"Marjorie Constant cannot accept the fact that I'm bisexual, she dumped me," Richard Browne said, and the six-foot-two, burly young African American sportsman shrugged his massive shoulders. Riley Hunter looked at the young man she'd considered her best friend for ages and wondered what to say to him. What words could comfort a young man who had just lost his first love? Even for a wordsmith as talented as the feisty Riley, this was something of a challenge.
Richard looked miserable and forlorn, and Riley was not quite sure what to say. She kind of sensed what he was going through. The black community, and black women in particular, aren't fond of bisexual black men. Richard's revelation to his now ex-girlfriend Marjorie was brave but ill-advised. Riley had grown up with Richard, and she was the only other person who knew he liked both sexes. Riley likes being Richard's confidante, but she'd like to be much, much more for him...
Riley had known about Richard ever since she caught him making out with her friend Randy Peterson near the baseball field, a long time ago. A lot of the girls in town fancied Richard, the tall and handsome football player. Peterson, the skinny and red-haired, artistic nerd, also fancied Richard, and they had a secret relationship for a while. Peterson ended up leaving Golden Ridge for good after receiving a scholarship to an art school in Paris, France. With Peterson gone, Richard and Riley enrolled at Marlowe College, and continued with their lives.
To Riley, males who only like males, and males who like both females and males are sexy. The androgynous young blonde woman has been fascinated with such men for ages, and she even watches lots of gay porn and bisexual male porn. Riley likes to masturbate and fantasize while watching porn scenes where men fuck both women and men. She's fantasized about Richard, and Peterson, more than once...
"Come here," Riley said, and the slim, short and tomboyish young blonde threw her arms around her favorite gentle giant. Richard Browne, cornerback of the Marlowe College football team, nearly stumbled as Riley hugged him with all of her might. The two of them had grown up on the same street in the small town of Golden Ridge, Mississippi. There was nothing their friendship couldn't overcome...
Richard thought about his now ex-girlfriend Marjorie Constant, the tall, curvy and stunningly beautiful young Haitian woman whom he'd hoped to marry. When Richard met Marjorie during freshman year at Marlowe College, he was heads over heels in love with her, though Riley warned him to be careful. Richard simply cannot resist tall black women with attitudes and big butts, much to Riley's everlasting chagrin.
"Marjorie is a church-going, deeply religious type, the kind of woman who has tons of gay male friends but would never date a bisexual man, a hypocrite of the first caliber, but you have to respect her choice," Riley said, and Richard nodded without saying anything. The two best friends sat under a tree inside the sunlit quad located at the heart of the Marlowe College campus.
A few students walking by stared, for seeing a burly black man with a tiny white woman still causes a stir around these parts, but both Riley and Richard ignored them. They'd grown used to getting stared at when hanging out together. Even though they looked different on the surface, they were remarkably similar underneath it all. Riley is the rebellious daughter of a Baptist minister who champions LGBT rights and rejects gender roles and rules of feminine behavior. Richard is the seemingly normal brother with a lot of secrets. Yup, they're two of a kind, and Golden Ridge produces every kind nowadays...
The town of Golden Ridge was built in 1895 by Earl Ridge, a British businessman who came to Mississippi to get into the cattle business. More than a century later, the town of Golden Ridge is home to forty seven thousand souls. Sixty percent of the townspeople are of Caucasian descent, and thirty eight percent of them are African American, with Asian Americans and Latino Americans making the remaining two percent. For the most part, relations are peaceful between the races...to a point.
In 2004, the town of Golden Ridge elected its first female Mayor, the honorable Martha Stevenson, daughter of the late great Sheriff Mattison Stevenson. Almost two decades later, Golden Ridge elected its first African American Mayor, Burton Browne, a Stanford-educated attorney, and the father of future football legend Richard Browne. Golden Ridge is behind a lot of Midwestern towns when it comes to social issues. The town moves at its own pace, that's for damn sure.
In 1972, a man named Theodore Marlowe decided to create an educational institution in Golden Ridge, and this institution eventually became Marlowe College. Eight thousand students attend the school, which offers associates and bachelors degrees in seventeen majors, including accounting, business, computer science and nursing. In 2000, the school began fielding varsity teams in men's soccer, basketball, baseball, cross country, swimming, volleyball, lacrosse and football, along with women's soccer, cross country, rugby, basketball, swimming, volleyball, lacrosse, field hockey and archery.
This is the town that birthed two unique individuals, Richard Browne, the tall, handsome football player destined for NFL greatness, and Riley Hunter, the tomboyish, downright androgynous gal who turned out to be his best friend. Riley and Richard sat under the tree, watching the sunset. Richard scored the winning touchdown in Marlowe College football team's game against their rivals, Belhaven University. He would go down in Division Three football history as far as the State of Mississippi was concerned. So why doesn't Richard Browne feel like a winner?
"In the black community, the women are always talking about Down Low Brothers, raging against bisexual black men for not disclosing their sexuality, and then rejecting them for doing so," Richard said, shaking his head. Riley nodded and gently laid her hand on his shoulder. Richard has always been special to Riley, whom the town of Golden Ridge considered a freak because of her views on gender and sexuality.
Riley looks like a tomboyish blonde-haired female, with blue eyes and a shy demeanor. The fact that she champions LGBT rights and thinks that the rules governing women's behavior are outdated and useless puts her at odds with most folks in Golden Ridge, who happen to be conservative minded Christians and staunch believers in marriage being only between a man and a woman. In a town that takes tradition seriously, Riley was an exception with a neon-bright capital frigging E!
