The Mare

Velvet

I went with Shawn because I wanted to get away from those girls and also show them what I could do — walk away with a boy who looked famous. And because even though he wasn’t Dominic, he was close to Dominic. Maybe Dominic would even be there, where we were going.

But he wasn’t. There was only Shawn’s grandmother there, and I could see where he got his dark skin; she was very black with her gray hair up in a net and she did not look happy to see me. The TV was on really loud; we sat on the couch and watched it. A woman was in the hospital and she had cancer and her man was with another woman. Shawn’s grandmother said there would be dinner in a minute and we went into his room.

This time I did smoke. The smoke filled my body like Dominic’s leg, only this time it was Shawn’s leg. And then it was his hands. He kept trying to kiss me with that mouth of vampire rabbit teeth, and it just made me want to laugh. He kissed my lips soft, but it felt angry. He said, “You not really his cousin, are you? How old are you?” I said, “How old are you? What grade you in?” He said, “I’m not in no grade,” and the smoke filled my body again. He started kissing my neck. I said, “Your teeth are funny.” But he just said, “That so?” and then he took my hand and said, “Girl, you ever felt a man before?” And I pulled my hand back and said, “I’ve felt horses.” He laughed in this nasty way. I said, “I ride horses. Horses are bigger than a man.” I said man like he said grade, and he pulled back and said, “I don’t see no horses here. It’s me here.”

A lot of minutes had gone by and dinner was not ready.