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I’d zoned out, the familiarity of this rite of passage sending my thoughts into the past, to my own Romey U graduation and the bullshit that immediately followed it, causing the names being called over the PA system to sound muddled as my knee bounced and I picked at a piece of loose skin by my thumbnail. When my mom nudged me, my head snapped in her direction.
“Wake up, boy,” she hissed. “They’re doing the School of Music now and I don’t want you to miss Brooklyn’s name. Cake told me she might not have much family here today.”
I nodded, deciding against muttering that I wasn’t asleep. It didn’t matter anyway. I was glad for the heads up and sad about her family possibly not being here, but maybe they had to work or something. In our talks, she’d never had much to say about her family. I just knew she’d grown up poor and without her father. I also knew they’d reconnected when she started college.
When I finally heard, “Brooklyn Skye White,” I lost my entire damn mind, screamed her name to the point that my ass was hoarse. Her head snapped up and I started waving my arms. The smile she gave me made my big ass melt into a puddle right there on those bleachers.
Nadia’s motherthrew a graduation party for Nadia that night at her house and I was invited along with my mom and Rabbit. The house was small, so the party was an intimate affair. I’d texted Brooklyn after graduation but didn’t get a reply, and an hour into the party, she hadn’t shown up.
I was about to ask my sister about her when I heard my mom ask, “Is Brooklyn coming?”
She was sitting on the sofa. I was across from her sitting in a dining room chair, one of many that’s been placed in the living room for guests. Music played as I awaited an answer along with my mother—something by Toni Braxton. I didn’t know who my mom had asked and I didn’t care. All I cared about was the answer.
“No. I tried to get her to come but her mom and aunt both showed up to graduation, which would’ve been great if her mom hadn’t cussed her aunt out afterwards for being there,” my sister answered.
“Really? What is going on with those two?” Mama asked.
“A lot of bad blood, apparently,” Sharla said.
I sat there for thirty more minutes, itching to leave, but it was my sister’s party too. How was it going to look for me to leave? So, I stayed another hour before babbling some lie about a headache and left, heading to campus where I knew she was still staying.
BROOKLYN
Vann:I’m downstairs. Come let me in the building.
My eyes ballooned as I read the text message. Scrambling from bed, I didn’t think to check myself in a mirror. Instead, I shoved my feet in my flip flops, grabbed my key, rushed out of my room. Kitt Hall was like a ghost town with most of the residents at one graduation party or another. Many of the seniors, including my roommate for that year, had already moved out even though we still had a week to stay here if we needed to.
Too anxious to take the elevator, I shot down flights of stairs, my breathing labored when I finally made it to the locked front doors. I stopped short of opening them, taking time to watch him as he stood with his back to me. The light post near the door illuminated him in his jeans and white t-shirt. I could tell his hair was shorter, the curls blanketing his head noticeably cropped. He turned, not seeing me standing at the tinted glass door at first, so I observed him a bit longer. So tall and wide and…beautiful. I’d missed him. Scattered calls and texts hadn’t been enough. At that point, I wasn’t sure if anything would be enough when it came to Vann London.
His eyes lit with recognition as they collided with mine, a broad smile spreading across his face.
“Hey,” he said through the door.
I smiled, returned his greeting. “Hey.”
Tilting his head to the side, he asked, “You gon’ let me in?”
I nodded, pushing the door open. He stepped into the building, stopping right in front of me as the door whooshed closed. Neither of us spoke a word, but I could feel the energy crackling between us. This thing, this explosive connection we shared, was stifling and fulfilling all at once. It was so good; I didn’t want to share it with anyone. Not my friends, not even my dear aunt Britta. It was the best thing I had in my life, the best thing I’d ever had besides Sharla’s and Nadia’s friendship, and at that moment, I wanted to feel it, to experience it again.
So, I kissed him, soft and slow at first, a sweet reunion of the separated halves of a whole. It didn’t take long for a flame to ignite, though, and for both of us to forget where we were as hands explored and tongues collided. I wrapped my legs around his waist, moaning when his big hands gripped my ass. Then we were moving as he carried me somewhere. I didn’t care about the destination as long as it involved him being inside me at some point because after the day I’d had, I needed that. I really, really needed it.
And he did not disappoint me.
He stopped moving and ceased kissing me. When he sat me down on…something, I opened my eyes to find myself perched on the front desk in the lobby situated in a corner. The front of the desk was visible through the front door, but Vann didn’t seem to care as he unfastened his pants, his eyes glued to me. I thought to take my shorts and underwear off and was soon bare-assed on the desk. Then his dick was free and I swear every part of my body began to weep with anticipation. He kissed me again; then he was inside me. The feeling of our bodies connecting pulled sighs from both of us. He gripped my ass tightly, rocking into me deeper and deeper. The campus police could’ve come in there and shone a spotlight on us and I wouldn’t have noticed. All there was, was our bodies and the fire we made. All I felt was the familiar bliss he induced. All I wanted, cared about, was him.
I threw my head back, overwrought with pleasure as my core began to shudder. At the same time, his teeth sank into my neck as he grunted, “I love you. I love you…”
VANN
“Why didn’t you come to the party?” I asked into the darkness of her dorm room. We were lying in her tiny bed with me taking up most of the room. Her back was against the wall as we faced each other, clothes still on, covers on the floor.
“Didn’t feel like it,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
“My sister told me about your mom and aunt. Family bullshit is the worst.”
“Yeah. My mom hates my aunt, was mad I’d invited her to my graduation. I love them both, but I also understand both sides of their story. I’m not angry at either of them. I’m just sad things are the way they are. The whole thing just…it made it hard to want to celebrate, especially since I’ll be moving back in with my mother in a few days and the magic of Romey U will forever be gone for me.”
“You’re not starting grad school right away like Cake and Nadia?”
