For Your Health

Chapter 1

I watched my new friend twirl around her dimly lit living room. Her beauty was overpowering. The rich smoke from her lavender incense clung to her body and her brassy curls as she danced. Her flamboyant sundress fell up and down, and I saw a tattoo on the back of her left upper thigh. It appeared to be a lion's head. Her bangles and earrings tinkled along with the music she played on her little portable speaker; some lusty reggae tune. She was a feast for the senses, and a completely different girl from the shy bundle of nerves that I struck up a conversation with just hours before in our geology class.

She stopped twirling for a moment and stared at me with her deep brown eyes. Her messy hair fell in her face, obscuring it. She walked up to me and grabbed my chin. Her hands were soft, and when she was this close, I could smell the flowery scent of her hair. She bid me to wait and trotted off into the kitchen. Hypnotized, I agreed. She shouted from the kitchen to close my eyes and keep them closed or else.

Or else. The attitude, the authority in her voice made me melt. She was like water and fire. Ethereal and cool one moment, and wild and hot the next. My mind wandered as I pondered what "or else" meant, so much that I didn't hear Rain's soft footfall. She pulled me out of my fantasy and said,

"Okay, now open your mouth."

My heart was racing, and I laughed nervously. I had never met a girl so thrilling and bold.

I opened my mouth.

The unfamiliar burn of tequila enveloped my mouth. I forced it down. I opened my eyes, and said,

"Damn, that's good, but-" then she playfully slapped me over the head with her tiny, manicured hand.

"But it tastes like battery acid mixed with McDonald's Sprite?"

"But-but I'm supposed to DD for my friends in a couple hours!"

"Well, you can tell them that a crazy black girl drugged you," She flopped down next to me on the crappy little leather loveseat and threw her arms around me.

"And had her way with you." Then she buried her face in my neck. She kissed and nibbled like a professional. Pale as I was, I knew a hickey was imminent, but I didn't care. I was too busy plotting my next move. I knew this girl was a little crazy, so I did something a little crazy. I ever so gently placed one hand around her neck, and gazed deeply into her big brown eyes. I almost thought I could see flames in them, but it was just the burnt orange light of dusk hitting her face. She looked like a golden statue of some Babylonian goddess in this light. She looked shocked to not be entirely in control of the situation, but she looked like she liked it. So I kissed her, and pushed her onto her back. My hands began to wander. Her body was taught and petite; her little nothing sundress did little to obscure it. I couldn't help but remember how she danced, and think of all the different ways she can move.

Her elbow accidentally clicked the TV on. Cenk Uyugurs voice drowned out the music. She stopped kissing me suddenly, and pushed me off of her. I was surprised and disarmed by her strength.

"Fuck, I almost missed it!" She ran from the couch to the center of the living room and plopped herself down pretzel style in front of the TV. I shook my head. A wrinkled, aging Cenk was babbling about some pipeline in North Dakota, and people protesting it.

"You know, it's so nice that they were able to take time out of their busy drinking schedules to protest," I said snidely.

Rain nearly broke her neck to turn around and fire a disapproving look my way.

"They are not protesters," she said as if she were explaining to a child the difference between a solid and a liquid,

"They are water protectors, facing ruthless police brutality to protect the rivers and aquifers that we all use."