Jessica
It was coming around to Essence Festival. If you have never attended one, they're kind of crazy. There's two main groups that attend. You have local New Orleans crowds, mostly black folks, doing their thing. Then you have all these tourists coming in from around the country, who are also mostly black folks. The difference between the tourists and the locals though is money. Most of the people who come in to town are a lot more middle class or even wealthy. They're really easy to spot.
Johnny had told me not to make any plans over the Essence Festival weekend because he had some stuff in mind. Johnny isn't anyone huge in the music business, but he's big enough that he knows people who know people and he often gets invited to parties.
We went to one on Tuesday that was kind of a pre-party and I met some of the guys that Johnny new from Atlanta and a couple of guys from Florida. It was a pretty chill party, but before we showed up, Johnny took me aside. "If you want to hook up with any of these guys, it's cool, ya heard me? But they just think we're friends, aight? If they know we're together, they won't mess around most likely. They're my friends in the music business but they don't know about the other side of my life."
The guys were all really fun and funny, all around our age. They teased me about being the only white person in the room, which I was. One of the guys kept doing this amazing Chris Tucker impersonation and had us laughing till we cried. We all got stoned and drunk and listened to a bunch of cool music I'd never heard like early Detroit techno, British hip-hop, and old reggae. These guys really knew their way around music and I felt like I was getting schooled.
It was a little weird hanging out with Johnny and pretending not to be his girlfriend. It got weirder when he and another girl started flirting. I wasn't jealous or anything, but it felt weird watching him smile sit close to another woman who didn't think I was anything but his friend. He wouldn't do anything with her, but still, it felt weird.
Two of the Atlanta guys immediately started a friendly rivalry for my attention. One, Sean, was a sort of short, really ripped guy with super short Afro. The other guy, Bryan, was bald, dark skinned with really big lips and a cute smile. They were both really flirty and I could tell they both wanted to hook up. They were friends though too, and I could tell that it was kind of a competition for them.
Nothing much happened that night, except Sean gave me a good night kiss. The next day though, Bryan texted me and asked if I wanted to go to a party on Friday night with the same group of guys that had been at the party where I'd met them. He said Johnny could come along too. But when I asked Johnny about it, he said he had a business get together and told me to go with the guys without him.
The party started out really lame at a meeting space in a hotel. It seemed like something a record label might have put on and it probably was. There was a really weird mix of people there and it felt really kind of uptight. But then we all got talking to this guy who said that they were having a big party at the hotel down the street and it was going to be taking up a good portion of an entire floor.
That sounded like fun and I thought maybe it was a chance to wipe away my bad experience from a previous Essence Festival. He invited a group of us over. It was me, Johnny's four friends from Atlanta and another girl that we'd met at the party named Janelle.
We ended up sort of wandering from room party to room party for awhile before we settled into this one room that had some good hip-hop going and some really tasty weed that everyone was crammed out on the balcony to get a hit of. We all got a little baked and drunk. As we did, Sean and Bryan were getting up on me more and more. Finally, when Sean leaned in and kissed my neck, Bryan lost it.
"Hold up! Hold up!" he said to Sean. "I love you and all. We're brothers and shit, but we got to draw a line here." He looked over at me and said, "Now, you know we both into you and I ain't saying you been playin' us or nothin' but if one of us has got a shot and the other don't, you could do us right by speakin' up now." It was fair. I hadn't been intentionally leading them on.
But I realized that really, this was the first time I was in a position like this. I had control over my own sexuality, my own decisions. Yeah, I was a little baked, but I knew I liked both of these guys when I was totally sober. Just a few years back, I might have just kept my mouth shut and let these guys fight over me. Instead, I spoke up and let things play out however they were going to play out. "I like both of you guys. You're just here to visit, so we're just talking about hooking up, right? Cause I'm not looking for a boyfriend." They shrugged and nodded. "Then why do I have to choose at all? Can't we all fuck around?"
They looked at each other and busted out laughing. Not laughing at me, just laughing because I think I shocked the hell out of them. Sean finally said, "Damn. Johnny told us you were down with brothas and that you got freaky, but I have never heard a girl say anything like that. You have just blown my mind, girl."
I grinned. I liked that. It felt good to surprise a guy that way.
Bryan said, "So you saying you want to do a three way or some shit like that?"
I shrugged. "I'm not saying that. I mean...I might be willing." I winked at him. "I just meant that I'm willing to share if you guys are."
Sean looked a little confused and worried though. "I don't fuckin' know how that would go down." He shook his head.
But I was feeling like a total bad ass at that point. Sean and I were sitting on the corner of a bed and Bryan was sitting in a chair facing us. I said, "It's like this." I turned and threw my arm around Sean and kissed him, letting my tongue go all around his. Then I let my hand slip between his legs and I gave a squeeze, just for a second.