Brownie and the Nuva Ring

There is some 18-year-old that likes Brownie, and of course, he entertains her for no other reason than the fact that he is an attention sponge. He doesn't have intentions of dating or sleeping with this girl, but Brownie is the king of phone caking. So, that's what they do.
And boy, does she love to talk. I am officially naming telling too much of your business to people who don't need to know or ask for it a symptom of being young. The other day, she found it important tell Brownie that she wears a Nuva Ring. What was even more shocking than her spilling these beans was Brownie's reaction.
"Why would she tell me that?" he asked. All I could do was laugh. "Doesn't she know that that means that she let's niggas go up in her raw?"
I stop laughing."That's not what that means!"
"Yes it does. Who do you know that uses birth control and condoms?"
"Tons of people." But I have to say, I wasn't sure. I know that birth control only prevents pregnancy, not STIs, so you would need to use both right? I mean, that's common sense, but that doesn't mean that people follow that, for as Brownie so eloquently put it, "People don't be doublin' up like that."

Under Control

I was just watching TV and saw one of those law firm ads alerting the public that if they were a female that ever took Yaz or Yazmine that they were in danger of more side effects than they were aware of. I can not remember all of them, but the one that stuck in my mind was sudden death. Funny, in this commercial, there were no women doing synchronized swim routines in the pool or kicking an animated red ball down the streets of New York in the rain. Interesting.
My personal views on birth control have been the same since I was like thirteen. NO THANK YOU! I just don't understand, besides menstrual regulation ( and I have never bought that explanation by the way. I personally believe it's just a plot by pharmaceutical companies to get teen girls on the pill) why I would have to take a pill with side effects like blood clots and kidney failure when a guy could just wear a condom, or when I could just not have sex. I don't know. The whole idea has always been fishy to me.
Plus, I have seen birth control at its worst. When I was younger, my Aunt Alice had this friend who kept having babies. Prior to her getting on the Depo shot, I could not recall a time from kindergarten to fifth grade when she was not pregnant. She had to be about my age now. Well, two months or so after taking the shot she got so big that she had to walk around her own thighs! I have a mental picture of her just sitting on my aunt's couch with a baby in her lap sweating. She didn't have to worry about pregnancy after that because I am pretty sure she was no longer having sex. I mean, she had to stop to take breaths walking to the kitchen to get her formula bottles out of the refrigerator.
Rings in your vagina. Little tabs with a string that stay in for five years. Pills that stop your period. Cups in your jay-jay.Then they get you by focusing on how some of these pills or products can make your nails grow and your skin pretty. I know that I do not have sex, but is the thrill of it so awesome that you are willing to put yourself in danger of terminal illness? I am overweight and Black. I am at risk for enough without adding to the Pu-Pu platter of illnesses that could take my young life voluntarily.
At the end of the day, it is every woman's choice on how they want to shield themselves from unwanted pregnancy. I choose to take my grandma's advice and keep my ankles crossed.