Thy Neighbor II: Lovin' The Crew

Chapter Thirteen

"Michter's Toasted Finished. For the gentleman."

Y'lan feels totally under-dressed at Porter's Whisky House, Trevante fitting in more with the suited and booted types that sit here as Y'lan awaits his arrival. $18 a glass whisky feels like $800 on his non-profit salary but you only live once, Y'lan following Trevante's personal creed.

Trevante walks into Porter's still trying to shake off his encounter with Meganne. Although he's peeved about her phone antics, he's even more mad that some of his fraternity brothers invited Meganne and her barely-able-to-drink-legally friends to Atlantic City with them. Trevante vows to cut the party trip down from 15 to seven or eight by any means necessary.

He orders a St. George Baller straight, imploring the bartender to put Y'lan's drinks onto his tab. After they tap glasses, Trevante pulls out his phone to take notes on their plans for Michael's last night as a free man.

"You cool with the strip club, Y'lan?"

"Y'all can go, I'm out. Not my speed."

"Live, fam!" Trevante says, knocking back his St. George a lot faster than intended.

"Nah, fam. I'm good..." Y'lan says through a laugh. "Just make that the last move on the night so I can duck out before y'all go, that's all."

"Man, you got mad principle about you. I respect it." Trevante raises his glass to signal for another drink. "You got me thinking about a lot of things, man."

"Surprised you're even listening, to be honest."

"Yeah, that's wild. That whole securing my future thing, retiring, getting out the game, finding the one. Growing up, all that. That's also what I wanted to talk to you about. I think I found her."

"It ain't the gym manager girl, right?"

"Fuck no."

Y'lan laughs as he finishes the rest of his drink before ordering his next round.

"You met her already."

"I have? Who you talking about?" Y'lan braces for the one answer he doesn't want to hear. His chest grows hot on top of the whisky chasing down his sternum.

"Ciara, man. Yeah. We've been kicking it for a few months. I think I'm ready to grab shorty up for the long run."

Y'lan readjusts his shoulders to a heat of the whisky and his emotions now sending the same gesture throughout his body. He can't bare to ask if Ciara and Trevante made long run moves and he hopes Trevante doesn't divulge like he does with all of his sex partners. Y'lan decides to play nice even though his jealousy fights to be shown.

"Word? How you pull that off?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure. I lowkey don't deserve a girl like this."

Y'lan agrees.

"She ended up being there for me when my Pops died and I guess that what's started it. She's completely different than any other girl I've dated, bruh. She's about her business, man. You know she's in school for a Master's?"

Y'lan remembers that fateful day when he met her on Penn's campus, when their love story started and ended because Y'lan couldn't fully produced his love. He listened to her talk about his academic dreams for hours, watched her write her terms papers, hoping for a moment when she'd need a break only so he could break her off.

"You can handle a girl like her? You ready for all that?"

"That's why I wanted to ask you, Y'lan..."

In this moment, Y'lan believes Trevante is going to confront him about his history with Ciara. She did the righteous thing and told Trevante about their past. He's hoping Trevante isn't angry and that this doesn't end their friendship. But he understands especially if Ciara told Trevante that Y'lan was the man that caused her some of her worst pain. This conversation doesn't feel as if it's going in that direction. Clearly Trevante doesn't know. Ciara hasn't fessed up yet.

"You think I'm ready for all this? I mean, I trust you and Michael a lot with this type of shit."

Y'lan doesn't want to kill Trevante's dreams. He does want to kill Ciara's chances at being hurt. "You know, man. I don't know. You fuck up with a girl like that..."

Trevante throws back the rest of his whisky. "Shit. I know, man. Then I gotta start fighting off niggas like you."