When You Come to Me by Jade Alyse

graduation present over a year ago.
    “It would be great if you didn’t snore,” Brandon said, adjusting himself on the floor.
    Natalie pulled the covers up to her cheek, rolled her eyes, and got settled in. “It would be great if you went back to your own house…there’s a bed there, you know…”
    “Yea, yea,” he mumbled. “And then you’d have a freak attack, because I left you. You can admit it now, you like me being here…”
    “I plead the fifth…”
    “I love you too,” he told her. “Did you set your alarm?”
    “Yes, mother…”
    “Goodnight, Natalie…”
    “Goodnight, Brandon…”

    #

    By springtime, when the trees swayed under speckled sunlight to a lazy, natural rhythm, Brandon found Sophia again.
    He called Natalie one night as she sat with Asha in the library. She had to whisper, but wanted to yell, wanted to reach through the phone and kill that Brandon Greene!
    “Brandon, are you crazy?” she forced through tight lips.
    “Yes, Natalie, I’m crazy,” he told her plainly. “I don’t know what happened. She came to my house, told me she loved me and that was it…I was a goner!”
    “I repeat…Brandon David Greene…are you crazy?”
    “Nat, don’t be upset…”
    “Upset? I’m not upset. I’m furious! And I’m going to kill you!”
    “Don’t be overdramatic…”
    “Fine…I won’t…but please don’t come running to me, when she starts running off at the mouth about trivial things. Or, when you start getting into fights about trivial things…”
    “I won’t, don’t worry…”
    “Good.”
    “Good.”
    “Fine.”
    “Fine…”
    “Are you done?” she asked him.
    A period of silence followed.
    “Yes…quite…” he answered a few seconds later.
    She didn’t say goodbye, only chose to hang up the phone, slowly, glance at Asha and roll her eyes.
    Her friend closed her textbook quickly, sighed and asked, “What has that boy done now?”
    Natalie shrugged her shoulders, rolled her eyes once more, pictured that Greene boy in her mind and said, “What else would he do that would make me want to murder him?”
    “Sophia…” Asha sighed with the slow shake of her head.
    “Exactly. Sophia…”
    “What is it with this white girl? She must give a great blow-job…”
    “Asha!”
    “What? I can’t be honest?”
    “A little too honest…”
    “I’m just saying, Nat…there must be something about that girl that keeps him running back…”
    “I just—I just wish he would open his eyes and realize that Sophia isn’t the one for him…”
    Asha nodded slowly, lowered her eyes as if to contemplate a thought, and said, “Yes, yes and that you are…”
    “What? No…no…no…no…uh…no…”
    Asha laughed. “Natalie Chandler!”
    “What?”
    “You like him! Your black ass likes him!”
    Natalie shook her head vigorously as if she’d never processed such a thought in her mind.
    “Again…no…no…no, Asha…no!”
    She had to laugh…had to laugh off the audacity of it all.
    “You do…you like that white boy! I saw it from miles away! I did! All the girls saw it…miles away!”
    “Can I not care about my friend?”
    “Oh, but of course you can, Natalie…but you not only care for him…you want him…and now that your opportunity is gone, you can only kick yourself…you like him!”
    “You’re wrong…I can only kick you…you’re crazy…”
    “Ha, you’re crazy, Natalie, crazy for him…”
    Natalie scoffed…scoffed again…laughed nervously…yes, she had absolutely nothing to say.
    “I mean…go ahead, girl…go for it…he is a good-looking little white boy, isn’t he? Well, he’s certainly not little…but…you get the point, surely…”
    “I’m not going for anything…Brandon and I [She pictured Brandon, his long body extended on her dorm room floor, a book in his hands, a Georgia hoodie hugging him…her, loving the fact that her friend is there…Brandon Greene, her best friend]…Brandon and I…are