Imagined Love (13 page)

Jade was too stunned to speak! She stood with a horrified look on her face.

“Look, baby,” Alonzo said, as he rubbed her back. “I know you probably a little nervous, but you really don’t need to be. Because if you move anything in bed like you do on stage then you won’t have any problems pleasing me. So don’t worry, alright? Besides, I’ll be right there helping you move that sexy ass around,” he winked, moving her hips with his hands. “Once I get you out this dress you’ll be thanking me for turning you into a woman! So let’s get to it, sweetheart. I can’t wait anymore,” he moaned and planted kisses on her neck.

“Alonzo, stop! I don’t want to . . .”

“Uh, uh see, it’s not about what you want or don’t want. You’ve been calling the shots for way too long. It’s my turn now and I say we get out these clothes and let nature take its course,” he smirked. “Oh come on, Jade, why you tripping like this? You know I’m gonna marry you one day anyway so what difference does it make if we have sex now or then?”

“Wait, what?” she frowned.

“Don’t act dumb, girl. Why would I be going through all this hell if I didn’t think we were gonna end up together?” he asked, entwining his fingers with hers. “I know I act crazy sometimes, but that’s your fault. You keep flaunting this incredible body in front of me and wearing that perfume even though you know it turns me on,” Alonzo said, as he inhaled a deep whiff of it. “But you still love me, right?”

Jade stood there for what seemed like an eternity just staring at him. And for the first time, amongst the crowd and all the noise, she realized that it wasn’t Alonzo she loved at all! It was the fantasy of him to which she’d been so loyal. It was the dream of marrying her childhood sweetheart and having a home and family together that she’d been holding on to. Jade wanted the fairytale, her great love story, and it hadn’t mattered that she didn’t actually like Alonzo at all! And as she looked into his eyes Jade knew with certainty he no longer had her heart.

“No, actually I don’t love you,” she stated, matter of fact. “You made sure of that,” Jade smiled, as she pulled away from him. “Bye, Alonzo.”

He was so shocked that it took a few seconds to comprehend what had just happened. “Jade! Jade, girl, come here!” When she didn’t respond, Alonzo decided to teach her a lesson. He set out to prove how insignificant she was to him in the hopes Jade would cave in and give him what he wanted. So he approached the first attractive girl he saw to put his plan in motion.

Jade frantically searched the crowd for Katrina and Tawny. She knew they would be angry for having to leave so early, but she really didn’t care. I knew I shouldn’t have come, she thought as she scanned the skating rink. Jade was thankful when she spotted Katrina coming towards her, but her heart nearly stopped when she saw who was walking with her!

“Look who I found,” Katrina smiled mischievously. “I was telling Damien how much you really like him. And I already told you he been dying to go out with you so I brought him over so y’all can work out the details,” she said, pushing them towards one another. They both looked petrified. “Alrighty then,” Katrina said, as she popped a fresh piece of Juicy Fruit into her mouth. “There’s a cutie pie in the dance hall with my name written all over him, so I’ll check y’all later.”

Jade was so nervous she could barely look at Damien. And even though he was nervous too, he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her.

“Sooo,” Jade uttered, rocking back and forth. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Alonzo putting his moves on some other girl. He kept glancing over at her to make sure she could see him and that actually made her laugh. For the first time since she’d met him Jade genuinely didn’t care what Alonzo did. And it was nice to be relieved of that burden. She turned her back towards him giving Damien her full attention.

“You look incredible tonight,” he smiled brightly. “Well, I mean, you always look incredible. Not just tonight. It’s just that tonight you look even more incredible. But not that you could really look any better than you always do except that tonight . . .”

Jade laughed so hard that tears ran down her face. It was comforting to know he was just as nervous as she was. “Thank you,” she managed to say. “You look incredible too.”

The two of them stood smiling and fidgeting before Damien suggested they grab a slice of pizza. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for their nervousness to subside. They sat at a table for two in a corner of the food court talking and laughing like they’d known each other forever. Jade found the whole experience refreshing. It was nice to be with a boy that she liked who could talk about something other than how much he wanted to sleep with her.

Because the music was so loud, Damien asked to move his chair next to hers so they could hear each other better. As it turned out, it was also so he could touch Jade more, which she enjoyed. She liked the way he touched her knee when he laughed or the gentle way he brushed strands of hair from her face. Jade loved how he gazed deeply into her eyes completely rapt in whatever she was saying. And how he responded thoughtfully, proving he’d been listening to every word.

“I think I’m in love with you,” Jade smiled, after a few hours of interacting with Damien. Suddenly her smile turned to wide-eyed panic when she realized she’d actually said that out loud! You idiot, she thought, covering her face. All she wanted to do was get up and run before Damien could tell her how stupid she was!

“I feel the same way,” he admitted instead. He pulled Jade’s hands down from her face as he planted kisses in the palms of each. “I’ve felt that way ever since I laid eyes on you. But you were so into old what’s his face that I didn’t have the chance to show you. Now that you say he’s out of the picture . . .” Damien said as he leaned in to give Jade the softest, most passionate kiss of her life! “I can finally do that. And this,” he smiled, kissing her again.

“Ooh, lord!” she muttered, squeezing her knees tightly together. Even though Jade had kissed Alonzo plenty of times, and he’d definitely been all over her, she never once felt the kind of tingling sensation she had going on after kissing Damien. If she had, Alonzo wouldn’t have had to spend years begging her for sex. She would’ve gladly given in to him! The fact that she was having such intense sexual feelings for Damien had Jade petrified. And her reaction sent Alonzo into a rage! He started throwing trays and flipped a trash can over making it necessary for security to escort him out.

“Sorry about that,” Jade said then she and Damien went back to enjoying each other’s company. By the end of the night she grew more anxious. Jade had always thought it was her strong moral character that was the reason she was still a virgin. As it turned out, she just hadn’t met a guy who really turned her on. She suddenly felt like a jerk for judging her friends so harshly for having sex when she clearly had no idea what they’d been going through. Experiencing it herself made Jade nervous. And for the first time, with Damien’s hand gently placed on her knee, she didn’t trust herself!

Katrina had met quite a few guys at the skating rink but Devon was by far her favorite. They started dating, which in her world meant they had sex frequently. He hadn’t actually taken her anywhere to consider what they did dating. Devon always made plans for them to spend time in his cousin’s basement, in his bedroom if his parents were out, and once he even splurged on a cheap motel room. When he offered to pick Katrina up for dinner, she was beyond excited and asked to borrow one of Jade’s outfits so she wouldn’t look like a “po hoe”.

“Shoot, I wish I could borrow this thing for a few hours,” Katrina said, slapping Jade across her butt. “That’s about the only way I’ma look cute in your pants ‘cause right now I look like a fool sagging like this. Ugh, that just don’t make no sense for you to have all that booty and I ain’t got none! And then you won’t even share it with nobody on top of that!”

“Shut up,” Jade chuckled.

“You laughing but I know a few people who wish they could have some, that stupid ass Alonzo for starters. He been coming home a lot lately but it ain’t because he wanna see us. He trying to spy on you and your new man. You should see him stomping around the house like a punk because you ain’t sitting around waiting for him to grace you with a few minutes of his time. He can’t stand it, and I love it! That’s what that stupid bastard get. And then we got Damien who be looking like he ready to pounce on you. So when you gone give him some ‘cause I know you want to?”

“Oh, I think this one will look cute,” Jade said, as she held up one of her sundresses.

“You can ignore me all you want to but I know it won’t be long before you riding Damien like a cowgirl! Woo doggy,” Katrina laughed then hummed the theme song from The Lone Ranger.

A short while later Devon came to get Katrina and Tawny came over to watch movies and hang out with Jade. They spent hours talking about Damien and the new guy she was seeing named Ricky while they painted their nails and played in each other’s hair. Jade had asked Dion to come over but he turned her down again. He seemed distant and angry but every time she tried to talk to him about it he said nothing was wrong. So Jade left him alone until he was ready to tell her what was his problem.

She and Tawny had just finished eating spaghetti for dinner and were about to watch a movie when Katrina returned.

“Please tell me you not watching this mess again,” she whined then plopped on the couch beside Jade. “How long you been watching this junk anyway? For like five years?”

“I’ll never get tired of The Last Dragon! Shoot, I would marry Bruce Leroy Green if I could. He’s gorgeous!”

“Girl, he ain’t that cute for you to be sitting up watching this movie a million times. Tawny, this fool went to the show almost twenty times to see this crap! I’m serious.”

“You went too, clown!” Jade laughed. “So what happened with Devon?”

Katrina explained that her big dinner date consisted of a Big Mac, cold fries, and a chocolate shake on the way to another cheap motel room! She was so disappointed but tried to make it seem like it wasn’t that big of a deal. Her constant remarks about Jade’s dates with Damien made it obvious she was jealous. Tawny decided to change the subject before another fight broke out between the two. Thankfully Jade and Katrina started telling stories about the crazy things they did as kids. When they were eleven, the two of them decided to give themselves perms. And like two idiots, they covered their entire heads with glue! They figured since perm was white and glue was white it would work just the same.

Then Jade recalled the time she and Katrina put on their Wonder Woman Underoos and white go-go boots, tied a towel around their necks and jumped off the roof! When Willa went off on them Jade cried out, “We would’ve been safe, Mom. We were in our Underoos.” Katrina’s favorite memory of their stupid stunts together was the washer and dryer experiment. They were curious about how the machines worked and thought it made sense to find out from the inside. So one afternoon when Katrina and her siblings were at Jade’s apartment, they decided to do it. Both girls got into their bathing suits and got ready for the big experiment. They wet up Katrina while the water filled inside the washer for Jade to climb into. She even put on her swimming cap to keep her short hair from getting wet. After falling asleep with gum in their mouths and waking up to a tangled, sticky mess both of them had to get almost all of their hair cut off!

Once Katrina was completely saturated, Robert stuffed her in the dryer and turned it on. She made it for one spin then screamed to be let out. It was a miracle she hadn’t broken her back! Willa walked in to find her on the floor writhing in pain while Jade stood in a bathing suit about to climb into a washing machine full of water! “Y’all some of the stupidest kids I ever met in my life! What in the hell is going through your mind to make you do something like this? You could’ve been killed, idiots!” she had screamed, giving all of them a slap in the back!

“Oh my god! You guys were crazy,” Tawny laughed. She was flabbergasted by their stories.

“Yeah, but we used to have a lot of fun. I miss those days,” Jade admitted.

“Me too,” Katrina said, sadly. “We was always laughing.”

“Then why don’t y’all quit arguing and fighting so much and have fun like you used to. I mean, you were able to do it today. Y’all obviously still love each other so what’s the problem?”

Jade and Katrina looked at Tawny and then at each other. They did love each other but their differences got in the way more than they ever used to. And as the months went by, their relationship worsened.

Six months of dating Damien made an incredible difference with Jade. She was so much happier and enjoyed life more. She just liked being with him. Jade loved how affectionate and attentive Damien was and how content he seemed just being with her. It didn’t matter if they were out on a date or sitting across from one another doing homework. It was nice having a real boyfriend who cared for her and showed interest in something other than having sex. Jade loved and respected Damien and knew it was only a matter of time before she gave him the gift of her virginity!

Unfortunately, the better things went with him the worst they got with Katrina. Jade soon realized, like with Alonzo, she’d been holding on to a fantasy. She wished the two of them were still close like they’d been when they were little, but the truth was they barely liked each other. And Jade was at the point where she was finally ready to end the relationship once and for all. Then Katrina called needing to be rescued again.

She and her supposed best friend Mia had gone out on a double date with guys they barely knew. Katrina didn’t know them at all but agreed to be set up with the friend of Mia’s new man named Mooney. Mia didn’t mention that Mooney didn’t know the guy either. They’d only met the week before at work. Katrina actually felt attracted to Mooney which her friend noticed immediately and put a stop to. Instead of going to the drive-in together like they’d planned, Mia suggested Jeff take Katrina in his car. She protested but it was no use. Mia wasn’t going to let anyone interfere with her having a good time with Mooney and left her “best friend” with a stranger. Katrina nearly cried because she was miles away from home with no money and no other choice but to go along.