Furry Hands

4

Miriam showed me a weird geometrical drawing with blue and red triangles intersecting inside a white circle. Did she have geometry homework? I thought she was taking trig.

"Ryan, I'm so excited to show you this. It's your personal star chart!" The poor girl was ecstatic.

"Bae, I don't wanna be a dick, but I really don't believe in that stuff," I said, wondering if I was being too harsh.

"A lot of people don't buy it at first but when they recognize themselves in it, they change their minds," she said, a bit cryptically.

I surrendered and gave her a peck on the cheek. "Okay, what do I have to do?"

"Just listen. When I get to the end, let me know if any of it sounds right. Your sign is Gemini. You have the ability to be rational and to negotiate. You're curious. You like to reflect. But on the bad side, you know what it's like to have a double personality. You're immature. You tend to be inconsistent. Instead of learning about one thing deeply, you'd rather study a bunch of things superficially."

"Uh oh, this is freaking me out," I said. I know what I said about astrology but a lot of this sounded right. Actually it was spooky. How could a dumb chart know all this about me? Were these just generic traits that fit everyone or were they specific to me?

"Ha. You know I'm not like a witch or anything, right?" She laughed.

"You know, I don't think a witch would French kiss me right now," I said, with a bit of flirtation in my voice.

"Mmm, you naughty little boy. But I think you're right. Let me prove I'm not a witch." She straddled me and fluttered her tongue in my mouth.

She blushed. "Can I go on?"

"Please," I said.

"It says here you're Aquarius Ascendant. Aquarius Ascendants think at a rapid speed and are technological geniuses. They are well-liked. But they can also be judgmental and stubborn," she said, then started rubbing my chest. "So does it sound like you, or not you?"

"Well, you know me. Do you think it does?" I asked.

"Ryan, c'mon, I'm not the nonbeliever here. I got a few things right, didn't I?"

"I'm immature, inconsistent, judgmental, and stubborn. All of that is true. I'm sure you've picked up on it," I said, fighting back tears.

"Sweetie, why would you only pick the bad traits? You have these good ones too. My God, you're so smart. You're the only boy in Honors English. Kids at school love you. Whenever I say you're my boyfriend, they're either happy for me or they're jealous of me. You're so good at math and logic. I didn't show you this chart to hurt your feelings. I wanted to tell you something good about your personality but I thought it wouldn't mean as much if I just said it," she said and now she was crying harder than I was."

"Geminis get mood swings too, don't they?" I asked.

"Big time."