Present Day

"Aye, y'all remember when Cam tried to sneak into the cheerleaders' locker room? He was getting a pic of them undressing? Isaiah, why you do him like that? You was wrong for that shit."

Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's clown on the short guy in the group. The ass of the jokes, I guess.

Had to be short a few brain cells as well because that was the worst dare I did. But I was young and wanted to fit in. Them cheerleaders almost jumped my shit and not in a good way.

Every man fantasizes about having a ton of women jumping his bones and falling for him.

That's how I thought this was gonna work when I was in high school. I had a plan to fulfill my fantasy and take on a dare. Nobody was supposed to see the picture part but I was about to finesse a few cheerleaders over to my house right after all that. You know? A little...what they call it nowadays? 'Netflix and chill'?

Well, that did not work in my favor because one of the cheerleaders saw me with my phone in hand and ran to tell the others. Of course, it was one of the ugliest cheerleaders on the team. You know the one they have to have on the team just to seem like they're being nice and shit.

Chill out, Cam. That was a long time ago and you're a different guy now.

Anyway, I may have been a little shorter than them but I was fast. My feet got me through elementary, middle, and high school. It got me on the track team, a great career as a physical education teacher, and out of some toxic and dangerous situation. Just saying.

I could outrun all three of them if I wanted to.

"The way he sped through the halls killed me. He flew and never looked back. Gotta hand it to ya, man. I underestimated ya," Isaiah laughs as he pats me on the back before throwing his arm over my shoulder.

We were just chilling at a popular brewery around Tampa and two out of the four of us are drunk as shit. Can you tell which ones are?

Ryker's chuckling along with Isaiah's loud ass as they continue to joke about some of my past relations with women in high school.

My love life ain't that bad but it's cause I barely got one. Relationships are cool and all but it just ain't for me right now. Been there, done that, and I'm cool with what I'm doing now. They'd never know about what I got going on unless it's obvious.

While Ryker and Isaiah are cackling, Tripp's sitting back in his chair like he got something heavy on his mind. He stay thinking about stuff and it's wild.

Before I could call Tripp out, Ryker beats me to the punch.

"Aye, wake up, Lover Boy. We here for a good time, not a long time. Stop trying find love around here. You always do that shit."

Isaiah gets up abruptly and makes a quick dash to the bathroom while holding his hand to his mouth. We all shake our heads and chuckle because we know that Isaiah can't hold his liquor well, like he's trying to prove something to us. It could be because he's the youngest of us but still.

"Lightweight lil' nigga. Lemme check on his ass before he fall onto somebody that'll put the paws on him. Y'all know how he like to tussle," Ryker says before he walks off towards the bathroom.

Tripp shakes his head and bites down on his bottom lip. What Ryker thought was a sign of him looking for women was just him overthinking something.

"What's got you pissed?" I ask while bringing my bottle to my lips.

"Bro, be real with me. You know about Kyra and Terrell getting together?" He looks up at me and his brows are squinted.

"Naw, man. I just knew they were cool with each other. You know how Kyra is. She know everybody. How the hell they together when Terrell got a girl though?"

He nods before going back to babysitting his drink.

I wonder who told him that though because something about Kyra keeps him in a chokehold. Any mention of her hits him where it hurts. That's why I don't talk about her around him.

But, to be real, we all know Kyra's also a hoe and gets around. She picks up men like she collecting seashells and she been like that since we first started high school. Matter of fact, we almost hit off before Tripp knew about her. Once they met, I backed off because he's my friend.

"Cam, you ever felt real love in your life before? Someone that will take your breath away and make you feel things you never felt before?"

As much as I want to sympathize with him, I couldn't.

What is this? Disneyworld? He talking about real love and shit. Sounds like he want a damn fairytale.

"Tripp, nothing against you, but that sounds like the most cliché shit I've ever heard," I chuckled as my eyes glance over him but he's really serious.

"Look, man. To me, real love ain't a fairytale. You don't lose your breath and whatever else you just said. Disney failed you."

"Then what do you think real love is, Cam? I really wanna know coming from you."

I don't know whether to take that as offensive or leave it alone. Really, this ain't the place to be talking about it because it's too loud and we're here to chill. I just go ahead and answer his question the best way I know how.

"Well...I feel like you can't really define it. Everybody experiences love differently and I feel like you can see real love. Yeah, you feel it too but how can you feel it with nobody's taking action? Somebody could be sitting with their girl, arm wrapped around her while she enjoying the bartender do flips and tricks with her drink. He's fascinated by the excitement in her face and it just hits. Somebody seeing themselves in your shoes and empathizing with you, doing little stuff that you know you can't or don't want to do, taking initiative. All that"

Tripp freezes in his spot as I'm catching myself study the couple I just spoke on. Now, he got me in my feelings and that ain't supposed to happen.

But it's the little things that could make someone realize how much they're in love. That's how it was for me about a year ago. It was the last of the few relationships I been in and I believe that I was in love with her.

I don't sweat it because it was a wonderful experience and a life lesson. I'll never regret learning from her. Four years of learning, loving, touching, and listening to the one person that gives you a reason to wake up in the morning and brush ya damn teeth. Four years of being with the one person that made you do things you don't normally do but you do for them.

I hate that it didn't last longer but it probably wasn't meant to last that long. Again, it was an experience and everybody goes through one every day.

Sometimes, I wonder if I'm meant to experience love again but with someone else. However, I quickly realize that dating is not what it used to be so I just chill. If it happens, it happens.