Forgotten Love: A BWWM Pregnancy Billionaire Love Story (3 page)

Allen
sighed. “You’re not a disappointment, don’t be an
idiot. You just put yourself down so much. See? Like now,” he
said anticipating her snarky reply.

Frances
made a face at him, “Well there’s one way to sort this
shit out; I’ll apply and then you can read through all the
rejection letters and burn them.”

“
Deal,”
Allen replied.

Frances
stared at him, as if waiting for the punch line. Allen continued to
eat his breakfast unperturbed, however so, she went back to her own
and decided to ignore him.

*****

They
both got into the University of Minnesota; it was the only campus
they both applied to that they both got into. Frances was in shock
that she got more than one acceptance letter so she was quite willing
to let Allen guide her as to which to choose. He was legal now and
able to take charge of his parents’ fortune. He paid his uncle
the money he promised and then sold the house. He didn’t want
any reminders of his childhood; the death of his parents weighed
heavily on that house, and the abuse his uncle had subjected him to.
The only good memories the house had was after Frances came to live
with them. He was ready to let it go. Let the whole town go in fact
and start fresh. His administrators were opposed to such drastic
changes and did their best to dissuade him. He only convinced them by
pointing out the financial impracticality of maintaining a house in
Prosperity, Indiana when he was going to spend the majority of the
next four years in St. Paul Minnesota. It made more economic sense
simply to get an apartment in Falcon Heights; after all it wasn’t
like he had relatives to come back to in Prosperity. The
administrators agreed that this was a plan and Allen and Frances
packed up the house.

Frances
was very insecure about her suitability to be a college student but
Allen rode roughshod all over her objections and signed her up for
whatever classes he thought might interest her. This included
linguistics, French, literature and history. At that point, Frances
took over and chose her own classes. Freshman year of college was a
period of adjustment; the freedom was intoxicating for Allen; but
Frances had always been unencumbered by adult supervision so it was
par for the course for her. Allen tried everything on offer from LSD
to sky diving. He spent the minimum time he could actually in class
that would enable him to pass his exams. Frances on the other hand,
spent all her time in class, or at the library catching up on the
quieter side of growing up. They still lived together at an apartment
off campus but somehow, they rarely saw each other.

Frances
met a guy in the library in the beginning of sophomore year. He was
intense in a way that fascinated her; his ambitions were boundless
and he came from a poor background too. He was only able to study at
the U of M because of a scholarship and financial aid. He wanted to
get his degree and go home to change his neighborhood. Frances fell
in love with his passion and he fell in love with her brain and her
sass. Allen was against it. He did everything he could to dissuade
Frances from going out with him.

“
Look
at him with those dreadlocks. Its so pretentious; who does he think
he is? Bob Marley?” Allen said sneering derisively at Kareem
who was checking out some books as Frances and Allen waited.

“
Don’t
be jealous,” Frances said amused. “I still love you.”

Allen
slapped at her arm with the back of his hand, “I’m being
serious.”

“
So
am I!” she protested.

“
What
is it anyway? You lookin’ to get laid or something? Because I’m
pretty sure I know a few guys who are more experienced than that Sean
Paul wannabe you hangin’ with.”

Frances
laughed. “Have you been taking surveys?” she asked
amused. “Or are you relying on locker room boasts; because you
might not know this man, but boys lie. All the time.”

Allen
glared at her, “I know that chica; I’m trying to help you
here.”

Frances
turned to face him, “Allen, I like him okay? Do I try to get
between you and
your
girlfriends?”

“
Ha!
What about Kristen?”

“
What
about her? I didn’t tell you to get rid of her; you did that
all by your damn self.”

“
Yeah
but it was coz of you,” Allen said.

“
Fine.
But Kareem’s not asking me to choose between you and him so you
can just step off Allen. Green is not a good look on you.”

Allen
snorted, “As if. I’m not jealous.”

“
Whatever
you say slugger,” Frances said smiling as Kareem came up to
them.

“
Got
the books,” he said. “Can’t wait to debate the
merits and demerits of Homer with you.”

He was
grinning at Frances which annoyed Allen to no end. He pulled her away
from Kareem as they were walking to the car.

“
You
know I can debate Homer just as good as he can,” he hissed at
her.

She just
laughed and pulled her hand out of his grip, hurrying forward to walk
with Kareem. Allen had a date that night but he blew it off to lounge
in the study watching Frances and Kareem read and talk about The
Odyssey. He was pretending to study as he did it but Frances wasn’t
fooled. He was seriously cock blocking her.

“
You
want to like, take this to my room?” she asked Kareem. Allen
took a very deep breath and seemed like he was about to stand up and
maybe block the door.

“
Sure
I do,” Kareem replied face brightening visibly. He glanced at
Allen as if aware of his cock blocking intentions and then stood up,
holding out his hand to help Frances up. Allen stood too, wanting to
stall with something but not thinking of something in time. Frances
and Kareem strode past him, headed toward her room. Allen followed
them with his narrowed eyes. He was surprised at how much he wanted
to ram the switch blade he always carried on his person into Kareem’s
heart. He hadn’t experienced such violent thoughts since a
random druggie had almost knifed Frances for the money she was
carrying when they were still living on the street. Allen wondered at
it; maybe he’d developed a paternal complex and was treating
Frances as if she was his daughter? Somehow, Allen didn’t think
so…

He
waited twenty minutes and then strode over to Frances’ door,
knocking loudly. There was silence from inside which was making Allen
feel like breaking down the door to see what they were up to. He was
just assessing it for sturdiness when it opened suddenly.

“
What?”
Frances asked irritably.

“
I
need to talk to you,” he said to her.

She
lifted up her eyebrow in inquiry.

“
In
private,” he said.

Frances
sighed, looked into the room with an, “Excuse me”, and
then stepped out and shut the door behind her.

“
What’s
going on Allen?” she asked.

He
leaned down and put his lips on hers. She stiffened in surprise and
he was just as surprised as she was. It hadn’t been his
intention to do that. He hadn’t known what his intentions were
but they weren’t that. Still, now that his lips were on hers,
he found himself wanting to explore the inside of her mouth, taste
her, know the texture and softness of her lips. He was surprised how
soft her lips were; she was such a hard ass on the outside, he
expected them to be more chapped, not so plush and soft; tempting a
body to lean in and squash them against his own lips; suck them open
and insert his tongue inside her mouth. And she was letting him; he
wondered if she was still in shock or if she wanted to kiss him back.

He
lifted his head and looked into her green eyes flecked with gold.
They were wide and staring at him as if she’d never seen him
before. He cleared his throat and straightened up.

“
Umm,”
he said.

“
What
was that?” she whispered hoarsely.

Allen
shrugged and continued to stare into her eyes. He shouldn’t be
thinking it, but all he wanted to do was kiss her again.

“
Please
tell me you didn’t just kiss me so I’d get rid of
Kareem,” she hissed.

“
What?
No! It…it just happened,” he protested.

She
bit her lower lip making Allen jealous of her teeth;
he
wanted to bite her lower lip. She was looking at him pretty
skeptically and he should probably be paying attention to that.

“
I’m
not sorry though,” he said.

She
lifted her eyebrows. “You’re not sorry for what?”
she asked eyes still wide and staring.

“
I’m
not sorry I kissed you. Are you sorry I kissed you?”

“
Oh
God, I’m not having this conversation. Go to sleep Allen,”
Frances said walking back to her room and slamming the door behind
her. Allen stood in the hallway and just watched her door for a bit.
After an interminable amount of time, he decided to just go and
sleep. There was nothing more he could do right now. He opened the
door to his room and flopped on his bed, watching the hallway
hopefully. Surely she was going to get him to leave…she
wouldn’t do this to him, would she?

Allen
sat up until 2am waiting and
finally
the door to Frances’ room opened. Kareem padded down the hall,
in nothing but his boxers and a wife beater. He did a double take as
he passed Allen’s door and saw him sitting on the bed staring
into the hallway.

“
Whoa
man, you scared me,” he said with a laugh. Allen just glared at
him. Kareem saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere with him and
went on his way, using
Allen’s
house; drinking his
water, peeing in his toilet and sleeping on the bed
he
bought. Allen was ready to commit bloody murder. In the morning, he
started awake and realized he’d fallen asleep sitting on the
end of his bed. He got up, ignoring his complaining muscles and
walked to his doorway, peering down the hall at Frances’ door.
It was wide open, and the bed was made. It was also empty. Allen
looked the other way, towards the kitchen, but there wasn’t
anybody there either. The apartment was silent.

He went
to the grocery store to restock the fridge and then decided to attend
his afternoon classes. When he got home at six pm, it was to find
Frances seated cross legged on his bed, looking like butter wouldn’t
melt in her mouth.

“
Well
hello there,” he said coming into his room and shutting the
door behind him. She stared back at him impassively.

“
What?
You won’t talk to me?” he asked coming to sit at the edge
of his own bed.

“
What
was that yesterday Allen? What were you trying to do?” she
demanded eyes narrowed, practically shooting sparks at him.

“
I
was trying…to show you how I feel,” he said looking down
at his blue carpet.

“
Really?
Coz it felt like you were trying to manipulate me into doing what you
wanted,” she accused. Allen looked up into her eyes, hurt in
his own.

“
How
can you think that after everything we’ve been through
together?” he asked.

“
How
could you do that after everything we’ve been through
together?” she countered.

Allen’s
face reddened though he hesitated to call it blushing. “What
did I do that was so bad? I was just showing you how I feel.”

“
Oh?
You just discovered these feelings the minute I got a boyfriend?”
she asked snarkily.

“
Boyfriend?
Really? Him?” Allen said completely distracted.

“
Yes.
Boyfriend. Kareem is my boyfriend and you will deal.”

Allen
stared at her uncomprehendingly. “You can’t be serious,”
he said at last.

“
Why
not?” Frances challenged.

“
You
kissed me back yesterday. I felt it,” he said.

“
You
took me by surprise,” Frances said.

“
But..”
Allen began.

“
No
buts Allen, this is how it is. You need to accept it.”

Allen
said nothing further, just stood up and walked out. He also accepted
nothing – he resolved to make it his life’s work to get
rid of Kareem if it was the last thing he did.

*****

In spite
of his best efforts, Kareem and Frances lasted a whole year. It was
the most miserable year of Allen’s life and he made sure
Frances knew it. She responded by spending less and less time with
him; they were drifting away from each other slowly but surely. It
made Frances really sad but there was only so much she could do
without giving in to Allen’s manipulations. At the end of the
year though, Kareem came out to her; he told her that he loved her,
so he couldn’t continue to lie to her. He was a transgender
individual and he felt like it was time he embraced it and accepted
it about himself. He hoped that Frances could accept it too.