12. Piper
One Month Later
“Girl, you working wit’ some ass, yeah! Ya bad, yeah!
” Braelyn hyped me as I bent over and did a little twerk.
We were currently in our dorm, getting ready to go to the Eagles’ homecoming football game with Gennel and Jessica.
Since Kiy was sick, Khalil wouldn’t make it, and I was bummed.
But that precious baby needed her daddy’s TLC since he had been sharing some of it with me.
But he promised to meet me at the homecoming dance later.
This past month with Khalil had been . . . otherworldly.
I honestly couldn’t believe how much our relationship had progressed over the past month.
Since agreeing to be his girlfriend, all he did was spoil me, court me, and give me so much sex that I found myself craving him more and more every day.
I didn’t want to use the word love, because the thought terrified me.
But I could feel myself falling with each day we spent together.
If someone had told me that my last year at True would be like this, I would have laughed in their faces. My father was the first man to break my heart, and I hadn’t been able to see past the pain to allow anyone in.
Khalil was slowly changing that, even when I continued to fight against what I felt for him.
“Piper, your booty is so big. I know your mama got one too!” Braelyn exclaimed, taking her hand and bouncing one of my cheeks in her palm.
My attire for the day was a pair of black Balmain jeans, Khalil’s black-and-yellow jersey, and black Nike Air Force 1s.
I laughed. “Let me find out you’re into girls, Braelyn.”
“As if! I’m just complimenting a beautiful woman with a booty I wish I had,” she said, laughing. “But if I were, I’d definitely try to get on.”
I laughed. “And you’d miss.”
“Khalil sure didn’t miss.” She wiggled her brows with a silly smile on her face. “That man is obsessed with you, girl.”
“You think. . .” My voice trailed as I looked at her. “You think he’s being straight up with me?”
“What do you mean? Look around you. The man upgrades your whole wardrobe, buys you a whole bedroom set, gives you money, and takes you out on dates. What more do you need to know that he’s crazy about you?”
“That’s material stuff, Braelyn.”
“Okay. Has he given you any reason to feel as if he’s not being genuine?”
I shook my head. “No, but when I’m not with him, I would never know what he’s doing.” I hated to sound insecure, but a part of me still felt as if this was all a dream. That I’d wake up back in the lounge while Sabrina and his friend hunched in my bed.
Sabrina and their crew weren’t too happy about seeing Khalil and me together.
They called me a gold digger, a user, and not his type.
Khalil had to check them all about me, and I didn’t like that he had to.
Those were his friends, and not that I gave a rat’s ass, but I didn’t like to see the asshole crew at odds.
They may not have said anything else to or about me to my face, but I saw the dirty looks and heard the sidebar conversations. I guess since I was the intruder, they felt as though I was an outsider and didn’t fit the cool kids criteria.
“Piper, I say this with love, my girl: You’re way too pretty to be insecure. Just seeing the way he looks at you, you got that man’s nose open like I-75 freeway. The two years I’ve been here, I’ve never seen him with a chick on his arm. Not even his baby’s mother, and she goes here.”
“I’m not trying to be that way. I guess I still can’t believe he chose me out of all the popular girls around here.”
“That’s just it. It’s what most people would expect from a star athlete and one of the school’s top students.
Normally, it’s how it should be according to the rich kids on campus, but obviously Khalil is writing his own story, and you’re the main character in it.
” She bumped my hip and smiled at me. “You are in there, missy. Embrace it.”
The knock on the door paused our conversation as Braelyn went to answer it. Gennel and Jessica walked inside and hugged me.
“Y’all ready?” Gennel asked.
“Yeah, let me grab my jacket and switch my purse. I’ll meet y’all out there,” I said, walking over to the closet that was stuffed with clothes.
“Is Khalil coming to the game?” Jessica asked.
“No. His daughter has a cold, but he’s coming to take me to the dance if he can get away.”
“Oh, okay. Well, come on! I don’t want to miss the kickoff. We about to tear them Atlanta Bears the fuck up!”
My phone buzzed on my desk as I grabbed my jacket and walked over to it.
“Y’all, go ahead. I’ll be out in a second,” I told them. They all walked out as I answered Khalil’s FaceTime. When his face popped up on the screen, my heart skipped, and my vagina did a dance. It was a sin how fine this man was.
“Hey, gorgeous,” he greeted while smiling at me.
I blushed. “Hey, handsome. How’s our girl?”
He shook his head. “Fussy as hell and won’t let me put her down. I don’t know if I’ll be able to take you to the party, baby. I’m sorry.”
“No need to be sorry. Kiyanne is the priority. She needs her papa.”
“I know, but I wanted to see you in that dress and walk in there with my baddie on my arm. It’s our last year, so I was looking forward to showing up at all events.”
“I’m sure there’ll be other events for you to show me off at.” I giggled.
“Would you say no if I asked you to skip going to the dance and come be with me?”
I smirked. “No, I wouldn’t say no. Is that what you want?”
“I do. We can have our own dance here.”
I laughed. “You sure it’s going to be okay with Kiy being sick? I don’t want to take your attention away from her.”
“You won’t. She’ll be good and asleep by the time you get here.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
I laughed. “Yeah, boy! I’ll be there after the game.”
“A’ight, baby. I’ll see you later.”
“Okay.” I blew him a kiss and ended the call.
I knew that questioning the relationship with Khalil was just me being afraid of walking into whatever this was with us.
Over the past month, Khalil had shown me more attention than my father ever had in my lifetime.
It wasn’t easy for me to trust, but I was slowly opening up to the possibility that this relationship with Khalil would be good after all.
We arrived at the football field twenty minutes later.
The crowd was hype, and the band was doing their thing.
I couldn’t help but notice Sabrina leading the dance squad.
Their posture and performance were precise and neat.
One couldn’t deny that Sabrina was beautiful.
Her smooth, caramel skin tone; soft, brown eyes; full, pink lips; and Coke-bottle figure made her desirable.
But her attitude and mean-girl spirit were what the old folks would call “ugly.”
I wasn’t a hater, so I could give props where they were due, but I still didn’t fuck with that bitch and secretly hoped she broke a leg out on the field . . . maybe even both.
We stopped at the concession stand to grab drinks and snacks before heading over to the bleachers.
I was never sports-minded, but since being with Khalil, I’d been all in on it.
Before, I would only attend just to get an interview with different athletes for my journalism course. Now, I attended for a different reason.
We found seats in the middle bleachers and watched the players line up after the performance ended.
I had just gotten comfortable when Keith, Jalen, Lamar, and another one of their heathen friends, Cody, walked up the bleachers until they reached us.
I rolled my eyes inwardly, seeing the goofy looks on their faces as they sat behind us.
“What up, y’all?” Keith spoke.
“Hey!” Gennel exclaimed.
“Hey, y’all. Fancy seeing you basketball players at a football game,” Braelyn announced.
Keith smiled. “It’s homecoming. And we support all of our fellow athletes.”
“Hi, Jalen,” Jessica spoke in a sultry voice.
I had no idea why she liked him. He always came off as arrogant and entitled.
I hated that for her because Jalen never gave her much attention.
She’d be talking to him, and his attention would be on everything but her.
I’d witnessed it too many times and even told her she should find someone else to like, but she was too in love with his ass to notice his disinterest.
“What up, Ms. Bougie Ass? You can’t speak?” Lamar asked, tugging at one of the braids I had gotten done over the weekend by a student on campus.
I turned my head and gave him a nasty look. “Please do not touch me.”
“Why you gotta act like that? I ain’t ya enemy, shorty.”
I shook my head and put my attention back on the field. “I beg to differ.”
“How so?”
“I don’t give explanations on things that don’t matter. We’re not friends, so there’s no sense in talking to me. Just enjoy the game, and continue to act like I’m not here. Thank you.”
“Damn. Do you always act like a bitch? I don’t see what the homie sees in you. Must be the pussy because your attitude is pure shit.” I could hear the asshole crew chuckling behind me.
I turned to him fully. “No, what’s pure shit is the vagina you keep sliding in and out of every day.” Braelyn, Jess, and Gennel laughed loudly as I grabbed my snacks and stood. I could see the evil smirk on Lamar’s face as he chuckled mirthlessly.
“I bet you won’t say that to her face. All that mouth but run scared every time she flame your ass.”
“Run? Scared?” I chuckled. “I ain’t never ran from a ho, and I damn sure won’t pick today to start.”
“Mar, chill. Lilo told us to stop fucking with his shorty,” Keith reminded him. Lamar’s face twisted as he looked at me.
“That nigga ain’t my daddy. Even if he was, he still wouldn’t be able to tell me what to do. All I did was speak to her, and she giving me attitude like I betrayed her or some shit.”
“As if. I don’t like you or the company you keep. You’re disrespectful and an asshole and been one since I met you. That’s why I don’t care to speak to your ass. Ladies, I’m going to find somewhere else to sit. Meet me after the game,” I told them.
“We’re coming with you,” Braelyn said, standing. As I moved to find another spot to sit on the overcrowded bleachers, I felt a strong hand grab my arm. I looked at Lamar’s hand on me in disgust, then yanked my arm out of his grasp.
He looked at me smugly. “I hope you know you don’t mean shit to him.
You’re just something to do until he graduates and goes off to the league.
So don’t get too comfortable. He may act as if he hates her, but Nia Armstrong got that nigga’s heart and his baby.
That’s a spot you’ll never be able to compete with or compare to. ”
We stared at each other for what seemed like forever until Braelyn nudged me.
“Let’s go. Lamar, you’re such a jerk!”
“Damn, bro. You cold as fuck,” Jalen said, chuckling.
He shrugged. “I’m just telling sis what it is.”
Without another word, I walked off, creating a big distance between the asshole crew and me.
“Don’t listen to him, Piper. That nigga just mad he wasn’t the one to get you,” Gennel said.
“Exactly. Forget him, Piper. He sounds like he has a lot of jealousy in his heart,” Braelyn countered.
I scoffed. “Please. I ain’t worried about his ass.
Fuck him and the dirty pussy he slid out of.
” I may have acted unbothered, but the truth was I was bothered as fuck.
I knew it was nothing but my own insecurities that made what the asshole said hit home.
I already felt out of Khalil’s league, but I was trying every day not to let his status get to me.
I hated to admit it, but Lamar’s ugly ass was right.
Nia had his baby, something I didn’t have with him and something that would always guarantee her place in his life.
What if he decided to work it out with her?
Where would that leave me? Nia was beautiful—a little thrown off, but beautiful, nonetheless.
I saw how emotional she was at the restaurant.
She loved him, and maybe, in some twisted way, he loved her too.
“Piper?” Braelyn called out to me, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Yeah?”
“Fuck what he said. Do not let that get to you.”
“I’m good. I promise.”
She looked at me for a moment before nodding and turning her attention to the game.
Just a couple more months, and the students of True State University can kiss my fat, round ass.