I've always heard stories of people finding their one true love in the strangest of places.
Well.. I wouldn't exactly say that I found the love of my life in the strangest of places.
I happened to find her in one of the most familiar of places, to be exact.
..I just never thought that I'd be one of those people who happened to fall in love, period.
It all started when I invited one of my best guy friends, Thaddeus aka Tad for short, over to my family's annual 'beginning of summer' barbecue they've held every summer since I was thirteen. I'm 21 now, and ready to graduate from USC with a degree in Music Business next spring. I feel a little too old to be having 'barbecues' like we did back in the day but somehow my family still enjoys having them, so I just go along with it because I love them.
While lounging with my older brothers at one of the tables a fair distance away from the pool, I adjusted myself to a comfortable position in my seat as I sipped on my Corona, my black Raybans shielding my eyes from the sun.
My brothers were in deep conversation and what brought me back to their attention was their talk of women—a sensitive subject for a guy like me.
Excluding our youngest brother Randy, almost all of the brothers had wives or girlfriends while I myself did not have either one.
Because I'm so unsure of what I want, I don't really know if I'm ready to be in a committed relationship just yet. If it happens it happens, if it doesn't it doesn't.
It'll happen whenever it's meant to be.
I'm not gonna lie, I'm not a virgin. That shit came and went in the blink of an eye. But that's only because I was peer-pressured into doing it by an old 'friend' of mine. It happened so long ago and I haven't told one soul about it. I wish I could take my purity back but I can't change the past—I can only control what happens in my future.
"...so what you think, Mike?"
My head shot up at the sound of Marlon's voice calling my name.
"What do I think about what?" I asked, confused as to why I was even brought in the conversation to begin with.
He smacked his lips, smirking. "Come on, man. Don't play dumb... you ain't all as innocent as you make yourself out to be. You can't sit here and tell me you ain't never had no pussy before."
I narrowed my eyes, glaring angrily at him through my glasses.
Before I could even respond back with a smart-ass comeback to Marlon's out of line and unnecessary comment, the sound of Tad's voice rang through my ears, causing a sense of relief to come over me.
Finally. Someone I know who can get me out of being put on the spot by my idiot brothers.
"Aye yo, Mike!! What up, bro?" he shouted from a distance.
I smiled but it instantly faded at the sight of the short frame of a female standing right next to him. Walking side by side, they neared closer and closer and as they did, the better of a view I got to see of this mystery woman.
As he greeted my brothers, my eyes would not move away from her.
She had to at least be about five or six inches shorter than me. She was very exotic-looking with her beautiful, caramel milk chocolate skin glistening in the sun. It was something about her dark brown eyes and her curvy figure that drew me in.
"I hope y'all don't mind me bringing my little sister along," he said, scratching the back of his head, partially squinting his eyes from the bright sunlight. "Mama didn't want me coming alone, of course," he rolled his eyes, making me chuckle.
I never knew Tad had a younger sister. Funny how he never mentioned that to me beforehand.
All the while, I couldn't take my eyes off of how beautiful she was. She had to at least be 18 or 19.
"Alika, this right here is my boy, Mike, and these cool cats behind him are his brothers," Tad introduced us briefly.
"..hi," she said, smiling soft and timidly, moving a lone curl out of her face before the slight breeze moved it right back. She quickly fixed it, she shyly smiled before making brief eye contact with my brothers before blushing as she locked eyes with me. "..it's nice to finally meet you guys. I've heard so much about y'all... especially you, Michael."
Hearing her say my name made my stomach flutter the slightest bit but I wasn't exactly sure why.
I half-smiled, shaking my head as I took off my shades and hung them on the collar of my shirt, "I hope what you heard about me were good things," I winked at her with a smirk.
She then sunk her teeth into her lower lip to hide back her bashful, yet beautiful smile.
"Yeah.. they were," she giggled, slightly blushing as she looked at her feet for a brief second before looking back up at me. I smiled at her cuteness, smiling even wider at how cute her dimples were as she smiled at me.
Wow, she seems so innocent...so pure. That's so beautiful to me.
Just then, Janet ran up to us and greeted Tad before smiling at his beautiful sister, Alika.
"Wow, Tad, who is this?" Janet smiled excitedly.
"My baby sis, Alika," he rolled his eyes, and I snickered, sensing the jealously from all the attention Alika was getting instead of him.
"You don't have to say it like that Tad, you act like we're not one year apart in age," Alika shook her head and rolled her eyes as well before returning her attention to Janet with a beaming smile.
With that being said, I now know how old she is—19. I only figured that out by remembering that Tad is a few months younger than I am.
"Aw, Tad, you never told me you had a sister," Janet said in a semi-whiny yet excited voice.
"..me either," I added, subtly licking my lips as I gave the front of Alika's body a nice once-over.
"That's because he doesn't like to talk much about me," she rolled her eyes, shaking her head once more.
"Well that's a shame, you're such a gem," Janet smiled brightly. "Come on, girl, I wanna introduce you to my sisters and a few of my friends! ...they're gonna love you."
"Sounds great," Alika smiled oh so innocently as Janet grabbed her hand. "I'll catch up with you later, Tad. Have fun with your friends.. it was nice meeting you guys," she smiled, giving me one last look before shyly biting the corner of her lower lip, "...especially you, Michael," and with that, Janet pulled her away to the other side of the backyard.
"...you too, baby," I mumbled under my breath, slowly chewing on my lower lip while taking in the view of her backside as I watched her hips beautifully sashay while walking away.
Damn.
She should've known better than to wear those damn leggings—form fitting clothes on thick women are my weakness.
It was as if everything was in slow motion.
I smirked to myself, slowly slipping on my Corona as I took every bit of this moment in.
Talk about curves for days.
***
{Alika}
Janet was really, really nice. And so were her older sisters and her friends.
While I was conversing with them, my eyes kept drifting off across the way to where her brothers were. Particularly, Michael.
God, he was fine. Way more than fine, actually.
He's one of the most beautiful men I've ever seen in my entire life.
I can't help but to wonder how he and my brother became the best of friends, especially since Tad has never mentioned him to me before.
My thoughts went in a totally different direction as I thought back to Michael's attractiveness.
The way that his blue shirt had three buttons undone at the top, showing off his glistening, caramel-toned skin as he sipped on his beer had me shook. I internally shuddered at the way his black Raybans shielded his eyes, as well as his curly hair that was pulled back into a low ponytail with a long, loose curl hanging on the right side of his face along with a few others that were straggling as well.
The way he smiled and winked at me as he pulled off his glasses and spoke to me made me want to scream his damn name in pure pleasure and outright ecstasy.
And don't even get me started on how hypnotizing those chocolate brown eyes are.
Too bad I can't I have him.
I bet he has a girlfriend. Whoever she is is one lucky bitch.
It would be nice if one day he were to give a girl like me a chance.
Wait, what am I thinking? He doesn't have a chance with me anyway. The only chances of that happening is in my dreams. No one likes girls like with a little meat on their bones—or in my case, way more than a little meat on their bones. I know for a fact that men aren't attracted to women of my size. I know there might possibly be very few that do but that's rare and hard to find. I'm pretty sure Michael isn't in that category.
But let's face the facts: a thick girl like me doesn't stand a chance at getting with a man as handsome and attractive as Michael.
He'd never even look my way, let alone give any thought or show some sort of 'interest' in me.
The thoughts in my mind were suddenly ruined by Janet lightly nudging my arm as she called my name. I was thankful for her doing that because if she didn't, my thoughts of Michael would've turned NSFW in a damn heartbeat.
I then noticed that it was just her and I at the table. Her friends and sisters must've dispersed while I wasn't paying attention.
"You okay, girl? You seem kinda out of it," she snickered.
"Oh, I'm fine, really," I waved her off, smiling a little as I tucked a straggly curl behind my ear.
"Mhm," she smirked. "..that doesn't explain why you're over here making google-eyes at my brother."
Embarrassed, I felt my cheeks heat up.
Was I that obvious?
"Was I really? Oh my god, I'm so embarrassed," I shook my head, twiddling my thumbs as I turned the opposite way, facing away from Michael.
"Don't worry, girl, I'm just messing with you," Janet lightly giggled, patting my arm gently. "But speaking of which... it looks like Michael's making his way over here right now," she smirked.
Oh no.
{Michael}
While Tad ventured off to go and hang out with Randy, the guys all turned to me with wide grins plastered on their faces.
"May I be as kind to ask why y'all are staring at me like that?" I asked, annoyed and in a sarcastic manner.
"Nigga, you know why," Marlon blurted.
"..it's cause of that girl, ain't it?" Tito referred to Alika, his grin growing wider as he spoke.
I rolled my eyes. "What's the big deal anyway? She's a sweet girl."
"Yeah... and we saw you checkin' her out, too," he added.
"So what? She's nice to look at," I admitted, quickly becoming annoyed with their unnecessary pestering and interrogation. "What's got y'all so pressed, anyway?"
"'Nice to look at'? Man, please... the only thing nice about her is her face," he encouraged laughter between himself, Marlon, and Jermaine.
I instead stared at them with a blank face before angrily glaring at them with narrow eyes, although they couldn't see me narrowing them.
"That's not nice, Tito," I lowered my voice.
"And did y'all even see that body? Goddamn, she's almost built like a house...or maybe a mansion, even," he chuckled, encouraging even more obnoxious laughter from my brothers.
"Hell yeah," Jermaine added. "She wide on all sides," he nudged Marlon, sending their laughter into almost an uproar.
I value women more than anything so to hear them talk so badly about a woman they don't even know rocked me to the core.
Rude, obnoxious bastards.
"That's enough," My voice grew loud as it lowered even more, causing the guys to look at me weirdly. "How dare y'all bash someone you barely even know. We all know you have a fucked up haircut, Jermaine, but do I sit here and fuckin' complain about it and bash you for it in front of your face?" all of them remained silent, not saying a word. "...I didn't fucking think so."
And with that, I got up from the table and walked away.
Too cool myself down, I went inside the house and finished off my drink before grabbing another and scurrying off to go back outside.
From a distance, I saw Janet giggling with Alika and I couldn't help but to smile.
I didn't see anything wrong with Alika's body shape whatsoever. I find it quite sexy, if I'm being totally and completely honest. Her out-of-this-world curves were turning me on like there was no fucking tomorrow.
Damn, what is this girl doing to me? I barely even know her, and I'm already sprung.
I seriously want to get to know her more. And by doing that, I mustered up the courage to go over and join her and Janet and do just that.
"Oh... hey, Mike. What brings you over here, might I ask?"
I set my beer down in front of me as I occupied the empty spot on the bench next to Alika, only a fair distance away from her.
"Oh, y'know, just getting away from those idiots," I rolled my eyes as I referred to our brothers. "They're just being rude and obnoxious as always."
"Of fucking course," Janet agreed, rolling her eyes before standing up from the table. "I'm gonna go grab some more punch. Y'all want me to bring y'all anything back?"
"I'm good, thank you," Alika sweetly smiled.
"Yeah, I think I'm good, too. I still have a little bit of ol faithful left," I briefly raised my half-full glass bottle of beer in the air before chugging down a swig. "Thanks for asking, though."
The moment I finished my sentence, I focused my attention right back on Alika.
"..hi, sweetness," I said lowly with a smirk, not drawing much attention to the fact that I was eyeing her body thoroughly and intently like a hawk.
She looked over at me for a brief second and shyly smiled, saying, "..hi," in the most soft and timid of voices.
To get more comfortable and relaxed, I turned around and stretched my legs out in the grass before propping one of them up the slightest bit. Both of my elbows resting comfortably on the picnic table, I looked over and studied her features thoroughly.
She was absolutely stunning.
"..has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are?"
Blushing immensely at my words, she shook her head, biting her lower lip to hide the shy smile growing on her face.
"No, not really," she confessed. "...you're the first person who's ever told me that," she blushed once more, moving a lone curl out of her face as she held my gaze for a brief moment.
"Well, it's my honor & pleasure to be the first person to ever do such a thing," I smiled genuinely as I adjusted myself to sit up a little straighter before gently grabbing her hand and placing a light kiss on it.
With her mouth partially open, I could tell that she was in quite awe and amazement by my sudden gesture.
"I take it you've never experienced that before, hm?"
She slowly closed her mouth and slightly shook her head. "No... never," she attempted to hide her smile but couldn't. "...you're such a gentleman. I don't know why Tad never mentioned you to me before... you're so sweet."
"He's never mentioned you around me either and it's a shame that he didn't because I think that you're an absolute gem," I admitted, sighing deeply, "..but honestly though, baby, I think you're sweeter," I suggestively smirked, giving her a wink. She shyly broke away from my gaze, looking down at her feet to hide her growing smile before moving a few lone curls out of her face once again.
As I turned and scooted closer toward her, she looked deep into my eyes and I licked my lips, taking in the beautiful view of her gorgeous body.
From that moment alone, somehow I knew that she was definitely the one.