Chapter 1 #3
“Damn, Harbor, you got a nigga ready to bust through his fucking shorts, shorty.” His lips brushed against the lobe of my ear, and I felt this tingling ripple through my loins.
“When you gon’ give a nigga what he been waiting for?
” His hand slipped between my thighs, and I sucked in a deep breath as his fingers brushed against my wet lower lips.
“Hmm, never know. Tonight might be the night,” I whispered in response, and he drew his face back from mine.
His dark, almond orbs bounced around curiously into mine and one of his brows hiked up questionably. “Word?” he queried, half smiling back at me.
“What if we went back to your place tonight after the party?” I suggested, arms hooked behind his neck while we swayed side to side with one another.
“Shit… we can walk out this bitch right now,” he replied, licking his full lips and making my sex thump anxiously in the middle.
I snickered and dropped my forehead against his. “I need to use the bathroom and find Harmonie. I’ll let her know what’s going on and then meet you on the porch. Is that okay?” I tested him as I slightly pulled away from him.
He cupped my chin and crashed his lips into mine in the softest kiss. Every touch from him set me on fire.
“Hurry back,” Lock insisted, tucking his bottom lip sexily between his teeth.
I went off in search of the bathroom and located it pretty quickly.
There was a line to go inside, so I sat back, bouncing from foot to foot outside the door behind a few other people.
Finally, after about five minutes, I was able to relieve myself.
I washed my hands, fixed my hair in the mirror, and left out.
Nearly getting ran over by some girl who looked like she had too many, I quickly dodged her and headed for the staircase to go back downstairs.
Ironically, Harmonie was coming up the stairs with some dude when she spotted me.
“Hey!” She was loud, so I knew that she was drunk.
The guy with her was looking me up and down with an odd expression too. He was just her type. Probably some rich jock that was heading to the NBA or NFL as soon as he got a chance.
“Jared, this is my sister. Harbor, this is Jared.” Harmonie introduced us.
“Hey. I am going to be heading out with Lock. You gonna be good?” I questioned her.
“Yeah… fine,” she responded as Jared began pulling her arm along toward a bedroom door. “Just call me and let me know you’re good later.”
“Okay. Have fun,” I said as they disappeared through the door together.
I didn’t know Jared, but Harmonie was able to hold her liquor better than anyone, so I wasn’t too concerned with her getting home.
From the top of the stairs, I could see Alba standing with Lock at the door, and it looked to me like they were in the middle of a heated discussion.
They were always fighting about one thing or another.
I descended the staircase, and they hadn’t budged from near the doorway.
With the music and the packed space, neither of them even saw me coming.
“I thought we came to party. Now all of a sudden you trying to slide out of here with Harbor like I didn’t come here because you wanted to drag me out.
I was content with being at home and eating junk food in front of the TV.
” She tucked her arms across her chest with attitude and I saw Lock tighten up and sigh heavily.
“I know, but she wants to chill now. I mean… we made an appearance. I can drop you off on the way to the crib,” Lock explained and she turned her nose up.
“Drop me off? I thought I was staying with you tonight and we were going to hang out.”
“Yeah, but me and Harbor are going to need some alone time,” Lock said, running his hand down his Caesar cut.
“We all hang out all the time, Lock. What’s different about tonight?” she queried, and when he didn’t answer, she must have realized why.
“Hey!” I interrupted their conversation on purpose and threw my arms across Lock’s shoulders. “You ready?” I questioned, looking back and forth between them.
Alba perked up like she hadn’t been pouting to him before I popped up. Lock grabbed my arm and brought me in front of him. He hugged up to me from behind and peered at her over my shoulder with his arms snug around me.
“Hell yeah I am. I was just trying to see if Alba was riding with us or if she wanted to catch a ride with Harmonie when she leaves,” Lock voiced, and both of my brows went up.
He was lying, and I knew it, but I wasn’t going to call him out in front of Alba right then.
I could see behind her somber gaze that she wasn’t feeling anything that Lock had just told her, and she knew very well what we were on our way to his apartment to do.
Like I said, they were like Frick and Frack.
They grew up together and lived on the same block all their lives.
I knew the bond that they shared, and most of the time, I tried not to let it get to me because Lock always made me feel secure, whether Alba was around or not.
“I’ll ride,” Alba mumbled.
“A’ight. I’m about to go and take a piss. Just meet me at the car.” Lock went into his pocket for the keys and slid them into my hand as he pulled away from me. His soft lips swept the side of my face, and my heart skipped a few beats.
After all the time together, this was the first time I felt remotely close to wanting to give him the goods.
Listening to his conversation with Alba though, I couldn’t help but wonder if the nature of their relationship was blossoming into something else.
Insecurity plagued me because there was no fucking way that I could compete with history.
Lock took off up the staircase, and I watched him for a second before facing Alba.
“Come on, let’s foot it. I know he parked miles away,” I kidded, and she cracked a reluctant grin.
“So you really thinking about fucking him tonight?” Alba questioned, both brows raising questionably.
Unsure how to answer that, I frowned. I knew that she and Lock were friends long before I came along, and there probably wasn’t anything they didn’t keep from one another.
It was no secret that I was a virgin; the shit was pretty obvious.
If someone talked about sex too long around me, my awkwardness all but gave it away.
We fell in stride together toward the porch, and Alba seemed like she wished to be anywhere but there with me.
Sometimes she acted like we were friends, and then I got the feeling that she felt like I was stepping on her toes when it came to my relationship with Lock.
“Damn, Alba. That’s not even your business,” I rebutted as we strolled the sidewalk together.
Alba continued to keep up with me, but she wouldn’t look at me any further. “It’s a simple question,” she replied, shrugging.
“We’ve been together for two years. I have made him wait long enough I think,” I voiced, not liking whatever the fuck she was insinuating.
That was why I didn’t fuck with this kind of shit or believe in that platonic friendship shit. I always thought along the way that things turned into some other shit on one or both ends. Alba never gave me a reason to really think so until now.
“As long as you’re ready,” she muttered, arms tucked across her B-cup breasts.
It was starting to nip in the air a little, so I embraced myself and gazed around as we continued down the sidewalk.
There was a big, white van parked with a bunch of stickers and graffiti all over it.
We were just passing it by when it caught my attention.
I thought it was odd because it looked like some old, beat-up shit that didn’t belong around here.
That, along with the chill I suddenly got, sent this eeriness that swiped my entire spine and made goose bumps pop up all over my arms. It wasn’t that damn cold, but my gut also started doing some serious lurches.
“What’s really your issue, Alba? I thought we were friends.” I stopped walking to confront her.
The vibes she was giving weren’t friendly at all. She whirled around, her wild curls blowing in the wind when she did so.
“We are friends, Harbor. But he’s also my friend. Lock and I have known each other since we were seven years old,” Alba said, agitated by my question apparently. “My issue isn’t with you either. It’s with him.”
“Why?” I asked, sneering at her.
She stared back at me blankly, like she knew I wouldn’t like whatever she had to say.
Rolling her eyes back in her head, she sighed and shook it back and forth.
“You wouldn’t understand. You don’t come from where we come from.
You have both of your parents, and they love and care about you.
You’ve lived in the same house probably most, if not all, your life.
We’re not the same, Harbor.” Alba looked me up and down with resentment.
“Okay, well, if that’s how you feel— “
“It’s how he feels too!” She waved toward the house down the street where the party was only growing rowdier. “He won’t say it, because he does care about you. And I don’t hate you. I think you are smart and pretty, and you’re not stuck-up or no shit like that. You’re cool.”
“I’m just not like you because I wasn’t raised in the hood or none of that?
I’m still a black woman in America, Alba.
Do you understand that? I still have struggles and downfalls and dysfunction like everyone else.
So because my parents aren’t addicts or drug dealers, I’m not relatable to you?
” My brows dipped heavily above my eyes because I was that fucking pissed off.
How dare she tell me that my life was a rosy ass daydream when it was anything but? She didn’t know shit about me, and based off what I was perceiving right now, I knew why. Lowering both eyes into tiny slits, I titled my head to the side and looked her dead in hers.