by Love Belvin
“Tori, Hakeem here wants to know how many fights you’ve lost.” Aivery’s eyes were tiny and red as she bit her lip to hide an obvious grin.
“None,” was my one word answer before taking a sip of wine.
“None?” The little guy shrieked, laughing. “C’mon. You can’t say you’ve won every fight you’ve been in, sweetie.”
“How do you think I got here?” I asked. “Losing sometimes?” My neck popped back and I shook my head, attention going out to the crowd.
“You fought dudes?” Dre asked.
I nodded. “I spar with them.”
“But like…to fight?”
Ashton scoffed. “That’s a dumb ass question. What governing body you know allows men fighting women?”
“Oh, yeah.” Hakeem sipped his drink. “You ever knock your man out—or your girl?” His eyes widened, expecting an answer.
Aivery spit out a laugh alone, I noticed.
I tried chuckling to myself, taking another sip of my drink. “Lucky for you and me, you’ll never know that answer. You too little, player.”
“Yeah, a’ight! You wanna go deeper into the woods to find out?”
Aivery was now choking on her laughter. Dre shook his head, keeping his face low. And Ashton’s face was stone.
I shook my head. “You’d have to carry a stool to get it in, son.”
The abrupt and crisp sound of Dre, Ashton, and Aivery’s laugh cut through the air, scaring the shit out of me.
“This bitch, man,” Hakeem hissed, unbuckling his pants. “Hold this, my nigga.” He tried handing his cup over to Dre, but Dre was too lost in humor to notice. So, Hakeem put it on the ground. “C’mon.” He approached me. “Let’s see about that.”
That quickly, I planned to throw my drink in his face and hook his ass. I turned to face him, preparing as he lunged my way.
“Muthafucka, I wish you would lay a finger on her,” Ashton’s thick, throaty warning was low, but so alarming, my body leaped at his first word. “I’ll beat the shit out of ya little ass.”
He didn’t yell, didn’t move. A bear didn’t have to. His words were even, but powerful. My pulse raced and eyes bounced between the two. I didn’t know which made me more anxious: preparing to fight a guy or Ashton being angry, and threatening to fuck him up.
Hakeem’s eyes swung from me to Ashton, then back to me. His face opened to a bright beam as he backed away.
“Big homie, you know I was just fuckin’ with her…tryna scare her!” His laughter wasn’t convincing.
Someone called for drinks, out by the bonfires.
Dre slapped his palm on Hakeem’s shoulder. “C’mon, bruh. If I leave you, your lil’ ass gone get eaten by either the bear or the lioness, my nigga.” He laughed.
Hakeem’s fake smile dimmed, but he obeyed, backing away to leave with Dre. The air felt thick, a ringing sound in my ear now. I wanted to leave, too, but didn’t want to make the moment anymore weird than it was. It was a struggle controlling my choppy breaths and their harsh sounds. Now, there were the three of us: Ashton, me, and his girlfriend.
“Oooh, baby,” Aivery purred. “I’m cold.” She giggled. “I’m going over there to get warmed up. You want more brandy?”
His taut cords produced, “That’s the goal.”
She giggled again before walking off. Aivery made throaty sounds each step she took when her heels pushed into the damp ground.
Why would she wear heels out here?
The hell did I know? Clearly, I wasn’t a girl or guy, according to people here.
Some at home, too…
“You gotta be more assertive,” bossy Ashton scolded.
“And you’ve got to mind your business and let me take care of myself.” I turned to him. “And don’t expect me to say thank you for that. I would have beat his little ass.”
Ashton chuckled. “Is it a foreign thought to you that you don’t have to?”
I turned to face him again. “What?”
“That as a mere Black woman, you’re protected. You don’t have to be so damn hardcore all the time.”
“And wait on your crew to clown or protect me?” When Ashton didn’t reply right away, I scoffed. “That’s what I thought.” My attention went back out to the crowd.
People were dancing, drinking, chatting…just being peaceful and having fun. That’s what I thought I’d been doing before I stupidly came over here. But no. Instead, I’d gotten teased by the West Beverly High crew, tutored by the head of it, and even slept in his bed last night. I’d never fit in, and didn’t know why I let myself think for even a second tonight that I could.
“It’s been eight weeks since you arrived at Blakewood State University, Tori.” His head rolled over to me, eyes tight from drinking. I hated how I couldn’t deny his good looks anymore, at least not to myself. Hated that I found him so dangerously attractive. It was frightening for someone who struggled with their sexual identity and used it as a comfort blanket. “You enjoying your time as a Panther?”
I couldn’t let him see it. I turned away, bobbing my head to the new Mario track, “Let Me Love You.” “It’s been nine weeks for me.”
Ashton didn’t like the cold shoulder I’d just given him. He abandoned the marked spot his girlfriend left him in and stalked over to me. I smelled him all too familiarly now, his towering frame hovering over me, making my knees quake. Ashton did that. As a girl who’d been teased all her life for being the tallest in the class and group, his immense height shrunk me in a way that was just as comforting as it was intimidating.
“Ignoring me had you twisting and turning last night.” My lungs vacuumed at the smoky gruff in his whisper traveling just above the loud music. The scent of alcohol on his breath tickled the fine hairs on my neck. Ashton was so close, closer than he was when we shared his bed last night. “You’re good at locking the world out, making everyone feel at bay to your iron veneer. But spending time I don’t have with you has afforded me the opportunity to penetrate that tough girl blockade you wear as a protective blanket.”
Blanket…
He was a mind reader.
Looking away from his girlfriend with her back to us, warming at one of the pits, I turned to him with my mouth open and forehead tight.
“You’re drunk, Ashton.”
“I’m loose and unfiltered, not giving a single tomboy fuck.”
I blinked hard at him, his eyes angry, challenging me for something unknown.
“What do you want from me?” I gritted, officially disturbed. “To fucking fawn over you deliriously like these other girls do in front of your girlfriend? To bow at your feet for getting me here”—my eyes gestured to the party happening outside of the cove we stood inside of—“with all of your cool friends instead of being the usual target of their hate?” I shook my head, hurt that he would make me feel so small, knocking me off the pedestal he’d put me on for his friends. “I’m not that girl, Ashton.”
A ghosted smile melted on his handsome face, and I vowed to never drink around him again. “But you are a girl. I know it—knew it since I started paying attention, something you don’t like people doing to you.”
“You don’t know anything about me.”
He moved violently close to my face. Inches away from my lips. Guys and girls alike caught fades for getting that close to me, much less for the intent of intimidating me. But I didn’t move, couldn’t. I felt his breaths and tasted his brandy at this dangerous proximity.
“I know your pussy cried in my bed last night. I know that’s why you twisted and turned until you exhausted yourself. I know you don’t view me as you do every other guy or girl on this campus.”
“You don’t know shit.” I hated the crack in my voice, the sound of my pulse ringing in my ear.
“I know lots of shit about you.” His eyes turned dark and hungry, dropping down to my lips. I knew a hungry man when I saw one, sadly all too well. But why didn’t I feel alarmed or threatened right now with Ashton? “Even splenetic l
ittle tomboy wanna-be-piranhas like you.”
That annoying place between my trembling thighs began to throb louder than my pulse and suddenly, my tits felt heavy in the bra I wore. My breaths warred with his, mixing into a dangerous potion. If I’d ever fantasized about having this human’s flesh on me, now was my opportunity. All I had to do was take a deep breath and our lips would have sealed together.
“Ash!” someone yelled. It was Aivery, and I was paralyzed, trapped in the heat of him. “Let me tell you what this asshole said!” she laughed, coming our way.
“I’ll fuck clarity into your confused mind and hungry pussy,” he breathed the threat into my mouth. His tight eyes traced my face from my forehead to my open mouth. As though I’d been cast by a spell, my eyes closed, I felt so light-headed. “Don’t let me fuck you, Nabby-girl. Don’t let me ruin your peace.”
A physical emotion never felt bubbled up my stomach, and my eyes closed to try and taper it down. My whole body trembled. I would not lose my shit out here, and definitely not in front of Ashton Spencer and his stupid friends. I didn’t owe him or them a damn thing, no matter how crazy he ran my mind and made my insides feel.
“You okay?” My eyes opened to a clear view of Aivery with half her mouth reaching her nose, her hatred for me was so clear as she scowled at me. Ashton was back in the same place she’d left him minutes ago. “You look…sad.” She was back, under his heavy—and what I’ve come to believe as comforting—arm looking like the perfect couple.
She was beautiful and he, devilishly handsome. Tempting. The cute image reminded me of their win earlier as the king and queen of BSU. That led me to question who I was in relation to that title. I was not my mother. I refused to be.
“I’m just…great.” I forced a smile as phony as her concern. “Need another drink or my bed. Let me see which one it’ll be.” I walked off, already having decided.
“Nabby-girl,” Ashton’s heavy vocals called after me. Nabby-girl? When I looked over my shoulder, he warned, “Don’t forget what I said,” raising his cup into the air.
I turned, taking off with a beating pulse. My haunting thoughts drowned out the music as I walked over to Samantha.
Laughing with her friends and Dre, she turned to me. “You good?”
“Nah. I think I drank too much of that wine.”
Teefah shook her head. “Told y’all that Sutter’s Home shit is cheap as hell!”
“You want me to come with you?” Worry filled Samantha’s eyes.
The last thing I wanted was her thinking I needed emotional aid, too. I was fine.
I shook my head. “No. I know the way. I can trail people who are coming and going.”
“We can walk you,” Dre added, including himself into our conversation.
I shook my head.
Samantha squeezed my arm. “Are you sure?”
“Sam!” I tried laughing off my frustration. “I’m really okay.”
She pouted playfully. Laughing while shaking my head, I said goodnight to her friends and walked off in my favorite fashion.
Alone.
My eyes swept over to the door, nervous about Samantha coming in. Then they went back to the mirror and I took a good look at my body—a different view this time, though.
My titties were high and round, belly flat but curvy, and my hips plump beneath the band of the lace panties. The sight of my legs had my mind going. They were long, but thick. My thighs and butt were always thick, no matter how much I worked out. It usually annoyed me, but tonight, in this fancy bra and panty set, it made me curious.
I felt... I looked like a…woman, not a little girl that was weird, tall, and thick. I was a woman Ashton wanted to touch and kiss.
And protect, Nabby-girl…
I rolled my eyes, turned off the light, and dragged my heavy body to the bed.
“Oh, fuck! Ashton!” She bounced on my dick with wild abandon. “Yes! Yes! Yes, baby!” she cried.
Her golden tits with pebbled, caramel apexes sprang with equal fervor. When her face squeezed and her pussy clenched over my cock, I knew she was coming. My hands clutched her hips, jerking them up and down for longer strokes.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” she cried, and I continued intensifying her thrusts.
I’d walked Aivery to her dorm because I didn’t trust Karmen’s drunk ass to do it. Aivery had been flirting heavy as hell toward the end of the bonfire, telling me all the ways she was going to congratulate me for today’s win. I didn’t bet on it; she’d declared celibacy over the summer, and I wasn’t with drunk fucks. The problem was Aivery was a loud drunk, and when I turned her down once back here in her bedroom, she became too rowdy. And the problem with that was I was damn near drunk myself and didn’t have the resistance to leave. I’d been backed up in the worst way.
Not that she forced me. That would be a ridiculous claim. I hadn’t had a pound of ass since the summer: it took little pushing, gropes and the pushing of her tongue in my mouth for me to make the decision. The only pause I gave was at not having condoms. Aivery had been on birth control since we decided to start having sex, but that Aivery, I learned this past spring, was not the Aivery I’d fucking fell in love with. This Aivery, coming on my dick, wasn’t pure when we first fucked and didn’t want me to know. The man she gave her hymen to and the secret she kept from me is what I couldn’t shake, no matter how many months we’d been back at BSU. So, I was relieved as shit when she went into Karmen’s room and returned, waving square, foiled wrappers in the air.
“Ashton?” Her hips tightened and I blinked, getting her into focus. “You haven’t come yet, baby? I’m tired.”
I had to return to the moment. So lost in my thoughts, I missed she had finished. Thinking quickly, I reached up to kiss her again. I needed her wet for me. Then I lifted her from my lap and flipped her on her hands and knees. I checked the condom to be sure it hadn’t broken, then pushed into her.
“Ooooh!” she moaned, arching her spine up.
I repositioned the small of her back before thrusting into her. Aivery reached for the comforter, clenching it in her palms. She didn’t like doggy-style, but I knew she wouldn’t complain tonight. Still, I paced myself, being sure not to go too deep.
When I closed my eyes to measure my thrusts, I thought of the dorm room irony. Tonight, I was in Aivery’s bed when last night, I had Tori in mine. Idly, my mind roamed to the lewd view of her ample tits I had to endure last night. The curvature of her tight ass., the lingering aroma of her wet pussy when she turned over pushing wafts of it into the air. And how close I was to devouring her mouth earlier at the bonfire.
I wondered if Tori liked getting fucked from the back. Wondered what her favorite position was. Could I convince her to appreciate all of my favorites? What the fuck does Tori’s face look like when she cums? Do those hidden dimples go deeper—”
“Uh—gad…” I gripped her hips, pounding into her, exploding at the same damn time.
Out of breath, I bent over with my hands falling to my knees. Morning runs were intense. The cool air breezing over my heated body was needed, but not enough.
“Drink.” My back was nudged. I glanced up to receive my water bottle from Ashton. I greedily gulped down as much as my lungs would allow. When I was done, my head collapsed again. “You did better with your speed today. Improved by ten minutes.”
I would have said thanks, but I didn’t have the lung capacity. The feeling in my toes hadn’t even returned yet. Getting up this morning in the four o’clock hour wasn’t as hard as it had been previously. I had a boost in energy and alertness from the moment my alarm clock went off. I’d even beat Ashton here. As soon as he arrived, we’d gotten started with hardly any words exchanged.
When I could feel my feet again and my chest no longer burned, I was able to stand straight. Ashton was a few yards away, wiping the sweat from his head.
“You going to the party tonight?”
Party?
“What party?”
“The Hall
oween party in the MJ Hall.” Ashton was able to read my mind. He let out a quick breath. “The Michael Jackson Hall. It’s not too far from your dorm.”
I was confused. “Today’s Halloween?”
A slow, but slightly annoyed smile widened his face. Ashton even rolled his eyes. “Yes, McNabb. Today’s Halloween, and each Halloween the Greeks sponsor a party, and it’s typically in the MJ Hall.”
My mouth hung open. Of course, I didn’t want to go. But how would I tell him?
“Are you going?”
His head dropped to the side. “I’m Alpha Omega Psi. Of course, I’ll be there. My guys are working the door.”
“Oh.”
Ashton chuckled. At me. “Oh,” he mocked me then tossed his towel over his shoulder to reach into his bag. “Here’s my cell phone number. Call me and tell me if you wanna come through.”
As he wrote down the number I thought how I’d never had Ashton’s cell, only his apartment number. That was how I was able to call him the night of my fake date. The limo driver had his information. It was odd receiving it, random. But then again, so was Ashton Spencer. I was still thrown from his drunken behavior at the bonfire. Not that I wanted to rehash it, but it was weird. We’d almost kissed. He was so bold, sneaky.
“Here.” He handed me a small piece of paper that looked and felt foreign receiving. “I gotta get out of here. Long day today.” After looking over the small piece of paper, I tucked it in my bag. “How’s the paper coming along?”
“I knocked out like…” I thought for a second. “Maybe two and a half pages yesterday. Kicked my ass, but I got it done.” I shrugged then grabbed my things, and followed him out of the field park. “You going to get a massage?” I tried for small talk.
“Nah. The Panthers have charity work. We’re going to a couple of the local schools to give away books and laptops.”
“Oh…” I nodded.
“Oh.” Ashton mocked me again, this time with a puzzled expression.
“Fuck you, Spence.” I pushed him by the shoulder as we split to go our separate ways.
