The "18" Chronicles

Down, But Down Low

May 31st

Menelik was sleeping, lost deep in a dream where bodies twisted and writhed together in ecstasy. Lips were locked, tongues wrestled, and hands explored as the passionate love making brought Menelik closer to the edge of climax.

Almost there, baby! Don't stop!

Menelik could hear his lover saying his name over and over, but the voice began to sound distant and disembodied.

"Wake up, Menelik," it said. An odd and frustrating time for his lover to be telling Menelik to wake up.

Menelik fought off being pulled from the dream, wanting to stay in the fantasy.

"Menelik, wake up."

Menelik resisted. In the dream, he could feel the bed shaking as he got close to finishing. No, the bed wasn't shaking, he was. Menelik began to gain consciousness and the dream started to fade.

No! I'm so close! Why am I shaking?

Menelik, in the thralls of lust, began to lose sight of his lover who was drifting further and further away.

No! Come back!

"Wake up, Meek, Mom is calling you!"

Menelik, just before climax, lurched awake, sweaty and gasping for air. Once he realized he wasn't dreaming, he began to look around his bedroom for what dared jostle him awake.

"Finally. You sleep hard!" Jasmine was sitting on his bed. "I've been shaking you for like a whole minute! And who is Frank?"

Fully awake, Menelik realized his manhood was standing at attention under the comforter and he quickly covered it with a pillow before his younger half-sister noticed. "What? Frank who?"

"I don't know, Meek, I'm asking you." Jasmine tickled Menelik's feet. "You were tossing and turning and saying 'Frank' over and over. Were you dreaming about Frank Ocean or something?"

Menelik had to think fast. "What? No! Why would I dream about him? It was just sleep talk. Anyway, Jasmine, it's so early! Go see what Mama wants for me, please." Menelik turned over and pulled the comforter over his head. If his mother, Priscilla, was asking for him this early in the morning, on the eve of the graduation he decided to not attend, it could only mean something annoying and troublesome.

"Boy, bye!" Jasmine stood up. "You can do that yourself. I gotta get to work. Love you, Meek!"

Jasmine left Menelik's bedroom, leaving him alone, confused, and half-asleep. Jasmine had called Menelik 'Meek' since she was a little girl and couldn't pronounce his name correctly, the nickname sticking ever since. The brother-sister bond Menelik and Jasmine had cultivated over the years had grown deep. It didn't matter that they had different mothers or that they didn't know the other existed for the first decade of their lives. Aside from Grandma Davis, Jasmine was the closest to Menelik in his family, and, as well as his grandmother, his only other friend aside from Shadeira.

Menelik laid back down in bed for a minute, collecting his thoughts. When he finally got out of bed and headed downstairs, he noticed for the first time that RaSean wasn't there—most likely out with Lisa or job hunting again. Menelik found his mother, Priscilla, in the kitchen, rushing around and complaining about being late for work.

"Yes, Mama?" Menelik groaned, making a show of having his precious sleep disturbed.

"Don't take that tone with me, boy. I got called into work so I need you to run some errands for me." She frantically patted herself down, making sure she had everything to go to work cleaning rich peoples' condos.