When You Come to Me (20 page)

“By all means,” Brandon encouraged.

Brandon raised himself from his position across the living room from Natalie, and he planted himself beside her, gingerly placing an arm across her chest, reeling her into him. When they both got settled again, Scotty cleared his throat and continued.

“I’ll kiss that dragon, if Natalie agrees to chugging the beer…”

“No,” Brandon answered hastily before Natalie could even part her lips. “She’ll get sick…it’s her first drink, man…have a little consideration…”

“Fine, fine,” Scotty said, rolling her eyes. “Natalie will drink the beer…
cautiously
…and she will be an active participant in 10 Fingers…”

“Scotland Lee Kelly, you devious, devious man,” Asha said, smiling at him. “I think I love you all of a sudden…”

“That’s not fair either, and you know it,” Brandon argued. “This girl hasn’t done anything…she’s like a peach that’s never been bruised…”

“Nice analogy, Bran,” Asha laughed.

“Why thank you,” he replied. “I try…”

“Back to the topic at hand, please?” Scotty pressed. “Maybe Nat’s not as innocent as she seems…maybe she’s got secrets that she’s never told you…”

Natalie made sure to give her boyfriend a look of security, a look that she hoped suggested that he had absolutely nothing to worry about. After all, it was like he said, she was as pure as fully-ripened, untouched fruit.

“I highly doubt that,” Brandon replied, shrugging off his friend’s suggestions.

“Isn’t this a drinking game?” Asha said.

“That’s how I’ve played it,” Scotty said.

“Me too,” Brandon agreed.

“Look,” Scotty began, getting to his feet and heading in the direction of the kitchen. “Since Natalie’s never done anything, you won’t have to worry about her drinking much…”

Natalie watched Brandon take a deep breath, and she reached up, rubbed his hand for comfort and sighed as well.

Scotty reappeared in the living room, with four wet bottles of the Heineken, passing it to each of the occupants in the room.

“Alright,” Scotty said with a strong exhale. “Are we ready?”

“Wait a second,” Natalie said. “You two need to get to kissin’…”

Brandon chuckled, squeezed at his girlfriend’s shoulder and replied, “I agree completely…I hope you remembered to brush your teeth…”

“Brandon Greene, you do realize that I’ll get you back for this one, right?” Asha snorted.

“Hmm,” Brandon began, placing a finger to the cleft in his chin. “Delivering idle threats means that you use tongue…and Natalie and I will tell you when to stop…”

“You’re just making it worse for yourself, aren’t you?” Asha told him.

“Ash, just shut up and get to kissin’...” Natalie cut in with a grin upon her face.

“I think I love to hear you say that,” Brandon said.

“Why thank you…”

Brandon and Natalie watched as Scotty chugged the rest of his beer, before hesitantly pressing his pink lips against Asha’s slowly. The connection was awkward initially; certainly lacking the same intensity that Natalie once felt when she kissed Brandon for the first time. But as the couple allowed them to kiss longer, she witnessed them meld into each other, and she could have sworn that she heard heavy breathing.

“Alright, alright,” Brandon said. “I think I’ve seen enough…let’s get this game going, shall we?”

“I’m not so sure that I want to know everything that you’ve done,” Natalie told Brandon, turning her head backward to look up at him.

“I’m not sure I want you to know either,” Brandon replied, attempting a smile in her direction. “Drink up!”

“That was by far the worst kiss I’ve ever experienced,” Asha said, wiping her mouth. “That moment only justified why I don’t date white guys in the first place…”

“Or any guys for that matter,” Scotty retorted, wiping his mouth, and then cracking open another bottle. “Now I must drown my sorrows in this drink…”

“Looks like we held up our end of the deal,” Asha said, folding her arms. “Now, it’s Nat’s turn. Crack open that bottle and have a drink, young lady…”

This was it. This was the moment that Natalie had dreaded. The moment that she finally succumbed to the peer pressures around her, with all these smiling, encouraging faces, surrounding her, especially Brandon, who wanted nothing more of her than for her to just relax. She could give him that much. After all, he did provide them with the most amazing little cabin, perched lakeside, under an adorning moon. She would assume for the moment that one beer bottle couldn’t harm her that much, and she was confident that Brandon wouldn’t let her go too far.

She gave the bottle to Brandon, watched as he opened it for her, and as he handed it back to her, he encouraged her to drink slowly.

She would adhere to each instruction that her beer enthusiast boyfriend gave her.

The game commenced, and four sets of ten fingers were each accounted for, and Asha began with the statement, “Never have I ever had sex…”

That was an easy one. Scotty, Asha and Brandon all lowered a single finger, signifying that yes, they’d each have sex before, and each took a three-second sip of their beers.

Natalie’s ten fingers were still accounted for and she took a deep breath as her friends all nervously laughed at each other.

Then, Scotty’s turn came. “Never have I ever…given
or
received oral sex…”

Another easy one for Natalie, while she again watched Asha, Scotty and her sweet, not-so-innocent Brandon lower another finger and take another drink.

“I’d like to know who, Asha Castile,” Natalie pressed, her eyes widened. “And whether or not it was an even trade…”

Natalie watched as her friend’s cheeks reddened, and she lowered her head, laughed, and replied meekly, “I played on both teams [the boys cackled and jeered at this]…and it was a guy that you don’t know…”

“Thank you for telling me…”

“Oh, Lord, I wanted to forget it as soon as I’d done it!”

Some few rounds later, Natalie had discovered some things about Asha and Scotty that she was sure that she never wanted to know. She’d heard enough about licking this and sucking that to last her a lifetime, as well as enough about Brandon to keep her from ever wanting to spend the night with him. She was sure that he sensed it too. What’s more, Asha, having downed her fourth beer in a matter of thirty minutes, was beginning to show the effects upon her face, and in her comical giggling. Moreover, a more alarming sign was that she was touching Scotty more than she normally would have. She was only left with three fingers. Scotty with two and Brandon with one. Sweet Natalie stood tall with eight whole fingers and only one-and-a-half bottles of beer consumed.

She couldn't help the sensation of feeling a little left out...

“Okay, okay, my turn,” Scotty said, attempting to compose himself from laughing at Asha. “Never have I ever…gotten a tattoo…”

“Yes! I’m still in the game!” Brandon said.

“Me too…” Asha chimed in. “No tattoos…”

“Me neither…” Scotty said.

Natalie hesitantly reached for her beer bottle.

She watched as each of her friends fell silent temporarily, and it looked as though they were trying to catch their breath.

She was seventeen, strangely absent-minded, reaching for change and rebellion. She’d overheard Sidney and her friends talking about it in her sister’s room next door, and she’d wanted to join. Oh, what her mama would do if she knew that her daughter had a tiny white lily inked somewhere on her brown skin, hidden in warmth and shadow.

Their sweet Natalie, tainted.

Natalie lowered a finger.

“
Really
? A tattoo?” Scotty asked, as a slow grin of curiosity formed on his face.

“I can’t believe it!” Asha said. “My baby has a wild streak! When? Where?”

“I was seventeen…in a tattoo parlor in Decatur…I can’t tell you where it is…”

“Can you at least tell me
what
it is?” Asha asked.

“A white lily…”

“I’m not sure if I feel betrayed…or turned on…” Brandon said.

“Why won’t you tell us where it is?” Scotty asked.

She didn’t want to sound completely trite in saying that she was saving that for her husband, in spite of her stupidity. So, she opted for a simpler phrase: “It’s just between me and the Lord…”

“Did it hurt?” Asha asked.

Natalie shrugged. “Not really…there’s a lot of…flesh…um…where the tattoo is…”

Brandon cracked open another bottle of beer, and said, “Natalie…just stop talking about your tattoo…”

She looked at her boyfriend, internally laughing at his nervousness.

“Aw, is she making you squirm?” Asha prodded him with a teasing smile.

Brandon took a long swig from his bottle, swallowed hard, and said, “Asha, I’d appreciate it if you shut up right now…”

Asha and Scotty, who’d allowed alcohol to make them quite a chuckling pair, laughed at Asha’s joke, as they fell all over each other.

“Well,” Scotty began, taking a sip from his own bottle. “I'd say after that little surprise, we could stop playing…I don’t think we need to know anything else about anyone…”

“Yes, I agree,” Natalie said. “Especially from those who you are in a relationship with.”

Brandon looked at her.

She wasn’t sure how many bottles of beer she’d consumed following the game, while the foursome laid on the wooden floor with the itchy oriental rug in the middle, while she lay on Brandon’s chest as he sloppily stroked her head, grazing his lips across the top of it. She felt his chest move up and down slowly. But she recognized her inebriation the moment that Scotty suggested that they all jump off of the dock outside of the house sometime in the middle of the night, and she was the first to accept the offer. She leapt off of her boyfriend, pulled him by his hands and headed toward the front door.

“Baby,” Brandon called after her, laughing. “Baby, slow down…baby…Tallie…you’ll make yourself sick…baby!”

But she didn’t listen. She felt the moon kiss her skin, felt the night's chill strike her cheeks, heard the crickets’ cry. The moon created a path of white light, and it smeared the black water, and the branches from the trees high above their heads created black shadows against its milky surface.

And she grabbed Brandon’s waist for warmth, allowing him to kiss her forehead again. They were completely unaware of the fact that Scotty and Asha were undressing as they enjoyed the view of the lake.

“What the hell?” Brandon asked, laughing at them the moment that he took notice. When Natalie tried to turn around and look, Brandon turned her head back toward the lake, telling her, “No, Baby, no…don’t look…there are some things that I don’t think you’re ready to see yet…Asha…are you crazy? Put your clothes back on…do you think I want to see those? Wait, wait a minute…I
do
want to see those…Asha, put those away! And definitely put
that
away….”

“Bran, I know you love me,” Asha said, standing naked. “But this is something that I have to do…and don’t act like you’ve never seen any of this before…according to the game, you’re a pro…”

“Not in front of the girlfriend, please…she already thinks bad of me…”

She hardly did. Ha, if anything, she felt bad about not telling him about the tattoo or about tongue-kissing Kenny Pierce in high school. She felt that she owed him every explanation. She had to tell him every aspect of her life before she knew him. Good Lord, had she fallen that hard?

He kissed her forehead again, and they watched as Scotty and Asha, naked and free, ran the length of the dock, leaving them on the bank, holding hands as they leapt into the water.

“Oh, my God,” Brandon chuckled. “I can’t believe that they just did that…”

“Sadly, I can,” Natalie said.

“Want to join them?”

Natalie sighed.

She tugged on the Bulldogs pullover that she’d stolen from Brandon’s bag earlier, pulled it over her head, and exhaled. She pulled out the bow that held her hair in a ponytail, kicked off her sneakers and said, “Yes, I think I would…”

She would like to thank the alcohol for giving her enough courage to throw her silly behind in that black water. Well, after she pushed Brandon in, with his sneakers still on his feet. When he reached the surface, he coughed, laughed and said, “That wasn’t very nice…”

“Not feeling very
nice
at the moment…”

“Well get your beautiful ass in this water before I come up there and get you…”

She jumped in, bobbed slowly to the surface, and she looked up toward the sky, as Brandon’s hands found her body, pulling her close. She saw the stars, saw the moon before her face, and as Brandon’s lips found her neck, she was almost certain that if she extended her hand, she could touch it, and it would awaken every dull nerve inside of her.

She kissed Brandon, while Scotty and Asha played, while she waded with her boyfriend…and she meant it. She was almost sure that she’d never meant anything more than kissing him.

And she almost said it then. The moment that they pulled apart and the moon filled his blue eyes, she almost vocally admitted to him that she loved him, to the point that it hurt, to the point that, as the breeze swept above their heads, and the current rolled about them, that she was sure that she’d never love another.

But, she bit her tongue. For the moment, she would enjoy his eyes and the way his hair fell into his face when it was soaking wet, the way it looked when they kissed on the shoreline, with the same moon looking over them.

Then, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and his wet lips kissed her shoulder blade.

“Happy Birthday,” he whispered against the base of her neck.

“Thank you,” she replied.

Scotty and Asha retired almost an hour later, gathering their clothes in their arms, bidding them goodnight and Natalie a Happy Birthday, before heading back into the house, and shutting the door behind them.

Brandon and Natalie sat soaking wet on the edge of the dock, swinging their dangling feet, while she held onto his arm and rested her head on his shoulder.

“I think I’m still drunk,” Natalie giggled.

“Well, it doesn’t go away as quickly as you might think,” he replied. “See…I told you we’d get drunk together one day, didn’t I?”