Touched by Angels (Angels Everywhere #3)(48)

“Yeah, I do know. But making love isn’t like sampling chocolates. It’s much more involved than that. There are responsibilities and consequences.”

“Yeah. I’m raising one of those consequences right now,” Yolanda volunteered, “and it ain’t easy.”

“Hey, sister, don’t look at me. I wasn’t the one who got you knocked up.” Denzil raised both hands in a gesture of innocence.

“Shut up, Denzil.”

“I want to talk about accountability,” Brynn said, ignoring the two. “About being mature enough to accept the responsibility for our actions.”

“Are you going to lecture us, Teach?”

“No. I’m going to share with you at least fifteen different ways of making love without doing it.”

Several of the boys glanced back and forth at each other as if she’d suddenly turned into someone they didn’t know.

“I have the feeling I’m not going to like any of those ways,” Malcolm muttered.

Pearl stood at her desk and pointed a finger at her chest. “Why is it a guy thinks that because he spends a little money on me, it entitles him to a piece of my soul?”

“Some girls expect it,” Malcolm argued just as heatedly. “Half the time the girls are all over me asking for it.”

“Yeah,” Emilio agreed. “There are plenty of times I’d prefer not to . . . you know, and if I don’t ask, then the girl’s feelings are all hurt. It ain’t just us men, you know.”

“Men?” Yolanda challenged. “I notice you call us girls, but you’re men. Why doesn’t the man who fathered Jason kindly step forward?” With her fists braced against her sides, Yolanda looked around slowly, then released a sigh of disgust. “That’s what I thought.”

“Enough,” Brynn said, putting an end to the argument before it escalated into a shouting match. She could talk until she was ready to faint, and she doubted it would do any good, but she had to try. One thing was clear: her students were as opinionated over the topic as she was herself.

While she had their attention, she spoke from the heart, listing the reasons she felt it was important to wait to experiment with lovemaking until after marriage. The intensity of her feelings must have reached her class because there was a respectful silence when she finished.

“Miss Cassidy,” Emilio said when she’d concluded, “I don’t mean to be discourteous or anything, but you’re living in a dream world if you believe a man’s going to wait to make love to his woman.”

“Don’t be so sure, Emilio. Teenagers across the world are making pledges to keep themselves pure.”

“There ain’t nothing pure in this neighborhood,” someone else told her. “Not even the water.”

“But it has to start somewhere,” Brynn said, and walked over to the chipped blackboard. In large bold-faced letters, she wrote i will abstain from premarital sex. “I say let it start with me.” She signed her name below.

Holding up the piece of chalk, she asked, “Anyone else?”

A tense moment passed before Yolanda slid from her seat. With her head held high, the teenager walked up and took the chalk out of Brynn’s hand. She wrote her name in huge letters below Brynn’s.

Turning around to face the class, she said, “A boy will tell you anything you want to hear until you give him what he wants. Then he’ll forget he ever knew you. A man will make you his wife first.”

Pearl Washington walked up and wrote her name down next. She turned around and glared at Denzil. Then, one hand braced against her hip, Pearl returned to her desk. On the walk back to the end of the row, she continued to glare at Denzil.

“I think you just got cut off, man,” Malcolm whispered loudly enough for everyone in the class to hear.

“You keep saying how much you love me,” Pearl mocked him. “If you love me so much, prove it.”

“I ain’t adding my name to that list,” Denzil shouted angrily.

Pearl blinked several times but said nothing.

“Don’t you worry, Pearl, Denzil is nothing but a boy,” Yolanda said to comfort the other girl.

When she least expected it, Mike rose from his seat and walked forward. With a bit of flare he added his name to the list, the first boy in class to do so.

“Oh sure, Mike,” Malcolm called sarcastically. “You should be so lucky to get laid.”

Why the others chose to taunt Mike, Brynn didn’t understand. She liked Mike and appreciated the courage it had taken for him to step forward. The desire to defend him was strong, but she realized that would only make matters worse for the youth.

“Mike’s more of a man than you are,” Pearl insisted. “A hell of a lot more than Denzil will ever be.”

Emilio sat on his seat, frowning. After a couple of moments he stood and trekked the short distance to the blackboard.

“Emilio, are you nuts, man?” Modesto asked.

Emilio turned around and faced his friends. “You know what? Miss Cassidy is right. My brother’s always talking about what it means to be responsible, and really that’s all Miss Cassidy is saying, too. I ain’t no priest, but the way I figure it, women will respect me if they know I ain’t after nothing.”

After Emilio listed his name, three other male students added their promise.