“They’re cute together,” I heard somebody whisper.
“She must have a super coochie to gethimto settle down,” somebody else said.
“But look at how he looks at her.”
I pretended not to hear any of the snippets of conversations that I heard. I kept my expression blank and continued to serve the customers. But inside of myself, I felt some kind of way, like maybe I was finally outpacing my reputation, like maybe I had finally lived down my days as the town bop.
It wasn’t even noonbefore Church and Mari were announcing that they were sold out of products. The four of us broke down the area and decided to explore what the festival had to offer.
“I want barbecue,” Mari announced. “It smells so good.”
“It does smell good as hell,” Lex agreed.
As we made our way to the grill area, we passed the spoken word stage.
“Oh my gosh!” Mari exclaimed. “Is that Jenna up there?”
“Jenna does spoken word?” Lex seemed genuinely confused.
“I guess so.” Mari stopped walking. “Let’s hear what she has to say.”
Jenna placed the microphone to her mouth just as the bass player on stage with her started to strum a tune.
“I liked to play. My girl and I liked to play.
Sometimes, we played all day. Sometimes we played all night.
We liked it when we had a friend to play with.
Two is cool. But three is where we liked to be.
We liked to play. Two girls. One guy.
Why try?
To hide what makes you feel best?
Why settle for less?
My girl loves me. She wants me to be happy.
So, we played.
We made sure we found the right third.
A herb. A nerd. Thought he was wise.
Not really. Not when we put these kitties on him.
Made him meow.
Then Pow!
He shot his shot. Not into one club. But into two.
Who knew what that sperm do?
It fertilized. It realized. It monetized.