BMOC Chapter 20
Bruce emerged from his room around noon Saturday, wearing only a pair of dark plaid boxers. His throat was dry and he had the munchies, but all the weed he had smoked earlier had made him too lazy to throw on his clothes and go to the dining hall for brunch. Instead, he headed for the vending machines on the first floor. He closed his door behind him, yawned, then proceeded toward the stairway door.
"Off to start shit early today, huh Bruce?"
The voice came from the sofa in the lounge area near the exit. Slowly, Dre eased up from a reclined position on the sofa. Bruce flinched. He was having a nightmare, surely, he thought.
Dre stood up, hands in his pockets. Experience had taught him that encounters with Bruce had the potential to turn explosive, and he was being cautious. He wanted to be prepared in case anything happened.
"What's the matter, Bruce? Not happy to see a brotha?"
"What the fuck are you doing here?" The sharpness of Bruce’s tone carried down the hall.
Dre sauntered out of the lounge area, past Bruce and toward his room. "Visiting. My brother goes to school here and this is family weekend, remember?" Without permission or so much as a knock, Dre opened the door to Bruce’s room and went inside. Seconds later, a perplexed Bruce joined him. Dre was lying suggestively on Bruce’s bed. "Too bad we never got a chance to roll around in this bed. But, that probably wouldn't have been good anyway. We had a bad habit of breaking beds, remember?"
Bruce’s thoughts turned to the previous summer, a summer filled with so much sex between himself and Dre, it could have been a top-selling porn movie. He had to admit. Dre's ass was perfect for fucking. Tight, with the kind of muscle control that could make a brotha lose his sense of reason, not to mention his nut, in a matter of minutes. It had driven Bruce to distraction, obsession, and possession. Yet, too much had changed between them. He didn't trust Dre; he couldn’t forget that it was Dre who had handcuffed him, nude, to a bed and caused him much embarrassment and shame.
"What the fuck you want?" he asked again.
Dre leaned back on his elbows, his eyes zooming over Bruce’s dark plaid boxers.
"You sure you want to know the answer to that, Bruce?"
Bruce felt a stirring down below. He folded his arms against his bare chest and gave Dre a lustful look. Dre raised up, laughing. "Got your mind in the gutter as usual, Bruce. You must be tripping if you think I came up here to get some."
"You have before." Bruce smirked, recalling the afternoon Dre popped up, and blew him.
"Look, I'm only going to say this once, so it would do you good to listen," Dre said. “You almost ruined my life. I was weak. You took advantage of that, so I know what you're capable of, Bruce. I know you get off on fucking up the lives of everybody around you, but when you start fucking with people I care about, then you start fucking with me again, and that's a mistake you don't want to make."
Bruce chuckled. "Is that supposed to be a threat, kid?"
"No, I'm promising that if you mess with Chase, you will regret it."
Bruce’s head jerked back in surprise. "What you know about Chase?"
"I know that he's unhappy and I know that it's because of you."
"What? Get the fuck out of here! You just making shit up off the top of your head. The last time I saw Chase, he was flat on his back moaning like a bitch with half my hand up his ass! If he’s unhappy, it sure ain't cause of me."
Dre's pulse raced. Chase had said nothing happened between he and Bruce. Bruce was implying something entirely different. Dre walked toward the door. "Look, Chase doesn't want anything to do with you, Bruce. If it weren't for you, he and my brother would be handling their business as we speak."
"Chase and Jay?" Bruce broke into a smile. "What you been smoking, kid? I want some of that shit cuz it must be good!"
"Think what you want, but I'm telling you what I know," Dre replied. "Just leave him alone, Bruce. Let Chase be."
"Don't tell me what to do!" Bruce’s anger flared hot and heavy. He was still ticked by Chase’s sudden disappearance from his room and now here was a ghost from his past, telling him that Chase didn't want anything to do with him. It was more than his oversized ego could take in an afternoon. "I don’t take orders from nobody, especially not from no knob slobbing bitch like you."
"It takes a good one to know one, don't it, Bruce. And unless you want everyone else on this campus to know how good at it you are, then you better stay the fuck away from Chase. You think I won’t, just try me Bruce. I’m ‘out’ these days, living my life as a gay black man. I’m proud of who I am. So I’d have no problem blabbing your business all over this campus." Dre backed out of the room slowly, never once turning his back on Bruce. He didn't begin walking face forward until he was in the stairwell and on his way back to Jay's room.
Bruce stared at the closed door, burning with rage. Those damned Kings! How much more would he suffer because of those two? What was going on with Chase wasn't any of their damned business. He wasn’t going to take this like no punk. Stay away from Chase? Hell no. He was just getting started with Chase. And now it looked like he’d have to turn his attention to Jay again, too.
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BMOC Chapter 21
“I'm not going," Lonnell said into the phone. "I don't feel like seeing anybody but you tonight."
"Come on, baby. Everybody is going to be there. Don't you want to get out of that room? Don't you want to be with me?" Eppi asked.
"Of course." He just didn't want the added presence of the thousands bound to show up for the Pan-Hellenic Council's Spring Fest Step Show. "Listen, why don't you come over here later?” Lonnell shared the news that he'd just had an erotic dream and woke up in an excited state. His condition evidently was improving
“Maybe we can snuggle up on my bed and see if you can't provide some extra sexual healing for my partner"
Eppi sighed. She loved Lonnell, and was certainly happy to hear of the change in his condition, but his "partner" and its problems had been her focus for too long as far as she was concerned. Tonight, she wanted to see, be seen. Step shows, particularly the last one of the year, always Jay the hot boys and girls not only from the U of I campus, but also from schools near and far. "Baby, we haven't been out in awhile. We've only got three weeks of school left counting finals week. Let's not miss a chance to kick it before the semester’s over, you know?"
"Fuck that," Lonnell growled. "The only place I want to kick it is right here in my own room."
Eppi's patience was worn paper-thin and she neither had the energy nor the desire to argue.
"Okay, fine. But I'm going to the Step Show tonight, with or without you. If I'm not too tired afterward, I'll stop by."
"What the hell?" He sat up in his bed. "Now you know that ain't gonna look right, girl. You, looking all good to them dudes, and I ain't there with you?"
"Lonnell, please. Everyone knows we're together, and the ones who don't, I'll give them the 411. You don't have anything or anybody to worry about."
Lonnell's thoughts turned to Jay King and he couldn't clear the image of Jay and Eppi embracing outside the rec center. She had denied it was anything more than a friendship hug, but Lonnell didn't have any female friends who he held the way Jay held Eppi that evening. He trusted his woman well enough, but it was Jay who worried him. "Why is it so important for you to go to this thing anyway?" Lonnell asked.
"Dammit Lon, I'm sick and tired of sitting around this room waiting on you and your changing moods, that's why!" The dial tone let him know that Eppi had nothing more to say.
He slammed the phone onto the receiver just as Bruce walked in the room. "Whoah, bro. What'd the phone do to you?"
"Eppi is trippin' again."
"What's up now?"
"She wants to go to the Step Show tonight without me. She thinks I'm supposed to be cool letting her hang around all them doggish frat brothers. Can you believe this shit?"
Bruce shook his head. "Don't sweat it, bro. I'm going to the show myself. I got your back. I’ll look out for Eppi and keep the niggas in check," he said.
"You sure?"
"Most def."
Lonnell nodded. "Good looking out, Bruce." This sounded like a plan to Lonnell. He trusted Bruce with his life, so it was no stretch to trust him with his girl.
Jay had promised to take Dre to the Step Show, so even though he now wanted to just lounge in his room watching TV or sleep. He was dressed and on his way to the Show with not only his brother, but Chase, too.. His presence was most definitely unexpected--and unwanted on Jay's part. For some reason, Dre had insisted they invite him. Jay suspected his brother was trying to get him and Chase together. He had to admit, though, that for all the effort he put up to ignore Chase, his eyes kept drifting in his direction.
Chase looked especially good that night in a silky, cream-colored shirt that was opened to the third button. Chase had felt a little self-conscious putting himself on display this way, but Dre convinced him that he had a lot to put on display, and had loaned him the clothes. They turned more than a few heads on the walk across campus, much to Jay's embarrassment.
The first thing Dre did after the three arrived for the Step Show was find the restroom, even though he didn’t have to use it. He was trying to get Jay and Chase alone, in hopes that they could begin to bridge the rift between them. As he walked away, he turned around to look at his brother and Chase, and found them moving away from each other. He sighed. It didn’t look like he was going to succeed at getting those two together on this visit.
As Jay moved through the crowd of folks milling around waiting for the show to begin, he felt a gentle tapping on his shoulder. "Hey brotherman." Eppi wrapped her arms around Jay’s neck and gave him a gentle hug.
"Hey yourself." He looked her over. "Looking good, girl."
"I know," she replied. "I feel good, too."
"Well, what's got you in such a good mood?"
Eppi shrugged. "I don't know, Jay. I'm just happy to be out, you know? I've been keeping to myself here lately, plus, Lonnell’s been giving me some drama, too." She looked at Jay. "What about you? You still seem a little laid back, a little sad."
Jay averted his eyes. "I'm cool."
Eppi reached for his hands and held them in her own. "I'm here, Jay. You know, if you ever want to talk about it."
Jay nodded. "Thanks. I appreciate it."
Just then, Chase appeared in Eppi's view just over Jay's shoulder. "Hey, there's your boy.
Jay swiveled his head, made eye contact with Chase, and then quickly turned away. "Yeah, that’s him."
Eppi couldn't miss the message in Jay's tone. "Okay, so what happened? Why aren’t you two hanging?"
Jay disengaged his hands from Eppi's. "I don't want to talk about it."
Dre returned from his ‘trip’ to the restroom, grabbed a hold of Chase's arm and pulled him over to where Jay and Eppi stood. "Hey. I'm Dre. Dre King, Jay's brother. I'm up for Family Weekend," he said to Eppi.
"Damn, Jay. Are all the men in your family fine?" Eppi asked.
Both Jay and Dre smiled at her compliment. Just then, the doors to the Arena's auditorium opened, and everyone began to get in line to go inside. Dre convinced Eppi to sit with them, but arranged it so that Jay and Chase sat together, and he and Eppi next to each other.
While everyone else watched the Step Show, Bruce focused his attention on the King brothers and their two companions. Of particular interest to him were Jay and Eppi. He had witnessed their embrace and their interaction prior to the start of the show and was surprised by it. Certainly, he knew from personal experience that Eppi was capable of stepping out on Lonnell; but so publicly? Given Lonnell's anger and suspicion of Jay,
Bruce savored this tasty tidbit, knowing that he'd be able to use it to his advantage sooner rather than later.
The ringing telephone interrupted Lonnell just after he dozed off watching Sports Center on ESPN. He didn't feel like talking, so he let it ring continuously, hoping that the caller would eventually give up. No such luck. Lonnell hobbled off the bed and picked up the receiver just as Bruce was about to hang up on the other end of the line.
"Yeah?" Lonnell didn't attempt to hide his annoyance.
"Yo, bro, it's me," Bruce said.
"Wassup? Why you calling?" Lonnell felt his muscles tensing.
"Man, I don't know how to tell you this," Lonnell said.
"What? Just say it, Bruce." Lonnell began to grind his teeth, trying to steel himself for the bad news Bruce was about to lay at his doorstep.
"I turned my back for a minute, and she left," Bruce said. There was no need to say who “she” was. "Some of my boys said they saw her leaving with Jay King."
"What did you say?" Lonnell's voice was low, uncertain. He *knew* he didn't hear Bruce right.
Bruce smiled. "They was together all night, man. I didn't think too much about it, cause I know they’re friends, but now they say she left with him."
"Shit!" Like a reflex, Lonnell's fist came crashing down onto the small table that held the phone and a lamp, sending them both crashing to the floor along with the phone. "Where the fuck did they go?"
"I don't know," Bruce said. "I'm thinking they went back to her dorm --"
The phone suddenly went dead.