The Pride – page 9
“Let me go, William! I hate you! Why are you doing this to me? My life is over and you think it’s funny. I bet you won’t be laughing so hard at my funeral! Let me go! I’ll never tell you anything again! Never!” Naomi kept struggling to get away and William kept holding her and laughing.
“What are you all doing,” two little voices said through the closed door. It was Benjamin and Sarah.
“Nothing. Naomi is telling me a funny joke,” William shouted at the closed door. The knob turned and the little ones poked their heads into the room. They saw William laughing like a madman and a scowling Naomi struggling to get out of his embrace. They flung the door open and ran into the room.
“We want to play, too!” Benjamin and Sarah each wrapped themselves around an older sibling and started laughing and pulling. Benjamin twisted William in such a way that William lost his grip on Naomi and she leaped up from the floor and moved away from the mass of arms and legs and giggles.
“Benjamin. Sarah. Leave right now! I’m talking with William.” Naomi stood by the door and held the knob.
“We just wanted to have some fun, too,” Sarah pouted as she realized how angry Naomi was. William figured he’d laughed enough at his sister’s expense, so he helped her get the little ones out of the room.
“OK, you two. Come back later and we’ll play, OK? Right now, Naomi and I need to finish talking. Give me hugs and kisses.” Benjamin and Sarah hugged and kissed their big brother and walked toward the door. As they passed Naomi, Sarah poked her tongue out and rolled her little eyes.
“We like William better, anyway. He’s not always bossing us around,” Sarah said as Naomi closed the door behind them. When Naomi turned back to William, he was standing by his bed with a book in his hand. He was flipping pages.
“Naomi. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have laughed at you, but there’s something you need to read.”
“I don’t want to read anything you have, William. I can’t believe you would…”
“Hush, Naomi, and look at this with me, please. I said I was sorry. I think you’ll laugh, too, when you read this.”
“Um. I doubt it. If it’s not something to tell me how to get un-pregnant, it’s not going to be funny to me.” Naomi left the door behind and walked over to her brother. He offered her the seat at the desk and he placed the book on the flat surface in front of her. Naomi read the header: Human Sexuality and the Developing Teen Body and Mind.
“You’re learning about this in school?”
“Yes, and you will, too, next year. I think it’s why Mother has the ‘no dating before 16′ rule,” William said as he pointed to the part where he wanted her to start reading.