The next morning, I was awakened by the smell of some good home-cooked breakfast. Whoever was cooking was throwing down. If I didn't know any better, I would have swore that it was my momma in the kitchen cooking.
"Good morning, sleepy head," Benny came to the bedroom door and said. She tossed a brand new toothbrush and face towel on the bed.
"Morning," I responded as I stretched my arms and yawned.
"Breakfast is ready," she said and headed out the room toward the living room.
I got up, went to the bathroom and took care of my morning hygiene. Once I was finished, I headed straight to the kitchen. I was hungrier than a hostage.
"Morning," Sticky Fingers said and greeted me with a smile.
"Morning," I replied. I couldn't believe how comfortable she was maneuvering around the kitchen with a cut off t-shirt, a pair of boy cut short-shorts, and stilettos heels. I watched as she piled a plate high with bacon, sausage, eggs, and two pancakes. "Who gon' eat all this?" I asked, as she sat the plate down in front of me.
"You," she answered and walked over to the counter to grab a bowl of grits and sat them down in front of me too.
"Do you always cook like this?" I asked Sticky Fingers.
"Only on Sundays, baby girl," she replied before sitting a plate down on the opposite end of the table that was piled much higher than mine.
Benny came in the kitchen, kissed Sticky on the lips, and sat down in front of the plate of food. I watched as she devoured the food. It nearly made me sick to my stomach watching her scarf down her meal. Sticky Fingers made her own plate before joining Benny and me at the table. She then bowed her head and said grace.
"How come you don't have a boyfriend?" Sticky asked me after she said Amen.
"How do you know I don't have a boyfriend?" I asked, confused.
"'Cause you told me last night," she reminded me.
"Oh yeah. I just don't have one," I responded while biting down on a crisp piece of bacon, trying to avoid where the conversation was headed.
"Have you ever had one?" she asked.
"Nope."
"What?" Benny and Sticky both said in unison.
"Why not?" Sticky asked.
"I don't have time for no man right now. And no, I don't want no woman either," I said before they could get the wrong impression of me.
"You're a pretty, young girl-a little plain, but pretty," Sticky said, honestly. "With a little make-up and new hair do, you could have just about any young man you want."
"Look, thanks for the compliment, but I don't want no man. I don't trust 'em, none of 'em," I said, irritated, pushing my chair away from the table.
"Change the subject," Benny said to Sticky in a somewhat demanding tone. "Go'n and finish eating, girl, before your food gets cold," she said to me.
I pushed my chair back up to the table and did what I was told. After finishing breakfast, I thanked Benny and Sticky for their warm hospitality before heading home to get ready for another day of work, hoping my mom was home by now.
"Where you been all night? I've been worried sick," my mother said when she let me into the house.
"I was locked out, Ma. I had to stay the night over to Benny's house,” I answered.
My mother shot me a funny look. "Don't play me, Ma." I laughed because I knew what she was insinuating.
"You know I know better than that," she laughed. "I can't believe Benny let you stay over, rude as you are to her."
"I know, but Benny's mad cool. I like her," I said. My mother shot me another one of those looks. "Not like that, Ma," I laughed.
"She is a nice girl. I just don't know why she chooses to live her life like a man."
"Don't know, Ma," I said as I made my way to the bathroom.
As I showered, I wondered how a woman could turn to another woman for physical love. Look at Sticky for instance; she was a beautiful young lady. Her five feet nine inch frame was one of a model’s. She didn't appear to have a blemish anywhere on her body. Her smile left hints that she used to wear braces because of how perfectly straight her teeth were. Her eyes were slanted with a light-brown tint and she wore her wavy hair short and wild, kinda like Eva from America’s Next Top Model. I knew she could have any man ready to give her the world, but she chose to be with Benny. I guess to each his own!
I had been spending more and more time over to Benny's. I began to enjoy hanging with her and her friends. I learned so much about lesbian relationships, the streets, drugs, men, and everything else by just sitting back listening to the conversations they held. I never knew the world was so crazy and mixed up. If there really was a God, boy oh boy I bet He was grieved by this mess He’d created…or the mess folks had made of what He’d created.
I remember my grandmother once saying that the Bible said there wasn’t anything new under the sun. Well, everything Benny and her friend’s talked about was all new to me. It was like I had been living on Mars all of my life. Benny and her friends got a kick out of me because of how intrigued I was to find out about some of the things they conversed about.
Benny made sure all her friends knew and understood that I didn't swing the way they did and they respected that. They had even given me the nick name, Pure, because of how pure they thought my life was. Even though I'd never experienced any of the things they had, my life was far from pure and I had John, Jarvis and Javon to thank for that.
Before heading to work, I had a few minutes to spare, so I decided to stop by Benny's before going to the bus stop. I walked up on her porch and EPMD's “Crossover” was blaring through the speakers. I began bobbing my head as I beat on the door.
"Oh, hey, Pure," Sticky smiled as she opened the door to let me in.
"Sup? What ch’all doin’ today?" I asked, hoping it was something fun.
"We gon' kick it tonight!" Sticky said, excited. "Benny down at the club gettin' things ready for the party that's goin' down tonight."
Benny owned and ran the Kitty Kat Klub, which was a strip club that mainly attracted females. Occasionally men ran through just to see if they could luck up on a threesome with a couple of chicks who were just pretending to be gay for a day. There were a few regulars that came around. They were the ones with a fetish for girl-on-girl action. The club was getting too small for the large crowd it attracted on a regular basis, so to accommodate her customers, Benny decided to expand the building to make a more comfortable environment.
After all the work was complete, Benny was so pleased; she decided to throw a grand re-opening party. Benny went all out. She hired caterers, and all drinks were half price, even top-shelf. Benny sold five dollar raffle tickets at the door. The prize was a chance to enter the Champagne Room…for free. But the donkey-butt contest was gon' be the main attraction, because whoever had the biggest backside, the payoff was $500.
"Man, I wish I could go to the party," I huffed.
"You eighteen ain't you?" Sticky asked as she lit up a cigarette.
"Yeah," I replied.
"Well, you old enough to come. You just can't drink. You know Benny is strict when it comes to under-age drinkin’ in her establishment."
"You know I don't drink," I said.
"Oh yeah, we don't call you Pure for nothin'," Sticky laughed.
"Dang, it does sound like y'all gon' be kickin' it though. I wish I could come," I said again.
"What's stoppin' you?"
"Work," I answered, disappointed.
"Call off."
I contemplated doing just that, but my manager already warned me twice about calling off sick too many times. The last time I called off really wasn't my fault, because Stone Cold, one of Benny's strippers, tricked me into drinking a strawberry daiquiri. After taking a sip, I realized that it didn't taste bad at all. It actually tasted sweet like candy. But after four of 'em, I was drunk as I don't know what. The next morning I woke up with one of the worst headaches I'd ever experienced in my entire life. I was so sick I had to call off work for the next two days. Later I found out that instead of Stone Cold making the daiquiris with Vodka, she had used brown Moonshine.
Ever since I started hangin' around Benny and her girls, my whole life had done a complete 360. Sticky had started taking me shopping to show me how to put the right outfits together. I also began wearing a little make-up to bring my natural beauty out. Leslie, the strip club’s personal hair stylist, permed, trimmed, and styled my hair. I looked like a different person when Leslie got finished with me. I was totally pleased with the outcome.
I stopped going to my night classes because it interfered with what I called 'my social hour', which consisted of having fun with Benny and her crew of girls. Even though I hadn't picked up any of their bad habits, like drinking, smoking bud, and having sex, I still considered what I did as kickin' it.
My mother let me know she was disappointed with my actions, but all the fussing she was doing was going in one ear and right out the other. Looking through my own naive eyes, I thought I was grown. I started coming home late, if at all. I dropped out of night school altogether, which hurt my mother to her heart. All she ever wanted was for me to finish school, and getting fired from my job just for calling off would send her over the edge. But shoot, my mother musta been a fool if she thought I was gon' miss Benny's grand re-opening party!