Sherry POV

She was going to need an inhaler after that tale her LS told her. How did Jill get into the weirdest situations with guys? When she was single and meeting guys, never did she run into the type of situations Jill had. She was so glad she found a good man in Donte and her search was over. If she had to go back out there in the dating world, she'd have to stock up on her batteries to keep herself satisfied.

Her LS was a virgin, so she guessed she did not have those kinds of problems, but as for her, she liked sex and saw nothing wrong with it. The next discussion for Sister Circle at the MAX house was dating and sex. It did not draw a big crowd as the body image topic, but still, their little house was packed.

She made sure they had brochures on safe sex, testing, all the STD info, and lots of free condoms. But she wanted to go deeper than that. Most of the students were of the age where sex was going to be a natural thing. If they chose to wait or if they chose to engage in premarital sex, it was their decision, not anyone else's. No judgment.

As always, the MAX ladies sat at a table in front of the gathered women. Sherry in the middle of Zavrina and Jill. The pledges were excused from the meeting because they were working on a project.

It was hard to get the ladies started on the topic. To ease into things, she started with the simple topic of dating while in college.

"I know most of you ladies have either started dating in high school or maybe you're new to dating in college. It's simple, dating is where you meet a guy you have an interest in and you go out, or hang out somewhere and get to know them. You can do the old-school dinner and a movie, or Netflix and chill...I mean the literal chill, not what they made it become."

A few laughed at that.

She went on. "But dating is hard. Real hard at our age. You know why? Guys. Better yet, boys. These boys don't want to quote-unquote date. They want to "kick it," she added the finger quotes. "And we all know what kick it means. Anybody in the room does not understand what it means when a guy says he wants to kick it with you?"

She looked around the room. She was sure there was some young freshman in the room, eighteen, maybe seventeen, that had no clue. They may not admit they did not know, that's why she was there to educate.

"I'll have to admit, freshman year, the smorgasbord of fine men here, and I was intimidated."

"You? Girl, you are flawless, guys probably were all over you," one of the girls in the audience said.

"Looks have nothing to do with dating. I mean, it does for attraction...but we like what we like. For instance, do we all think Jay Z is hot?"

"Hellll no!" Jill shouted out as a few laughed.

"Nope."

"Unh-unh!"

"He's cute to me, why y'all tripping."

"He alright."

"No, I don't see what Bey see's in him. Ugh!"

"See, that's the point. I bet Beyonce thinks he is fine, fine! The way she looks at him and loves him, she doesn't care what we think of her man. See, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What you like, and what I like are so different. Some may find me cute, others, think I'm not. But that's an issue for another topic...you gotta see the beauty in yourself before anyone else sees the beauty in you. It's about confidence and working what you have."

"I want what you have Sherry!" someone said.

"Aaw, thank you. Ladies, that is something we as women need to work on. But back to dating. Anyone wants to add to the discussion?"

A plump girl with glasses and long box braids stood up.

"Yes. What Sherry is saying is true. I believe there is someone for everyone. Like, after the body image discussion, I felt better about myself. I didn't change anything about myself, but I felt more confident in myself. Know what happened? A guy in my class started talking to me. We talked a lot. Now he's my boyfriend."

"Aaaw!" some girls said.

"And I never dated in high school. No one asked me out. Ever! I'm nineteen, a sophomore."

"She's doing better than me," Jill mumbled to Sherry.

Another girl in the back stood up. "But guys don't believe in old-fashioned dating anymore. They want to just hook up, or kick it, have fuck buddies...I'm sorry I cussed."

"No, speak your mind," Sherry said.

"Why do guys always want to just have sex and not the relationship?"

"This brings us to the second half of our discussion. Sex," Sherry stated. "Don't ever feel pressured by a guy, or girl, to rush into something you are not ready to."

"Amen!" Zavrina added.

"Don't be bullied about it with your friends if you're a virgin, choosing to become celibate, or whatever road you choose to take. If you're waiting for marriage, do that. If you waiting for Mr. Right, do that. If you're just afraid, fine, ask questions and learn. If you're ready to become intimate, that is your choice. In fact...Imma put it out there...if you want to get your freak on every day of the week...no judgment. We sit and label people either way and that is wrong. "

"Damn Sherry, you are always preaching to us. Gone girl!" Daysha, a girl in the front that had been to every Sister Circle meeting this year and last, waved her hands in the air. She knew she must be interested in MAX, yet she did not attend Rush this year or applied.

"I'm not trying to be called a hoe," someone said.

"Why would you be a hoe?" Zavrina asked. "Because you enjoy sex? Girlllll!"

"Right," Sherry added. "First of all, nobody should know your business if you getting down like that. I'm not saying have multiple partners or anything...although, do you. Secondly, it's just not anybody else's business! For real, tell me why you should know what I am doing with my man? Tell me why you care? It's my body, I'm a consenting adult. Somebody has something to say, that is their problem."

"And I get it, everybody in everybody's business here. The school is big, but it's like a small town and everybody is a gossip," Zavrina added.

"But if a girl just sleeping around with every dude on campus, I call hoe," someone said.

That got several of the girls talking out loud to each other. Sherry had to reign them back in.

"Okay, she's a hoe!" Sherry blurted out to them. "How is that damaging your G.P.A? Did it hurt your feelings? Are you gonna die? Let that girl live!"

"Phuh!" someone scoffed. "Them hoes the ones taking our men. Fuck that!"

"Now why would you say that?" Sherry asked. "If your man can so easily go astray, guess what, he's not worth being your man."

"Mph! Go ahead LS!" Jill shouted out.

"Sherry, you say that because you have one of the few good men on this stupid campus," someone said. "All these little boys want to do is play around, they aren't ready for a relationship."

"This is true. We're young. Guys are not thinking endgame right now. So enjoy dating. And by dating I mean just feeling guys out. Meet guys, get to know them, hang out, keep it platonic and then build a relationship. That's how it was with Donte. We didn't automatically get into the relationship, we worked on it. And it's hard even in a relationship."

"Naw, they are perfect," Jill added.

"Far from that," Sherry stated.

"And why do we even need to be in a relationship?" Zavrina said. "Can't we as women stay single and focused on what we're here for?"

The room was super quiet at Zavrina's statement.

"Naaa!" Jill finally blurted out. "I came to enjoy some hot boys!"

That had everyone laughing and talking again.

"I'm trying to meet a husband," someone said.

"Girlll! Here in college? What guy is thinking about that?" Zavrina asked. "If you don't want to be single, fine, I get that, but sheesh! Marriage? Thinking about that in college? Girl, get ya life! Then get your degree. Then get you a job...no a career. Set that up real good before you're thinking of marrying some guy that is not going to be ready for that when you are."

"Well damn, I'll be about thirty by then, too old for the games."

"First of all, thirty is not old," Zavrina stated.

"Yes, it is! I want to get married right after college, have two kids by thirty, and enjoy my life with them while I'm still young. I refuse to be in my thirties still dating because my job is more important."

Sherry did not know what to say to that because she was somewhere in the middle. She did want to get married and have a family, but she had no timeline for it. She wanted to have a nice job and a house in place before adding to a family. Dante felt the same, though they never discussed getting married. She did not want to jinx things and have that conversation. He did want to get married one day, and he did want kids, just as she did.

If she put a timeline on things, it would be disappointing if they did not hit everything perfectly. The pace things were going now, maybe they would be engaged by the end of the school year, they would graduate and plan a marriage, both find nice jobs, wait three or four years before they had children, and then have time to enjoy life. Maybe that was similar to what the girl was saying. Maybe she did have a timeline.

This was confusing her now. Did she want to marry Donte? They loved each other and were compatible, so why not?

But what did Donte want?

A/N: Does anybody see where this is about to go? Will Sherry push Donte with marriage?

I'm a lot of years past college age, and LOTS of my friends married their college boyfriends. Even one that married her high school boyfriend while in college. All but one are still together, so pretty much a lot of happily ever afters (I mean so far, people could still divorce in their old age).