Belonging to Lust

Alice’s wide incredulous eyes hurtled between both Zaiyia and towards the couch where Chasity and the McCoy sisters sat in her trailer. She couldn't believe the words coming out of a very harmonious Zaiyia about all the bullying she had undergone. She’d voiced some of these altercations before in the past and she hadn’t believed her then, but now all of a sudden she was having second thoughts towards her own beliefs. However, she didn't get a chance to respond before Zaiyia concluded her lengthy descriptive speech. “Now, like I said before I’m here on an operation of peace between you and I. Everything malicious I felt towards you before, I’m willing to set that aside and form a much friendlier opinion of you. I’m willing to shake your hand and apologize on my behalf for anything you felt I did towards you out of spite, and hope that you can find it within yourself to shake my hand too and move on from all this drama for the better. What do you say, Alice White? Can tomorrow be a renewal for once?”

Not having listened in to the closure of her speech, Alice continued to sail her eyes between the stool Zaiyia sat on before her, and the couch with the others in observance. Her mind was still juggling the varied events Zaiyia told her of that entangled not only close friends, but the boyfriends of those close friends. They were picking on Zaiyia too? Friends that would never get involved in something as harmful as bullying another human being were suddenly in on this too? That couldn’t be true! Some of the names Zaiyia quoted would never stoop to such levels! Shaking her head in disbelief, Alice stammered over her words. “B-But this can’t be true! You’re going on AGAIN about these awful incidences where my friends attacked you, and...I’ve never heard of anything like that! None of my friends have ever told me they were plotting to do these things to you, not one of them!”

Unlike the McCoy sisters, Zaiyia held back the desire to roll her eyes at Alice’s fraudulent claims. Of course she knew about it, and Monique wasn’t going to stay mum and allow her to play the martyr for the thousandth time! “Are you kidding me, Alice!? Did you not hear what she said, we’re not here to play fucking games, okay? Can you just try and take this shit seriously so we can all go home?”

“But I am being serious!” Alice defended herself, sitting forward in her seat with her hand on her chest. “Was I behind the brawl in the locker room? Yes, I was, I’ll gladly admit it to anyone who wants to know. But after that, it was all over. I wasn’t conspiring against you anymore, Zaiyia, and as far as I was aware neither were my friends! I had zero insight on any of these scuffles that you claimed happened to you at the hands of my friends!”

“Oh my god, you gotta be kidding me!” Assatta groaned, covering her face with her hands in exasperation.

“This about to take all damn day.” Aishah rolled her eyes with a weary sigh.

“Uh…” Even Chasity had a hard time believing Alice’s claim. She frowned as she lowered her eyes to the stained beige carpet. She couldn’t accept that Alice had no idea that the whole school was starting an all out war against Zaiyia, and in HER name! How does one not know that!?

Now, up to this point, Zaiyia was really trying to give Alice the benefit of the doubt, but she couldn’t fully douse the laugh that burst from her lips. Turning her head to the side to get herself together, she shook her head in disagreement with Alice. “I know I said I was going to be nice and everything so, I won’t tell you that I don’t believe a word of what you just said and we can just move on from here.”

Suddenly steadfast to win each of them over, Alice blurted out. “I swear on the life of my little brother and sister that I had nothing to do with any grisly plan you went through after the locker room. And if anyone knows me, they know how much those little brats mean to me.”

Chastity was one of those people, and was now staring at her in astonishment. Could she really be telling the truth here? Did she truly have no knowledge of the calamity that had befallen Zaiyia day after day by her close friends? Was she truly not the mastermind anymore, but instead the aspiration behind it?

“You need to see this from my point of view though, Alice, so you can understand why I don’t believe a word you say.” Zaiyia tried to explain as gently as she could with a feign smile to match. “How could you not know about all these clashes fought in the name of Alice White and her plight? Every single living soul involved or uninvolved at our school fucking knew about it!”

“But I wasn’t one of them!” Alice opposed, not willing to cower meekly away and leave them to believe a fabrication about her. Yes, from Zaiyia’s perspective she could see how preposterous it was to believe that she had no association, but it was the truth! “I know it seems ridiculous, but it’s not!”

“Honey, the teachers and Principal Quinn were the only ones that had no knowledge of your hatred for me, that I do believe.” Zaiyia replied. “And you don’t look like either one of them to me.”

Cheeks flushed in resentment that no one was believing her, Alice advanced on to plead her case anyway. “I promis-”

“Zaiyia, Alice is telling the truth!” Chastity disrupted in defense of her. She felt all eyes turn on her in horror and probably betrayal, but she had to say something! There was nothing Alice could do to sway them to believe her, not unless she had one of them on her side. Chastity can see she was telling the truth, she just hoped it wouldn’t cost her her friends in the process.

Glaring at Chasity in disbelief, Zaiyia demanded to know what the hell she was talking about. “What did you just say? Because i’m not sure what I just heard is true.”

“Bitch, it sounds like she’s siding with the enemy.” Monique declared, giving Chasity a look over as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“I’m actually siding with the truth. Not the enemy.” Chastity revised her as she skimmed their faces with hope. “And I hope as my friends you can find it within yourselves to trust me on this one.”

Somewhere inside, Zaiyia did want to trust Chasity even though her tone said otherwise. “Then you best to get to explaining yourself right now cause it looks like you are siding with the enemy.”

“Alice has already shown us she can be a whole lot of things, but what she’s just convinced me on is that a phony is not one of them. How I came to believe this is simply because she swore on her little brother and sister. Everybody knows Alice is devoted to those kids like they were her own. She’s an amazing big sister!” Chastity began.

“It’s true! I would never lie on my siblings!” Alice added before her blue eyes landed on Zaiyia and became heavy with grief. “Zaiyia, I had no idea the bullying had gotten that bad. You are right to think of me as a monster after what happened in the locker room, but I swear to God right afterwards I hauled out of all that hostile crap when my father found out.”

“Oh, a helluva lot more than just bullying happened after all that.” Assata reminded Zaiyia with a nod towards her.

“And it found its way to my doorstep.” Zaiyia mentioned in a low murmur, glancing away.

“To your doorstep?” Alice recited with a puzzled look dashing between both girls. “What do you mean by that?”

“Zaiyia’s house had been vandalized soon after Principal Quinn got a tighter handle on the bullying.” Chasity explained softly. “Her guardian’s vehicle was damaged as a result of it.”

If Alice had been standing up, she would have crumpled to the floor, dumbfounded. The critical escalation all this bullying she started has heightened to was unthinkable! Lifting her eyes filled with shame to Zaiyia, she bumbled to find the words to say. “Zaiyia, I...I don’t know what...I-I’m sorry, truly...about all of this!”

Waving a hand to silence her, Zaiyia gave her a brief shake of her head. “It’s fine, dude. It’s pretty much whatever at this point. I just need your help to stop this fuckery before it escalates even further.”

“Wait a minute, am I hearing this correctly?” Monqiue cut in, browsing every face in the room curiously. “Are we now all believing that Alice had nothing to do with all the fighting and bullying done to Zaiyia all of a sudden?”