!

"Here you go," he said, handing me the pillow and laying the blanket across my body. It was warm and I snuggled into it.

"Thank you."

"No problem."

"How did you know where to get this?" I asked.

"Oh," he waved his hand and sat back down on the other end of the couch. "I'm over here all the time." Then he looked at me, expressionless, "I mean, when you're not."

The blanket was draped over my shoulder and partly covered my face as I sank into the pillow. I peered over the covers at him and tried to hide a smile.

"Yeah, I'm always asking Tia to get you over here, but you won't ever come. You must be the busiest girl in the world..."

He glanced at me knowingly. I looked away, the intensity of his gaze making me blush.

Now, Scarface is a great movie, but it's long as hell. We watched it for what seemed like forever and then I started to doze off. Lafayette came into the room, but must have thought we were both knocked, because he turned around and went right back down the hall to Tia's room.

I was quickly getting used to Scott and almost felt comfortable with him. I felt the type of comfort that you feel with a person that you've known for so long that it's not really necessary to say anything to them. There was an easy silence between us, and I had almost forgotten that it wasn't one of my friends sitting on the other end of the couch. Right when I was beginning to think that Scott had fallen asleep too, he lightly nudged my foot.

"So, you're just not gonna share that blanket, huh?"

"What?" He caught me off guard and I didn't know what else to say.

"I mean, can a brutha get a little warmth?" Brutha? Who did this guy think he was?

I giggled at the way he said it. Again I wasn't looking at him when he spoke and could have sworn I felt my heart skip a beat. He took my laughter as an invitation to get under the blanket with me. I didn't argue, but sat up to give him more room. He kept just enough space between us to let me feel comfortable, but got as close as he knew he could without me moving away. I noticed that Scott was really good about knowing exactly what other people wanted from him.

"Hey," his fingertips brushed my arm and a chill went down my spine. I shivered. He smiled, but didn't comment on it. "You know I like you, right?"

"Huh?"

I never expected him to just come out and say it. I thought that he was going to keep sending messages through Tia and that I could just keep avoiding him for the rest of my life.

Scott grinned. I looked at his teeth again, then at his lips... I shook my head and looked away. What was I thinking having a crush on this white boy? My mom would kill me! I tried to keep my heart from racing the way that it was.

I looked over at him again. He kind of bit his bottom lip and licked it at the same time, his eyes cast downward.

"I said..." Scott bit his lip again. He got me every time he did that. "I like you."

He glanced cautiously my way and then leaned in towards me. I was still leaning against the arm of the couch and had nowhere to go. Not that I wanted to go anywhere... My heart started beating faster and I felt my hands begin to shake. This was silly! What was I getting so worked up about? I tried to take in a deep breath, but it came out like a short gasp. He leaned in closer to me and touched my face.

"So...are you gonna flash that pretty smile for me or what? Why are you so tense?" he asked and took my hand, pulling it towards him. Again, my breath came out like a short gasp.

"Because I don't know you."

"But you can get to know me," he said earnestly and waited for an answer.

"My mother doesn't like white people," I blurted without thinking. "So this would never work."

I had swept my hair up in spiral curls earlier that day, and one kept falling right in my eye.

Scott brushed it back in place and leaned in towards me. "What would never work?"

"This."

"What?" He leaned in closer.

I held my hand up to his chest, brushing against the tight muscles underneath his shirt. "Stop."

He moved back a little and held both of his hands up where I could see them. Then he cautiously leaned in towards me, and we stared at each other until he gave me the longest, softest kiss that I had ever received in my life. It literally took my breath away. When he finally leaned back to look at me, I couldn't do anything but flutter my eyes open and stare at him. He bit his lip again. It was driving me crazy the way he did that. Then he laced his fingers through mine and gently pushed me back against the couch. His warm body leaned into me and I could feel every muscle in his chest gently pressed up against mine. It was all I could do to keep from going limp when his knee pushed gently into my inner thigh.

Suddenly I heard a door open and footsteps coming down the hall. Scott jumped back and I sat up quickly. Tia gasped and ran into the room. She seemed to have slept off some of her alcohol, but not all of it. She clapped her hands and whispered loudly, "I knew it! I knew it!" Then she started with her impish giggling and came to sit on the couch between us. "So...what'd I miss?"

I couldn't keep the grin from spreading across my face. Looking over at Scott, I saw that he was cheesing from ear to ear, too. He looked so cute blushing like that.

Looking at him made me blush even more, so I looked away. When we didn't say anything, Tia patted both of us on the leg and stood up.

"Well, I guess I'll leave you two kids alone then. Be good." She started to head back down the hall and then stopped and turned around. "Hey...you two weren't about to..."

I gasped and covered my face. "No! Oh, Tia. I can't believe you just said that!" Scott only laughed.

"Hey, I was just making sure you didn't need anything." She looked pointedly at Scott. "You know I gotta make sure my little cuz is well protected."

My face was burning and I felt like crawling underneath the couch. Tia was a funny drunk. Some people get violent when they drink, but Tia felt the need to avoid all confrontations by making sure that everyone in the room was always on the same page.

"I told you my cousin is a virgin, right?" She pointed a finger at Scott and made a jerking motion with her hand. "You hurt her and I'll break your little peepee right off!"

Now it was Scott's turn to turn go beet red. I jumped up and ran over to Tia before she had a chance to say anything else. Covering her mouth, I looked pleadingly into her eyes and hissed, "Tia, shut...up! We weren't doing anything! Go away." She bit my finger and I snatched my hand back. "Ouch! What the hell?" I inspected it to see if it was bleeding.

"Anyway, Scott," Tia brushed past me and sat back down next to him. "You know I love you, right? You've been my boy forever, but Rica?" Tia usually started sounding like a city pimp when she was really drunk. It always cracked everybody up. Scott was trying hard not to laugh. "Rica's my blood, man. If you hurt her, I will kill you."

True, Tia was a funny drunk, but at the same time we both knew she was serious...which spoke volumes, because she really liked Scott a whole lot...

"Tia," Scott said patiently and helped her up off the couch. "I would never in my life hurt your cousin. You of all people know I wouldn't do that." She nodded in agreement. They were talking like I wasn't even standing there. "And besides," he looked at me and winked. "I was just about to leave when you came in."

"Oh. Alright then," Tia said and stumbled head first toward the front door like a wino. Then she whispered loudly back to him, "Look here homie, told you I'd hook it up!"

"Yeah bebe, you did." Scott played along, laughing, and gave her a hug.

He and Lafayette always pronounced "baby" beh-beh, Louisiana style.

"Remember this." She said it like at some point he would owe her "a favor." Then she hugged him back and stumbled away down the hall. As she passed me, she gave me a thumbs-up, then went back into her bedroom and closed the door.

I was still standing in the living room, from which I could see every room in the front of the house and the front door. Scott was standing by the door and we watched each other silently for a long, long time.

Finally he asked, "So are you gonna say goodnight to me from all the way over there?"

I walked over to him and stood just out of his reach. "Goodnight."

"Come here," he said softly, motioning me over, and held out his hands. When I inched close enough to him, he pulled me up and looked into my eyes.

Being so close to him made me shy again and I looked down at the ground. Finally, when he didn't let me go, I looked back up at him. I wanted to kiss him so bad, and involuntarily looked at the bottom lip that he was biting.

I caught him watching my every move and quickly pulled away.

"Why did you kiss me before?" I asked.

Concern entered his face. "You didn't want me to? I mean, I thought..."

"No," I said quickly. "I mean, why did you even want to kiss me?"

A slow smile spread across his lips, revealing his almost perfect teeth. "I told you." He put his hand under my chin and lifted my face up. "I like you." Then he gave me a quick peck on the lips and turned to leave.

I grabbed his hand and pulled him back. "Listen, I already told you this can't happen." He gave me that same odd look as if he had already begun to think of us as a couple.

"You can't stop the way I feel about you Rica, no matter how much you might want to. And you can't stop the way you feel about me either." He looked directly into my eyes.

"But I can't like you!" I argued.

"Look, if you're talking about your mother, my father didn't like black people. But that don't mean I have to be the same way."

"I'm not just talking about my mom," I said quietly, searching his eyes for some semblance of understanding. "I never liked white people either. And I've especially never liked your family! Your cousins almost beat me up!" I cried.

"But that wasn't me," he whispered and moved closer to me.

I stepped back.

"It doesn't matter if you helped me or if you were one of the ones holding me down. You're all the same to me."

He took another step towards me. "You don't believe that."

"Yes I do." I was beginning to weaken under the intensity of his gaze. He seemed to be reading my soul.

"No, you don't." He whispered and lightly held onto my arm.

I pulled away. "Scott, you're not listening to me. I do not like your family! Why can't you understand that?"

"Ok, first of all, you don't like my pop's side. But he's gone now, and we don't bother with the rest of them except for my grandma. My moms is nothing like them."

"They're still your family, Scott, and they're still white," I repeated, "and I don't like white people."

"But you like me." He put his other hand on my other arm.

I fought the urge to smile at his persistence. "No, I really don't." I looked away.

"Yes you do," he said, and before I knew what was happening, he swiftly leaned down and kissed me again. Then he let me go and stood back to observe my reaction. I noticed that he did that a lot.

I didn't have anything else to say to him, so I let out an exasperated sigh and opened the front door. He patted my arm and winked at me, then walked out into the ascending dawn. I watched him stroll down the street to where his Cherokee was still parked and chuckled, remembering how I had jumped out of it and run from him the night before. When he reached the car, Scott turned and waved, then hopped in and drove off.

I turned to find Tia walking sleepily back out into the living room. She stood in the middle of the floor and looked around, then picked up the blanket and pillow and motioned for me to follow her. I locked the door and went into the guest bedroom, where she threw the blanket onto the bed. Then we said, "Goodnight," as she closed the door behind her and stumbled back down the hall and into her own room.

I didn't even think about Scott any more that night, but drifted into a hard, drunken sleep.

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