bully, but she’d forced the fear away as she stood up to the much bigger girl, not backing down.
Words were all she had, as she knew the girl could beat her up.
Even at a young age, Naomi had used her words as her sword. Either it was the crazy threat or the way she said it that made the bully back away, mumbling about how they’d better stay on their side of the playground. It had become Naomi and Alyssa’s private laugh for fourteen years.
After sobering, Alyssa pinned her friend with her signature look. Naomi refused to squirm beneath her friend’s piercing gray eyes, feeling like a specimen under a microscope.
“Quit staring at me like that. And giving me that cray-cray look of yours. Gives me the creeps,” Naomi groused.
“What look?” Alyssa asked, feigning innocence, holding her cheeks taut as though holding back a laugh.
“You know what look. Don’t even try it. The same look you probably give to one of the frogs in your lab, rubbing your hands together in glee, right before you start slicing into the poor little guy,” Naomi mumbled, making Alyssa’s tinkling laugh ring out.
Which in turn made Naomi grin. Her friend’s light, infectious laugh could make anyone smile. Unlike Naomi’s laugh, big and full, a laugh she’d always been self-conscious about. It was just so...big. Only a few had heard her full laugh, and even fewer had made her laugh that way.
“Poor guy, huh? You know, if you want to be a doctor, you’re going to be doing a whole lotta dicing yourself. And not on anything so mild as a frog’s anatomy!”
“Yeah, but I’ll be in the biz of healing and helping children...not dissecting and murdering innocent amphibians!” she quipped, and both women chuckled.
“Really, with that vivid imagination of yours with the whole ‘rubbing my hands together in glee,’ as I ‘murder’ poor amphibians, on the real, girl, I’m truly convinced that you just might have missed your calling as a writer!” Alyssa said, and they both laughed.
“Listen, Ne Ne,” Alyssa said, automatically calling her by her childhood nickname of long ago. “We are graduating in a month and it’s your birthday!” She paused and gave Naomi a considering look before continuing. “Come on, girl, it’s not every day a woman turns twenty-one! And you promised me on your birthday you’d—”
Naomi held up a hand to stall the rest of her friend’s sentence. “I know, I know, I promised I’d loosen up and, well, umm...”
Alyssa cocked a brow. “And...” she said, allowing the rest of the sentence to dangle, waving a hand encouraging Naomi to continue.
“And find a man to deflower me,” she said, clenching her teeth in an attempt not to laugh.
Alyssa gave up a combo half giggle, half groan at Naomi’s words. “Girl, stop! No you didn’t say ‘deflower’!” Both women laughed outright. “And no I didn’t mean it like that, I just meant have fun, loosen up and well...” Her voice trailed off.
“I’m waiting,” Naomi broke in, when apparently Alyssa seemed hesitant to finish her sentence. Again she felt laughter ready to bubble forth. Maybe this was just what she needed. It had been a while since she had, as Alyssa said, loosened up.
Naomi was celebrating a momentous birthday, and she, as well as her friend, was finishing her senior year at the university, although Alyssa was older than Naomi by a year. Naomi had completed her undergraduate work in three years, shaving off a year, and Alyssa had completed her basic training in the air force for ROTC before entering the university. The two were as close as sisters, and had been since they were children.
“Besides, it’s kinda too late for the whole ‘deflowering’ thing, if you remember?” Naomi reminded her friend.
“Girl, please...that don’t even count. Didn’t you know that if the first time wasn’t any good, you get a do-over? What? Yes. A do-over!” she said, snapping her fingers together. “But that ain’t none of my business, though!” she finished with a smirk and lifted her glass to her mouth and took a sip...staring at Naomi over the rim.
Again Naomi laughed.
“Well, be that as it may. My one and only time left a lot to be desired. And not only that, but I haven’t even dated since then. Not that I’ve had all that much experience anyway,” Naomi said with a glum look.
“And whose fault is that?”
“Doesn’t matter. You know school comes—” Naomi replied, ready to shoot with her standard answer.
“First,” Alyssa interrupted and filled in for her, raising a palm. “Yeah, yeah, I know. You’ve always got that answer locked and loaded, girlfriend, ready to fire. But you promised we’d celebrate your birthday and graduation. What better way than to find some sexy beast and let him have his way with you, oooh Papi give it to me,” Alyssa quipped, making goofy kissing sounds as she pooched her lips out. Naomi groaned at the cheesy reference to her favorite, even cheesier, classic romance film, but had to laugh along with Alyssa at her crazy antics.
It wasn’t that Naomi didn’t want to loosen up, as Alyssa said, and have fun. She’d just always been so focused.
Besides, most of the boys her own age just didn’t do it for her. They all seemed so...young.
She sighed. “I don’t know, Lyssa. What if I do it and end up falling in love with said guy I do it with, quit school, stay around here in Wyoming, have a bunch of kids, and never fulfill my dream of being a doctor? Huh? Huh? What then?” she asked, half joking, half serious. It was one of her fears to stay in their hometown and do...nothing with her life.
“Really, Ne Ne? All that is going to happen? Girl, I swear you’re going into the wrong profession. You should really think about becoming a writer!”
“Ha!” Naomi replied, taking a drink and settling back in her seat.
“Listen, I’m not saying you gotta fall in love with the first guy you get involved with or do it with!” She stopped and qualified the statement, as Naomi opened her mouth. “Reallllly do it with,” she said, and Naomi grunted. “Girl, just do it, have fun and move on! Seriously, that’s my motto. Ain’t nobody got time for falling in love!” Alyssa chuckled at her own joke.
“Hmm. I don’t know. Most of the guys I know just don’t do it for me. At all. Not even a little bit,” Naomi replied with a deep sigh.
Feeling warm, she stood up to take off her leather jacket, to which Alyssa shot her an approving look and mumbled, “Finally!”
“And I think you’ve been reading those romance books of yours way too much. Trust me, if it were that easy to find Mr. Right, I would have been married with a bunch of kids a long time ago! And besides, what if that did happen, would that be so bad? Tall, dark and fine could be just the ticket for you! Have a hot, sexy brief affair, release some of that tension you carry around like a bad habit. Hmmm.” Alyssa stopped, a thoughtful expression crossing her small gamine features as she took a sip of her drink, lost in thought.
Naomi was contemplative when her friend grew quiet, and she removed her jacket, feeling warm and actually more comfortable than she thought she would feel.
Maybe
