Leopard Tears (Part 3)
A couple of days later, I eventually met up with Nathan again to mingle with him about more stuff. We just pretty much asked each other a lot of questions about our favorite things. What shows we liked to watch, what foods we crave eating, what our home life was like. Nathan’s interests were pretty much in the same vein, but his home life differed greatly from mine, which I was totally prepared for.
For starters, he was raised in a majority-white suburb with his mother and father. His mother works as an at-home consultant while his father works as executive at a production company called Ale Griffin Entertainment. If it wasn’t for his baseball dream, he would become co-partner of the company, which I don’t think any typical only child would want. There was a moment in time where I wanted to work for my father in his music shop. Collecting and listening to the vinyl records, sifting through rare classics like the first Illmatic CD print. I’m forever grateful I didn’t go down that route, even if the vinyl’s grooves were slick and devine.
It’s been a couple hours by now, a portion of it spent eating subway sandwiches and the rest of it spent just talking about our past lives. Nothing was too opinionated with the both of us and majority of our interests really linked. There are countless times within the conversation where I get excited when he says stuff like “I still watch Spongebob from time to time”. Hey, you cannot deny the quality of that show. We also both aren’t fond of the later seasons. So, here we are just walking the plaza down to his next class. He had his hands in his pockets listening to what I explaining about my art process. “My process of art is pretty random in a sense. One day, I find myself working by splashing a can of paint on a canvas. Other days, I start with a streak and then build from there.”
“That’s really cool, bro. I need to see that artwork in person one of these days. You know, just to see your process.”
“Oh, sure. You can come see it anytime. I love sharing art with people.”
“Where do you live?”
“You know these apartments called the Northends?”
“The ones up the street over there?” He pointed his thumb behind him to the direction where I live.
“Yep. I live in Apartment 12B, and that’s like the first section to the right side.” We walked in front of the P. Langston building of science where his class was located. I know I probably had to work on the project once I got home, but seeing how Nathan asked where I live, he might try to visit me after his practice. “Dang. It seems like we walked here quick. I swear, the plaza feels like it gets shorter by the minute.”
“Yeah, we’re so used to walking on it we got those roadrunner legs. But hey, I appreciate the walk and talk, man. One more class and then I’m off-scot free. Well, until practice.” Another fist bump to both of our hands.
“Oh, yeah. Good talk, good talk, dude. Hope your practice goes well for tonight. Land the pitches, get bitches. I’m just playing.” He cackled so hard at my joke he almost fell over. “I’ll see you later.”
“See you—see you later,” he struggled to utter. He could barely catch his breath even after going up the steps into the building.
I was heading back up the plaza the opposite way to go to my car. All I needed was a good rest before any other event, and plus this Mississippi heat is draining me. Coming from the left side, I saw Jaycen coming towards me. He was wearing his dark hoodie with a pair of shorts and compression pants. I almost didn’t notice that it was him, wearing all that ominous gear like he tryna rob someone. He spoke in a low but assertive tone. “Why are you not answering my calls, Lucky?”
I turned to him and lied with a straight face. “I had to restart my phone. It was acting up the day before.”
“Why didn’t you call me back? I told you I needed to tell you something important.” He looked around the plaza and noticed that the students were getting out of their classes. “Come with me.”
Honestly, I can never tell what is roaming in his mind. He has always been hard to pinpoint ever since I took that World Lit class with him. However, I always knew that within his eye contact he has taken an affection towards me. He could denounce as many times he wants to with a girl and all that. He can’t deny what we did that night when he visited my apartment. And I don’t even like flinging with people who are in relationships.
He ended up taking me into an empty bathroom up some stairs. We went to the very back of the bathroom so that nobody near the door can hear the convo. “What was it you wanted to tell me?”
“Is it true that you do porn?”
Oh, that’s what he was trying to tell me. I wouldn’t call it…well, I guess it is that. My throat tightened up a little bit but I told him the truth. “Yes, I do.”
He looked so disappointed in me. He rubbed his face and turned towards the wall. “You know I don’t like you doing that shit. What made you even think about considering that?”
“Why does it matter to you, man? You have a whole girlfriend that you were with. You should just focus on her.”
“We broke up during the pandemic.”
Damn. I didn’t even put two and two together. During our break-off, he said he needed to focus more on his relationship, his “false monogamy” in my opinion. That’s probably why he’s been reaching out to me a lot more this semester. “Look, I’m sorry about what happened between the two of you, but you were good when you were just focusing on football.”
“Yeah, I’m good on the field, but that doesn’t mean I don’t need someone to talk to. You’re a good friend, Lucky. A good motivator. I needed that.”
“I’m here whenever you need to lean on someone. I’m not taking that away as long as you don’t let me. But why don’t you want me to continue this side gig?”
“The more people find out about you, the more people not gonna take you serious.”
“Have you seen the content I post?”
“No, I just heard this rumor.”
“You wanna see?” I started rubbing my crotch slowly, making it hard. He looked down at it and glared up at me.
“I mean—whatchu mean,” he asked me with a softer tone in his voice. I walked up closer to him while he never took his eyes off of me. Licking his lips in temptation, balling up his fists. I stopped rubbing my bulge and started fondling his. He tilted his head up and closed his eyes, moaning through his clutched lips. “Lucky.” He grabbed the hand I was rubbing him with and lightly pushed it back. “I gotta go to practice. Think about what I said.”
He walked away from me, adjusting his shorts first and then leaving out. I just stood there, my hormones dying down and distraught. He knew he wanted it, but I sure wasn’t gonna give it to him. I don’t think he knows how good Flixxn is working out for me. And maybe I am being a little naive, but I’d want to take this risk and see how the road goes. Ain’t so bad in hitting my head on concrete, something that’s yet to be achieved in that business.
**There's an alternate version I made on the sly if y'all want that too. It features another sequence with Jaycen and Lucky in the bathroom.**
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