A sample from It Could Never Happen to Me

and a taste of Sweet & Sour Honey

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It Could Never Happen to Me

Keisha's stepbrother, Marcus, has touched her for the first time, and tries to convince her that it's no big deal.

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“No, stop it!” With my last ounce of strength, I pushed him away.

Startled, he pulled his hands away from me. “What?”

I didn’t respond as I buttoned my top back up.

“What?” he repeated. “Was that so bad?”

I had to search for my voice before sobbing, “Why did you do that?”

“I did it for you.”

“What are you talking about?” I tried to contain myself because I was already crying.

“Keisha, I know there be things you wanna feel and you ain’t never had a chance to feel ‘em. See? Now you know what it’s like to be kissed.”

“But you’re my stepbrother!”

“So? We didn’t go all the way, so we ain’t do nothin’ wrong. And at least I ain’t your real brother, right?”

“You’re not, but...”

“We ain’t blood, so it’s okay.”

“Okay?” I repeated. “Our parents wouldn’t think this is okay.”

Marcus hesitated for less than a second. “That’s why you gotta keep this ‘tween us. See, they won’t understand nothin’. You wanted to, I wanted to, so we both did it.”

“I — I never said I wanted to,” I squeaked.

“Your actions spoke to me. You relaxed and you ain’t never pushed me away.”

I was speechless. How could I respond to that?

“Now you know what the other girls be feelin’ when they with they man. You wanted this.”

He’s right about everything, I realized, shaking my head in confusion. I can’t tell because I let it happen.

“You liked it, right?” he wanted to know. “Keisha, who else would a done this for you?”

No one, I realized. I couldn’t think of one guy who would want to be intimate with me.

“So, you gonna keep quiet ‘bout this?”

I didn’t respond, simply because I wasn’t sure what to say.

“Go to bed,” Marcus instructed. “You need to relax and see that this ain’t no big deal.”

I rushed up to my bedroom. After closing the door, I buried my face into my pillow and let my tears soak it.

How could I let this happen? I asked myself. What if someone finds out? Everyone’s gonna hate me. I mean, he’s my stepbrother. Aren’t we like family, even sort of?

I was afraid to fall asleep. I tried, but I failed. I decided to read from the poetry book I had just bought, but the words were just a blur.

This has to be a big deal, I thought. His father and my mother are married, so nothing should be happening between us. Why did he do that to me? How would it sound if I told people my first kiss was from my stepbrother?

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Sweet & Sour Honey

Sheneil meets the boy of her dreams...or is he the boy of her nightmares!?

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(In the school cafeteria)

"Stacey, Stacey!" I blurted out, grabbing her hand. "Do you know that guy over there?"

She followed my gaze. "Who?"

"In the red basketball jersey."

She looked harder, and then looked back at me in disbelief. "You don’t know who that is?"

"I just got here. I don’t know anyone."

"That’s DeShaun!"

"DeShaun?"

"DeShaun Michaels?"

"DeShaun M…" I gaped at her. "Your cousin?"

"Yes!"

I folded my arms across my chest, unable to close my mouth. "You mean to tell me that’s the same nasty, disgusting DeShaun that used to harass me in elementary school?"

"He wasn’t that bad," Stacey said.

"What are you talking about? Don’t you remember when he slipped a dead worm into my spaghetti at lunch?"

"Well, yeah, but—"

"And the time he tried to push me in the mud when I was wearing a white dress on picture day?"

"True, but—"

"And don’t tell me you forgot about the time he—"

"Sheneil, chill!" Stacey laughed. "He’s not like that anymore. He grew up."

"Yeah, right," I said sarcastically. "What’s he doing here, anyway?"

"Remember he moved a few months before I did? See, his parents broke up and his dad got real depressed and wanted to move away from everything. So after he and DeShaun found a place out here, my dad wanted to come out here to make sure his big brother would be okay. Worked out great, though. My dad got a wicked job out here. He makes a lot of money."

"Wow," I said, turning my attention back to DeShaun. We actually had something in common. "But what happened to his crooked teeth and his big hair?"

"Braces. And I do hair now, guys and girls."

I shook my head, still looking at him. "I can’t believe he turned out to be…like that!"

Stacey laughed. "If you knew, I bet you’d have treated him better back then, huh."

"Give me a break!" I scoffed, finally looking back at her. "I treated him bad ‘cause he treated me bad."

"Because he liked you," Stacey insisted. "Anyway, he’s single if you’re interested. His ex-girlfriend moved away last year."

"I’m as interested as I was when we were kids."

"At least give him a chance. A bunch of us are going to a free concert at the park next Saturday."

"Free concert? Who’s performing?"

"A bunch of new artists. Local record labels do stuff like this all the time. They get a group of wannabe stars together, put on a free show, and offer them contracts if the crowd thinks they’re hot."

"Sounds cool."

"Wanna come?"

"Yeah."

I licked some strawberry-banana yoghurt off my spoon as someone said, "I guess you found the office okay?"

"DeShaun!" Stacey exclaimed. "You know who this is?"

"Of course," he grinned. "How you doin’, Sheneil?"

"You knew it was me?" I said, glaring up at him.

"I didn’t realize it was you ‘til I got to class," he laughed.

"Whatever." I went back to my yoghurt. Grabbing a seat beside me, he asked, "You still hate me? Come on, we were kids. That was a long time ago. Peace?" Stretching out that soft hand of his, I realized then that I was the one being childish.

"Fine. Peace." I shook his hand, but I didn’t feel the sensation of satin this time. I felt something cold, wet and mushy instead.

"Ew!" I hollered, yanking my hand away. My palm was smeared with mayonnaise.

"DeShaun!" Stacey snapped. Then she started laughing with him.

"You guys are sick, you know that?" I grabbed a napkin from Stacey’s tray and wiped my hand.

"I’m sorry, I’m sorry," DeShaun said, laughing like a mad scientist. He wiped his hand off. "That was for old times. I’ll never do it again, I swear."

I threw my napkin at him. "Don’t you have anything better to do?"

Before he could respond, a voice called out, "Yo, DeShaun!" Calvin Johnson, better known as "Biz", was coming towards us. "Let’s go play basketball before lunch is over, man."

"Biz, hold up!" DeShaun said, "Did you meet Sheneil?"

"Yeah. She’s in my math class."

I was pouting so much that Biz asked, "What’s wrong, Sheneil? Is my boy buggin’ you?" He put DeShaun in a headlock. "Leave her alone, man. We got a tournament to go finish."

As they continued to play fight, I studied Biz. He seemed like the complete opposite of DeShaun. He was tall and lanky, but he was scary. His eyes were as sharp as a tiger’s, and his deep, scratchy voice always sounded low and mysterious, even if he was joking around. Just from one class, I could tell he was a thorn in the side of most of his teachers. He talked back and walked out of class whenever he wanted to. I couldn’t quite understand how he and DeShaun connected as friends.

DeShaun broke out of Biz’s grip. "See you girls later."

"That was so cute, what he did to you!" Stacey said when they left.

"You’re unbelievable."

"Wouldn’t it be so sweet if you guys got together?"

"Please! Not even in his dreams!"

"Think about it. He used to like you, you’re back in contact with each other after five years, and after all that time, you were interested in him as soon as you saw him!"

"That was before I knew who he was."

"Doesn’t matter," Stacey shrugged. "There’s enough there to get something started."

Looking down at the directions he’d written in my palm, a part of me hoped she was right.

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