Nothing Else Matters (13 page)

  Reyna felt a wave of guilt overwhelm her. She didn't mean to hurt Derek. And what if
Shawan
was right about the race issue? Maybe dating Scott wasn't such a good idea after all.

***

  "Were you just kissing Reyna Lewis?" Amber asked, blocking my way in to art class.

  "Yeah, so?"

  "How could ...why would ... what about us?" Amber did the puppy dog eye thing again.

  "In case you forgot, you broke up with me yesterday."

  "I did not." Amber crossed her arms indignantly, reminding me of her little sister. "I just said I needed time to think."

  "I'm sorry, Amber. But I'm with Reyna now."

  "But she's black," she whispered as if she was telling me a secret I wasn't aware of.

  "Actually, she's half black, kind of like our next president." I knew that would really irk her, especially since she boldly donned her McCain button on her lapel.

  "Wait till your mother finds out," she threatened finally moving out of the way to let me enter my classroom.

***

  News traveled fast about Scott and Reyna. By the time lunch rolled around, almost every member of the MSA personally told her that she could not date Scott Kincaid. For some reason, she had never considered the social ramifications of a relationship with Scott. Maybe her feelings for him had blinded her to the true racial atmosphere at Charleston Prep. She tried to think hard as to whether there had been another interracial couple at the school in her six years there and she couldn't think of a single one. There had been no blatant acts of racism besides the ramblings of Sam Kincaid, but everyone both white and black considered Sam absolutely insane. Yet, still, maybe Sam was just the only one with the courage to say out loud what everyone else was thinking.

  Suddenly, Reyna felt as if everyone in the school was staring at her when she walked down the hall. Not because of her unique sense of style with her afro, leather pants, and arm full of bracelets, but because she was breaking a taboo. Forging new territory that had never been explored: interracial dating.

"You need to stay away from my man," Amber said, jamming a finger into Reyna's chest.

"You've got to be kidding me." Reyna sighed and massaged the space between her eyes with two fingers. This was exactly what she did not want to happen. She was in no mood for high school drama. That was one reason she'd never had a serious boyfriend. She didn't think any boy was worth the effort of navigating the social quagmire of high school dating. Her worst nightmare was failing a test or something because she'd been too busy crying over a boy to study.  And she thought it was absolutely ridiculous when girls fought over boys. From her tone, it seemed as though that was exactly what Amber Freaking Sullivan wanted to do.

"No, I'm not kidding you. I know you've had your eye on him for years. This whole best friend thing was an act to get close to him so you could steal him away at the right time."

"Amber, I didn't steal him away. You two broke up." Reyna spoke slowly, as if speaking to a child, since that was the way Amber chose to behave.

"We did not."Amber crossed her arms and stomped her foot. "And even if we did...it was only like a few hours ago. I change my mind. "

"You don't get a ‘do over.' This is not fourth
grade
. I am not having this conversation," Reyna said, turning to walk away.

"I'm warning you, Reyna. Stay away from him or else!"Amber called after her.

   Reyna ignored her and went to the parking lot to meet Scottie.

"You ready to go?" Scott said when Reyna met him at his car at the beginning of lunch.  He kissed her on the lips, and then held the door of his red Mustang open for her.

  "Scott, I'm not really hungry. Why don't we grab a bite some other time?" Reyna closed the door and took a step away from him.

  He must have sensed something more was wrong than a loss of appetite. Reyna noticed his jaw clench.

  "What's going on, Rey?"

  "Nothing. I just think that maybe we need to slow this down a bit. I mean, up until last night you were dating Amber Sullivan. Then this morning you're kissing me in the hallway. The entire school thinks I'm a man-stealing tramp or something. I mean, you should see the looks the girls on the cheerleading squad are giving me. I really ... I just don't want this drama."

  "Since when do you care about what other people think? What else is up?"

  Reyna sighed. She didn't want to tell him about the racial aspect. He wouldn't understand. He would think it was just an excuse. But it was tough going to a high school with only twelve black students. Those other eleven people were like her family. Besides their weekly MSA meetings and their Saturday study sessions, they sat together at lunch, hung out in the evenings and even took vacations together.

They were the only ones that understood what it was like being black and attending a rich predominantly white private school. They weren't all poor and on scholarship, Derek's father, for example was a doctor, but each of them still had to struggle. The simple act of trying to repudiate stereotypes day in and day out was exhausting. But when she was with the other black students, she didn't have to worry about that. She could just be. Her relationship with Scott almost felt like a betrayal of her relationship with her black friends.

  "Can't we talk about this later, Scottie?"

  Scott closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Fine, we'll talk later. But, Reyna, you're crazier than a ballet dancing bull if you think I'm gonna let you go."

  Catching her off guard, he pulled her close to him and planted a kiss on her lips that she couldn't deny. No, she wouldn't be able to let him go either.

Going to vote in a national election for the first time wasn't the joyous occasion Reyna thought it would be. She wanted to go with Scott so she could have some company while she waited in line, but he was probably off fuming somewhere, still upset that she had wimped out on lunch. She couldn't even vote with her father as he had woken up at five so he could be first in line before going to work. So there she was, standing in a line that stretched for three blocks. She regretted leaving her jacket in the car as darkness was falling and so was the temperature.

  She thought about her day in order to keep her mind off of the cold. Pulling out her phone, she texted Derek a lengthy and heartfelt apology for hurting his feelings. She considered trying to keep their date, but decided against it. How could she go out with Derek when her heart was with Scott?

Reyna’s thoughts settled on her Scottie.  How absurd it was that if Scott had wanted to take her out to lunch yesterday it would have been no big deal, but today because they were an item, it was unacceptable? What decade did they live in? It was 2008 for God's sake. She was about to vote for a black man for president of the United States, yet a black girl couldn't date a white boy at her high school without persecution. It was unacceptable. She loved Scottie and he loved her. She was not about to let anything get in the way of her happiness. She took out her cell phone and texted him.

Sorry bout lunch 2day, Scott. Meet me 2night.

  Seconds later he wrote back.

OK,
luv
u

  Snapping her phone shut, she no longer felt the slightest bit cold. In fact, she felt quite warm all over.

***

  I had been in bed since school let out. I talked my way out of football practice by saying I had to go vote, but really I just went home and crawled into bed. Reyna would kill me if she found out I hadn't voted, but I just didn't have the energy. I was so exhausted I could barely walk. I felt hot all over and my fingers would barely move for me. Thankfully, Stu had band practice and Sam was at the gym so I was able to sneak into the house unnoticed and get a little bit of rest. All I needed was a few minutes of rest. That was at 3:30. The next thing I remember, my cell phone was buzzing with a text from Reyna. It was 7:15.

  I couldn't believe I had slept for almost four hours straight in the middle of the day. After I returned Reyna's text, I called my family doctor and made an appointment for the next day.

***

  Scott was waiting in her bedroom when she came home from voting.

  "Hey," she said.

  "Hey," he replied, then covered the length of her room in two steps and swept her up into a melting kiss.

  "Reyna," he whispered, staring into her eyes. "This thing between us ... this is real. This isn't some high school crush."

  Reyna closed her eyes and nodded. She knew what he was saying was true.

  "Look at me, Rey." She lifted her lids and stared into his gorgeous soulful blue eyes. "I'm not going to let you throw this away just because some stupid cheerleaders give you the stink eye or because you don't want to disappoint your MSA friends."

  She smiled guiltily. "How did you know?"

  "I know you." He gave her a peck on the lips. "You can't hide anything from me. I know you better than I know myself."

The kissing resumed. And though with each touch of their lips the passion intensified, a peaceful calm befell them both as if they could live and die in each other's embrace and be equally as happy. He led her to the bed then removed his shirt. Reyna traced the muscular landscape of this bare chest until she reached the tufts of hair peaking out of his low-lying khakis. A desire welled in her that she had never felt before. She wanted him. She wanted him badly, but she felt there was something he needed to know.

  "I'm a virgin, Scott."

  "I know."

  "How?"

  "I told you, you can't hide anything from me." He kissed her forehead. "We'll take it slow."

  As he kissed her neck, he slowly unbuttoned her shirt and caressed the smooth skin underneath it. His warm hands cast a spell on her that rendered her utterly relaxed yet poignantly excited at the same time. He was able to keep her in this same state of tortured bliss as he expertly worked off all her clothing.

  After easing her head to the pillow, he kissed down the center of her body lingering at her belly button. Giving special attention to this seemingly unimportant part of her stomach excited her in ways she didn't know possible. Scott's warm hands had begun to massage the insides of her thighs when loud screams and cheers startled them both.

  It took Reyna a moment to orient herself and remember that she was in her bedroom upstairs while her father was hosting an election night watch party downstairs. Scott and Reyna eyed each other, and then burst out laughing. It somehow seemed odd to be having such a special and sensuous moment while people were partying just feet away. Reyna wondered how her classmates were able to ‘hook up' all the time under similar circumstances. She stared into Scott's eyes as he rested his chin on her stomach and stared back at her and realized something. Those other people were just having sex. She and Scott were about to share something deeper.

  Scott rolled over and reached for his shirt.

  "We can continue this later. I think something important is happening downstairs."

  After dressing, they walked hand in hand into a celebration.

  "What's going on?" Reyna asked.

  "Obama won!" Her father said through tears of joy. "I never thought I'd see this day in my lifetime. We have a black president."