hands away.
That night as I struggled with my homework, Simona had her music blaring. She started pushing me, increasing the stress I was already feeling about math.
She took off her earphones and asked, “What were you and Bobby doing before we left school? Making sweet love?”
I took a deep breath and refused to react. I considered mom’s advice that she repeated to me almost daily: Don’t give her the satisfaction, Narissa. Be like a duck. Even if your legs are paddling like mad underwater, keep your cool on the surface.
I tried for about thirty seconds, but I couldn’t ignore her from just three feet away.
Then she pushed harder, “You know he’s just going to use you, don’t you?”
I shrugged.
“He has a reputation.”
“You have a reputation too, Simona. It doesn’t mean it’s true.”
Rumors about Simona being gay started when Steve, a good friend of Bobby’s, asked her out to the movies last year. As far as I know, it was the