Brother's Keeper✔️

43. No One

Manny POV

The first thing he did when he got back to school was to take Laila out on a date. He did not want to hang out on campus, especially with Shamiya just down the hall from her. Not with all the things he did with her over break.

After their date of dinner and a movie, they hung out in his room.

"I cannot believe we did not see each other at all over break and we were both in St. Louis." Laila was wrapped around him, kissing all over his neck and face as they sat on his bed. Jordan was probably somewhere with Marketta.

He had not tried to make much effort in seeing her because there was Shamiya. He spent more time with his non-girlfriend than he did his girlfriend over the break.

"I know babe, sorry," was all he could say. No excuses for how he was living.

"But now we're back here and we can spend all our time together. I mean, when we're not in class."

"And when I am not doing fraternity things." He gave her a long passionate kiss and then cuddled up against her neck.

"We have to make it a point to try and spend time together."

That was easy for her to say. It was not just Shamiya giving him attention. Lots of girls on campus were. He knew it was wrong, but he flirted with the girls just as much. He did not do anything with them, but he did not back down from the attention.

He needed it for his ego. Last year the same girls did not notice him at all. He put his Greek letters on his chest and now they knew who he was. That and winning the talent show. He was not the little Gospel Choir boy anymore, he was somebody. Everybody knew who he was and he liked it.

"How are things now that J'Nae is here?" he asked Brian while they were hanging out at the frat house. He and Jordan hung out there anytime they could, even when they were not discussing fraternity business, his two older prophytes said they were welcome at any time, and Jordan even had a spare key they let him keep from staying there over Winter Break.

"So far so good." Brian was sitting in the dining room, on his laptop, he said he had schoolwork but wanted to hang out too. He was better than him at studying with distractions. He needed to be in quietness when studying.

"Player needs to stop playing now," Taj said with a laugh as he munched on a bowl of popcorn. "I don't know why it's so hard to do. J'Nae is a good one, don't want to mess that up."

"I can't help it, man. A man just gotta be a man sometimes."

"Didn't we have this discussion already? At the Brother's Keeper meeting?" Jordan said. "What's not to understand? If you love the person you're with, no need to step out. If you don't love them, get out of the relationship. You love J'Nae right?"

"Yes," Brian answered, still focused on his laptop but paying attention to the conversation at the same time.

"LB, you love Laila, right?"

"Yes." But love did not have anything to do with it. He liked sex.

"So what is y'all problem?" Jordan asked.

He held his head down in shame. He did not even want to talk to his fraternity brothers about all his thoughts about it. Hew could not justify it. He could not control it. All he knew was he liked doing what he was doing, and as long as Laila did not find out, he would continue to do it.

"Listen, let them be," Taj said. "You can't tell grown men how to live their lives. Well, the both of y'all not grown for real, but you're old enough to know."

"Boy I turned twenty-one, I'm grown now," Brian stated.

"Grown is a state of mind that you're not living in right now," Taj said to him. "More than a number, young one. A man would not continue to play these games with these girls as you do. But like I said, do what you want to do, see how it turns out for you."

Brian snapped his laptop closed and stood up from the table. "Bro, you are still salty because Sherry did you dirty last year. Girls can be players too."

"I never said they couldn't. Two wrongs never make a right."

He wondered what would he do if he ever found out that Laila cheated on him. It would hurt. He did not know if he would want to be with her after that. He knew it was wrong as hell to think that.

"So what would you do if J'Nae was seeing another dude?" Jordan asked Brian as he walked into the kitchen.

"Never gonna happen.

"Say it with yo' chest like you mean it," Taj said with a chuckle. "It be the good girls that do you dirty."

"See Taj bro, Sherry got you fucked up!" Brian grabbed a beer from the fridge and made his way into the living room with them. "Ole' boy cheated on her, you jumped in right after, she wasn't over him, and she played you with him. That shit got you fucked up. And I understand bro. You were feenin for that girl for how long?"

"This is not about me, or her... I'm over her. I have found someone that would never do that to me."

"How the hell do you know?" Brian asked him.

"She's not like that"

"Didn't you just say it be the good girls that do you dirty?"

This back and forth with his prophytes was not going anywhere. He understood that girls could do wrong in a relationship as well. Maybe that is what he needed to open up his eyes.

Or maybe he just was not ready for a girlfriend.

A/N: Manny 🤦🏾‍♀️. Clearly, this boy does not know the meaning of love. And does not need a girlfriend. 🤷🏾‍♀️