Audri Williams was a biter. It was sexy at first. Now I was worried she was about to go Mike Tyson on my ear.

"Shit, if you're hungry we can find you something to eat."

She stopped biting on me to meet my eyes, a smirk on her face. "Only if you're on the menu." She threw me down on the bed, straddling me.

I forced a laugh. Pissing off a possible cannibal didn't sound like a good idea. Especially one with her strength. She started kissing me. I relaxed since my ears were safe. At least I tried to. Her "dirty talk" was distracting. She was throwing around words like "devour" and I couldn't tell if she meant it figuratively.

Maybe I should've listened to Devon. He warned me about her. Actually, multiple people told me she was...off. But I was bored and she was available.

"Stephen!"

I sat up, nearly knocking Audri on the floor. "Shit."

Audri climbed off my lap, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. "Who is she?"

Was she really acting jealous right now? "My mom," I said, hopping off the bed. "You gotta go." I grabbed her dress and one of her shoes from the floor, shoving them into her arms.

"Stephen!"

I picked up the pace, trying to find Audri's other shoe.

"I'm actually really good with parents," she said, as she pulled her dress on over her head. "Maybe I can meet her?"

I laughed. "She would kill you. Then she'd kill me with your dead body."

I finally found her other shoe. She was taking her sweet time putting them on. Mom was on her way up the stairs, still shouting my name. She was mad, but why?

"Stephen Lawrence Davis!" Her patience was wearing thin. I locked my bedroom door to buy myself some time.

"This way." I pushed Audri out on the balcony attached to my room.

"Are you for real?" She snapped. "We're on the second floor, Stephen. How do you expect me to get down?"

"Stephen!" The door handle jiggled. "Stephen, why is this door locked?"

"Just grab that tree branch and climb down, it's easy," I told her, already closing the door on her as she protested.

Once I closed the curtains to hide Audri's exit, I got back in bed, face down on my pillow and pretended to sleep. I heard Mom's keys before the lock turned and the door creaked open.

"Stephen!" She yanked my leg and I jolted "awake". "I know you heard me calling you."

"Ma?" I said, acting delirious and rubbing my eyes.

My mom towered over my bed, hands on her hips. "Did you forget something?"

My confusion was real that time. "Huh?"

"You were supposed to pick up Brad from the airport."

I sat up, yawning to really sell the just woke up bit. "Fell asleep."

She pursed her lips, tilting her head to the side. She saw right through that lie. "I don't understand," she said, throwing her hands up. "What do you have against Brad?"

I had a lot of issues with Brad. The main one was that my mom had only met him two months ago and they were already engaged. My mom wasn't the spontaneous type, everything she did was calculated. Thoroughly thought through. A shotgun wedding just wasn't her thing. So Brad didn't exactly sit well with me. He wanted something and had successfully brainwashed my mom to get it.

But I couldn't say any of that to her. She didn't like having her actions challenged. Plus she controlled my credit cards. Pissing her off meant me being cut off.

So I went for my other hang up about her new fiance.

"Well, he's a black dude named Brad," I said. "That alone is -"

She picked up a pillow from my bed and hit me with it.. "There is nothing wrong with the name Brad!"

"Not if he was white," I countered. "And in a fraternity."

She went to hit me with the pillow again, but froze, letting her arm drop. "What is that?"

I followed her line of sight to the bright red bra on my bed. Shit.

She threw the pillow at me. "Where is she?" She demanded, crossing my room to the closet and pulling open the double doors.

"Mom, there's no one in here." My gaze shifted to the door leading to the balcony. Hopefully Audri was long gone.

When Mom was done destroying my closet she came back to check under the bed. "Is that so? Then that's your bra?" She got down on her knees pulling lost socks and shirts from under my bed.

"What if it was?"

She stood, dusting off her jeans. Her eyes, cold and hard, made me keep the rest of my jokes to myself.

"I've told you about bringing these fast ass girls in my house, Stephen." She started for the bathroom that was connected to the room, but stopped.

I thought she had more to say about my love life, then I heard it. The faint sound of my name. Audri hadn't left yet.

Mom yanked open the balcony doors. Audri was clinging to a tree branch, terrified. It was a complete one-eighty from the girl who tried to eat me alive moments ago.

Mom turned to me. If she had the strength she probably would've tossed me off the balcony. "Get that girl out of my tree," she said, her tone a lot calmer than her face would suggest. "Then you and I need to have a talk."

• • •

Audri made it clear that she never wanted to see me again after I got her out of the tree. I didn't have the energy to fake being upset, which only made her madder.

My face still stung from her slapping me when I went back inside to find my mom. She was in her office sitting at the sleek glass desk, her MacBook opened, fingers flying across the keyboard.

I plopped down on the couch, hugging a throw pillow with "#Hustle" printed on it to my chest. "So, is Brad still at the airport?"

She looked up, her eyes like slits as she glared at me. "His brother picked him up, actually. Do you think this is a joke?"

I bit my tongue.

She stood, walking around her desk and leaning on it. "Brad has been trying his hardest to get to know you and you've been nothing but rude."

"I only have a year of school left, then I'm off to college, so Brad really doesn't need to waste his time kissing my ass." Her nostrils flared. "Butt?"

She pushed off from the desk, hand outstretched to me. "Hand them over."

I sobered up real quick. "I was joking."

"Now."

"Look, I can call up Brad right now. Set up a guys night or something." Reasoning with her was pointless, once she'd made up her mind that was that. But I had to try.

Sighing, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my wallet. "This is unnecessary."

She snatched the worn leather wallet from me and began plucking cards from it. "Your actions have consequences. And they don't only affect you, Stephen. It'll do you good to remember that."

She cleaned out my wallet and threw it back. "We're going old school. No more credit cards. You want an allowance, you're going to work for it."

"Work?" I hoped she wasn't talking about an actual job. Especially not during summer.

"I know that's a foreign concept to you," she said, walking back around the desk to drop my cards in a drawer. Then she pulled her keys from her purse and locked it. "I'll keep it simple. Every time I see you being civil with Brad, you'll get paid."

My brows raised. "That's it?" She nodded, a smug smirk on her face. "So you're gonna pay me for being nice to your boyfriend."

"Pretty much."

"And you don't see a problem with that?"

She settled into her desk chair. "No, because I know once you give him a chance you'll see why I chose him." She grinned, so sure this dumb plan of hers would work.

I stood, putting the pillow back in it's spot. "Fine. I can play nice."

"Good answer." She stopped me as I turned to leave. "Oh, and one more thing..."

//

Yes, this is my first dual pov.

I think this is what the story was missing all along.

I'm going to have fun writing Stephens pov !!!