Who You Wit'?

Chapter 4

Mina hated to admit it, but hours later, as Mrs. Lopez's Benz SUV pulled off, Kelly in the driver's seat, her grandmother riding shotgun, Lizzie in the back, she felt lighter. The four of them had spent the rest of the afternoon picking out potential hairstyles that Mina could rock for prom night. Next weekend, Jacinta would help Mina try a few out until they decided which one was "the look." Somehow, Mina had managed to sidestep committing to the pact, something she figured Lizzie would pick up on sooner rather than later. She'd gone along, forcing herself to act normal all day, but she felt queasy the entire time. If it hadn't been for Jacinta running to the bathroom every few minutes, Mina may have been in there herself. But as Kelly drove off, some of the weight slipped off her shoulders.

Even though the whole pact idea had come out of left field, Lizzie had been so into it, Mina couldn't even get annoyed that she'd never uttered a word about it until now. The pact itself was bad enough, but Kelly going along so easily had complicated things. If Mina had been up to it, she would have debated the issue a little-point out that Lizzie was being hasty, working too hard to control her feelings for Todd. She was sure Kelly, who was always methodical, would have seen her point. They didn't have to take a pact, merely take one step at a time. Then Kelly had gone and thrown her hat in the ring. It made Mina feel Deceitful, Sneaky and worse, slutty. Goose bumps prickled her arm, and she wrapped them around herself, gazing after the Benz, watching it stop for a full ten fifteen twenty seconds at the stop sign. The long stop had to be the work of Kelly's grandmother, frontseat driving. Slutty. She couldn't believe she felt slutty. Brian was her boyfriend, not some random dude she'd hooked up with after a wink and head nod from across the room. Still, hearing Lizzie all excited about how great it would be to be in the pact together, how they all needed to do it, made her feel as if she'd torn her clothes off and served herself on a platter to Brian. Her stomach shuddered like Jell-O, and a tiny flake of guilt itched at the back of her throat.

She cleared it unconsciously. "Alright, so you walking me home or what?" Jacinta said with her usual touch of gruff affection. "Yup." Mina forced herself to smile. A cool breeze blew her new, short 'do, and a stray hair tickled her cheek. She pushed at the hair absently, tucking it behind her ear. The look was a radical change for her. The back was layered and short, stopping at her hairline. The sides were also layered, but the hair was progressively longer as it came around to her face, covering her ears and angling to her cheek. If she combed all of the long layers, it was enough to pull into a half ponytail for cheerleading. Brian called it her Pomeranian look. A description Mina could have done without, even if it was accurate. Her mom, who had been chatting with Kelly's grandmother, came and stood beside her. "Decided what you're doing with your hair for prom yet?" "I'm gonna hook her up with a few choices next weekend Miss M," Jacinta said. She twiddled with Mina's hair, pulling and pushing it around gently. "She gonna be looking fly." Mina and her mother chuckled. "Okay, let me go get my bag," Jacinta said. She walked briskly, disappearing into the house.

"Does that mean another girl's weekend here?" Mina's mom asked. Her eyes rolled in exasperation, but there was a pleased lilt in her voice. Mina nodded. Her dad would often declare an entire week girl free, because the girls spent so much time at the Mooneys'. But Mina knew both he and her mom enjoyed the chatter that broke up the usual quiet of their three top family. "I better warn your father," her mom said. She started inside, stopped, and turned back to Mina. "You okay?" For a second, Mina felt the same close, uncomfortable suffocation she'd felt when all the girls had been hanging out in her room earlier. She froze as her mother's brown eyes gazed her up and down curiously. For one excruciatingly long second, Mina knew without a doubt that her mother could smell on her that she'd had sex. Her throat tightened as the air locked in her larynx. "Yeah," she squeaked. She swallowed hard, forcing moisture down her gullet, reminding herself that if her mother smelled anything, it was the sickeningly sweet aroma of eau de Britany, J-Lo or Paris Hilton. Earlier, the girls had smeared one another with the scented pages of a magazine as a form of torture until they couldn't take any more of the celeb fragrances. She tried again, this time hitting normal.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Why?" Mariah Mooney's head cocked as it shook slowly. "Nothing. You all must be cooking up something. Mae Bell and I actually had a conversation on the opposite side of the car at the same time as you girls." She laughed. "That's gotta be a first." "Just tired." Mina managed a phony yawn that turned into a real one midway through. "We were up late last night chatting with Michael." Her eyes rolled. "He refuses to even let me see a picture of my prom dress." Mariah snorted. "You trusted him to hook you up. Let the boy do his work." "Dag, Ma, pick favorites much? I knew you'd take his side," Mina grumbled. "Don't I always," Mariah joked. It wasn't far from the truth. After weeks of overly loud discussions with her mother about what type of dress she'd wear to Brian's prom, Michael had stepped in and settled the whole thing by agreeing to help design and make a dress for Mina. Mina's vision was Beyoncé on the red carpet at the Oscars long, slinky, and cut low enough to accentuate the obvious junk in her trunk, while her mom's was pastels, frills (tulle?! Not!), and every body part covered, except Mina's arms more first communion than first prom. Michael, God bless him, had several things going for him.