Winter grips the City of Ottawa, Ontario, in its icy grip. Adler Stephens, a big and tall young Black man originally from Dorchester, Massachusetts, still isn't used to the harsh winters of Ontario after nearly five years in the province. This morning, however, the young African American gentleman, international student and adventurer finds himself in something of a bind...
"Come on, let go of my arm," Adler Stephens said to Maria Chan, and he looked pointedly at her hand, which gripped his arm in an Iron grip. They were on the second floor of the Carleton University library, and Maria, the most sweetly bipolar Asian gal of them all, was having one of her, ahem, moments. Adler had just about enough...
In the movies and trashy, poorly written novels, there's usually some deluded female character with a Gay male friend who listens to her whine endlessly about her boyfriend, or her clothes, or whatever. Adler Stephens, while forthrightly Bisexual and fairly open about his life, doesn't subscribe to such stereotypical bullshit. He's got about as much patience for whiny gals as the average straight man does, which is to say, very little...
When Adler met Maria Chan a couple of years ago, the young Asian woman seemed really nice, and she was cute, too. For a long time, Adler considered asking Maria out. After knowing her for a while, Adler was glad he never pursued her. Maria Chan was certifiably bipolar, and she sometimes get verbally and physically abusive if the males in her vicinity don't pay enough attention to her...
Adler is one of those brothers who's sometimes too nice for his own good, and Maria Chan usually knows how to push his buttons. She has great insight into him. Adler is cute, and seems to be somewhat odd, for he has posters of barely-clothed female models and barely-dressed male athletes on his bedroom wall. He's usually friendly and sensitive to Maria Chan's needs, which is why she's mad at him today. Adler seems to be quite reluctant to deal with Maria for some reason...
"Adler, you're not listening to me," Maria Chan shrieked, her fingernails grazing his skin through his winter jacket and the shirt underneath. Adler made the mistake of lending Maria a sympathetic ear when she came toward him, whining about her mother, or her boyfriend, some Asian dude named Jay. Or perhaps both. No good deed goes unpunished, and now Maria was holding Adler hostage...
I got to get rid of this bitch and quick, Adler thought. He took a look around the crowded library. If he pulled away from her, Maria Chan was likely to cause a scene, the last thing Adler wanted at this point. With graduation a few months away, he wasn't trying to fuck up. This requires careful handling...
"I'm not your boyfriend, lady," Adler said, at his wits end, and Maria Chan gasped in shock. He took advantage of that moment to yank her arm away from him. Adler got up, grabbed his backpack and made a beeline for the elevators, perhaps a hundred meters away. He briefly glanced over his shoulder, and saw Maria Chan glaring at him murderously. This bitch is crazy, Adler thought.
Rushing into the elevator, Adler headed to the fifth floor, a place he seldom visits because it's loud, and full of peons...what he calls underclassmen and women. He found a computer, sat down and logged on. He took off his winter jacket and draped it at the back of his chair, and briefly inspected his arm. Mercifully, Maria Chan's long-ass nails didn't break his skin, and Adler thanked heaven for small favors.
As Adler began to do his homework for his Statistics class, he felt...it. The indescribable feeling of being watched. Looking up, Adler saw one of the Prowlers. This filled the normally studious young man with quite a bit of trepidation. All I want to do is get my work done and get my ass home, I don't need to be hassled by weird chicks or weird dudes, Adler thought, annoyed.
Prowlers are Gay males of various ages who walk around college campuses, shopping malls, washrooms, parks, parking lots, public libraries and other so-called public spaces, in an endless patrol in search of D.I.C.K. They make eye contact with random males, trying to sniff out the Gay males and the Bisexual men among the throngs of oblivious Heterosexual men.
Once they lock onto their prey, they don't give up. Things like personal boundaries, basic decency and self-respect don't matter to them. What makes a Prowler dangerous is that he acts without much thought. A Prowler is ready, willing and able to have sex without protection in a public washroom with a male stranger whom he doesn't even know. Prowlers don't seem concerned with their personal safety or health. They're willing to basically die, just for the dick...
"Don't come here," Adler mumbled to himself, as he glanced at the Prowler. Tall and thin, wearing a jacket and pants that were definitely too tight, the fake-smiling Prowler came toward Adler, and then began to hover in his vicinity while pretending to look at his phone. The Prowler hovered for a few minutes, while Adler ignored him as best he could. After a while, the Prowler wandered off, presumably in search of more interested prey...
One of the things that Adler absolutely hates about being a Bisexual man is the fact that Prowlers have the ability to sense him. Adler doesn't fully understand it himself. It's almost as if they have some kind of supernatural ability to spot any man who isn't entirely straight. As a Bisexual man, Adler finds himself on the Prowlers radar, to his everlasting chagrin.
Adler looks, acts and sounds like a normal brother, as far as he knows. Adler doesn't have a girly voice, nor does he make funny hand gestures or walk funny like a lot of dudes in the lifestyle seem prone to do. He dresses like a regular guy too, loose-fitting jeans and dark-colored T-shirts for the most part, nothing too bright and nothing tight. Most of Adler's friends are straight Black males, and he's more than okay with that. They're the least dramatic bunch out there...
While the Prowlers can sense Adler, he can't sense most men in the lifestyle unless they're the obvious, girly-sounding and girly-acting types. Still, he has noticed that a lot of men who aren't straight make a lot of eye contact with him, for obvious reasons. So if a straight-looking and straight-sounding guy looks him in the eye too often, Adler rightfully assumes that the dude plays for the same team of which he's a reluctant, part-time member...
Adler thought of a certain store at the Saint Laurent Mall, where a Gay Ethiopian dude named Hailu happened to work. Adler met Hailu while on the bus, and the two of them became casual friends. All was cool until Adler noticed that Hailu fawned over him like a chick would, and acted really shocked and jealous whenever he caught Adler checking out a woman. This dude really wants me and the feeling definitely isn't mutual, Adler thought.
"Hailu, seriously, stop fawning over me, I'm not your boyfriend, buddy," Adler told the funny-looking little Ethiopian guy, during their last conversation. Hailu acted like he was shocked, and for some reason, went around gossiping about Adler with his female co-workers at the store. Adler had no idea what lies Hailu told his female co-workers, nor did he want to know. He wanted to cut the little guy out of his life...and so he did.
Whenever Adler came in to shop, Hailu gawked at him and so did his female co-workers. For Adler, the whole thing was both frustrating and completely avoidable. Bozos like Hailu caught feelings easily and couldn't take no for an answer. That's why I don't deal with Gay guys and only play with other Bisexual men, Adler reminded himself. After a while, Adler simply stopped coming into that particular store.
Come to think of it, Adler has had to distance himself from a lot of people lately. There's his older sister Nadine Stephens, who felt the need to tell her psychotic boyfriend Mike the Ugandan that Adler is Bisexual. For the life of him, Adler couldn't figure out how or why his Bisexuality came into any sort of conversation that his sister Nadine would have with Mike, her weirdo of a boyfriend. Seriously, what the fuck?
After Adler and Mike nearly came to blows, Adler became estranged from his sister Nadine and the rest of their uptight family, which sided with Mike, for some reason. That's my plight as a Bisexual Black man, Adler mused. The way he figured it, Black families could accept thugs, bandits, wife beaters, and even downright psychopaths, but they could never accept a brother who swings both ways.
After finishing his homework, Adler decided to chill and listen to music for a bit. He went to YouTube, and checked out a video by the controversial artist Delli Boe. The video, Bisexual Problems, was garnering a lot of attention online. In the video, a slim, dark-skinned young Black man lay in bed with a big-booty, light-skinned female and a slim, effeminate male. Sandwiched between his two lovers, the artist rapped about his struggles as a Bisexual Black man...
"Rock on, my brother," Adler said, nodding along to the controversial song as he watched the video. Adler really likes big-booty gals and admired the artist Delli Boe's choice of girlfriend. Adler didn't care for effeminate men, but he couldn't fault Delli Boe for liking what he liked. To each his own, Adler thought, smiling as he watched the video.
