Belonging to Lust

Since there were only three days of school that week, Zaiyia was allowed to have her sleepover on Wednesday and that sleepover came with Alice White as one of her guests. She had managed to convince Heath to grant her permission to come over, but he wasn’t as warmhearted greeting her as he was with the others. Alice would have ogled the large man’s flawlessly sculpted looks along with the rest of Zaiyia’s friend hadn’t it not been for the sharpness in his frigid green eyes upon opening the door to her. She found herself clenching the hem of her coat as she fell victim beneath their crushing gaze. “Um...h-hi, Mr. Sullivan. I-Is Zaiyia home?”

“She is.” Heath responded succinctly. Stepping aside, he allowed her entry just as Zaiyia zipped from the kitchen to rescue her. Luckily for him, he wouldn’t have to deal with the hellion for long. His little sister, Anneliese, was dropping his nieces and nephew off so she could go on a movie date with her husband, Colin. He’d take those little balls of energy any day over the likes of Alice White.

All day Heath’s hostile mood had made it evident how he felt about Alice coming over and so Zaiyia didn’t want to maroon the poor feeble girl in his presence for too long. Flashing her a smile, she reached out to grasp Alice’s wrist. “Come on in! Everyone else is out back.”

“Great.” Alice smiled back, the tension in her body diminishing as Zaiyia led her through the house and out into the backyard where another much smaller house was assembled. She remembered being told that the entire place was where Zaiyia resided. Lucky girl.

As soon as they entered the house they could overhear the others in the living room to their left. Monique was curled in an armchair with a fanciful smile on her face. “You know despite the fact that something was clearly up Mr. Sullivan’s ass today, he’s still the hottest shit this town ever brought up.”

“Mmm, a fine example of a man, indeed!” Chastity giggled, raising her can of soda to make a toast to that.

“You think he looked spectacular?” Alice furthered as they came around the corner. She descended her backpack onto the floor beside another armchair. “You should see him when he’s being a total grouch at you. I’ve never been so terrified and turned on all at the same time in my life!”

Everyone exploded into laughter except for Zaiyia who rolled her eyes and shook her head in displeasure. Aishah, sprawled on the couch, sat herself up and grinned. “Even next to Alan?”

“Even next to Alan.” Alice permitted, her cheeks flushing red for a minute before she covered her face in embarrassment with her hands.

“Damn, I wish he was mad at me now.” Aishah confessed, inciting another round of laughter.

“Alright you sleazy ass heifers, that’s enough!” Zaiyia declared, waving her hands to call off this symposium of her man who was not officially her man. Jerking her thumb over her shoulder where the kitchen was, she informed them all. “How about we eat some of dinner I slaved away to make to assist in filling that dilapidating hunger for dicks you all seemed to be lacking in your diet lately?”

“Well damn, okay, girl! No need to get offensive.” Monique cooled her as she passed her by with the others.

Instead of gatconveninghering at the kitchen table to eat, they huddled around the island in the kitchen on the counter stools. After being drenched in praises for her polished culinary skills, sometime throughout the meal Zaiyia regarded that Alice was mute while awkwardly sitting among them, nervous. Preferring not to put her on the spot, but knowing she was among good company to do so, Zaiyia pointed her finger at her and ordered. “Knock that shit off, Alice White! We don’t need that negative fuckery at my sleepover tonight.”

Blue eyes fluttering as Alice turned her head to stare at Zaiyia beside her. She murmured in the sudden reticence at the table as the others watched on. “W-What are you talking about?”

Setting her fork down, Zaiyia placed an allaying hand on Alice’s shoulder and looked her in the eye. “This isn’t a trap, girl. None of this was planned with the motive of getting vengeance on you by harming you. This gathering is exactly what it looks like, just a couple of friends chilling, that’s all. So you can relax now and stop looking like a gun ready to go off at any moment.”

Softening beneath Zaiyia’s hand, Alice sighed and closed her eyes for a minute. When she opened them, the blue orbs combed the faces around her. “Can you all blame me? After all the things I’ve put you through, Zaiyia...it’s the least punishment I deserve for everything I’ve done.”

Monique swallowed her food down before bestowing Alice her input. “Lookie here, Alice.” Attaining her full attention, she went on. “If it was me, instead of Zaiyia, you bet your ass you’d be sitting at my house ready to be jumped. This invitation would have most definitely been an ambush and would be the last time any motherfucker saw your ass alive in this town.”

“Amen, sista!” Assata backed, holding up her can of soda in applause.

“In Jesus' name, baby! Won’t he do it?!” Aishah inserted, flinging both hands upwards as if she was in church.

Chasity viewed Alice pale at the McCoy’s sisters' admission, and sat waiting for them to inspire the young girl that those things weren’t going to transpire here...but they ended it there. Sighing, she turned to look at Alice firmly. “BUT that’s not the case here. Ziayia invited us all here because we’ve become friends...and because we all have one thing in common here. We ALL want this monstrosity to end.”

Zaiyia gently nudged Alice with her elbow. “Hey, you’re still with us on that, aren't you?”

Closing her eyes again from the misery she’d induced, Alice nodded. “Yes, I am. This must end like Chasity said.”

Rewarding her with a factual smile, Zaiyia replied. “Thank you for this, Alice. It means a lot to me.”

Alice nodded with a dismal smile. “But I’m sorry to share that I still don’t really have a plan on how I’m gonna do that yet.”

“That’s okay. I talked to Heath about it and I think we should go with his idea.” Zaiyia began, overlooking the carnal flames sparking in their eyes at the mention of his name to spell out the plan for them. “He thinks you should gather everyone that’s associated with you, bully or not, and basically let them know that we’re cool. They’ll believe it only if it comes from you and then they’ll stop all this bullshit.”

Chastity slowly nodded to herself as she absorbed Heath’s plan in. “You know what? I actually think that’s a good idea. Think about it, you’d have all your haters there in one place to receive the news! But of course that completely outnumbers you if it doesn’t work and they decide to attack instead.”

“Heath should come, and bring all his hot friends.” Aishah proposed with a flirtatious smile.

“Genius!” Assata agreed, high-fiving her. “We can only pray they look just as good!”

“I can see how that can work too.” Zaiyia nodded to herself. “The more the merrier in this case.”

“Though I hope my friends will listen to me and not resort to violence again.” Alice anticipated. “I do agree having backup would be helpful.”

“I wonder...do you think the Principal would allow us to use the school’s security guards if we decided to hash this out in the gym?” Chastity dared to suggest.

Zaiyia gaped at her in surprise. “Seriously? You really wanna take that route with it?”

“Why not?” Chastity challenged. “The gym is big enough for all of us, and if a riot breaks out we’ll be protected by the security guards.”

“What about my friends that haven’t harmed you?” Alice inquired with concern.” What would happen to them? Would they get hurt in the riot?”

Zaiyia honestly didn’t care about those other people, but she wanted Alice to believe she was on her side. “We can tell the Principal that not everyone there bullies me, but that we need security there anyway because you want to make sure they won’t get the same idea to join in.”

Reluctantly, Alice nodded in agreement along with the others. At least now they finally had a plan!