Chicken Nose Lickers ~ James Franklin Pyles

"Sheena LaShay" James licked my nose. I believe that was the day our friendship went to another level.

James and I used to play this game called, “Chicken”. Or maybe its called, “The Staring Game.” Whatever it is, we played EPIC versions of this game. For months, we both teased each other with subtle flirtations that neither one of us would address. There was this undertone of, “I want you but I’m not gonna do a damn thing about it” that went on unspoken for months between us.

So one of the things that would allow satisfaction in our attraction although we were “only” friends but would perhaps make the other person squirm was to play what we called, Chicken.

Chicken meant you had to stare at the other person and never look away. The rules were that simple. You could do anything else. Hold a conversation with someone else. Eat your food. Walk down the hall. Whatever it was. You just had to maintain constant eye contact with the other person.

I’m not sure when we started playing this game or why but it became a staple thing between us. Neither of us would even announce when a new game of Chicken began. I’d just be hanging with some friends in a dorm room and he was there too. All of sudden I’d feel his eyes on me and the moment I connected with him, Chicken began. Other conversations would continue in the room, people would come and go but our eyes never left each other’s.

We played it so much that our friends stopped responding to how ridiculous we were appearing. He’d be having a deep philosophical conversation with someone next to him and the entire time he starred intently in my eyes. I willed myself not to flinch. Not to smile. Not to do anything. I just starred back. Or sometimes I’d try to transmute thoughts to him like, “Do you realize how attracted I am to you? Can you read my eyes right now?” But at that point I wasn’t willing to say it outloud.

It was the silliest game I ever played but it was so incredibly intense. I became an expert in his eyes. I knew the exact color. Every fleck, every nuiance. I knew the exact shade. I knew the exact measurments. I knew everything about those gorgeous green eyes.

Chicken continued for a very long time between us but there was one EPIC EPIC EPIC night that occurred! We had already been playing chicken for an hour or two when a friend in another dorm invited us to a party across campus. We agreed to go, got our coats on and walked to the dorm across campus….. all the while continuing to play Chicken. Our eyes never left each other.

Once we arrived at the party, James and I ended up standing across from each other in a long hallway. People passed between us, some stopped to talk to us, but our eyes never left each other’s. It was starting to get really “weird” though since we were at a party with almost 100 people and they were beginning to wonder about the two of us. To force me to squirm, James walked up to me. Not an inch separated us. My heart started racing. I wanted him to kiss me so badly, although I didn’t want our first kiss to be in the hallway of a dorm party of a school voted the #1 non party school. I wanted it and I didn’t.

When nothing but a mere millimeter separated his body from mine, James opened his mouth, revealed his tongue, came in even closer, breathed deeply, so much so that I could smell his sweetness… and then he licked my fucking nose!

I wanted to yell at him. I wanted to smack him. I wanted to laugh. I wanted to give up. Was he ever gonna admit being attracted to me? I wanted to throw a fit. I wanted to call him a loser.

Who stares at a girl’s eyes for 3+ hours without ever flinching, knowing damn well she’d give you her heart if you asked and then LICKS HER NOSE?

I was pissed and within a nanosecond, I knew I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of defeat. Even with his freaking tongue on my nose, I did not flinch, blink or back down. I stared his ass down.

James cocked his head to the side. “Wow,” he said in a nonchalent matter even though I knew he was more impressed than his show of emotions let on, “You took that like a pro.” He backed away slowly putting a bit more distance between us, leaned casually against the wall and kept starring.

I don’t know how long we stood there that night. I don’t know who won the game. I don’t remember what else we talked about during the Chicken game that night.

I just know that after he licked my nose and I “took it like a pro”, something shifted in our friendship. Something for the better. His flirtatious advances would become more outrageous and obvious. He would begin to push the boundaries of my patience far more than I wanted to let him. But it led to fun times, silacious conversations, lots of laughs and ultimately to the night when upon calling him a coward, he kissed the hell out of me.

I was telling someone about James a few months back and in the retelling of his wonderful, profound, outrageous and kind personality, I remembered our game of Chicken and how he licked my nose. It is one of my favorite memories of him. To read more of my stories of James, click HERE. Or ask me because I love sharing my memories of him.