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I’ve learned in my sixteen and a half years that there are things that will surprise you because you don’t see them coming. They can be hard, painful things, and it’s those ones that will live with you forever, bound to your soul in layers that grow thicker each year. Hopefully those layers will eventually dull the pain.
There can also be awesome surprises. Again, ones you don’t see coming, but when they find you, you wonder how you ever lived without them.
And sometimes, someone surprises you in a way that kinda knocks you on your ass. Nathan was one, but this afternoon it was Gram who held that honor.
After an amazing breakfast, spent watching Nathan do everything in his power to charm Gram, he left to go home for a quick shower and I’d been told that I was spending the day with Gram in New Orleans.
She said we were going to have a girls’ day. That she wanted to shop for some new furniture, stuff for her porch and the newly refurbished one at the main plantation house.
Surprise number one. I was excited to go.
Surprise number two came just after we’d finished lunch at a cute little bistro and settled back into her old Matlock. She fired up the engine and turned down the radio.
“So, Monroe. Tell me something.”
I buckled my seat belt, smoothed the hem of my yellow sundress, and glanced up.
“Yes?”
“Are you on the pill?”
Wait. What?
“The pill,” I repeated. “Like the…” Jesus, I couldn’t even say it. What was I? Twelve?
“Yes.” She nodded. “The birth control pill.”
Shit. Was I really gonna have the birds and the bees talk with Gram? First off, we covered that stuff in fifth grade and secondly, seriously?
I opened my mouth to say something, but since this was one of those surprises that rips into all of your normal thought processes, I didn’t have anything. There were no words. There was just…
Hot cheeks, a sweaty brow, and suddenly a very dry mouth.
Gram pulled out into the road, signaling her turn, and stepped on the gas in precise, measured movements. She acted as if everything was normal and nice and as if she hadn’t just asked me about…
“I’m just wondering is all. You did spend the entire night alone with a boy.”
Now that I thought back, surprise number one had occurred at breakfast when she hadn’t said one word about the fact that Nathan and I had spent the night in the maze. She’d let him ramble on and on about meteor showers and comets, and I spent the entire time watching him…just watching him.
Because he made me feel light.
So I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that she’d decided to corner me for the big “talk.”
“Gram, that’s…I’m not…I mean, we didn’t.”
“I’m not saying you did, honey, but as a young woman, you should be protected and so should he. And birth control pills aren’t the only thing a young woman should have.” She glanced at me and arched her eyebrow. “Condoms. You should have condoms as well.”
Oh. My. God.
“Monroe, are you okay? You look pale.”
“I’m good. I’m okay.” I was so not okay.
I took a moment and then, well, I had to take another one. Gram had always been open with me, but still, hearing the word “condom” come out of her mouth was just wrong.
“So, if we did…I mean if I wanted to, you know, do that with Nathan, you wouldn’t have a freak-out?”
“Monroe, stop putting words in my mouth. I would very much have a—” she navigated a turn and then glanced at me, “freak-out. But I also know that hormones, emotion, and a hot Louisiana night are a recipe for all kinds of things.” She shook her head. “I may have gray hair and more than a few wrinkles on my face, but I remember what it feels like to be young and in love.”
