What Guys And Girls Want Danny Speaking: It is the lovely afternoon of August 1st, 2007. I, a 17-year-old whom in June graduated from high school, am at my job at cash register 5 of a Pathmark in Williamsburg, Brooklyn when three girls come in tank tops and mini-skirts, two of them carrying a baby each. I recognize the one with blonde hair and dressed in all gray as Nadia, a middle school classmate of mine whom I have had a huge crush on for the past five years. I drop into shock as this is the first time since eighth grade graduation that I see her in person. Though she was a rude and cocky girl who did not get along with others back then, I know that deep down, she is a sweetheart, but only needs to learn how to act like one. I hope she has done that by now, but who are her two friends? The other girl with a baby, a reddish brunette in a pink top and black skirt, is small in size and looks timid, staring downward and not making eye contact with anybody. However, the only girl without a child, wearing a white top and short-shorts, is her opposite. She seems tough, being extremely tall with an athletic build. If I go head-to-head against her, she can probably knock me out in under a minute. Now I wonder, who are those babies and why do these women have them? Nadia Speaking: Damn, life after junior high school has been a huge pain for me. I spent most of my time partying, drinking, and doing drugs. How did I end up with this child? Simple, I slept with my boyfriend Rick last spring and got pregnant. I still cannot believe that happened on my first time having sex. I broke up with Rick afterwards, but faced a very hard road since. I had to leave my family because they did not approve our relationship and, in order to take care of my baby boy, forgo any hopes of becoming a supermodel and work fulltime at a minimum wage job. My two gals here are Alicia and Mary. I met them three years ago and they often listen to whatever I tell them. Mary got pregnant almost the same time as me, when she was only 15, after being raped. She has also suffered for that, but not as bad as me since her parents have been quite supportive of her and her baby, though their over-protectiveness and the rape could be why she is such a scared and shy little girl. She never talks to strangers no matter what and is afraid of bugs, dogs, and rodents. Alicia on the other hand is nothing like Mary. Being 20 years old and working out often, she is over six feet tall and her body, though not muscular, is quite strong. She is tough on the inside also, never backing down from anyone and always standing up for those she adores. After I am done thinking about this, our babies begin crying and I know what that means. �Mary,� I say to her, �they [the babies] seem hungry. We might have to breastfeed them.� �Are you kidding me?!� she whines, �We cannot do that here! People may look at us and complain. It is going to be embarrassing!� �Unless you want your child to starve, we do not have much choice,� I tell her and I am right because we have no bottled milk or baby formula with us. �Do not be scared,� Alicia tells Mary with her left arm around her, �I am here if someone says something. Now do what you have to because the crying is honestly getting very annoying.� Danny Speaking: After their little conversation, I notice Nadia and her cute friend facing a shelf with their backs toward me. They are doing something to the babies while their tall friend covers them, but does she have to do that? What are her two friends doing that they need to hide? About a minute later, the girls turn to my left and I see the sides of their torsos. Nadia and her tiny friend�s tank tops have been replaced with towels with the babies underneath them. �Are they breastfeeding them? Were those babies crying because they were hungry?� I ask myself and seem to be right. In reality, I should be stopping them since breastfeeding is against this market�s policy, but I think women should be allowed to do that in public, so I will not say a word, though is there a way I can get a peak of what is underneath their towels? I closely examine the shape of Nadia and her petite friend�s stomachs as the girls walk to the rear of the market. I try to keep my eyes on them, but the customer whose items I am going through suddenly yells right into my ear. �Hey, you just scanned my box of juice twice!!� she angrily says. �What do you mean?� I ask and she answers, �Just look at your register screen.� I do and realizing she is right, say to her, �Sorry miss,� as I put the juice box down, delete the extra charge, and scan the rest of her things. �Your total is $34.61,� I tell her before putting her products into two bags while she gives me $35.00. I hand her both of the bags and her change in a very quick fashion since I want to get through her and the rest of the line as fast as possible so I can continue looking for Nadia and her friends. Within seconds, I find them walking down the aisle directly in front of me. They are still breastfeeding the babies they have with them and the tiny girl is shielding her face with her hand. �You do not have to do that� is what I would have said to her if I were Nadia. There is no need to be shy and I think it is perfectly okay to feed the baby here. Besides, you are not the only person doing it and have two really good friends to protect you. Please show me your pretty face! The ladies take a few snacks including bags of chips, cookies, and peanut butter and jelly. �Are they going to have a party today?� I think to myself. I should ask them that if they enter my line and if I am correct, they will hopefully invite me. I always dreamt of spending one entire day with Nadia and this can be my chance to do that plus learn more about her friends and the babies. I am still examining their every move as I scan my customers� items and do whatever else a cashier needs to do. My job can get boring, but these girls are making it fun. I see part of Nadia and her little friend�s torsos and admire them because they are very flat and smooth. I can picture them at the beach in bikinis and they would attract every guy around them. Everyone would then applause when I come by and get intimate with Nadia. That would be the greatest moment of my life. I keep daydreaming before the tall woman goes in front, blocking them from my sight again. �Get out of the way you brick wall!!� is what is going through my mind at first, but then I check out her figure and realize she is not too bad. I do prefer tall, tough-looking girls and would enjoy it if she cuddles me in her mighty arms while I rub my hands on those smooth legs she has. I continue to stare at the girls as they check around the shelves and walk closer and closer to the front of the aisle, but having never looked in my direction, they do not appear to notice me. Is it because Nadia does not recognize me? My appearance has changed a lot since I last saw her. I wear glasses now, have a new hairstyle, grew several inches taller and lost quite a lot of weight, resulting in me going from somewhat portly and short to having the same general build as Nadia. The girls walk into my line with just a few people ahead of them. Though I wanted this to happen, I begin to shudder and sweat while questioning what will be next. Does Nadia remember me? Will the women complain about the way I stared at them or act as if I am just their everyday cashier? The teenage boy I am with right now grabs hold of my shoulders and snaps me out of it. He asks, �Are you okay?� and I reply, �Yeah, it is just a little hot in here.� Of course, that is probably a poor answer because the AC is fully running, though it is nearly 90 degrees outside. I scan his items and put them into one large bag while he takes out his credit card. I swipe it on the register and a receipt prints out. The boy signs it, takes his bag, and departs. Afterwards, I turn to the girls and see my boss, Oscar Gonzalez, walking up to them from the right. �Oh dear, this cannot be good,� I say to myself. I hope he does not say anything about what they are doing. Unfortunately, he does, telling them, �Girls, you cannot do that in here.� Nadia responds, �Excuse me?� and he says, �Breastfeeding is not permitted in the building. Please stop or leave.� �We are already on line. Just let us pay and we will be out of here,� the tall girl says and I agree with her. They are nearly done and I still want meet with them face-to-face, but Oscar, who is nearly the same height as the tall girl, keeps insisting that they stop what they are doing, which begins to irritate me. �It does not matter,� he says, �You still have to follow the market�s rules of conduct. Now please cease with the breastfeeding or I will call the police and have you arrested.� �This should not be a big deal. Nobody else is complaining,� the tough girl answers back. After saying that, she and Oscar get into a loud argument, but I cannot distinguish exactly what they are yelling. It does not last long, however, as everyone around them notices and stares. �Stop looking at me!!� the cute girl screams before crying and clutching herself to her tall friend, who says, �Now look what you did,� to Oscar before giving to Nadia all of the snacks she is holding. She then wraps her right arm around the small girl while holding her child on her left. I really wish I could have the tiny girl in my arms. �Please get me out of here!!� she yells, but before the women start moving, Nadia says to Oscar, �You will regret this for the rest of your life.� Then while going through the front doors, she shoves a man in anger and I suddenly realize that she and her friends never paid for their things. Oscar also notices this and proceeds to follow them, but being extremely upset over what he just did, I literally jump out of my register and stop him. That was easy to do as register 5 is one of the two that are next to the supermarket entrance. �What the hell is wrong with you?!� I shout at him, causing some customers to look at us. �What do you mean?� he asks and I look outside to see Nadia and her friends getting into their car, but she is looking towards me. Praying for the girls to notice me and observe what I am about to do, I point at them while asking Oscar, �Did you have to humiliate those girls like that?� �They were the ones humiliating us,� he responds, �and you know as well as I do that the market�s policy does not allow what they were doing in here. Do you have a problem with that?� �Yeah I do. It is a poor policy. Breastfeeding should be permitted in this store,� I tell him. Oscar and I get into an argument, the second of the day, and people begin taking pictures. Like his verbal fight with the tough girl, it does not last that long and ends when I shout, �I quit!� Oscar asks, �What did you just say Lynn [my last name; he often calls his employees that way]?� and I reply, �I said I quit.� Being a good friend of my family and knowing me quite well, he says, �Why, for what happened to those girls? I believe you do not know what you are doing.� �Of course I do,� I reply as I remove the nametag from my shirt and shove it right at him. �Do you have any idea how your parents will react if they find out you did this?� he asks. I do. Being the stereotypical strict Asian type, they will most likely explode in my face as they made a lot of effort in getting me this job, but I cannot work under Oscar�s unfair policy and once you start a gesture, it is fatal not to go through with it like John Updike said in �A&P.� This is the perfect example for that because if I take back what I said, I will look like a complete loser. Oscar looks at me menacingly as I walk through the automatic doors and out into the parking lot. I say, �Hey girls, did you just saw what I�� before freezing still at the lot after observing that Nadia and her ladies are not around anymore, so they must have not saw what I did for them. When I look back at the market and through the window see Oscar in my place at register #5, my heart sinks, stomach drops, and I wonder if I just made a big mistake in resigning. My brain says, �Nice going there moron,� and I start to sob, but before I can release my tears, someone calls out my name. I turn to the supermarket entrance and right there and then is my close friend Annabel. �Annabel, is that you?� I ask her, who is 19 years old and I have not heard from in weeks. She runs up to me and hugs me tensely while saying, �Yes Danny, it is me. I just saw you arguing with your manager. Was it because he confronted those girls about them breastfeeding?� �Hold it, you saw everything?� I ask and she says, �Yes, I did. Do you know those girls?� �I know Nadia. We went to middle school together,� I respond, �How do you know her?� �I went to the same high school as her and those two girls she was with,� she answers, �in case you wanted to know, the little timid girl is named Mary while the tall athletic girl is Alicia.� Finally knowing who they are, I ask Annabel, �Do you know where they are now? I hope they saw what I just did for them and that Nadia remembers me so we can be together for good?� �Danny, Nadia hates emotionally weak boys like you. You are not her type,� she tells me. �Really,� I say to her, �but what about the babies Mary and she had? Who do they belong to? It cannot be theirs. Nadia only turned 18 last month and Mary looks like she is just 15 or 16.� �Wake up idiot!� Annabel screams with an irritated look on her face as if she has the urge to slap me real hard, �the babies are their children. Why else would they be breastfeeding them?� �I had no clue,� I respond, �I just figured they were their babysitters and had to feed them like that because the babies were getting hungry and the ladies did not have any food with them.� Annabel yells, �Here is a little fact: only mothers breastfeed babies!!� She then asks, �Do you know what happened to Nadia over the last four years?!� and dumbfounded, I tell her, �No.� She says a few things to me, but I, admiring her pale skin in the sunlight as she is wearing only a bikini top and Capri jeans, do not pay attention until she yells, �Are you listening to me?!� I snap out of it and say, �Sorry Annabel, I was just distracted, but will you please go on?� She tells me everything that she claims happened to Nadia, what she has been doing, how she and Mary got their babies, and the type of lady she is today. It is a long story, so long that the sun is glowing orange and about to set by the time Annabel is done. I listen to her the entire time and it completely shocks me. My feelings toward Nadia change and I start to suffer a breakdown. Annabel notices the tears coming down my eyes and asks, �Why are you crying Danny? I was only trying to make you feel happier and thought you wanted to learn the truth about Nadia.� �Well thanks a lot Annabel, you just made me feel even worse,� I tell her as I take off my glasses and sit by a lamppost. She comes up to me and places her right hand on my left shoulder. �Danny, do you believe that women should be allowed to breastfeed in public?� she asks. �Yes, I mean, that is why I did not stop those women even though I knew what they were doing was not allowed in the market,� I tell her as I begin to sniff and she softly touches my face. �Is that not what this is all about? Did I not advise you a while ago to always stand up for what you know is right? Did you even enjoy that job?� Annabel asks all of these questions to me. I tearfully say, �Yes, you told me all of that, and no, I would never work under somebody who enforces tyrant rules like that, but my family will kill me for quitting a job they got for me.� �You still must face the music for doing that Danny, but you will not be by yourself since I am always here for you,� Annabel says as she holds me to her bare stomach. She makes me feel a bit better by saying, �Everything is going to be all right. I swear I will help you get through this tough time. Now I think it is time to go home. It is getting late and you are humiliating yourself.� I look around to see shoppers pointing and laughing at me and that it is nighttime already. �Yes, let�s get out of here,� I say to Annabel as she lifts me to my feet and I wipe away my tears. We place our arms around each other as we leave the parking lot and walk to the nearby subway. Annabel Speaking: Shortly after Danny and I take a seat on the J train, I get a cell phone text from Nadia saying, �I want you to retain a secret for me Annabel. I do remember Danny and saw him stand up for me and my friends at Pathmark earlier. For that, I am proud of him, but due to the circumstances between us, think we should not see one another anymore.� I reply, �Okay.� After putting away my phone, Danny says, �Annabel, I put plenty of thought on what you told me about Nadia. If it is completely true, then I wish her well with her child, but think we are better off not seeing each other again as she is not my kind either. So who just sent you the text?� I tell him I agree and, trying to retain Nadia�s secret, that the message was from my mom. I then put his head on my right shoulder and say, �You had a long day and should get some rest.� As he is about to fall asleep, Danny asks me, �Why do you always act like you love me?� �Because I do silly, because I do.� I tell him as I kiss his forehead, cover my arms around him, and pat him in the back as if he is my child while the train crosses the Williamsburg Bridge.
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