Page 3 of The Love Duet
However, my household wasn’t synchronized like that.While my brother and I did match, our parents didn’t.My father was Black, and my mother was Hispanic, and so me and my brother, Arnold, were a mixture of the two.Our skin tones were light enough to mistake us for being full-blooded Hispanic, but our curly hair screamed of something more.Plus, my brother had gotten my father’s build while I had inherited the feminine curves on both sides of my family, so...yeah...I wasn’t slim.
My father was also a doctor, my mother was the director of our town’s recreational center, and my brother was in college to get his teaching degree, so there was no complaining on my end.We had a good life, my deafness being the only hiccup.Arnold Sr.and Christina Rafferty had provided a good life for themselves and their children, and I truly did have a lot to be grateful for, even if I did have a crush on a boy that I could never have.
Still, even knowing that it was a bad idea, I signed, “Fine.Let’s go.”
~
Royce~
Fridays were always a little more charged up than the rest of the week because sports were a big thing at Yosemite High, and it wasn’t just football.A lot of talent was recruited from this place, and the entire town hailed every sport that the school had to offer.While intense, it was still exciting.
“We’re going to kick some serious ass tonight,” Hudson cheered.“I can’t fucking wait.”
Hudson Traveler was my closest friend at Yosemite, and he was a good guy.Having transferred during the summer before my junior year, I had expected some wariness from a lot of the students, but it hadn’t gone down that way.As soon as I had tried out for football, I’d been embraced like I’d been going to school with these people for years.There’d been no jealousy that I’d known of, even when I had landed the quarterback spot.Hudson had explained that winning was a religion for this place, so having the best meant more to the students, faculty, and athletes than bumping dicks to see whose was the biggest.Rather than question my good fortune, I had embraced it, and life at Yosemite had been good so far.
My father, Bram Cameron, was a criminal attorney, and he’d been promoted to a senior associate the year that we’d had to move.With my mother, Francis, being a stay-at-home mom, the choice had been simple; more income, less stress.With my brother, Quincy, in college to study sports medicine, my father’s salary had taken precedence over leaving my friends behind in Wilton.
Still, it hadn’t been the end of the world.I’d made new friends quickly enough, and the curriculum had been an easy transition as it’d been similar to what I’d already been taking at my old school.Sure, I missed my childhood friends, but with social media being what it was, it hadn’t been all that dire once I’d gotten over the unexpected upheaval.So, I still kept in contact with my old friends all the time, still in the loop of what was going on in Wilton.
I looked over at Hudson.“Don’t start licking your nuts just yet,” I advised.“It’s not a slam dunk until the clock hits zero.”
The guy just grinned at me.At six-foot-three, Hudson was about an inch taller than my own six-foot-two, but that wasn’t our only difference.Where I had brown hair, green eyes, and filled out nicely, Hudson had brown hair, brown eyes, and filled out like he could stop trains in their tracks.That was one of the reasons that I loved his position as an offensive guard; the dude protected me with ease.He also had these cornrows that his grandmother braided into amazing intricate designs, and I envied her talent.Though I had regular haircuts, there wasn’t much to do with my hair, so I just styled it the best that I could with it short on the sides, the top longer.
There was also the fact that Hudson didn’t have a racist bone in his body.When I’d first been invited to his house for dinner, his parents had treated me like their own, despite being the only Caucasian in the entire house.His younger sisters had treated me like they couldn’t be bothered, but when I’d noticed that they had treated Hudson the same way, it’d made me laugh, rather than uncomfortable.The same could be said for when I’d first invited Hudson to my house after practice one day.I’d been blessed with parents who were decent human beings, and they’d done their best to raise me and Quincy the same.
“It won’t be me licking my nuts tonight,” he smirked.“I got a bevy of beautiful young ladies to do that for me.”
I rolled my eyes before my locker popped open.“I’m sure you do.”
“So would you if you just loosened the chastity belt, dude,” he joked.“Kaley Frost wants your ass bad.She’s always asking about you.”
“Not interested,” I drawled out as I reached for my laptop.These days, we did more schoolwork on the computer than we did with actual books.
Hudson shut his locker, then leaned against it, looking at me.“I don’t get it,” he said.“The girl is hot, popular, and not an ounce of virginity in sight with that one.What are you waiting for?”
That was an easy question to answer, though I’d never answered it honestly before.I had my eye on someone else, though she had no idea that I existed.Well, that wasn’t entirely true.While I was certain that she’d heard of me because of what I did for this school’s football team, she hadn’t ever shown an ounce of interest in me, so I might as well not exist.
I’d only been at Yosemite for three weeks when I’d first seen her sitting in the courtyard with another girl, their conversation animated and surprising.While I didn’t live wearing rose-colored glasses, I’d always assumed that students with special needs had attended schools that provided the extra attention that they needed.So, watching Roxanne Rafferty and her friend signing to one another had thrown me for a loop.I’d ended up finding out from a very talkative student counselor that Roxanne hadn’t been born deaf, and that she could read lips if the conversation was slow enough.I’d also found out that, when Roxanne had started losing her hearing, her best friend, Pepper Milo, had begun taking ASL classes with her, and the school district had allowed Roxanne and Pepper to be in the same requirement classes together, so that Roxanne didn’t struggle unnecessarily.Apparently, Roxanne was extremely bright, and no one had wanted to stifle her education by placing her in an alternative school program.
The second thing that I’d noticed was her hair.It was dark brown, but always in these perfect ringlets that bounced around her head.Her skin was also dark enough to know that she had a mixed heritage, only I didn’t know the details.My guess was that she was half-Black because if her hair wasn’t a dead giveaway, those curves on her petite frame helped with that assumption.Roxanne was only five-foot-two, but it was a sexy as hell five-foot-two.Mouth-watering curves, dark hair, hazel eyes, tanned skin, and a smile that lit up the sky, Roxanne Rafferty has had my attention ever since I’d first seen her.
It hadn’t been until I’d been attending Yosemite for a while that I had realized that my crush on her might be more than a simple crush.I’d met a lot of girls here, but not one of them had been able to distract me from my thoughts about Roxanne.I had no idea what it was about the girl, but there was something there.We’d also never spoken to one another, but I couldn’t get her off my mind.
“I’ve got enough on my plate without adding Kaley Frost to it,” I told him.
“Dude, you’re a better man than I am,” he smirked.
Shutting my locker, I looked over at him.“I’m just not interested in...groupies.”
Hudson just laughed.“I get it.You don’t want to get anyone pregnant and have your future destroyed.None of us do.That’s why we wrap it up or cum elsewhere.”
“I have no problem getting a girl pregnant,” I corrected, though I’d rather not.“I have a problem getting thewronggirl pregnant.”I shrugged.“If it’s the right girl, then I’ll just drag her pregnant ass with me to college, and then the NFL.I’ll drag her with me through the goddamn Amazon Jungle if I had to.Therightgirl, pregnant withmychild, she’d never be able to get rid of me.”
Hudson slapped my arm.“Gotcha,” he grinned.“I’ll make sure to let Kaley know that you’re not interested.”
“Thanks, man,” I replied.“It might sound old-fashioned or stupid, but I don’t fuck just for the sake of fucking.”
Now, while I wasn’t a saint, I’d been acting saintly ever since I’d first seen Roxanne Rafferty, and I wasn’t going to fuck things up just to get my dick wet.
