Meridith and I are posting short stories. I hope to the gods of my fried brain that I've never posted this before.
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The first time I saw Mariela was my freshman year of high school. I was
standing around with my friends in the morning, the way we always did.
We'd say hi to friends as they walked by in the hall, and Jacob and Gloria
would hold hands. Matt would stand silently, and I was usually high.
Patrick would sometimes stop by and talk to me, and if I was really lucky,
the love of my life, Ryan, would stop by and tell us a story. There was
almost a half hour between the time we arrived at school and the time
class started.
One day, for some reason, it was just Jacob and me in the hall, and a
girl walked by in an ROTC uniform. She said hi to Jacob and he said hi
back. After she was out of sight he turned to me. "Eugh, she's
disgusting," he said. "She gave her boyfriend head in the stairwell!"
I was filled with a deep admiration for Mariela. "What's wrong with
that?," I asked Jacob.
She just kind of looked at me confused and we never really talked again.
Hmm... Mariela gave her boyfriend head in the stairwell. Every time I saw
her in the hall, that's what I thought. She looked like such a good girl,
in her ROTC uniform, her black hair in a ponytail.
Then one day at lunch I got to talk to Mariela. I was sitting at a table
across from her and we got to talking. I wanted to ask her, so badly, to
tell me the details. Birds of a feather, Mariela and I! We're the sluts.
But I couldn't think of a way to bring it up tactfully. We talked about
class and got to know eachother, and then finally I got on the subject of
gossip. "yeah," I said, looking at her as if confiding. "People say a
lot of things about me, and stuff I do... but I don't mind that much."
So somehow I beat around the bush and got it out of her. "I don't think
it's wrong, or gross at all, even if you DID do it," I said.
"Well, I did it," she confessed. "But that's because I really love him."
"No, no," I urged. "Don't do it because you looove him."
She looked at me puzzled.
I smiled. "Do it because you LIKE IT."
She just kind of looked at me confused and we never really talked again.