THE BASS FROM THE MUSIC WAS jumping as soon as Takashi walked into the party. He had on a long sleeve black shirt and causal denim jeans with a pair of soot black Timberlands on his feet. Toryn was on his arm in a long sleeve electric blue dress and black heels. The dress had a cut on the left arm of her sleeve and right above her hip on the right side of her dress.

A college friend of his named Chris was throwing a house party and because Takashi hadn't been out in a while due to work and his busy home life, now was the perfect time to relax. Braelyn didn't dare to come out and because Toryn was now staying at Laura's house and had nothing better to do, he figured he'd bring her along to spend more time with a friend he lost so much time with. Months had passed and Takashi felt like he had regained some of that closeness with Toryn, but it wasn't exactly the same as before when they were kids.

Takashi remembered once upon a time how low key salty he use to be when Toryn came out with him. Now that times had changed, he wasn't gonna take his eyes off of her tonight. He didn't need any sleazy dudes or bums trying to talk to her. She already been through enough in the last seven years of her life. He wouldn't allow anyone else to add more onto it.

Takashi greeted a few heads he knew and already noticed the looks Toryn was getting. She herself seemed to be soaking in the attention as she smiled really hard. Tonight she didn't have her glasses on, but he didn't care because even without the bifocals nobody was gonna step to her tonight.

Takashi lightly pushed Chris's shoulder when he saw him talking to a group of guys in his dining room.

"Aye! My man!" Chris said as they pulled each other in for a one arm hug.

Takashi then turned and said hello to everyone else in the circle just to be polite. Chris noticed the brown skin model looking chick on his friend's arm and raised an eyebrow. Her hair came down low in waves up to her elbows and she had on this form fitting dress that showed off her small hour glass frame.

"Good evening miss lady," Chris said, "and what's your name?"

"Toryn." She blushed.

"Well it's very nice to meet you Toryn," Chris said putting emphasis on the word. He then looked at Takashi. "Lemme holla at you for a second man."

Takashi chuckled already knowing what he was thinking. They walked off a few feet away from everyone else. Chris looked at Takashi and already had him laughing for no reason. "As lovely as Toryn is, she doesn't look like Braelyn."

"Nah man she's just a friend, I'm not on that. Old friend from back in the day. Like grew up calling my mom her mom type of friend."

"Word? Wifey know that she here on your arm looking like a snack?"

Takashi chuckled. "Cut it out man, yeah she know. They met a while back."

"Okay, okay," Chris said looking at him like he wasn't completely sold on the friend thing. He started rubbing his hands together. "Your cousin still coming through right?"

Takashi had an older cousin named Tyrell from his father's side. Pursuing Braelyn is actually what brought them closer. Once Takashi started coming around his father's side of the family more he started to see more of Tyrell. At first Tyrell was very standoffish and didn't want any parts of him, but slowly he started to open up to him. Soon they got close, especially since they were cousins and around the same age.

"Yeah, I guess he coming later. You know his broke ass probably tryna catch a ride from somebody. You know he don't ever have money." Takashi said shaking his head.

Chris chuckled. "True. So how's the baby? She good?"

"Yeah Bri good man, giving me hell as usual. But you know Brae holding that down for me. She doing a great job with her so," he shrugged. "I can't complain."

"Yeah...going back to her, how is baby sis Brae doing? She straight?" Chris loved Braelyn because she was so funny. She was adorable which made her funny. He never in his life saw a woman as pure and goody two shoes as Takashi's wife. The fact that she was so young too made it extra crazy but Chris took a liking to her because she was so sweet. She was the type of female it would be impossible to hurt because her heart was so big.

"Brae chillin'...you know how that go." Takashi said.

"Aight. Imma let you go mingle an' shit, but if I catch anything suspicious I'm snitching to sis!" Chris joked making Takashi laugh.

Takashi took Toryn as they went toward the back of the house to see if there was anybody else he knew. He ran into a few coworkers and most people had the same reaction. Everyone was whispering, wondering where Braelyn was. It was starting to get annoying to Takashi because he had his wedding band on his finger. Even if he was cheating he wouldn't have brought his mistress around a group of people who also knew his wife. It just went to show how much people loved starting drama.

It took Takashi no time to run into some more familiar faces out in the backyard. They were grilling like it was Summer and not fifty degrees out, but he wasn't planning on staying out long enough to get sick so he didn't care.

"Um, Taka, I need to use the bathroom." Toryn said. She still didn't remember anything much about their past, but she'd gotten comfortable calling him that.

"Aight go back inside and ask the guy I was just talking too. He'll direct you."

Toryn walked off just as two people approached him. One was Tyrell already with a beer in his hand and Takashi's White coworker Nate, who was already drunk by the rosy red color on his cheeks. They were both talking about something at the same time so Takashi had no clue what was being said.

"Bro you just walked through the door and you already got a drink in your hand? Chris even know you in his house man?" Takashi asked his cousin. His friends had met his cousin several times and although Tyrell wasn't buddies with his friends, they all did hang out on several occasions to be cool with each other when they got together.

"Man fuck all that," Tyrell snapped. "Answer this, ain't it gay to masturbathe?"

"No!" Nate said. "How is it gay? It's your dick."

Takashi shook his head, he felt like he was back in high school. None of the men he knew now were who he hung out with back then, but they acted just like them. They were all some big kids. Takashi shook his head. "Why ya'll even talking about dicks?"

"Because your friend here sounds crazy." Nate laughed. "How is it gay to jerk your own cock?"

"'Cause you still have a dick in your hand. Doesn't matter if it's yours. If you a man and you got a dick in your hand, that's gay." Tyrell said.

"Man..." Nate said dragging out the word. "That's bullshit. So your saying a female that finger bangs herself is a lesbian then?"

"Exactly." Tyrell said earning laughter and teeth sucking at his silly remarks. He then quickly snapped his fingers a few times to get their attention. "Okay check this out. Imma prove my point right now. The point of giving yourself a handjob is to orgasm right?" He asked looking around for approval.

Nate agreed while Takashi just looked around paying them no mind. He wasn't in this one with these big dofus's.

"Aight then! So if you a man and you know how to make a dick cum, you gay! Whether it's yours or not you still have knowledge on how to stroke a dick until it bust, so you a faggot! End of conversation!" Tyrell said proudly.

Nate busted out laughing and looked at Takashi. "What do you think?"

"I think ya'll both gay for even being this passionate about the conversation to be honest."

They laughed before being approached by Toryn again. The circle got quiet as Tyrell and Nate gave each other these strange looks, thinking she was some drunk girl that stumbled over to them. Until they noticed how close she was standing to Takashi.

"Some guy gave me this on my way back from the bathroom," Toryn said holding a piece of paper.

Takashi took it out her hand and saw that it had somebody's number written on it. He sucked his teeth and crumbled it, throwing it on the ground. "How you end up talking to people anyway and you were going to the bathroom?"

Toryn frowned at how irritated he had become. She hoped he wasn't a mean person, he had been nice so far to her. "He stopped me, I wasn't going to be rude."

Tyrell started to watch her hard. He had a strong feeling that he knew her from somewhere. She looked really familiar but he wasn't sure. She was bad as hell and he was wondering if she was some chick he use to mess with in high school but he didn't want to be disrespectful and ask in case it was Takashi's little thing on the side. But then again he knew his cousin wasn't cheating because they were close so Takashi would have told him.

"I know you from somewhere?" Tyrell asked.

Toryn looked at him and took his features in. He had a nice complexion but the first noticeable thing about him were his lips. They were purple so she averted her eyes not wanting to stare. She assumed he had some kind of medical condition. "N-no, I don't think so."

"What's ya name?"

"Toryn." She said.

Tyrell didn't realize he wouldn't know her name anyway, because even when she was messing with Samir he never cared to ask.

"Oh...aight." He said, slowly looking away.

Toryn didn't know what it was but she got a weird vibe from the purple lip guy.

"Toryn this is my cousin, Tyrell. Tyrell this is my friend Toryn, meaning no you don't know her ugly." Takashi joked.

Tyrell nodded his head at her just as Chris and his sister approached. Chris smiled at Toryn and introduced her to his sister. The woman wasted no time pulling Toryn off inside of the house. Chris's sister had been eyeing her shoes all night and she could tell they would vibe because her style was all of the way up there.

Takashi, Nate, Chris and Tyrell stood around in the circle, letting the bass of the soca music rattle their bones. Takashi wouldn't be surprised if someone called the cops soon. It was a weekday too and they were partying like it was Saturday night.

"Tell me why I was tryna hit on this Japanese joint the other day, and shorty straight swerved me. Them hoes the worst man. Straight racist. She'd probably only fuck with Nate white ass...them Chinese and Japanese bitches act like white dude's is the best thing on Earth." Tyrell announced.

"I don't think she racist man, it's probably them lips. You look like a black goth girl going through a phase!" Christopher spat, slapping his knee.

Takashi almost choked on his own spit as he shut his eyes and laughed. The messed up part about it was it really did look like Tyrell had lipstick on. But the color was a permanent part of his lips from years of excessive weed smoking.

Nate's face was red with laughter but he didn't say anything. He just sipped his Bud Wiser, glancing at the time on the black watch on his left arm.

"Hahaha, take my dick out your mouth boy!" Tyrell said, angry as hell.

"Chill, chill," Takashi said, "just relax man I think Christopher is right. It doesn't mean she's racist, maybe your just not her type. Plus I wouldn't want any play from her anyway. I got a faithful, loyal and beautiful wife waiting on me at home."

"Yeah, probably with a bible in one hand and holy water in the other. Fuck outta here. When you hitting it from the back she probably be yelling out 'Thou shall not kill the pussy!'" Tyrell mocked.

Again laughter erupted so loud they got a few looks. Takashi stuck his middle finger up as he tried to catch his breath. Tyrell smirked a little happy some of the attention had been taken off of him. The guys were always cracking on each other. Tyrell usually got made fun of for his purple lips. Takashi for his overly holy wife, Christopher for his overly flirtatious girlfriend who seemed to seek attention from other guys daily and Nate who's underaged children basically ran him.

"Man fuck you, at least I have a girl!" Takashi capped back.

Tyrell shook his head and took a gulp from his bottle of Corona. "Yeah, a damn nun."

"Don't worry Tyrell, I'm sure Chris' woman will give you a shot." Nate jumped in causing chuckles from the circle once Christopher glared at him.

Chris was also the type to laugh at everyone else but as soon as a joke was made about him he got serious. Too bad he had a group of friends that didn't give a fuck and went in on everybody the same, regardless.

"Remember last year at that Christmas party?" Takashi said pushing Nate's shoulder who was standing across from him, "Felicia had them titties in your face like she was ready for that white chocolate!" Takashi joked.

Nate got even more red and tried not to laugh even though it was true. Christopher couldn't even lie because his girl Felicia acted reckless constantly. He had to pull her in the bathroom and talk to her about always flirting with men. People had been gossiping about that incident at the job for months. No one knew her that well to say Felicia was cheating or that she was slutty, she just had this need to be seen by men.

"Yeah okay," Chris said taking a few mouthfuls of his beer.

"You gotta control your woman man." Tyrell said pointing at Chris.

Nate nodded his head making Chris look at him. Everyone smiled at each other already knowing where the conversation was headed. "Oh I know you ain't nodding your head to control. Them kids you got? They the ones that probably let your ass come out tonight. What did your daughter call you last time? 'Cause you didn't get her that toy she wanted? Oh yeah, she said 'I hate you dad. Your a motherfucking asshole." Chris mocked.

Takashi chuckled and shook his head. Nate's children were very rude and he couldn't imagine Brielle turning out like that. Nate's daughter was eleven and his son was fifteen and they treated him like a stranger when they got mad. Sometimes they came to the job and showed their ass so Nate got embarrassed constantly.

"Their not that bad." Nate tried to defend.

Takashi's phone started vibrating in his pocket so he pulled it out and saw Braelyn's name on the screen. He huffed and excused himself from the gathering of guys who didn't even notice him walk off, too busy going in on each other. Takashi put the phone to his ear hearing some rustling in the back.

"Yes Braelyn, what?" Takashi said. He didn't mean to come off so hostile, but Braelyn always called him when they didn't speak for a couple of hours. Sometimes he didn't care while other times he found it annoying. He knew she was only calling to show she had him on her mind, but at the same time he didn't like how she always had this need to clock him everywhere he went.

"Oh, I was just calling to make sure you were okay."

"Yes Braelyn I'm fine. I'm just hanging out with my friends. I know I have work in the morning, I'll be there soon." Takashi couldn't even act like Braelyn wasn't clingy because she was. She didn't trip when he went out, but the problem was if an hour past she had to call and find out what time he was coming back home. He felt like if she had friends—friends who weren't so lame, she would never call him so much when he wasn't there.

"Is Toryn okay? Remember she has to go back to your mother's house. You shouldn't keep her out too long. What if she wants to go but is too scared to say something to you? You don't want to make her uncomfortable."

Takashi knew all of that was basically her saying she wanted him to come home without saying it out her mouth. The hard thing was he really couldn't get mad because he knew in her heart she wasn't trying to be irritating. But even if she wasn't it was still getting to him.

"She's fine."

"O-oh...okay, I'll go now. I love you."

"Bye Braelyn."

The line was silent.

Takashi pulled the phone away from his ear and just as he was about to hit the end button, he bit his bottom lip. Being mean to Braelyn was like sticking the middle finger up to a newborn baby who was outstretching their arms to you with a smile on their face. It was so hard to do. Takashi put the phone to his ear. "I love you too Brae."

She smiled softly on the other end. "Okay...have fun." She said, hanging up.

Right as his phone hit the bottom of his pocket, Toryn came up to him dancing. Stefflon Don featuring Abra Cadabra "Envy Us" had the entire house shaking. Takashi figured it was a song Toryn must have heard frequently because she was impressively singing the song word for word.

"Pull up in an automobile with black wheels. Red on my feet like somebody blood spill. Come on!" She said, encouraging him to dance with her, "My swag dangerous my swag kills. They can't hang with us they ain't real." Toryn swung around and began twerking on him as the female rap artist changed her voice, now rapping in a West Indian patios.

Toryn was throwing her ass back like she had junk in her trunk. It was bouncing back on him with no problem, though. Takashi kept trying to move back with a big smile on his face to decline the dance politely, but Toryn held his wrist and kept twerking on him to stop him from going anywhere.

All of his friends stood there giving him looks and laughing which made him get even more shy and freeze up as he awkwardly stood there like an antisocial fifteen year old.

"Nigga I'm snitching!" Chris reminded.

"Oooo, get it Teriyaki!" Tyrell shouted.

Nate just sipped his beer, doing fist pumps.

"Okay...okay." Takashi said still trying to break away from the dance. It was bad enough everyone already wanted to assume stupid shit, so he didn't need them running off with this one.

Toryn turned around out of breath just as the song was ending anyway. She sucked her teeth and pulled the tight material of her dress down. She lightly pushed his shoulder, moving a curl off her face that was sticking to the shimmery lipgloss on her lips. "Oh my gosh, you're no fun."

Takashi slowly shrugged then scratched the back of his neck, while he kept looking off to the side when he started to hold eye contact with her longer than he should have been. "Nah...I'm just not a dancer like that."

"Mm hm," Toryn said rolling her eyes. Her mouth formed into an O shape as an epiphany came to her. "Ohh, I know. It's because of your wife, right?"

"No not re—"

"Yes it is. Oh lighten up. It's just a little dance, like I know your married. It's not like I pulled your pants down or anything. Braelyn wouldn't get her panties in a bunch over a little dance, would she?"

Takashi didn't even answer, he just pulled his phone out and looked at the time. He hadn't realized so much time had passed. They'd already been at the house for two hours. It wasn't a long time in a party setting, but he had work tomorrow and now that he was older with a job he valued sleep more than wilding out.

"We gotta get ready to go." Takashi informed her.