Color Blind

Chapter 3

"But why didn't you tell me who you were before?" I asked.

"Because, I didn't want to remind you about what happened that day," Scott answered. "That was real embarrassing, anyway. My father's side of the family never did have good sense. Now my Grams...well, at least she's not racist like the rest a' them fools."

"Prescott," Lafayette chuckled. "Man, that name kills me every time."

Scott grinned sheepishly. "That's why I don't let nobody call me by it."

I shook my head and looked over at Tia. It was all too much for me to take in right then.

"You know what you need, Rica," she said getting up and going into the kitchen. She came back out with a bottle of Tequila and four glasses.

I looked around quickly and hissed, "Are you crazy? Put that up before Aunt Rachael comes out here!"

Tia shook her head and smiled. "She left for the weekend, remember?" My aunt was always out of town for one thing or another.

"Oh yeah..." I mirrored her devious grin and took the glass.

None of us were too too bad when we were younger - well, maybe Lafayette and Scott were a little off the chain - but we all definitely started doing a lot of things earlier than we probably should have.

She handed the other two glasses to the boys and opened the bottle. "Anyway, Lafayette got this. It's not Ma's." Lafayette was always popping up with full bottles of alcohol somehow. We never asked how he got it, but we always drank it. "We should take shots," she said and started pouring.

I looked over at Scott, still trying to figure him out. He raised his glass to me and downed the first shot. I turned back to Tia and took mine with her. Briefly, I wondered if my mom was right. Was Scott just acting like he was cool with us? Sure, he seemed to treat everyone the same way, and his unfiltered honesty was undoubtedly something I had never seen before. He was even friends with just about everyone at school...according to Tia, but I couldn't help but wonder what he really thought about people of other races deep down. I mean, look at the way the rest of his family had treated me!

I looked back at Tia and thought how nice it must be not to care.

"That's better," Scott said after his second shot and slammed the glass down. He turned to me. "You alright now?" It never occurred to me that I might have put his nerves on edge, too.

"Yeah." The alcohol started kicking in immediately and suddenly some things didn't seem all that important.

Out of nowhere, Tia started giggling. We all looked over at her, then at each other. I figured she and Lafayette had taken a few more shots than Scott and I had. She leaned over and kissed Lafayette playfully on the ear.

"Aw sookie sookie!" he drawled, grinning. "Girl, don't start nuthin' you cain't finish." He looked at Tia and bit his lip. She just grinned and looked away.

"Heeey! I know what we can do..." She gave me a mischievous smile and I could almost see the light bulb floating above her head.

I had the sinking feeling that I knew exactly what she thought we could do, but couldn't stop myself from asking anyway. "What..?"

"Let's play truth or dare." I knew that her sole purpose in trying to get this game started was to get me to kiss Scott. She had strategically placed us together on the couch while she and Lafayette sat across from us in the wicker chairs on the other side of the coffee table.

Scott perked up immediately and grinned at Tia. "Yeah," he said in that calm, quiet way of his. "That's a great idea, Tia."

I looked over at Scott, then at Tia. Lafayette was watching me and waiting for my reaction. Unlike my cousin, he had accepted the fact a long time ago that I just didn't like white people. Tia, on the other hand, figured that sooner or later she was going to get me hooked up with her good friend Scott. This was the same Scott, mind you, whose cousins had lied and accused me of walking through his front yard - and then tried to beat me up for it, only a few years before.