The Mare

Velvet

In the school bathroom some girls walked in talking mean shit about somebody’s hair, that she bleached it so bad it fell out and she had to wear this crusty ol’ wig. I was in a stall. I pulled up my feet and they mobbed up the mirrors goin’, “And she like fifty at least and wearin’ fake Chanel glasses and that blond wig like she Lil’ Kim or somethin’.” A girl banged into the stall next to me. “An’ I heard she bringin’ in retarded AIDS victims to the house?” “Don’t be talkin’ that way about people with AIDS, and that girl ain’t that retarded, either.” “And she don’t even got AIDS, the dude only—” “Yeah, but her own niece pregnant! She should—” “Yeah, but Dominic—” My ears popped open wide; next to me the toilet flushed and the door banged open. “—she say Dominic got somebody else on his mind for real, she can tell.” “While she pregnant? Word, some bitch gonna die, literally.”

That was the last thing they said, but all I heard was Dominic got somebody else on his mind for real and I think something good’s coming your way, but don’t miss it!

Except I kept thinking about Brianna pregnant and her crazy aunt and somehow the sick feeling of a retarded girl being raped got mixed in it and why did people think the aunt was bad to help even if she did wear a ugly wig? I didn’t want to be the bitch coming in from the side even if I did hate Brianna. So I made myself think about Fiery Girl and how I would see her again soon. But then I just wished I could tell Dominic about the way I jumped her. I wished I could at least text him. But I promised him I wouldn’t. So I called Ginger and we read a book called The Brief Wonderful Life of Somebody together. Except I couldn’t pay attention because of wanting to see him so much it pushed out everything.