I tossed my bag in the car, got in, and drove off, headed to Covana. I called up my friend Reagan to see if she had made it to campus. We decided to leave for school a little early because there was an event at Hoodoo’s.
Hoodoo’s was a little ghetto for my taste, but it was where everyone on the East End went. With Toussaint State smack dead in the middle of it all, it only made sense that most of the students went there to have fun.
It took a minute or two for Reagan to answer, but she did. “Hey, girl,” she called out.
“Hey, I’m heading back to the campus now. How far are you?”
Honk!“Bitch, get the fuck out of my way! Damn!” Reagan spat. “God knows I need to get there fast because these people on this road don’t know how to drive.”
A laugh fell from my lips. “You’re crazy.”
Reagan and I had been close since freshman year. We were dormmates who turned into best friends. She was the captain of Blue Reign, but also my sister of the Gray and Gold.
“I should be there in the next hour. Are we linking up to go to Hoodoo’s? I heard Jesaiah will be there. What’s up with you two?”
Jesasiah August was fine but also equally cocky. We had been seeing each other since our sophomore year but never made it official. I didn’t want to be the girl who pressured someone into a relationship. I preferred to let things unfold naturally, but I was starting toget tired of waiting. I was ready for a relationship, and if he wasn’t ready by now, I doubted he ever would be. It did suck knowing that our mutual friends were happy couples while he and I were playing a game of “who’s going to fall first,” so naturally, when my friends brought him up, I often tried to change the subject. I knew I couldn’t run from it this time, though.
“We’re cooling. We’re just having fun,” I told her.
She smacked her lips. “Girl, you’re better than me. More than a year playing cat and mouse? Nigga, you got to go.”
“Well, he doesn’t have to worry about that this year. I’m not worried about him, so he can do whatever he wants.”
She laughed loudly on the phone. “I know that’s right, Miss Toussaint State. Call me when you get close. I need to focus on this road.”
Once Reagan hung up, she left me in my thoughts. I liked Jesaiah a lot, and I didn’t want him to move on or be with someone else. I wanted him to choose me, but I knew that with each year at this school and the arrival of new girls, the chances of him feeling the way he did when we first met were slimming. I knew it was time to spread my wings and add another guy to my roster before it was my feelings that were getting hurt.
These were the growing pains of college life. Things always looked sweet on the outside, with people devoted to going to an HBCU, but beneath it all, we had the same Black problems, just on campus. It was the one place where every Black student was faced with their fears, challenged by the unknown, tested by their demons, lured by lust, starved for perfection, and at the end of the race, we were all still viewed the same: Just another Black soul searching for excellence.
PERCY
PRESS PLAY
The DJ was mixing the music something crazy. Everyone in the building threw their hands up as he came in and out on the mic, hyping us all up.
“I heard we got the Blue Hawks in the building!” he yelled.
“You ain’t know! Ain’t nothing like a TSU show!” everyone screamed.
My head gradually bobbed in rhythm as the music blared in Hoodoo’s. The place was so crowded that there was little space to move around. It seemed like everyone on campus was inside, along with some locals from the East End. My hips dropped down and swiveled upward as I tried keeping up with Anika as she grinded all on me. I reached into my back pocket to grab my rag and wiped the sweat from my forehead. She glanced over her shoulders, letting her eyes devour me while her ass did all the work. She bounced a few more times before she stood straight up, laughed, and walked back over to where her friends stood.
The light taps on my arm pulled my eyes away from her hoe ass for a second. “It’s lit in this muhfucka!” one of the guys from my team said in my ear.
He held his drink in the air as one of the nearby girls came toward us shaking her ass. Shorty wasn’t even dancing with him, but in his mind, she came to that spot just for him. I watched as he tried his best to be discreet while grabbing her waist to pull her close. At six-foot-four, I could see over the crowd. My eyes watched everyone who came and went through Hoodoo’s. The Greeks strolled, the hoes danced, the hood niggas bobbed their heads, and the lames stood around. I was the nigga in between, here to vibe, and scope out potential until I spotted her walking in.
Until I spotted her walking in. Her hair, normally out and fluffy, was pulled into a sleek ponytail. She wore a tight-fitting, short black skirt, sheer black stockings, a white shirt with a black vest, and black boots. The way she chewed on the gum in her mouth was as if her life depended on it. She moved through the tight space by herself as her eyes scanned the club. When I saw her glance toward the seating areas, I looked in that direction too. A nigga sat there in all black with a fitted tilted on his head. He wore two gold chains and a diamond watch that caught the black light. I could tell he was one of those niggas with street money.
I did my best to focus on something else when she looked my way for a few seconds and caught me watching her. There was no reaction, rather a quick smirk before she pulled away. The nigga took a good grip of her ass and pulled her closer to him so her pussy was right in his face. The tap on my arm forced me to look in the other direction.
“Ayo, isn’t that Xavier over there? You think that nigga coming back for the season?”
I wasn’t in the mood to talk athletic logistics. My mind was somewhere else. I looked up and saw him with a group of niggas on the opposite side. A tug on my shirt brought my eyes down to see her pretty ass standing in front of me.
“You looking for me?” she asked.
I didn’t know whether to smile or question her about what I just saw. I leaned forward so I could be sure she could hear me. “Who is that nigga?” I asked her.
“He’s my business. Don’t do this here. I’ll get with you,” she said as she walked off.
