NYC-Feature Story

Stop Sweatin' Me
A Girl Takes Control

By Troy Sean Welcome

I was walking down Eighth Avenue with my best friend a couple of months ago when he slipped on a mountain of snow and almost fell down. I started laughing, he started laughing, and a group of girls from across the street started laughing.

We kept walking, but one of the girls called out, "You, in the all black, come here." We couldn't see what they looked like because the street corner they were standing on was very dark. After thinking it over, we decided to go and see.

"You look mad good," a husky, dark-skinned female blurted out. She reminded me of Sergeant Slaughter.

"Damn, this girl looks rough," I was thinking. She wasn't even cute. I was speechless. "Word?" I said.

One of her friends, a short-haired, dark-skinned girl said, "I'm sayin', she was watching you from when you was down the block, so I think ya'll should just say ya'll words."

I was double shocked. I couldn't believe that I was actually having to take in the words that I was used to dishing out. And it didn't stop there.

"You got a girl?" Sgt. Slaughter anxiously asked.

"Not really," I said.

"You got a commitment?" she countered.

I told her that I didn't, but for the life of me, I don't know why. Probably because I love to flirt.

A Fake Number

Then she asked for my number, but neither one of us had a pen. Unfortunately one of her friends did. I didn't feel like dissing her so when she asked again, I gave her a number. It wasn't mine, but I'm sure it was somebody's.

There were a couple of reasons why I gave her a wrong number. First of all, she wasn't my type at all. I mean, she looked like she could kick King Kong's butt. The other thing that bothered me was how she talked to me.

It was a weird feeling to be talked to in the same way that I'd sometimes talk to a female. I was intimidated by the way she spoke to me. I am accustomed to being in control when I'm trying to talk to a girl or she is trying to talk to me, but this girl was dropping line after line on me. I didn't have enough time to think. I didn't like that at all.

You see, we guys love to be in control. It's our nature to plan how we're going to get a female and imagine we're the ones making all the decisions. We don't realize that women know what they're doing too.

Who's On Top?

My friend Jeanette Santiago says, "We [girls] could get ya'll [guys] to do whatever we want...we're always a step ahead of ya'll guys." But even if that's true, girls usually let us go on thinking we're the ones in control.

Sgt. Slaughter didn't bother to do that. She just came right out and told me what she wanted.

As horrid and dominating as she was, being stopped by her boosted my ego. Females are always being flirted with in the streets and probably get tired of it. But for me, that was the first comment I'd gotten all day so I flirted with her a little.

The experience made me feel mad good about myself, like I was the man, like I was mad phat. A female, on the other hand, probably wouldn't think of it in that way. She gets so many comments a day that she probably thinks more about her safety than her ego. I suppose that's what draws the line between males and females.