Mama's Boy

♊15♌

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Knock knock knock!

"Come in."

Jackson looked up from the papers on his desk to Knox, who was on lunch break at the moment. Knox flopped into one of the two stiff, white chairs that was positioned in front of Jackson's desk.

Jackson's office was bigger than Knox's, and, unlike Knox, Jackson had personalized it to his comfort so that it was his home away from home. It had that calming feel to it - with cerulean blue walls; light, neutral colors arranged in different places throughout the room; and plenty of sunlight from the huge window located beyond the plywood desk. There were art pieces hung up on the walls that Jackson had bought himself and decorative porcelain on the shelves of a wide bookshelf to the right of the room. Knox looked at two the pictures that were posted up on the older man's desk: one of Jackson, Knoah, and Knoah's mother and another of just the preteen and Jackson.

"What'chu want?" Jackson asked the young man. Knox sighed. He wasn't even sure of what it was that he wanted at that moment.

Jackson easily picked up on Knox's morose attitude and stood from his desk to sit in the other chair adjacent from Knox. Jackson placed a caring hand on Knox's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"What's wrong, boy?"

Knox sat quietly for awhile with the question echoing in his head. What's wrong? What is wrong? He didn't know.

"Jackson." Knox called.

"Yeah?"

"How old were you when you lost your virginity?"

Removing his hand, Jackson sat back in his seat and a proud smile bloomed on his face. "I was 'bout thirteen."

"And the girl?"

Jackson smiled even brighter. "She was sixteen."

"Okay. So," Knox started, "How'd it happen?"

Jackson rubbed his chin in thought as he recalled a distant memory. "Well, I told ya 'dat I was in a fosta' care facility at one point, right?" Knox nodded. From the age eight to fourteen, Jackson was raised in a foster home until he was adopted by the previous owner of the agency, Thomas H. Gregory, and his wife, Pauline. "So, befo' pops and madear came along, there was this girl who had just came to 'duh home. She wasn't there fo' long though because she had other family 'membas that offered to take 'er in. She was only there fo' a few days, just until 'er family could come to pick 'er up 'cause they were from anotha state.

"Anyway, she was a pretty lil' thing. I think she was Ethiopian, Nigerian, or Libyan or somethin', but I just rememba' thinkin' how amazing it was that she was literally African American. I was fascinated by 'er and I let 'er know it too. I asked 'er all kinds of questions: what 'er favorite interests were, what she was mixed wit', what it was like in Africa. All kinds of things. She told me a lot and then afta' she told me almost everything I wanted to know, she started askin' me questions an' whatnot. We just kept talkin' and then I decided to make things more interestin'. I asked 'er if she had ever masturbated. Surprisingly, she wasn't offended by it. She told me that she'd tried it a few times. I told 'er that I did it almost every otha' night. She laughed and asked me if I was a virgin. I said yeah. She said she was too. So, I made a proposition."

"What was it?" Knox encouraged him.

"That we lose it togetha'. Of course, she was a little hesitant at first. I asked 'er if she was saving it for someone special 'cause I had heard of girls doing stuff like that. She admitted that she wasn't but said that she was scared. She knew that it would hurt. I reminded 'er that it was gonna feel better afterwards. She had said no and I left 'er alone about it. She waited until the night before leaving to tell me that she wanted to do it." Jackson shrugged. "So, we did it. And she left the next day."