Brown Skin

Autumn Dupont

“Okay, thank you so much. I’m so pleased that our services were suited to your taste. It’s a pleasure to have you and we’ll see you soon.” Like a young child, who found a brand new shiny toy, I carelessly twisted, turned, and halfway glided to and from Isaac’s desk in his ridiculously comfortable ergonomic leather executive chair. It’s high back and soft head rest had been my source of comfort more than half of the day as he busily moved in and out of meetings throughout the morning. He summoned me from my position at the service desk with a polite plea for help that I hadn’t been expecting and yet couldn’t turn down. The rare occurrence of him properly and humbly asking me for something took me for a loop; hell, Rachel too. His mood change may possibly be attributed to he and Lauren’s budding embryo or maybe he’s finally respecting the work ethic that I’ve brought forth since he threw me a bone by giving me this job. Either way, I have no complains because I’ve become exhausted with the back and forth tension between he and I. Despite our lack of proper conversations to get to the root of his issues with me, I don’t see why he and I shouldn’t find a way to bring about peace within our relationship as siblings. I’ve already lost one brother and though Isaac may not realize it, he is and has always been dear to my heart. No matter what, I’ll have his back and if necessary, will go to war for him. We’ve always been taught to protect one another in this world and that’s a rule that I haven’t and will never give up on.

“Get out.” The bass in Isaac’s tone startled me as I placed the receiver to his desk phone back on it’s base. Okay maybe I’m jumping the gun about the shift in his personality.

Her eyes ran over his tall frame as her face screwed up in disbelief. If he called himself missing her with that display of behavior she was good. Her arms folded across her chest as she spoke up.

“Do you really because that wasn’t the impression I was under when I reached out and you totally disregarded me?”

She was still hurt by that. Finally deciding to wave the white flag and thinking they were on the same page only for him to falsely pull her in her and then shoot when she least expected.

“No one disregarded you. I heard you loud and clear I just needed time.”

Her fist clenched ever so slightly as her eyes narrowed sending a mean glare his way. If looks could kill Tremaine Neverson would be six feet under.

“Oh so now that you’ve had your time we just go back to how it was?” She asked, the attitude clear in voice.

“Chill with that shit.” Trey spoke, attempting to nip the impending argument in the bud. This wasn’t his intention. He didn’t want to argue. He simply wanted to clear the air and potentially move forward but that looked like a task that may not get completed if Kelly kept on. “You think I wasn’t hurt by what went down? You flaunting that fuck boy around. Papparazzi in my face on some bullshit? Trying to talk about I was acting out because I was heart broken. So m-”

“Well were you?” Kelly asked cutting him off. Although she wasn’t supposed to be checking for him she still did. She remembered the headlines she saw the videos of him fighting and being out of character. So many times she had picked up her iPhone to call him or even his mother, but she’d always back out. That wasn’t suppose to be her place or her business. She was no longer obligated to be Tremaine’s peace.

“What you think?” He asked deflecting. He wouldn’t say she was a direct cause of his behavior but he had his moments where she consumed his mental and he’d lost it, but he didn’t want to admit that to himself much less her. That admittance might only guilt trip here and that was the last thing he wanted.

“Look.” He spoke. “I’m telling you straight up I miss you. I’m not saying we have to be together cause I don’t know if I’m ready for that but before this fall out and all this drama. We were friends Kels. I miss being able to just talk to you about whatever and whenever.”

Her hands fell from her chest as her gaze faltered to the ground. She knew exactly what he meant. Too many times something good happened she found herself wanting to share it with him, but then she remembered their current state and quickly found herself running to someone else, the person she should’ve been running too.

“I know.” She said. “I’ve missed you too Trey, probably a lot more than I’ve let on.” A sigh pushed past her lips.

“What do we do now?” She asked, looking up at him. “We’re not the same people we were a couple years ago.”

That was putting it mildly. There were some things not even the public knew and she didn’t know if the time would could where she felt comfortable enough to reveal those things to Trey.

“Friends. We go back to what we were before we complicated it with I loves yous and mind blowing sex.”

Kelly Rowland & Delta Goodrem - “I’m Every Woman” Live on The Voice Australia 2018

Dante St. James

Upon slipping the other Air Jordan I sneaker onto my foot, I glanced towards the slightly uncovered enormous window and glossed my eyes over the unrivaled Los Angeles skyline. Though there’s is no way possible it can complete with New York City’s and the view of it I have from my own bedroom, it did a decent enough job in relaxing my body and allowing my mind to focus on the hectic day ahead. I’d made it through a mental rundown of this afternoon’s tasks before the stirring between the sheets of the canopy style California King Bed abruptly interrupted my thought process and completely captured my attention. As the rays of the sun subtly peaked through the curtain’s opening, they cascaded over her ever smooth skin and illuminated her nudity and the top sheet that barely covered it. I froze; partially because I didn’t want to awaken her but most of all, because it’s become a normal response to the breathtaking sight that I can’t quite get enough of or used to.

Autumn Dupont

My eyes glanced over my iPhone as the clock struck just past nine fifteen AM and I huffed at the seemingly endless mess surrounding me. I somehow fooled myself into believing that opening up a shitload of boxes on a hunt for fall and winter wear that I barely have would be fairly easy and now I’m sitting around surrounded by piles of garment bags that I refuse to carry upstairs and even more to pack away yet again. I’d been considering putting all of this in storage because my bedroom closet doesn’t even half a quarter of the space that I need for most of this but the storage process would have worsened my struggle. Instead, I’ve slightly taken over my father’s basement man cave with his blessing of course, and I find myself down here searching for one or more items every other day. Spending damn near five years of my life in Miami left me with no need to buy what North Eastern residents consider to be real fall attire and now I have to spend a good amount of money to keep myself warm and out of doctors offices this winter. For the two years I’ve been back home, my mother chose to do most of my shopping. I couldn’t care less about what I had on for as long as I had a coat to go on my back, but now I need a bit of a variety that suits my own taste but with moderation. There will be Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Balmain, Saint Laurent, Dolce & Gabbana, or Balenciaga visits. I certainly cannot afford to splurge on it. It’ll be more of the likes of H&M, Forever 21, and a few reasonable online stores I’ve take a liking to. Maybe I’ll buy myself one item on the higher end of fashion as a birthday present to myself. There’s a pair of Casadei boots that I daydream about daily.

“You’re going to come up for breakfast right? I decided to go a bit southern today with fried fish and cheese grits. We have eggs and your favorite biscuits. Lauren’s bringing an ambrosia salad.” I didn’t bother turning around at the sound of her voice as she slowly made her way down the stairs. Instead I was trying to figure out why I pretended to like the limited edition Hermes “Kelly” bag Andreas gifted to me days after our fourth wedding anniversary. In all honesty, I think I was far more excited about him actually putting forth the effort to buy me something than I was about the bag. Now that I’m staring at it, the bag is more of my mother’s taste than my own. His forty thousand dollars sat on display in the closet from the time I received it.