Lashawn

This isn't adding up.

If Seraya and Zay's date was successful and they ended the night on a good note, he wouldn't be flirting with the first nigga he sees the next day. Especially if he was whining to me the other day about being faithful. So that doesn't make sense.

Either he's broken up or is on a break with Seraya and he's exploring his options or he's still with her and he's just blatantly messing around with other niggas in my face.

Both options irritate me to no end. I've been patiently waiting for my turn and when I finally get it, Josh gone swoop in for his? That's exactly how that doesn't work. Once I get my turn, ain't no more fucking turns.

And I'm finna make sure of that.

Josh approaches me with a skeptical expression. "Wassup?" He asks,

Slamming my locker shut, I turn to him and ask, "What's going on witchu and Zay?"

"Not tryna be rude, but that's none of your business." He replies.

"Well, I'm tryna help you avoid going thru what I went thru with Zay, that's all." I shrug.

That throws him off. His eyebrows furrow and his eyes narrow in question. "What happened between you and Isaiah? Wait first, you're gay?!"

"This isn't surprising news." I said.

"I mean judging by your behavior around us, I shouldn't be shocked, but then you'd pull so many girls after the game, that it threw me off."

"What can I say? I just got it like that." I shrug before answering his first question, "At the beginning of the semester, Zay hit me up, wanting to experiment sexually with guys. Well, I've liked him since freshman year, so my immediate answer was gonna be yes, right? Then, I remembered about his girlfriend. I asked him about their status and he said they've broken up. I was like cool and we proceeded from there."

I continue, "We fucked two times and those experiences made me fall for him even harder. Just when I was about to confess my feelings for him, I caught him hugging and kissing Seraya after the game. Come to find out, they were still dating the whole time me and Zay were messing with each other."

I just told him a bunch of bullshit. The only truthful parts were Zay and I fucked two times and Seraya was still in the picture when that happened. However, I told him a bunch of bullshit with a straight face.

Josh makes a sympathetic expression. "Wow, that was a fucked up thing to do."

"Yea and I'm over it now, but I just wanted to let you know what you were getting into with Zay beforehand, so you don't get your heart broken." I tell him.

"I appreciate that, Lashawn." He nods, "Imma move accordingly now."

"No problem." I pat his shoulder before moving to leave the locker room.

< Time Skip >

The next day, I sit in my seat, waiting for Isaiah to walk in. I give my iced coffee a good shake before drinking it. At the same time, I watch Josh. Although he looks disassociated, his jumping leg tells me that he is restless.

Good.

"Yo Isaiah." I hear a voice call out.

Turning my head, I see Isaiah walking in with a large caramel frappe. He moves it over to dap up the guy and then moves on towards his seat. Today, he is wearing all black, including his durag, with his t-shirt, Adidas joggers that accentuates his behind so nicely, and his Air Max 270s. Pulling out his chair, he sits down.

Pulling my hand back, I scoot him forward effortlessly. Zay's head whips around. "Strong ass." He comments.

"You like that about me though." I smirk.

"Whatever you say." Isaiah replies. Turning his head, he looks over to Josh, causing me to look over there too.

Josh managed to still his restless leg. I think he seriously disassociated now because either he feels our stares and he's ignoring us or he's in his own world. Isaiah frowns and takes out his phone.

I watch him open up his chat with "Joshy😘" and now it's my turn to frown. They literally just started talking. Where's the cute emoji next to my contact name? What the fuck?!

Forcing myself to move past that, he sends him, "Hey 😊".

Looking over to Josh, he must feel his phone vibrate because he whips it out. My eyes dart down to Zay's phone to see the message has been read. I wait for the three dots to pop up and it never does.

"Not him leaving you on read." I instigate.

"Give him a second to respond-" Isaiah attempts.

"I literally just watched him take his phone out, read the message, and then put it away." I point out.

"What the fuck?" Zay mutters to himself.

He goes to send another message, but is interrupted by Mr. Beck's voice.

"Okay class, take out your textbooks and turn to page 58." He instructs.

Isaiah's face goes straight as he puts his phone away. Unzipping his backpack, he quite aggressively takes out his textbook and slams it down on the table. This causes a couple of people look his way in concern.

I maintain a straight face, although I really want to cackle out loud. Everything is going according to plan.

An hour passes and it's time to go to our next class. As everyone makes their way out, I notice Zay practically slithering his way through the crowd because Josh is ahead. I make my way through the gaps as well and follow after Isaiah.

When we get outside, my head turns to see Isaiah speed walking over to Josh. He gets a hold of his wrist and yanks the man behind a corner.

And he wanna talk about me being strong.

I walk up. Then, I press myself against the wall to listen in on their conversation.

"Wassup?" Josh questions.

"The fuck do you mean wassup?" Isaiah questions back, "Why are you ignoring me?"

There's a moment of silence before Josh sighs.

"Remember when Lashawn wanted to talk with me yesterday?" Josh brings up.

"Yea...what did he say?" Isaiah asks and I just know his right brow is raised with his arms crossed.

"He said that y'all used to mess with each other at the beginning of the semester until he found out you were still together with Seraya." Josh tells him, "I just didn't want to be yo next victim."

"What - that's not all the way true." Zay says with exasperation before sighing, "Yes I slept with him twice, once with Seraya involved, and then another time behind her back. This is recent by the way. She forgave me for cheating but then later on when we tried to have sex, I couldn't get hard. So now we're on a break."

My eyes widen. I knew it. I fucking knew it. This nigga is really exploring other options when I'm right here. He hasn't fully explored his options with me, but he's jumping to another?

"So he was lying...partially? Why would he do that?" Josh wonders.

"Because he likes me and he's trying to eliminate his competition." Isaiah replies and it's a relief to know that I didn't fall for a total dumbass.

"But there's really no competition. Just because we slept together twice, doesn't mean I'm his and he gets to dictate who I talk to or who I sleep with." He continues and that's where he got me fucked up at.

"So fuck whatever Lashawn talking about. I'm interested in you, Josh, and if you're still interested in me, I still would like to see you tomorrow." Isaiah offers.

He better not-

"I still would like to see you too."  Josh responds.

I take in his words before nodding and walking off. See, I was tryna go about this the easy way, but I guess I gotta get out of character for niggas to understand that I'm not playing. Never playing about Isaiah.

Come Friday night, if I see Zay come back to his dorm with a limp? I'm fucking both him and Josh up.

< Time Skip >

In the locker room, we crowd around Coach Harris, wearing our uniforms for tonight's game. As he's going through the plan, I speak up, "Bench me."

Everyone turns their heads to look at me as if I'm insane, including Coach Harris. "What?" He questions.

"Bench me." I repeat calmly with my arms behind my back.

He looks at me strangely before asking, "Why?"

My eyes dart over to Josh. "Because if you don't, Imma make this game hell for Josh."

Josh's eyes widen with fear.

"Oooooh!" A couple niggas, including Gian, instigates.

"What's going on?" Zach sounds totally lost.

"If I got the ball, I'm getting double-teamed, and Josh is open? I'm going for the shot. If Josh has the ball, he's getting double-teamed, and I'm open? I'm staying put. If he's about to get dunked on, he's getting dunked on." I elaborate.

"Oh my God!" One of my teammates yell.

"Ah nah, he's wylin." Another one mutters.

The only thing that pulls my gaze away from Josh is Isaiah's voice. "What the fuck, Lashawn?" He hisses and even when he's mad, he looks pretty. "That's mad childish."

"It can be." I shrug.

Coach Harris looks overwhelmed by my bluntness. He should appreciate my honesty if you ask me. It's better to change your plan last minute instead of having your original plan sabotaged right in front of you.

Rubbing his temples, he says, "Okay so you'll play the first quarter and then I'll swap you out for Josh in the second quarter."

"Perfect." I smile passive-aggressively.

"But y'all better figure this shit out soon because I'm not gonna keep doing this all the time." He warns us.

"Oh trust me, we will." I promise.

"Ominous ass threat." Zach mutters, making our teammates close to him laugh.

"I don't even have anything motivating to say after that." Coach Harris admits as he rises to his feet, "Just try not to kill each other out there, at least long enough to get us a win. Okay?"

"Yes sir!"

"On three," He calls, "One, two, three, tigers!"

"Tigers!"

We start to flow out of the locker room. Feeling eyes on me, I make eye contact with Josh. He quickly looks away when he's caught. Noticing this, Zay walks up to him. I watch his hand caress Josh's shoulder comfortingly. He mouths something to him with a soft look in his eyes, that makes Josh nod.

Suddenly, he slings his arm around Isaiah's neck. Turning his head, he winks at me. Then, he looks down to start up a conversation with Isaiah.

"Bet." I said.