Bright Purple: Color Me Confused with Bonus Content Read Online Free PDF Page B

usually girls.
    “No, Mom,” I tell her as she gives me the bag. “You haven’t met him. But I’ve known him for years. His dad is the senior pastor at our church. Remember? you’ve heard me mention Pastor Bryant, haven’t you?”
    “Yes, that sounds familiar.” Then she gets this funny look. “Dating a pastor’s son, Ramie? Are you sure about this?”
    “Why not?” I feel defensive now. Why is she always in attack mode when it comes to anything that has to do with my church or being a Christian?
    “Haven’t you ever heard about PKs?” she asks with a sly grin. “PKs?”
    “Preachers’ kids.” She winks at me. “They’re usually the wildest of the bunch.”
    “Oh.” I roll my eyes at her. “Well, not Mitch. He’s just a regular guy, Mom. Don’t worry. He’s not wild.”
    “Just remember what I’ve told you, Ramie,” she begins. “If you get into a situation where—”
    “Yeah, yeah,” I say, waving my hand to shut her up before she embarrasses both of us again. Then I head back up the stairs. “Trust me, Mom,” I yell over my shoulder. “I remember! Not that I need to remember! Thank you very much!”
    Later on, when I’m actually out with Mitch, and he’s driving toward the city in this very cool 1966 Mustang that he and his dad restored, I am doing everything I can to keep my mom’s crazy warning about PKs, combined with her old familiar “protection lecture,”from running rampant through my mind. Why does she do that to me? It’s like telling someone not to think about pink elephants!
Sheesh!
    “You seem pretty quiet tonight,” Mitch says as he turns in at the theater complex. “Something bothering you?”
    “No,” I say quickly. But then I rethink this. Why not be honest with him? Well, at least partially honest. Of course, I won’t tell him everything about my life on our first date. And I certainly don’t plan on telling him about Jess. “Actually, I was obsessing about my mom.” I laugh. “She can be pretty weird sometimes.” Then I tell him a little about her, how she’s a family counselor and pretty liberal. “She’s also sort of antichurch,” I finally say, thinking I should just get these minor cards out on the table.
    He laughs. “I think she sounds pretty cool.”
    “Well, she’s nothing like your parents,” I say. “I happen to think they’re pretty cool.”
    “Maybe it’s just that grass-is-greener kind of thing.”
    We’re still joking about our parents as we go into the theater, and I’m thinking this is not going too bad. Then, before I have a chance to question whether this is really a date—like, am I supposed to buy my own movie ticket?—Mitch has already taken care of it.
    “Wanna share a popcorn?” he asks.
    “Sounds good.”
    “What do you want to drink?”
    Turns out we both like Sierra Mist, so we decide to share the jumbo size, and I’m thinking, yeah, this
is
a date! Woo-hoo!
    But then I see this older dude, who’s waiting in the concessions line and just staring at us with this weird expression, and I wonder what’s up with him? And then it hits me. Oh, yeah, he’s bugged that Mitch, this blue-eyed blond guy, is out with this African Americanchick. And, naturally, that irritates me! Like, whose business is it anyway? And then the other part of this bugs me too, like why is it that although I am actually “half” Caucasian, I am still considered “black” in some people’s narrow-minded eyes? I want to tell off this geezer, to tell him to get over it and to get a life, but I know that would only make things worse and it might embarrass Mitch. Instead, I just toss the jerk a great big smile. Since I was little, I’ve been told that I have a “winning” smile. I used to think the label referred to sports, because I do like to win. But then I read somewhere that it meant more like you could win people over with it. And to my surprise, the old geezer actually smiles back. Well, go figure!
    The movie turns out to be