cool. However, I was depressed because Mohammed couldn’t make it, and Jason was there with his thing. We didn’t dance much because Eugene’s parents were kind of old-fashioned and didn’t want a whole lot of touchy-feely going on. They made one vital mistake though: they bought Eugene the game Twister for his big day.

Somebody spiked the punch with grain alcohol and set the party off. I don’t quite remember how it happened because I was tore up, but some time between watching Beach Blanket Bingo on TV and playing charades, Jason and I ended up on the Twister mat together. Boy, was Chandler upset! I think she was a bit psychic as well, aware of something I wasn’t. She knew Jason liked me just as much as I liked him.

I did figure it out during the game, though. Jason had to put a hand on red, I had to put a foot on blue, and his pelvic area ended up pressed against my behind. Before the hand on the spinner landed on the next color, his dick was hard, and the gigantic, elephantine sanitary napkin my mother made me wear was twice as soaked as before the game. It wasn’t soaked with blood, however, but with my pussy juice.

I jumped up off the mat in the middle of the game— not because I didn’t enjoy the way his hard dick was feeling, but for fear he would somehow catch wind of the sanitary napkin. The damn thing was so big, I thought for sure he would discover it, and I was so embarrassed.

My mother couldn’t get there fast enough to pick us up, and when she finally did, I flew out the house like a bat out of hell, wanting to put the whole episode behind me. We went back to my house, and Brina was brushing my long, light brown hair that reached my bra strap. “Zoe, what’s the matter with you?”

“What makes you think there’s anything wrong with me?” I snapped at her and immediately regretted my tone. Even though Brina was my best friend in the whole world, I was ashamed to tell her what had happened.

“You’ve been acting weird, is all!” She pinned my hair up with a giant hair clip. “Is it because you started your period? Don’t sweat that. I’ve been having them for almost two years now, and they’re not so bad.”

I got up from the padded bench of my vanity table, cut off the lamp on my nightstand, and got into my double canopy bed. “It’s nothing, really. Let’s just get some rest.”

Brina got in the bed and instantly fell asleep, since she was tipsier than I was. Girlfriend put a hurting on that punch. For me, sleep would not come easy, and an hour later, I was sitting in the window seat and looking up at the moon and stars. I began to imagine Jason looking at the same moon and same stars from his bedroom window, but for all I knew, he was out necking with Chandler. The mere thought of him touching her was devastating. It was hard to imagine falling for my archenemy. That’s exactly what happened, though, and I made a promise to myself that somehow, some way, I would win his heart and make him mine. The sun was coming up when I snuck back in the bed with Brina, pretending to have been there the entire time.

The very next day, I forgot all that nonsense about winning Jason’s heart. I think it had something to do with the way he was sucking his teeth and smirking at me when I came out of the house and started down the street to the corner market a few blocks away.

I ignored him and kept walking. I winced when I heard him approaching fast behind me on his skateboard, yet another item my father had helped him make.

“Zoe, wait up, girl!”

I rolled my eyes for my benefit alone, since my back was still facing him. “I’m in a hurry, Jason!”

I could hear him speeding up even faster then. “I said hold up, girl!”

I swung around and glared at him. Damn, he was fine! “Whatchu want, nucca?”

He caught up to me and used his heel to kick his skateboard up into his hand, placing it underneath his arm. The sunlight hitting up against his eyes was nothing short of mesmerizing. I wanted him, and at the same time I couldn’t stand his ass. I was mad confuzzled .

“Can I ask you a question?”

“You just did, dummy,” I hissed at him and folded my arms, repeating the eye roll so he could see it this time.

He sighed in frustration. “Aight, damn, can I ask you another question then?”