”Men don’t deserve us.”

Tina was just getting out of another destructive relationship she knew would implode from the start. She knew it because he used a line to pick her up and it worked. She had seen Ben off and on at the shop. One day, he walked up and said,

”Hey, remember that night we went out?”

”No, I don’t.”

”Well then, let’s make tonight that night.”

It was cheesy and clear as window pane, but he was just so confident. She found all the insecurity later that night, when he came quick, pulled out and passed out. But for four hours before, he was the greatest spectacle – a perfect gentlemen with uncanny timing and manners. There were very few things he did wrong, except for the dismount. Of course, she would call and stop by. Of course, she would pursue and fail to corral hm into anything longer than right now.

Were we all that impressionable at 19, at 16, at 13? Did I really latch on like a lovesick orphan Annie to any guy with nice hair and a tight butt? Watching her from afar; Sela drinking Hennessy, Sela smoking Black and Milds, Sela listening to poorly made rap music. Did I fall victim to these small blunders when I was her age?

If so, we should all feel shame, for not only does she run it for herself, she makes the rest of us look like idiots. If it’s so easy to turn a good girl worth something on her shoulders into a mindless zombie, devout of her own thought, in less than a month. Well, I guess the only hope is the sex is good. But one day, long down the line, when she looks back at what her life was, I wonder if she will see the errors in her way or long for her days of youth.