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It was early
May, finals time, on the campus of Jason Benning College when Larry and them pretty girls were supposed to hook up.
Larry told them to meet him in front of the school’s academic center named after Jimmie Walker of Good Times fame. JJ had made a generous donation at the height of his fame, even though he had left high school in the Bronx for Hollywood before he got his diploma. They were supposed to meet at six and him and a male friend of his choice would take the girls off campus for dinner and clubbin’. The plan was for the girls to leave their car parked at the Walker Center because they were going to end up back there-finishing their night off in Larry’s luxurious dorm room.
It was just past six o’clock when the Wanda bumped her car onto the campus and it was still sunny and warm outside. The unforgiving Georgia sun and humidity seemed to strengthen as the evening came.
“This is it,” Wanda announced, “corny ass JBC.”
Kennita was hating this trip more and more, but when she stepped out of the car she couldn’t help but notice through the warmth how charming and inviting the quaint college campus was. They were surrounded by the school, the parking lot off the street and being in the center of big trees and three-story buildings.
“This is nice,” Kennita admitted.
Wanda said, “We looking for the Johnnie Walker center.”
“You mean Jimmie Walker?” the girl smirked.
“Yes,” Wanda snipped. “You smart now, huh?”
“This building says Willie Banks.”
“Well, I don’t know. Shit. I don’t go here.”
“Didn’t he tell you what street Walker Hall is on or how to get there?”
Instead of replying, Wanda took out her cell phone and called his number. She didn’t hear any of the normal noise of a call and put the phone to her eyes to see the phone was struggling to connect. She saw she had a weak signal. “Great,” she huffed.
Kennita kept her head spinning, doing what she had to do to make this date go smoothly, and she saw the route. “It’s that way. The sign says to take that path right to it.”
“Fine, then fuck it, let’s go.”
Wanda bitched more as they traveled. Had the ladies been paying attention driving onto the campus, they would have noticed many signs on the street that would have led them the right way. Instead, they had to walk just about a mile through the spacious institution of higher learning.
Kennita found her mind changing about the outing. All she knew about JBC before that day was that it was a private school and expensive. It was one of her choices when she was seriously looking to be a student. On the JBC campus, she was alive. The park-like settings seemed both calm and surreal. Everyone she saw, everyone she and Wanda passed, was at or very near her age and in her heart felt so much like her equal. She was in love. This was where she should be, she should be in the college atmosphere. She was at home at JBC; if she was choosing now this was where she would be.
The upcoming final exams were all that were on Ryan Slight’s mind that day but every now and then he’d take a break to admire the weather, and the fine women. How sweet the air was, and how pure, Ryan thought, and how attractive the women were, damned near nude while enjoying the hottest Friday in a while.
Oh, right about then, Ryan was glad he made the choice to come to Atlanta for college. Can’t beat this city for the women and the weather, he smiled.
Ryan was sitting under a shade tree reading a text book. Trying to prepare his mind for the psych test the following Tuesday. Ryan was popular around the school, known as a cool dude that’ll help you move a sofa, study for an exam, and pay a bill. Ryan was the catcher on JBC’s mediocre baseball team; they’d win some and lose many. He was good though, could have easily signed a deal but instead chose to appease his moms and go to college. He had chosen Jason Benning because it was in Hotlanta, a historically Black school, and it was where he had heard there were more hot honeys than in a beehive. He was rooming with his childhood friend, Al Haines. Al was a defensive end; a quarterback killer. His only job from his spot on the right side of the line was to get to the quarterback; hurting them when he got there was all his own idea.
The only down side of going to JBC was the idiots on the school’s basketball team. Them fools’ brazen attitude was hard to deal with before they made a run in the NCAA tournament, now they were worst than a local rapper with a record deal.
Ryan looked up from his book and to his dread three basketball players were coming his way. He shook his head and prayed they would just keep walking on by.
“Yo, bat boy, think fast!”
A basketball came flying and knocked the book out of his hand. He looks up to find he is surrounded by Larry and his male basketball groupies and some of the pretty girls of the school. After Ryan kicked the ball away, he noticed that all the girls rolling with the b-ball nuts were very attractive expect for the girl Larry was crowding.
“Stupid ass,” Ryan grumbled.
Frowning, Larry said, “Excuse me?”
“I said, thanks for the ball, stupid ass.”
Larry waved him off. “Dude, you a loser. Where is your boyfriend?”
“Your momma called and he had to go take care of that.”
“Whatever.”
A bassy rap tune chimed among them. Larry dug into his pants pocket and took out his cell phone. He answered and tuned his head away from Ryan. Still, he talked loud enough for Ryan to hear it all.
“Oh yes, I know who this is. I ain’t got nothing but time for you, babylove. You gonna do that what I asked you to do? Oh, then I am on my way.”
Ryan gathered himself to stand.
“You know what that was?” Larry asked, putting his phone away.
Ryan offered a middle finger in reply.
“Yes, a female caller. Love to stay and chat with you some more, but I have panties to rip. If your momma would have sent you money for a prepaid, you’d know about booty calls. Sorry, youngin’.”
Larry snatched the ball. “Whatever,” he scoffed. “Let’s leave him to play with himself. Watch, he gonna be staring at our asses while we move out. Give him something to whack off to.”
They all laughed and moved on. Ryan watched the fool and his entourage strut away, giggling like a group of elementary school girls on their way to a candy store.
When they were out of sight, and Ryan had reclaimed his spot, he saw two good-looking girls coming from their direction. He looked at them long enough to check out their assets. He did like he usually did, he checked out their legs, then their boobs, and when they were by him he admired their bottoms, and then he got back into his book.
On the JBC campus fine girls are a dime a dozen so he hadn’t paid them much attention. But when they came back he took full notice. These weren’t ordinary co-eds.
“There it is,” Kennita announced. “The damn Jimmie Walker Academic Center.”
“Hmm.” Wanda looked around for the end of this hunt.
“Nice building. Modern.”
Wanda scoffed, “It’s nice but I bet JJ wished he had that money back...”
Kennita smiled. Her attention, though, was on a pair of good-looking sorority-types. She watched the pink and green rocking girls saunter across the grassy lawn and into the red-brick entry of another building. She imagined what the co-eds were about to get into...
Wanda looked around and only noticed men that weren’t the one she wanted; the other females moving around were invisible.
Wanda exhaled a deep breath. “This the parking lot we should have been in.”
“We late though.”
Wanda looked at her watch and shook her head. “We only fifteen minutes late,” she said. “That ain’t nothing.”
“Seemed like we were lost forever. That pizza delivery guy was like, ‘how y’all end up here?’”
“He can go to hell. The fool.”
“You think he left? Got tired of waiting?” Kennita asked.
Wanda planted her plump butt on the doors of somebody’s shiny, black Jetta. She said, “He should have met us someplace real.” She checked her phone for missed calls; still no signal. “He should have came and got us, for real.”
“What kind of car does he drive?”
“I don’t know.”
They both saw the student reading under a tree only because he was the only human on campus not moving. Their eyes met his and locked. Then he looked away, not in shame or embarrassment, she thought with surprise, but as if he’d seen all he wanted and was withdrawing from the stare down.
They were crossing the grass to him. Ryan gathered himself. He shifted his legs and shoved a hand down to steady him as he stood.
The ladies looked a bit confused. They looked lost. They looked at him as if he had on a Mapquest uniform on.
He heard the thick one say, “Ask him.”
He is looking dead at Kennita while Wanda talks. This makes Kennita nervous. She looks him over. She likes him but he is not her type; a college guy that problem does nothing but play ball and screw. She again questions why she is there.
Wanda asked Ryan if he knew Larry. He hesitated in answering. “I know a couple of Larrys,” he said.
“This Larry is famous.”
“Oh, that Larry.”
Kennita was responding to the cute boy’s stares with blushing. It was the before dark boozing, she was sure.
Wanda saw she had no appeal to the schoolboy. She cut her eyes in exasperation; she wasn’t used to losing a man’s attention. “The one that is the star of the basketball team.”
“For real? Y’all just missed him. I don’t know how, he went the way y’all came.”
“When? Just now?”
Kennita sighed and folded her arms across her chest.
“Yeah,” Ryan said. “He, er, stays over that way. But I think he said he was going out.”
“Right. He’s going out with us. We were meeting here.”
“Oh, okay,” he knew better and he felt like he was getting into too deep but damn them girls were fine. He couldn’t control his mouth.
“I have been trying to call him. Can you call him for us?” Wanda desperately asked.
“I don’t know about that.”
“I have no bars, terrible reception on my cell. Can you please just help us find him?”
“Yeah, I can do that. I got the fool’s, I mean, I got his number saved. He used to be cool.”
“And? Stop hating and just call him.”
“Yes ma’am. Right away.”
Wanda rolled her eyes at his sarcasm.