Page 6 of Blake University: HBCU Chronicles: Brynleigh & A.Z.

My eyes raked over the people that I passed.

Fraternity and sorority members. Athletes and popular kids.

No one at the party was lame or a stranger to me.

If I didn’t know them personally, I knew of them.

I did a double take when I saw Brynleigh leaning up against the wall talking to a football player named, Ryan.

I felt a twinge of something, but I knew damn well it couldn’t be jealousy.

Brynleigh was a little too mouthy for my liking.

And for her not to be a student at Blake U she was every damn where.

I had seen her way too much in a short period of time.

I wasn’t fast enough, and Brynleigh’s head lifted causing her to catch me staring. She rolled her eyes before looking away, and I chuckled. Ambling in her direction, I walked over to her and stared until she turned to look at me.

“Do I need to take a restraining order out on you?”

“We obviously keep running into each other for a reason. I want to squash the beef between us.”

“No thank you, I’m good,” she replied dryly. “You don’t have to like me, and I don’t like you. Your sister is cool as hell, and she’s old enough to make her own decisions. If she wants to talk to me when she sees me, then I’m going to talk back, and there isn’t shit you can do about it.”

“I just try to look out for my sister because she’s real na?ve and green.

She’s never even had a boyfriend. It wouldn’t be hard for a person to take advantage of her while she was sober, so I know it wouldn’t be a problem if she was under the influence.

It’s nothing against you. My parents just instilled it in me for as long as I can remember to look after my sister.

She can get mad all she wants. I have her best interest at heart, and that’s all that matters to me. ”

Brynleigh didn’t speak right away. She poked her cheek with her tongue as her eyes danced over the sea of faces in the room.

“I can’t be mad at you for doing what a brother should do.

” Her tone held a little less animosity, but she didn’t look at me while she spoke to me.

Brynleigh continued to stare at whatever she was looking at while I studied her.

Finally, she looked at me. “What?” she asked with raised brows.

“You forgive me?” my tone was low. Some might consider it sexy, but it made Brynleigh frown.

“I said I can’t be mad at you for doing what a brother should do. Don’t push it.” She pushed herself off the wall. “I have money to make.”

I looked after her with a lick of my lips as she walked through the crowd. “She bad isn’t she?” Justin appeared beside me.

“If she’s not her attitude damn sure is.”

That comment made him laugh. “You’re just used to females that treat you like a god my nigga. I don’t think there’s too many women on campus that wouldn’t jump at the chance to have a conversation with your lame ass.”

I slapped my hand on Justin’s shoulder and smirked. “Hating doesn’t look good on you, my boy.”

There was a first time for everything and for the first time since being in college, I didn’t want any alcohol.

The plan was to wake up the next morning and study not sleep half the day away or have to nurse a hangover.

Tameka spotted me and came over with a small group of her friends.

She was a senior like me, and Tameka was a pretty cool chick.

Her major was business like mine, and she worked part-time at a clothing store.

She was bad and dark-skinned with a nice body.

Tameka was someone that could pretty much have her way with niggas, but she was stuck on me.

“You didn’t tell me you were coming out,” she grinned while inching into my personal space.

“We don’t really make it a point to tell one another where we’re going. I didn’t know you were going to be here either.”

“You could know my every move if we shared locations.”

“Why the fuck would we do that?” the scowl on my face should have made her very aware that she was out of her mind.

We didn’t need to share locations because I didn’t care where she went, and if she really wanted to know where I was at any time, I’d tell her because I didn’t have any reason to lie to her.

Tameka rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to be so mean all the time. We’ve been fucking for months, and you still act like I’m one of these little groupies out here chasing you.”

Had I told her that was exactly what she acted like, she would have gotten upset.

Rather than entertain or argue with her, I scanned the crowd.

We were in college, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t smart to pay attention to our surroundings.

Moving out of the suburbs and being able to freely roam around Georgia and be in close proximity with all kinds of people taught me quick to be on point.

Once again, I locked eyes with Brynleigh, and the way her expression instantly soured pissed me off.

Maybe I had insulted her, but she was acting like I straight cursed her out or something.

I was having a conversation with my sister that no one told her ass to be eavesdropping on.

Fuck her. She wasn’t anybody to me, and she didn’t have to like me.

She had better hope her ass didn’t end up in prison.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I didn’t know who was calling me, but that was my chance to get away from Tameka. “Excuse me. I need to step outside and take a call.” I eased past her and pushed through the thick crowd to get outside.

When I pulled my phone from my pocket, I saw that it was one of my frat brothers, Terri that was calling me. He more than likely wanted to know the move for the night, and I was surprised that he wasn’t at the kickback.

“What up, bro?”

“Aye. I don’t want to alarm you, but I just left Serenity’s dorm room, and I saw your sister outside.

She was walking into the building, but she was so fucked up that she fell twice.

When I tried to help her up, she cursed me out and told me that she was going to scream if I didn’t get away from her. ”

Anger caused me to grit my molars together and grind them. Tyra could hate me for the rest of her life, but I was going to have a talk with our parents. Somebody needed to talk some sense into her ass.

“I’m on the way.”

Justin and I chose not to ride together because we knew one might be ready to leave before the other was. There was plenty of people that he knew at the kickback, and since he was a grown ass man, I didn’t hesitate to leave him.

Glancing at the time on my dash, I saw that it was almost two in the morning.

I didn’t want to wake my parents, but as soon as I thought they were awake, I was snitching.

Tyra clearly thought I was playing with her.

I hadn’t been drinking, so I carefully drove as fast as I could.

A speeding ticket I could handle but if I was to get a DUI, my parents would be livid.

When I arrived at Blake U, I internally gave myself a pep talk.

I didn’t want to go inside spazzing and causing a scene.

I didn’t need everyone in our business. A few people were coming and going but other than that, the building was pretty quiet.

Tyra lived on the fifth floor. The moment I rounded the corner on her floor, I saw Brynleigh leaving out of the room across from Tyra’s. I scowled just as Tyra’s door opened. Holding my breath, I stopped in my tracks to see what was about to take place.

“Hey boo,” Brynleigh sounded chipper as hell. Something she’d never been with me.

“Hey,” Tyra giggled. She only took three steps before she fell back into the wall. The way she laughed like it was funny pissed me off and broke my heart at the same time.

“Woah, be careful. Where you going?” Brynleigh rushed over to her.

“I need some food, so I won’t throw up. I’m fine.” Tyra stood up straight, took a deep breath, and actually stood there with a wrinkled forehead attempting to concentrate on walking without falling.

“Food? There’s nothing open within walking distance.” Brynleigh spotted the keys in Tyra’s hand. “Oh no, Baby Girl. You cannot drive. What do you want to eat? I’ll go get it.”

Despite being extremely disturbed and disappointed in my sister, I felt like shit that I’d told her to stay away from someone that clearly looked after her when she needed it.

“No, I can drive. It’s fine,” Tyra attempted to take another step, and Brynleigh stepped in front of her.

“Tyra, I like you. You’re nice and smart, and under normal circumstances, I’d never come at you crazy, but baby you gon’ have to fight me if you think I’m letting you drive like this.

Hun, you can barely walk. Come on let’s get you back in your room.

” Her tone was soothing and nonconfrontational.

I expected Tyra to go off on her like she did everyone else that tried to help her but shockingly, she agreed.

“Can you get me Waffle House?”

“Yeah, I’ll get you Waffle House. Come on.”

I decided to step in and save Brynleigh. When I walked inside of my sister’s dorm room, she was sitting on the bed, and Brynleigh was taking her shoes off. When Tyra noticed me, she groaned.

“Great. Who snitched and called you? People on this campus can’t keep anything to themselves.”

Brynleigh stood upright. “What do you want to eat?”

“You don’t have to get her anything. I got it. Thank you for helping her.”

Brynleigh turned to face me. Surprisingly, she didn’t frown at me. “No problem.” Her tone was kind of flat, but it wasn’t the usual snappy tone she used with me. “See you, later boo.” She smiled at Tyra and left the room.

I stood there staring at my sister. I didn’t have much to say because I wanted to talk to her when she was sober.

Which would be best for more than one reason.

Fussing at Tyra wasn’t helping me to get my point across, so maybe I’d just talk to her without any judgment.

See what it was that she needed and why she was drinking so much.

“What do you want to eat?”

Tyra didn’t even answer me. She laid down flat on her back, closed her eyes, and went to sleep.