Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Celeste and Frankie excitedly bob their heads up and<br />
down.<br />
Aunt Marty narrows her eyes. “Shall I open Martine’s<br />
bags of tricks and share them with you girls?”<br />
We bounce up and down on the soft leather seat.<br />
Coyly, she asks, “Do I dare?”<br />
“Yes! Yes!”<br />
“Can you handle the truth?”<br />
The three of us are ready to burst. Aunt Marty sips her<br />
Cosmo, runs her fingers down her neck. It feels like a<br />
month before she says, “Okay. I think you’re ready to enter<br />
Martine’s Magic Kingdom.”<br />
Like little kids, we clap our hands. And our “teacher”<br />
begins the one class in which I’ll pay full attention: Boys<br />
101.<br />
“Lesson Number One: Forget all that Mars and Venus<br />
crap. Guys and girls are exactly the same. We only express it<br />
differently. Deep down, everyone wants one thing from the<br />
person they love: to be accepted for who they really are. We<br />
all yearn to be known, to be emotionally naked in front of<br />
someone and not rejected because of it. That’s what makes<br />
us feel truly loved. That’s what we all crave. And that’s where<br />
most girls fall down on the job. May I?”<br />
My aunt reaches across the table for a piece of baguette.<br />
She rips the inside out of it and eats only the crust. Celeste,<br />
Frankie, and I gut our bread as well.<br />
121