Once she felt she could be around people again, Elizabeth Mills posted teen meeting flyers around the neighborhood.  Two weeks later, the twenty-five-year-old counselor stood in the doorway of the youth center’s computer room, her face beaming at the sight of the young people who showed up.  
   As conversations about the newest video games about to hit the stores, who ran into whom at the mall, and music videos filled the room, Elizabeth’s high heeled shoes made clicking sounds across the linoleum floor that only she could hear.  She stopped where five oak wood desks lined a wall.  She pulled a cushioned, flexed-back chair away from one of them, rolled it to the center of the large room, and sat down.  “Please grab a chair and form a circle right here,” Elizabeth spoke above the chatter.  “I’d like to begin.”
   “Begin what?”
   “Um… I think we’re gonna talk about sex.”  Belinda grabbed  hold of her boyfriend’s muscular arm.  She was trying to keep him from walking away, but he pulled her toward the door instead. “C’mon, Greg. I wanna stay.”
   “Then stay, but I’m…” Greg paused and looked back at Miss Mills to see if she was listening.   Her focus was on the other teens setting chairs in a circle as she had requested.  Still, he concluded in a whisper, “I’m not talkin’ ‘bout sex with nobody.”
   “We could learn something.”
   Greg responded by removing Belinda’s hand from his arm and heading out of the door.  “I ain’t in the mood, ah-ight?” he told her.
   “Then I won’t be in the mood tonight.”  Belinda crossed her arms tightly beneath her breasts, and added mockingly as she walked away, “ah-ight?”
   Greg made his way back to the computer room in Carl Lewis speed. He stood in the doorway, fixing his eyes on the stretch jeans hugging Belinda’s curves as she strolled across the room.  “This better be worth it,” he muttered to himself as he followed her.  Greg sat next to Belinda and sunk in his chair.  He turned his baseball cap backwards, and then he fixed his eyes on the huge mural to his right that took up the entire wall.  People of different shades and ages so true to life, he could imagine their frames stepping away from the powder blue sky behind them.  Cool.
   Elizabeth noticed the way Greg admired the mural.  She couldn’t bring herself to look at it, but it made her feel good to see Greg liked it.  “My name is Miss Mills and I’d like to thank each of you for coming.   Let’s begin by having everyone introduce themselves. Who would like to start us off?” Elizabeth watched all of the heads moving from side to side, each teen waiting for another to speak first.  She looked to her right.  “We’ll begin with you.”
   “I’m Kelli,” the girl announced, combing her fingers, a ring on each one, through her short cut.
   The next girl took a gum wrapper out of the pocket of her white cotton blouse, removed the tasteless pink wad from her mouth, and enveloped it.  “I’m Randi.”  She spotted a trashcan by the door, but she didn’t feel like walking across the room since she had just spent four hours on her feet behind a McDonald’s counter, so her pocket would do for now.
   “I’m Antonio,” the next teen spoke in a sing-song Spanish accent.   He winked at the girl with reddish-orange hair and freckles who sat to the left of Miss Mills.  Her body was slammin’ in the miniskirt and sequin tank top she was sporting.  He chuckled when she rolled her eyes at him.
   The next guy pushed his wavy dirty blonde hair out of his eyes, deep brown like chocolate. He rubbed the hairs on his chin, stuffed his hands in the pockets of his Levi relaxed fitting jeans, and then muttered, “Joe.”
   “Greg.”
   “Belinda.”
   “Shondra.”
   “Lisa.”
   “Okay, then.  Now I’ll tell you all why I decided to have this meeting. I feel very strongly,” Elizabeth’s tone went from pleasant to melancholy, “more now than ever,” to serious, “that young people should discuss the issues concerning them.  I personally feel that sex is one of your biggest issues, which is why I chose that topic to focus on today.  I’d like you all to feel free to speak your minds.”  Elizabeth noticed a few distrustful expressions. “I’m not here to judge.”
   “Cool,” Joe responded, and then there was silence.
   “So, have any of you talked to your parents about sex?” Elizabeth questioned to get the discussion started.
   “My mom’s too scared to even say the word around me,” Shondra stated in a tone that suggested she wished that wasn’t the case.
   “My mom and dad didn’t say anything to me until I had to tell them I was pregnant,” Randi complained. “Then my mom was like ‘I never brought it up because I thought I’d give you ideas,’ and I was like, ‘That makes no sense.’” 
   “My dad made sense,” Joe grumbled, jamming his hands in his jacket pockets. “I just didn’t listen.”
   “I don’t need my mom to talk to me,” Shondra declared, “cause I don’t plan on messin’ up.”
   Belinda missed most of what was said because she had been wondering what her first time was going to be like, or if she really wanted to do it yet.  She did catch what Shondra said and questioned, “Mess up how?”
   “Mess up by ending up pregnant. I do not have time for dirty diapers, okay?” Shondra made a face at the thought. “Or mess up by catching a sexually transmitted disease ‘cause the guy I had sex with didn’t care enough to tell me he was carrying something, or didn’t know he was.”
   “But those things won’t happen if the two people are responsible.”
   “It’s not like girls can make their boyfriends wear condoms,” Randi interjected with bitterness in her tone. 
   “A guy will wear one if he really cares about his girlfriend.” Belinda took Greg by his hand, intertwining her fingers with his.  He sunk down further in his chair.
  “No birth control is one hundred percent effective,” Joe grumbled.  “Condoms break, yo.  I got a daughter to prove it.”
   “And I was on the pill,” Randi said, “but now I have a baby, school, and a part-time job, ‘cause babies cost money. But where is the guy I had sex with,” she looked to her left, to her right, “anybody see him,” behind her, “I don’t see him,” back towards the group, “and I haven’t since I told him I was pregnant.”
  Belinda glanced at Greg. She couldn’t tell by looking at him if he’d do her that way, but the thought of ending up pregnant made her rub her belly as if it ached.
   “Deciding to have sex is like, so serious,” Lisa stated her opinion. “I have to be sure I’m in love first.”
   Antonio skeptically eyed Lisa. “Girl, you sayin’ you’re a virgin?”
   “Yes, I am, and proud of it.”  Lisa rolled her eyes at Antonio, who shook his head in disbelief, then added to really shock him, “And I’ll probably stay a virgin till I meet the man I’m gonna marry.”
   “Yeah, right. Whatever.”
   “I guess that would make it really special,” Belinda thought.  “Maybe I should wait.”
   “I’m a virgin, too.”  Kelli offered so Lisa would know she wasn’t alone. She returned the smile Lisa flashed at her. “I don’t know about waiting till I’m married, but right now my focus is on getting into an Ivy League college and guys are a distraction I don’t need.”
   From the corner of his eye, Greg could tell by the look on Belinda’s face that she was giving serious thought to all she had heard. “That mural’s tight, Miss Mills,” he quickly changed the subject, hoping his girl hadn’t already changed her mind.
   “My brother painted it,” Elizabeth spoke with pride as tears welled in her eyes. She stood to her feet and crossed the room, which was suddenly quiet.  She stopped next to the mural and moved her slender fingers delicately, lovingly along her brother’s signature as if stroking his face one last time.  “He died of AIDS six months ago.”
    At that, Belinda slowly pulled her hand away from Greg and he knew for sure that he’d have to make other plans for tonight.

© 2007 Katrina L. Burchett