* All characters in this story are of legal age. *
"WAKE UP JALEEL!!"
"HUH?!!" I was jolted awake finding myself looking at Ricky's face. My heart leapt into my throat with an audible hiccup before I realized I wasn't still in his sister's bed.
"Come on man, we 've gotta hit the road or we'll be late for school!" He helped me sit up on the couch as I recalled crashing from exertion and raw emotion into the early hours of the morning.
"Hope?" His hand collided with the base of my skull in a disparaging slap as he tossed a shirt in my lap dragging me off the couch intent on getting me to his bathroom.
"She's gone back to college, texted me this morning before she noped out. Come on bro, you gotta wash up!!" I was shoved into the bathroom before Ricky slammed the door shut going about his business.
I instantly felt a pang of emotion at her absence remembering the unwanted words of sage advice that followed a night that should've been one for the cannon. Part of me wished she'd never shared those aspects of her sexual history, but it seemed cathartic for Holly Arias. She was helping herself as much as me. She wanted to everything wipe clean somehow. It also explained her determination to invade her little brother's circle since returning home.
Hope was reeling from tragedy and a decision that was shaking the foundations of her being. Somehow, my own situation triggered this overwhelming maternal instinct that made her want to smother the vestiges of Kimberly Bivens out of me. Holly wanted to wipe her clean from me, physically and spiritually. I wondered if she would be able to move past the affair with her professor.
"HEY JALEEL, HURRY IT THE FUCK UP; WE GOTTA GO, MAN!!" Ricky's voice intruded through the door. Luckily, I still had some clothing over his home from previous sleepovers when we were gaming. Our peers were quick to notice repeat fashion choices and I didn't want to be heckled.
Ricky drove like a beast while I remained zoned out replaying my wild night with his older sister. She was on a whole other level from Kimberly Bivens physically speaking. Whereas my former "girlfriend" was slim, deceptively curvy, and sleek; Hope Arias was definitively in the early stages of becoming voluptuous. That visual esthetic that a lot of brothers would kill for in no uncertain terms. She was light honey, pretty face, hellacious hips, and ass. The fact that she could cook and fuck like a wild beast was an added plus.
"Jaleel, I know what you did with my sister."
"HUH?!!" I flinched in my seat riding shotgun to school as Ricky side eyed me. It was overcast and rainy outside, a perfect setting for some bullshit.
"Man, you gotta be more responsible; I don't like taking shit to a friend, my best friend and all. You didn't have to stay up gaming all night with my sister." My raised brows and shocked expression obviously went over his clueless head.
"Yeah, uhm sorry I got caught up."
"You were knocked out cold; if you hadn't woke up, I was gonna pour a pot of cold water on your face."
"You would've got knocked out too, fool!"
"Fuck you man." We playfully traded horseplay punched to each other's shoulders as we neared the school.
I stared ahead out the window noticing a caravan of three school buses in front of our school. There were crowds of students milling about as we pulled up behind a few cars waiting to pull into the student parking lot.
"What's going on out here?"
"Damn man, Kimberly really got your head screwed up; it's a game day. A really big game day and some people are leaving for a half day. Speaking of your malicious better half, here man." Ricky produced my phone from his pocket.
"What're you doing with my phone?"
"Hope left it on the coffee table and before you ask; no, I didn't look at the video of your girl twerking that ass. It's locked; that's some foul shit right there Jaleel. I thought we people, man."
"I don't lock my phone." I tried to open my phone finding it indeed, locked. Ricky's aloof older sister was obviously the culprit, but I didn't understand her reasoning.
"Hope is a fucking weirdo; I'm gonna call her and get the lock code."
"Yeah." I wondered why she'd gone to the trouble of locking my phone. It didn't make sense. I figured it was part of her plan to discourage me from obsessing over my ex-girlfriend.
We were finally able to turn into the school parking lot finding it difficult because of the students milling about. School spirit was deceptively the culprit, but truthfully days like these were used by many to hook up. I'd hooked up with Kimberly on one such day months earlier. Unfortunately, it turned out to be glorified fooling around only after I'd been tricked into going shopping with her at a mall. Her real friends chickened out leaving me as her default ride or die. I chafed at the memory recalling the sight of her in stark white demi cup brassiere and bikini panties. I chaffed at the thought realizing she'd been wearing part of that ensemble when I discovered her cheating.
"EARTH TO JALEEL!!" Ricky snapped his fingers right in front of my face, getting me out of the memory.
"What, Ricky?"
"Get out." He deadpanned as I realized we were parked.
I had zoned out and staring at his face brought up guilty feelings of sleeping with his sister during the night. I felt several pangs of guilt wash over me as he pushed his driver's side door open. The parking lot school entrance was congested with people, but our collective hearts skipped a beat at the sight to the football team members holding court on either side of the double doors. Light flecks of rain were starting to fall as we queued up behind our peers waiting to enter the building. Some of those assholes were selectively singling out victims with slaps to the backs of their necks while some girls laughed.
"Fuck that noise." Ricky was wearing a big, fluffy Howard University hoodie which he used to cover his head. I was screwed personally speaking but resolved to hold the line instead of falling to my old standby of going into another entrance.
"OWWW!!" A hand collided with the back of my neck before I even got close to the entrance. I instinctively whipped about finding Charmaine, Treena and some other members of the cheerleading squad I didn't know.
"WHAT, YOU GOTTA PROBLEM, SNITCH?!!" This aggressive women didn't miss a beat since our initial flare up one day prior. She looked to be spoiling for a fight.
"No, why you hitting me?"
Treena snickered like the weaselly jackal she was reminding why I hated these two types of bullies. The worst type of bully always showed up with a second who would usually do most of the instigating while getting none of the blow back. Today was no different.
"You in the way, SNITCH!!" Charmaine swiped me aside roughly continuing onward with her duck-like entourage in tow.
It chaffed my ego, but I was glad we hadn't come to blows. I glanced back finding the reason for her sudden departure in the nearby presence of one of the female gym teachers. This particular teacher was in charge of the cheerleading team.