Her name was Alina. To me she was just Allie. We met on the first day of grade 7. It was the best moment of my life. She stumbled down a flight of stairs. She hit her head on a step and she was bleeding. Tears welled in her eyes. Everyone just froze. I just rushed to her. I didn't even know who she was and I didn't care. She was crying and I just wanted to hit something so bad. I told my friend Ron to go get something cold and to tell a teacher. I ripped the sleeve off my shirt and wrapped it around her forehead. I remember her looking up at me through wet lashes. I told her it will be okay, not to be embarrassed. She was mortified – certainly not the best way to make friends...showing how much of a ditz you are. Ron came back with an ice pack and I pressed it to her forehead. I didn't leave her side, even when class started. By the time a vice principal came to take her to the office, I realized that I didn't even know her name and she didn't know mine. She looked back at me from down the hall as they helped her. I could swear that she wanted me to go with her but I didn't.
A week later I was playing ball and there she was. She said her name was Alina. She was the smallest thing in the world. 5'4", puny Asian girl. She spoke almost no English – fresh from the Hunan province in China with some diplomat parents. She had long brown-black hair and a small nose, big bright cheeks that you just knew would explode into an awesome smile if given the chance. Thin as a rail. Only now, looking back, does it occur to me that we probably would have never spoken, never been friends, were it not for her fall. I was tall for my age already, probably 5'11''. I stood there at the side of the court and she thanked me and said in her very sweet and very broken English that she was sorry I had ripped my shirt for her. I said I wasn't. I told her I was glad that she was okay. Then I did something that I thought was so stupid. I asked her if she had a cool scar under her bandage.
She looked at me for a moment and then it happened. It was like in slow motion. Her eyes lit up and her cheeks moved higher and higher, pulling her lips wide, her teeth gleaming as she smiled. I almost passed out. I was staring so hard – she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. She said that she hadn't needed stitches so it probably wouldn't give her any scar at all. Then she grabbed the ball from my hand and ran onto the court and shot it. It went off the backboard and in. She jumped up for joy and then ran off.
***
That was four years ago and Allie and I have been best friends ever since. I thought that her being a 90 pound Asian girl and me being a 190 pound black dude would cause us to drift apart but every time we'd go a few days without talking, there her number would be on my cellphone, usually a few moments before I was about to call her. I taught her how to play ball and she'd help with math and such – some of the classes that she could ace in her sleep. She was so smart, what they say about Asians – there's something to it. Her English was better after only two years of speaking, than mine was. She was book smart sure, but she also understood ball so quickly. Layup, jumpshot. Dribbling with your head up. She was sharp. She picked things up the first time. She made the ball team in grade 8; by grade 9 she was captain. But more than anything, playing ball or studying, it was like we could talk about anything. Well, almost anything.
The thing with Allie was, you never knew what to expect. She could be quiet as a mouse, the demur Chinese girl, but then if she thought someone was getting screwed, the knives came out. My temper was rubbing off on her big time. She'd see me yell at someone on a court and see how they'd respond and she internalized it. Everyday I knew her after the day we met she just kept getting more confident and bashful...more likely to speak her mind. It was cool to see – and I was glad that I got to play a part.
She kissed me for the first time on my 16th birthday. I joked that I'd never really kissed a girl. She looked at me for a moment then sat me down in a chair. She sat on my lap and her lips just kinda melted over mine. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, her tongue pushed its way into me, into my heart. Before I could even comprehend what was happening it was over. Happy birthday, she said.
***
"I want my first time to be with you," she said simply. No lead up, no awkwardness. No warning. I couldn't believe my ears. It was two weeks before her 18th birthday. I'd tease her about what to get her, but we were never steady, boyfriend/girlfriend or anything like that. Though she was very good at chasing other girls off me: she could be a real bitch when she wanted to be.
I told her that we aren't steady, that her folks liked me but they didn't like me that much. They wanted her to end up with some Chinese dude, for sure. But I played it smart with her folks – all respectful and distant and polite. I never gave the parents any impression other than I thought of Allie as a tutor or little sister, even though the thought of her made me rock hard for the last four grades.
"I don't care about that," she said, looking away. "I don't even care if you like me or not. I'm going to have sex with someone for the first time and I want it to be you. Whether it's good or whether it sucks, I don't care."
God only knows how much I wanted it. But it wasn't possible.
I lied to her for the first time when I said I'd think about it.
***
I did everything in my power to avoid her. For the first time since we'd met we went an entire week without talking. It was excruciating. Jesus, I missed her. I couldn't believe how much. I spent an hour one day just looking at her picture and number in my phone. It was a week to her birthday when she cornered me coming out of the changeroom for gym. She was hiding in some corner so I couldn't bolt back into the boys' room.
Her eyes were red and shiny, and she was biting her lip, holding her books against her. "You're fucking avoiding me?" she whispered, shuffling from one foot to the other nervously. "You've really been avoiding me. What the fuck is wrong with you?"
Never been so ashamed in my life looking down at this little woman, looking up at me with pain and confusion on her face. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. I just kept looking down at my kicks like an idiot.
"You're really going to make me do this here..." she muttered under her breath. "Okay, so we never, like, talked about this. But I like you. I like you so much." She blew out and held her breath, trying not to cry. "I thought you..."
I told her that I liked her just as much, maybe even more.
"Then why? What the fuck? Why?" she whispered quickly.
I tried to move past her and she blocked my path. She could tell something was really wrong but she couldn't understand.
I'd hurt you, I stammered. I can't be your first. I'm fucked up.
She tried to grab hold of me. "What do you mean? How?"
It doesn't matter. Just leave me alone, I said pushing past her. If I moved any faster, she would have seen me for the pussy that I was.
***
One week to her birthday she was at my door. It was our normal Friday tutoring session, but I knew it would be anything but normal. I tried to get out of it – Mom wasn't hearing that. We sat at the dining table and quietly got out our books. My mom set a glass of orange juice in front of her and thanked her for trying to put some school sense inside my head. She smiled and grabbed her purse and said to study hard, that she'd needed to run some errands and she'd be back. The door closed and Allie closed her book.
We didn't say anything for a long time until she said in the quietest voice I ever heard, "Please talk to me." She was sitting next to me as always and I could tell that her eyes were closed because she was trying not to cry.
"I can't be your first time."
She turned to me. "Why?"
"I just can't."