4. Piper
“Rise and shine, sleepyhead.” I heard Braelyn’s voice before a gust of light burned my eyes. My arm immediately flew over my face, and I frowned.
“Girl, are you crazy?” I groaned while peeking at her.
She giggled. “Just a little. Come on. Let’s go have some breakfast before class. The doctors say it’s the most important meal of the day.”
I looked at her as if she’d lost her damn mind.
“Brianna, I will kick your ass for two reasons. One, for being so damned chipper this early in the morning, and two, because you just woke me up out of the best dream I’ve had in a long time!
Get your happy ass out of my face. Forget breakfast. I was about to eat Chris Brown’s dick instead.
” I tossed my covers over my head as she laughed.
Too damn loud.
I may have fabricated who was actually pounding my goodies because I would have much rather it been Chris instead of the sexy, rude, asshole I saw last night. He was just about to eat me like cold pizza before Braelyn’s ass rudely interrupted us.
I could feel the wetness of our intense lovemaking between my thighs, and this happy-ass broad just really pissed me off for intruding on our session.
After leaving the gym yesterday, I went into the study hall and just wrote out a piece on the asshole based on his performance on the court.
I was honestly shocked that he was giving me attitude when I shouldn’t have been.
He seemed like a stuck up, arrogant, Neanderthal who had now gone on my ever-growing list of people I loathed.
He may have been fine as hell with a body that would feel good pressed against mine, and a print that looked like it would cause damage to my uterus, but his attitude made him ugly to me now.
“Sorry about that. And my name is Braelyn, Piper. Maybe you could eat some sausage links or a banana and pretend it was his . . . penis.”
“You can’t say dick?” I asked, looking from under the blankets with a smirk on my face.
“I try to limit how many curse words I use a day. I guess taking that religion class is working a little bit.”
“Girl, please.” I waved her off. “I was up half the night, doing a piece on the captain of the asshole team, so I’m a little tired this morning.”
“Captain of the asshole team?”
“Khalil Grey.”
“Ahh. Whew, that man knows he’s fine.”
“Yeah, fine and rude as hell. Him and his flunky friends. And if I didn’t want to run the risk of getting kicked out, I would have stomped Sabrina Murphy’s head in.”
“Whoa. What all happened yesterday? Wait. Tell me over breakfast!” She pulled the blanket off of me and folded it. I wanted to kick her in her face.
“Braelyn, I swear if you weren’t nice, I would kick your ass!”
She laughed. “Get up, Miss Cranky Pants. I’ll be in the lounge waiting.” With that, she breezed her happy self out of the room.
Already, I wanted this year to be over, and it was only day two of my being here.
I lifted and begrudgingly gathered my belongings, noticing Braelyn’s ass had rearranged our little living quarters once again.
She had my shoes stacked against the wall when I had them underneath my bed, and she’d moved the loveseat to the other side of the wall.
I couldn’t help but laugh because this girl wasn’t wrong when she said she had OCD.
Everything was always clean and put together.
She even had the clothes in my closet color coordinated.
Usually, I’d go off on someone touching my things, but Braelyn was nice, and I knew I had to meet her where she was if this was going to work out between us.
My thoughts traveled back to the handsome asshole as I allowed the water from the shower to rain over me.
From his soft-looking hair to those soft-looking lips, those qualities alone would have any girl wanting to be chosen.
Just the very thought of him wrapping those lips around my nipples had my hand subconsciously squeezing my left tit as my right one made its way between my legs.
May as well finish what he’d started in my dream.
I considered myself a partial virgin. I tried to have sex one time with my high-school boyfriend Desmond White, but I stopped him before he could break through the wall of China. That shit was painful, and I vowed to never do it again.
Well, back then, that was my declaration, but now that I was older, I craved it more often than I should.
Guys always tried to talk to me, but I wasn’t interested.
Most of them just lacked maturity, and the others just wanted to have sex.
I wanted a man who wanted me just as much as I wanted him.
To give me intimacy, romance, and fidelity.
I wanted him obsessed with me in a good way and to treat me like I were made of glass.
As Khalil’s face and dick print ran through my mind, I could feel my orgasm building. A few more rubs on my bud, and the dam broke, making me feel relieved and ready to take on the day.
After breakfast and me telling Braelyn about Sabrina running her cum collectors, we headed to our world history class.
It didn’t surprise me to have half of the bougie asshole team inside, including Captain Asshole.
He was dressed down in an all-black Nike outfit with what I assumed was his signature footwear—a pair of black Jordan 4s.
His hair was free of the braids with the indentions they’d left behind.
We locked eyes, but I rolled mine away, taking a seat in the middle of the class, far away from them.
“If you all will look at your syllabus, I have assigned you all a Black leader to do a paper on. You all will be split into groups, and I want a ten-page essay on the leader assigned to you. Please, do not give vague answers or repetitive details. I want you all to immerse yourselves into the lives of the person you are assigned to. Find your group buddies, and begin to work on your outline for this assignment. Your outline and essay will count as a grade, so let’s get to work.
” Dr. Cullen spoke and clapped her hands twice with a smile on her face.
I opened my syllabus and saw that I had Ida B. Wells-Barnett, the investigative journalist who led a fierce anti-lynching campaign in the 1890s. Dr. Cullen called out leader names so people could find their groups. When I noticed who all had my person, my head dropped in agony.
You have got to be fucking kidding me. This has to be some sort of sick joke.
Literally, four of the asshole crew members had been assigned to my person, and I had to wonder if Dr. Cullen did this shit on purpose.
Maybe it’s a typo, I thought, standing and heading toward her desk.
“Dr. C, I think there has been a typo on my syllabus.”
She held her hand out to me. “Let me see it.” I handed her the paper and watched her eyes scan it. “Where is the typo?”
“You put me with people I don’t particularly get along with.”
She pressed her pink-painted lips together before speaking.
“Ms. Sawyer, please understand that I have twenty-one students in my class. I cannot accommodate everyone who has an issue with their peers. I need you to set your differences aside because I know your major, and the person I chose for you is perfect and beneficial to your writing journey. Now, I need you to put away whatever bad blood you have with your group and show integrity amongst your peers. Can you do that?”
I took a deep breath and nodded before I walked away. I could see them in the corner, laughing and talking amongst themselves as I approached, leaving a small space between the group and me, and took a seat.
“I know she is not with our group?” I heard Davina Caldwell ask.
“Oh my God,” Sabrina groaned.
“Hey, shouldn’t you be sitting with the geek freaks over there?” Davina asked.
“Nah, she should be with the emo freaks,” Sabrina countered as they all laughed except Captain Asshole and one of his friends.
“Aye, y’all chill. Let’s get this shit done so I can go check on my lil’ mama.”
Lil’ mama?
Why did that do something to me?
I don’t know why I didn’t think he had a girlfriend.
I would have thought it was Sabrina since she was the captain of the cheer and dance squad, but with the way she was hugged up on Lamar, that assumption was void.
It didn’t matter anyway. A guy like him would never look at someone like me.
I wasn’t glamorous, I didn’t do fancy things with my hair, and I only sporadically got my nails and feet done if my budget allowed me to.
I wasn’t having sex either, which I was sure he was doing ungodly things to these girls around here, so I was literally out of the question when it came to him.
I guess that dream really did have me a little bothered, but when I thought of his asshole ways, I quickly dismissed any attraction I had toward him.
“Earth to Pippy,” I heard Sabrina say, flinging one of my braids with her pencil.
I gave her ass the death stare. This bitch got one more time.
“Which part of the paper you want to do? You can do the ending since it only takes half of a paragraph to sum it all up. We know you’re not the brightest crayon in the box.
” She and Davina snickered. I snatched my bag up and stood, about to walk off and say fuck them and this paper until I felt a hand grab my arm.
“Hol’ up. Where you going?” Captain Asshole asked.
“The fuck away from y’all. I don’t have time for petty, childish broads who only have dick imprinted in their memories.
Y’all can have this. I’m leaving.” I snatched away from him and headed out of the class.
I hated that I let her rile me up like this.
I was usually quiet and stayed to myself, but for some reason, this school year wasn’t the best for me.
If I had to be honest, I was worried about my mother.
It wasn’t too long ago that the doctor cleared her from having breast cancer, but I was still on edge with it returning.
Being in remission didn’t mean it wouldn’t come back.
Seeing her lose weight, throw up blood, barely eat, and weak all the time broke my heart.
She was my person, and almost losing her made me cling to her more.
I knew she wanted this for me. It was the only reason I came back to True, but dealing with hoes, assholes, and mean girls wasn’t what I signed up for.
“Piper!” I heard that deep, sexy voice behind me, but I kept walking.
I was leaving this damn school. Fuck everything and everybody.
I’d go back home before I dealt with this bullshit.
“Hold up a minute, please.” The please and the way he said it so nicely got me to stop walking and turn to him.
“Don’t leave. You know how Doc is about us working together as a team.
She grades these papers based on teamwork and effort.
If we all don’t put in on this assignment, that’s gon’ fuck up my GPA, and I can’t have that. ”
“You can lie and say I helped for all I care. I refuse to sit around bitches that got me fucked up and arrogant niggas who think they know it all. I’m good.”
A small smirk tickled the corner of his beautiful lips, and I wanted to slap it off.
Sexy, rude asshole.
“You done?” he asked.
“Done, done,” I sassed.
“Cool. Come on. We got a paper to outline. I’ll make sure the bitches don’t have you fucked up, and the arrogant know-it-alls put a cap on that shit.
” He extended his arm for me to walk back to class, and I rolled my eyes at him, mad at myself for even letting him persuade me to continue this bullshit.
I bumped past him and headed back to class to do this stupid-ass assignment.
At the end of the day, he was right about maintaining his GPA. I, too, didn’t want my grade to be lowered because of people’s stupidity. As long as he promised to keep his dogs on a leash, I could tolerate being around them to do the job required of me.
Reentering the class, I could see Braelyn eyeing me, secretly asking me if I was okay. I nodded and reclaimed my seat at the table with the petty, ho, asshole group. No one said anything to me or looked my way. Whatever Khalil said to them had them completely ignoring me.
“A’ight, so, Davina and Sabrina should take the intro.
Me and Piper got the body, and Mar should take the conclusion.
Given what we already know about Ida, I think we should definitely dig a little deeper than the surface-level shit on Google.
So our research has to be thorough enough to come up with key points and something that’s layered with truth and facts. Everybody good with that?”
Everyone agreed.
“Did she say when this paper is due? I’m going home this weekend to help my mom with my sister’s baby shower,” Davina disclosed.
Khalil shook his head. “Nah, but she usually gives us a week since we’re in a group.”
“Okay.”
“A’ight, let’s work on this outline to make it easier to write her story. Pipe, can we use your laptop to start the research? I left mine at home,” Khalil asked.
Not him calling me Pipe like we’re cool.
If he was trying to be nice to me because of this paper and his stanking-ass GPA, he could keep it. We were not friends, and I was more than okay with that.
I pulled the laptop from my satchel and set it on the table. While they talked, I typed and did a bit of my own research without them. If I had to be forced to be around them, then I was going to do shit my way.
With or without their tacky asses.