Escaping Mr. Grayson [UN-EDITED]

Chapter One.

I sigh out of frustration at my reflection in the mirror. My box braids would just rather not cooperate with me this morning. My hair is usually never an issue because I always wear it the exact same way— in a high ponytail tied tightly with a single thick black ribbon. My mother always told me that if a woman carries herself neatly, she'd never need to worry about being provoked by a man. Which more or less just translates to, if you stay basic, you'll never be interesting enough for a man to actually want to harass.                      

My roommate Daisy snaps me out of thought when she walks in with her phone by her ear. She giggles and whispers some smutty comments under her breath but, to my disgust, I can hear her very vividly. She must be talking to her boyfriend Chase, or Asher. Maybe even both. You know, I never quite got the whole dynamic of being in a polyamorous relationship. When Daisy first told me, I thought for sure that she was just kidding. It wasn't till I woke up one morning to Daisy escorting both Asher and Chase out of the room still half naked that I realized she in fact was not just kidding. Could you imagine that? An entire relationship full of threesomes, I guess I'm just... not that kind of girl.

I pay close attention to her as she steps in front of the other mirror and simply lets her hair free from its bun prison. She runs her perfectly manicured fingers through her hair and winks at her own reflection. Her lips are colored with a bright pink lipstick that matches effortlessly with her complexion and I can tell that she hasnt done any makeup other than the lipstick and some mascara. In that moment I wonder what it must feel like to be so utterly perfect. I admire how free spirited and liberal Daisy is. I've known her for only a year but, she's the most adventurous per-son I've ever known. Sometimes I pretend to be her in my head. I imagine what it feels like to be exactly like Daisy —to be noticed— even just for a single day.

My focus switches back to my own reflection and my nose wrinkles. Its an old habit that I have almost no control over. It's one of those things that just hap-pens whenever it feels like. When it wishes.

"Hey, you're coming out with me tonight. I am not taking no for an answer", Daisy says to me from across the room while I finish packing up my books for class.

"Fine then, I wont say no. Ill say I dont want to. Thank you very much", I decline politely. I think its already pretty obvious the type of person that I am. Im not exactly the going out and socializing type. I love being indoors. Indoors is comfortable. I dont have to worry about pretending to be somebody else indoors. In-doors is safe.

"I didn't ask Nai. C'mon, it's going to be so much fun and if you want, I could even lend you one of my boys for the night", She jokes. At least I hope that shes joking.

"You're not exactly putting across a very convincing case. You know that, right?", I giggle

She groans. "you could think of it as a sort of, psychological experiment"

I smile at her innocent ignorance. "and what would be my hypothesis?"

"Oh, stop it. You know I have no idea what that means", she whines, "just, please come with me? Please?"

"I just", I pause. "I dont know Daisy"

"Okay...look at yourself and then look at me", she says. Her hand is now on her hip.

I do as she says and analyze her entire outfit from head to toe. Shes wearing a cropped white tank top with a pair of grey sweatpants. Her sneakers are black and each one of them has different color laces. Red on the left sneaker and neon green on the right. Her entire right arm is littered with her tattoos and shes visibly not put-ting on a bra. I can tell because if I squint really hard, I can see both her nipples through her shirt.