Queer youth romance

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She ambled over to the old style Pepsi machine. Coin slot only. The options oscillated between light bulb on and light bulb off. The machined whirred and sputtered out of cadence, and a continuous low hum accompanied. She sighed and swore under her breath.

Dana wore a full length summer dress in light pastels. Her hair was pulled back and went slightly below her shoulders. Her almost pink open toed shoes had no heal. She had no makeup on, not even lip gloss. She played with the coins in her hand, counting aloud to herself.

"Two quarters, fifty, three dimes, eighty, three nickels, ninety five cents. Still not enough. Damn. Hey Callie do you have a nickel," Dana said in a southern accent.

"What? No stop messing around Desi! I'll be right there," said Callie.

Desi let her slip away.

"I'll be waiting right here," said Desi

Desi sat back on the car hood. Desi wore jeans and a t shirt with a black leather jacket with the cuffs folded and the collar turned up. Her very short African black hair was slicked back. She had no makeup on, but a little lip gloss. Callie skipped over to Dana, but spun around to eye flirt with Desi once. Callie wore a brand new pair of blue jeans with patterns in glitter on the pockets. Her pink tank top was ruffled up, but obviously new as well. Her sneakers were purple nike high tops. Her blond hair was just above the shoulders and was newly permed. Her face was clean except for slight eye liner and lip gloss.

"Isn't she the queen of cool? I think something might happen tonight. What do you think of her?" asked Callie.

"Great. Do you have five cents or not?" said Dana

"I'm sorry what? Five cents? Yeah, whatever, here," Callie said as she passed all her change to Dana, "Did you hear what I said? She invited us back to their crib for beers! Well?"

"Well, I can't. Not tonight. I promised to be back by 11 to watch my brother while my mom goes to work," said Dana.

Callie's face scrunched up in a pout. "Pleeeease. Come on, you know you want to come hang out with us."

"Oh no, not this again. Look it's not a big deal. I'll grab the metro. You go and do your thing," said Dana "You gave me enough change."

"No way. You have to come. Come on I'm counting on you to keep me safe," Callie said.

"Hey ladies, are we going or what?" asked Desi.

"Wait a minute. We'll be right there," said Callie.

"No. High school is over Cal. I said I'd go out with you to that bar, but that's the extent of it. I'm going home. Now hurry over there and get your girl. Ok. Text me about it tomorrow," said Dana.

"Buzzkill. Fine, I'll see you later," said Callie letting go of Dana's hand and turning to run towards Desi, "I'm coming."

The next afternoon, after Dana finished with chores, she checked her phone to find five messages from Callie all placed within the last hour. She texted her.

"Well, what happened?" asked Dana.

Two minutes later.

"We had the most amazing pizza and beer."

"You had dinner?" asked Dana.

Two minutes later.

"No silly, it's code for hot lesbian sex."

"OMG? Seriously? Well how was it?"

"It was good. Desi took her time to show me some moves."

"Well congratulations! I'm glad I missed it."

"Yeah. I know. We just don't meet up as much. It's like we should be doing more this last summer before college. You know?"

"Well we can hang out later?"

"Oh well, I promised Desi it would just be us tonight. But it's Saturday, the rest of the gang is down at McD's tonight for parfaits and sundaes. I know they would love to see you too."

"It's just that with me starting at the Community College and the rest of you off to University ...I just feel out of place."

"Don't be ridiculous. Nobody cares about that. We all know your daddy took the money, and left your family with not even a penny of the church fund. No one blames you all."

"I know. I just ...think it might be easier going forward with new friends and all."

"Fine. Well you can hang with Desi's crowd. I'll ask her about it tonight. I mean your gay. They're gay. It's settled that's what I'll do. I won't let my best friend be all alone her first semester."

"Oh, please don't say anything. I'd be embarrassed. I'll make friends in college don't worry. Plus I qualified for work study and I will be trying out for basketball. So I'm sure I'll meet other women with similar interests. Thanks though."

"I'm going to ask Desi anyways. She won't mind keeping tabs on you if I ask."

"Oh, so your relationship is like that now?"

"Yeah it's like that. LOL."

The next weekend Dana and Callie met up with Desi's friends at The Blue Room Lounge, a local lesbian hangout on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia.

"I'm so glad you guys could make it. I would have picked you up, but my car is getting new decals," said Desi, wearing the same leather jacket.

"I know. We had a blast taking the metro! Didn't we?" said Callie.

"Yeah, after my mom gave us a ride to the nearest depot," said Dana.

"All right. I said I was sorry. I thought my dad would lend us the Nissan today," said Callie.

"I know. I'm sorry I snapped at you. Look we're glad we came. I've heard about this place, but I've never been here," said Dana.

"Yeah, it's cool. It opened in the fifties, and has seen some pretty sleazy happenings. But the jazz has always been superb. People would come from all around, black, white, gay, straight. It never mattered it was a lesbian lounge. The smooth sounds sung everyone together. Ooh her, your gonna love her on sax!" said Desi.

The music began to play. The group rocked and swayed to the rhythm. Callie and Desi smiled at each other. Through the course of the night they moved towards each other until Callie was almost in her lap.

"Listen. I have to call my sister to come pick us up to spend the night. She has to be in bed by 12 to get up for her shift at her grocery store, Giant," said Dana.

"I'm staying over at Desi's tonight. She promised me a ride back tomorrow," said Callie. Desi nodded her head.

"Ok. Well I'll call her from outside. I need some fresh air," said Dana.

"Why don't you just text her?" asked Callie.

"My sister only uses her landline at home. She says it's less expensive," said Dana.

"Wow. I didn't know anyone still used those," said Desi.

"Yeah, well ...," Dana said, getting up from the stool and moving towards the exit.

Dana called her sister for a time of pickup.

"So, she is on her way. I'm going to just wait outside," said Dana, hugging Callie and waving at Desi. Callie was now in Desi's lap. They had moved to a booth with friends and they were swaying with the music.

Dana stood outside and forced herself to stretch to loosen up.

"Damn it's cold out," said Dana.

"Yeah, like right. Isn't this supposed to be summer?" said a young woman having a smoke while sitting against the wall of the lounge.

"Yeah. I'm Dana. Is that the best Jazz ever?"

The woman got up and walked over to Dana. She jettisoned her cigarette into the street.

"Yeah it is. I've been coming here since Spring. My sister brought me down. How about you? Oh my name's Cord. Do you need a light?" said Cord as she reached into her too short jean jacket and pulled out a pack of Camel Lights. She opened the pack and pointed it at Dana while putting one smoke in her mouth.

"Sorry, no I don't smoke," said Dana wrinkling her nose.

"Hey, nothing to be sorry about. It's a nasty habit," said Cord slipping the cigarette from her mouth back into her pack and into her jacket pocket.

"How about some gum instead?" said Cord bringing out a pack of peppermint Dentyne.

"Sure why not?" said Dana picking out a piece.

"Take two. One's never enough," said Cord.

"I know, right? So what do you do? Outside of Jazz and smoking?" asked Dana.

"Well I am about to be a second year drama major at the Community College," said Cord.

"No way. I'm starting there next month," said Dana.

Dana's sister pulled up to the curb in a off yellow two door Datsun.

"Hey kiddo. Mom wanted me to tell you that you need to be back by six tomorrow to watch Hank. Who's your friend? Hi I'm Cassie, Dana's older protective sister," said Cassie.

"Hi ma'am, I'm Cord, I go to the Community College," said Cord.

"So I guess I'll see you around," said Dana.

"Wait, why don't we exchange numbers? We could meet up for lunch before 6 ...if you want?" said Cord.

"Yeah, great!" said Dana.

They borrowed a pen from Cassie, and exchanged numbers on their palms. They promised whoever woke up first would text first.

By Alex Almeida

From: United States

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