Kenney: Still Waters Part 2

Chapter 13

                                                   ** MATURE CONTENT AHEAD **

Charity had Tiana's jacket wrapped around her waist and Tiana had her arms wrapped protectively around Charity when they picked me up from school. Charity had her arm slung over Tiana's shoulders like she needed help walking. Tiana gave me an upwards nod, what we all called a "gangsta nod" for me to follow them, and then they continued on their way.

"What's wrong, Charity?" She didn't answer. "Charity, what's wrong?"

Tiana, who knew that I would just keep asking until someone answered me, called "She doesn't feel like talking right now, Kenney," over her shoulder and kept walking.

When we got home, I followed the girls into the kitchen and watched as mama dropped the plate she was holding and rushed over to them.

"What happened?"

Tiana carefully sat Charity down in a chair at the kitchen table and kind of gave me a sideways glance before motioning for mama to come closer to her. When mama leaned in toward her, Tiana whispered something in her ear. Mama leaned back and looked at Tiana, then at Charity and chuckled. Then she put her arms around Charity and helped her up off of the chair. Slowly, she walked my sister up the stairs.

Tiana watched them for a minute, and then watched me, then motioned for me to sit down at the table.

"You hungry, Kenney?" I nodded. She cleaned up the glass from the plate that mama had dropped and then grabbed two more plates out of the cabinet. She went to the stove and finished fixing the plates that mama had been making us for dinner.

She smiled at me and handed me one of the plates. Tiana was my favorite of all my sisters' friends. If I had known what a crush was back then, I would have known that I had a serious crush on her.

"Kenney, do you know what a girl's cycle is?"

I looked at Tiana curiously. "A bicycle?"

Tiana shook her head no.

I shook my head no, too.

Tiana looked down and pushed the food around on her plate thoughtfully, but didn't eat any. I did the same. "It's when...um..." She looked at me, and then kind of got embarrassed like she was just now realizing what she was about to tell me. "Girls start bleeding when they get our age."

I put my fork down, shocked, and gasped. "What?"

She nodded. "From our...um..." she motioned down, but I couldn't tell if she was pointing at her legs or what. "And we get cramps and stuff, so you have to leave Charity alone for a few days because she has cramps." She rushed the sentence out quickly, like it was all one word.

I nodded, but I didn't know what the heck Tiana was talking about. Nobody ever said anything to me about Sammy's legs bleeding when she turned ten. All I heard was "leave Charity alone for a few days," and Charity was so mean that you didn't ever have to tell me to leave her alone but once.

"Ok." I went back to eating.

"Kenney..." Tianna looked embarrassed again. "Charity can have a baby now..."

"What..."

But Charity was just a kid, like me.

Tiana nodded. "If she has sex."

"What..." I said it again. Charity was too young to have sex.

"...So..." Tiana continued, looking down at her plate, "if you see anyone...trying to touch her..." Tiana looked me in the eye. She had the same look on her face that she had when she was telling Charity about Rico being at her house. "Kenney..." she maintained steady eye contact with me. "Don't let anybody have sex with Charity, ok?"

I nodded, baffled. Who the hell would try to do that?

"Ok, Tiana." I pushed my food around some more. So did she. "Tiana?"

"Yeah, Kenney?" She put her fork down and looked at me.

I put my fork down, too.

"Do you get cramps, too?" She nodded. "So...I won't let anybody have sex with you, either."

She dropped her eyes from mine. "It's different with me, Kenney. I live in a different house than you do. So you can't..." She looked sad. Real sad. "Just protect Charity, ok? Don't let anybody touch her."

I nodded and put my hand in hers. "Mama said protect the women that we love, so I'll protect you, too."

I really thought I could.

She looked at me like she knew I couldn't.

"Thanks, Kenney." She smiled and started eating, then she looked at me like she expected me to do the same.

So I did.