After a night of crying over unpaid school bills and a final paper I was having trouble writing, I needed a friend. I had gone for a drive and found myself at his place. I could have easily called up one of my gamer friends, but this feeling of loneliness required someone I felt a bit more comfortable with. When I entered the building, I took the elevator up to the top. My stomach started to flutter as soon as the elevator stopped. When the doors opened, his door was right there.
I knocked a few times and waited. It didn’t take him long before he opened it. Inside his place was vast and dark. His locs swung back and forth as they hung over his face. He was wearing only sweats and no shirt. My eyes scanned his body, noting each tattoo and his abs.
His head slowly rose, then he flicked his nose. It was as if he knew I was at the door, and for a moment, I thought I heard a low growl escape his lips, but I was probably still tripping. “What are you doing here?” he grumbled.
“Uh, I came to hang with you for a minute. To talk about our next episode for the show,” I lied.
He turned and walked away. “You could have texted for that shit. So why are you really here, Piggy?”
I loved it when he called me that. He was the one who had given me the name because he said that when I laughed, the snort sounded pig-like. It sounded corny at first, but then it grew on me. A grinspread across my face as I stepped inside. “I just wanted to chill,” I said as I moved into the open space.
Braylen and I had a different type of friendship. For the last three years, it had felt one-sided to me. It had always been me crushing on him, while he had neutral emotions. I often wondered if he had ever thought about us. I headed toward his bed to sit when he grabbed my arm, pulling me back, “Where are you coming from?”
“I needed to step away from schoolwork for a while, so I went for a drive and thought about you.”
His eyes watched my mouth like he had been waiting for me to utter a lie. He stepped forward and did something I wasn’t sure how to take in. His nose began to move as if he were sniffing the air. He leaned in and inhaled deeply. “I hear you,” he said, his voice deeper than usual.
The way his face shifted into a beast-like form almost scared me, but I had to remind myself this was Braylen. I was beginning to create my visions of him based on his demeanor. His hand began to caress my arms softly before it traveled into my braids. He took a handful and gripped them tightly. His mouth only inches from mine, he muttered, “Three years and I’ve asked myself so many times what it’s like. I want to know. I got to know.”
“You want to know what is what like?” I whispered.
The way my stomach fluttered, and my heart raced, I didn’t know if him saying what I thought would be the moment our friendship flourished into something more. He didn’t say another word. Instead, he cornered me against the wall, easing his hand into my sweats. His fingers found their way to my center. When his fingertips grazed across my pussy, my breathing became labored. Light breaths became loud panting. “If you're going to do it, then do it,” I muttered.
“I say when, not you,” he grumbled back.
Graze, tap.
My eyes closed.
Graze, tap.
I gripped his wrist.
Graze, tap.
A moan escaped my lips.
That’s when he did it. His fingers found their way inside me, and a cry like a moan fully left me. His stroke was aggressive but satisfying. His free hand wrapped around my neck as he squeezed. His finger fucking skills were immaculate. My body shifted up and down, trying to keep up. I wanted him to kiss me to solidify everything I knew would happen after this.
It reminded me of one of my favorite games that I played most of the time. Treasure of Doom. The moment Pyran, the elf, and the beast declared their love. Braylen’s fingers moved faster, his grip got tighter, and my moans met his energy. This man finger fucked me until I felt everything in me flow into his hands.
Once he was done, I figured we’d talk about what just happened, but we didn’t. It was as if we had played some mind-fuck game, and there was no need to speak about it. “You can stay the night,” he said as he nodded toward his bed.
I eased over and climbed in, hoping he would cuddle with me. I watched him as he moved around the room until my eyes started to feel heavy. His bed was so comfy, so warm, like a dark, cozy cave. Braylen paid me no mind, almost as if I wasn’t even there.
It hadn’t been long before there was a knock at his door. I saw him turn to check if I was asleep, and I guess he figured I was, so he opened the door. When my brother’s ex, Sasha, stepped in, I had so many questions. However, it didn’t make sense for me to care when it was clear he had gotten what he wanted and didn’t care. My two worlds were so similar: the mystical gaming version and the real-life version. The reality was that I had connected the two and couldn’t tell which was real. That’s when it came to me that I needed to separate the two worlds I had merged into one.
The SUV's honking startled me. Snapping me back into reality.
Honk! Honk!
I was so frustrated that I didn’t realize I had been sitting at a green light. When the SUV swerved to go around me, I tried to look through its window but couldn’t see past the tint. I knew they could see me, so I stuck my hand out the window and flipped them off. “Fuck you!” I shouted.
Braylen had me so bothered because he tried to brush me off and act like he didn’t care that he stood me up, which pissed me off. He acted as if he wasn’t just playing with my pussy months ago. It was the back-and-forth that bothered me the most. At this point, I wasn’t sure if he liked me or if he was playing with me, but either way, I was starting to be over it.
Braylen Laureaux, an alumnus of TSU, is a member of Chi Kappa Chi. The man who was more than five years my senior. He first captivated me when I saw him in the quad, his body bouncing up and down, his hands clapping under his leg. The way my freshman eyes fixated on his locs, body, and tall stature should have been studied. The man whose mouth was slicker than a can of oil, but smart as hell. He was the quiet type who knew when to cause chaos.
When I applied for the podcast hosting gig my sophomore year, it was my way of getting closer to him. I didn’t think much of it, but when I was hired, I got excited. Then I realized it gave me a chance to speak openly about topics that mattered to me and to learn more about him. Now, in my senior year at TSU, my feelings for Braylen had only grown, blossoming into love, or maybe it was lust.
