Belonging to Lust

The next morning, Zaiyia was the first to wake up to a knock on the front door. Getting up from the couch she and Alice had clambered onto when exhaustion took them, she opened the door to an alert Heath with the sun’s ray bursting behind him. Swathing her arms around herself to ward off the morning chill, she squinted up at him. “Morning, Sullivan.”

“Halifax.” Heath responded back with a roguish smirk before hoisting up a plastic bag brimming with hot brunch he’d picked up on his way out for breakfast with his nieces and nephew. “Are you ladies hungry by any chance?”

Zaiyia grinned up at him as she took the bag. “YES! Thank you so much for this. I’m freaking starving to death and I’m too lazy to cook anything for them right now.”

“You’re welcome.” Heath said as he began to retreat to head back to his own house before he could do something stupid like take her up against the front door and wake all of her friends in the process. “See you later.”

“See you.” Zaiyia called to his retreating back. She idled in the doorway, wishing that he would remain and touch her body still warmed from sleep. But she knew why he couldn’t.

“Do you want me to take that for you?” Alice whispered from behind Zaiyia. She had made sure to stay out of Heath’s sight since he wasn’t too keen on her at the moment. She didn’t blame him. If the roles were reversed she would behave the same way over her own kid.

Zaiyia shook her head and gave her a charming smile as she shut the front door. “No, it’s cool. You can help me set out the plates though for the others though. I thought I heard some scrambling up there a minute before food arrived.”

The two got to work setting out plates and utensils for the McCoy sisters who were beginning to stir upstairs because of the smell of food. Amassing healthy portions fairly onto each plate, the two girls took a seat as the other four finally emerged from upstairs on the hunt for food. They all selected their plates and massed around the dining table.

Sometime during their meal, Chastity swept her long tousled red hair over her shoulders and smiled at the various faces around her. “I slept great last night! How about you guys?”

“I slept pretty good.” Assata agreed, popping a piece of crispy bacon into her mouth.

“Me too.” Aishah answered with a mouth crammed with ham and scrambled eggs.

Monnique laughed at her with the rest of the table. “Your house is pretty cozy, Zaiyia. I’m fucking jealous you got your own place to yourself too.”

“Right!” Assata grumbled. “I mean we get a bedroom, yeah sure, but it’s not a WHOLE fucking house!”

“What can I say?” Zaiyia boasted with a brash smile. “A bitch is lucky.”

“That’s for sure!” Chasity conceded, rolling her eyes at her. The group fell back into silence as they polished the last of their meal. Chasity’s mind strayed to the day before when they had all sat around the island in the kitchen to converse on the plan to stop Alice’s friends from bullying Zaiyia over dinner. A plan had finally come into fruition from the mind of Zaiyia’s mouth-watering guardian, Heath. It actually sounded like a phenomenal idea, and they had all seemed to go with it at first. But now Chasity wasn’t sure if that was ACTUALLY going to happen. Just to be sure, she’d thought she’d ask. “So...did we all agree that Heath’s plan was THE plan we’d be going with, or did I misunderstand everyone yesterday?”

Raising her eyes from her empty plate, Zaiyia picked up her glass of orange juice and answered first. “Well, yeah.” But then the doubt started to seep in. She, at least, thought they had all been on the same page. Scanning the faces around her, Zaiyia arched a brow. “Right?”

“That's the only plan we have.” Aishah stated, shrugging. “So yeah, I would think that’s THE plan.”

“Fuck, I totally forgot what the plan was again!” Monique groaned, dropping her fork to cover one side of her face with her hand in irritation. “Can someone please remind me? Just run it by me real quick.”

“I think it went something like this.” Assata started, lowering her hollow cup back onto the table before leaning back in her chair. “Zaiyia FOINE ass daddy suggested that Alice gathers her homies up in one area and let them know she and Zaiyia are cool.”

“And that place should be in the gymnasium at school.” Chastity reminded them. “Remember that all these people have one thing in common. They all go to school with us. We’re expected to go to school everyday and get an education. Where else can we have them all gather in one place than at school?”

Zaiyia nodded in agreement and toasted her glass to her. “As much as I don’t want to make this that big of a spectacle, Chastity is dead ass right. We’re gonna have to do this in school. Which means…”

“Principal Quinn will have to be informed.” Chastity finished for her. “We need him to help us get these students into the gym.”

“And don’t forget to hand over his security guards.” Aishah inserted. “We’re gonna need their combat skills to keep those damn kids back in case they want to start a bloodbath.”

Chastity winced at the thought. She didn’t want to consider the situation going that far, but...at the same time she couldn’t refute what she’d witnessed with her own two eyes in the past. These students submitted to the unthinkable and committed ghastly acts just to harm Zaiyia. “God, I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“You’re telling me.” Zaiyia whispered, shaking her head in apprehension as she stared at her barren plate. “If it comes to that...I might as well pack my shit up and move to the next town!”

“Zaiyia, no!” Chastity protested fiercely, not wishing to see her leave. Despite the drama encompassing her on a daily basis, Zaiyia was an awesome person, and deserved better. “You can’t just leave me! Besides, Heath won’t let you run off without a word!”

“He won’t have to.” Zaiyia answered. “He’ll probably be the one shipping me off. If this doesn’t work, I doubt he’s going to let me remain in harm's way no matter what I say this time.”

Monique leaned forward in her chair that was across from Zaiyia’s. “Well that’s not gonna fucking happen so you don’t have to worry about it. You’re staying here, and one day, you’ll be drama free. You’ll be a boring ass bitch like the rest of us living a boring ass life.”

“I hope to be.” Zaiyia giggled, liking her depiction of a typically dull teenage life.

“You will.” Alice finally spoke up after being on mute throughout the whole meal. Peeking from behind her long blond hair at her, she enhanced her voice. “I promise you that you WILL get your life back. I’ll see this to the end if that’s what it’ll take.”

Everyone at the table was speechless at the severity in her tone. No one felt they could verbally doubt her. She spoke the truth, they could feel it. Even Zaiyia did, who smiled softly at her. “Yeah? You’re gonna stand by me on this one? Against all your friends? No matter what they say?”

“You know I’m going to.” Alice answered, smiling back. The message was evident in their eyes. The talk from last night. The promise of getting Alan back. He would be worth it in the end if all she had to do was stand up to her friends.

“I’m glad to hear that shit.” Monique murmured, her brows raised in admiration.

“Me too.” Chastity supported, a full blown grin on her face. “Because that’s all we’re gonna need in this. You two uniting together is the key to ending this. Neither of you forget that, okay?”

“Buuuuuut, as sweet as this all is, we gotta get going.” Assata disrupted, rising from her seat to collect her dishes up. “Chasity’s dad only gave us an hour to finish breakfast before we gotta drop her off.”

“Right, I almost forgot.” Chastity exclaimed, wiping her mouth as she surged to her feet. “I better go get dressed and get my things together.”

Monique placed a hand on Alice’s shoulder. “Come on, Alice. We’ll drive you back to your place if you want to. If not, you can come with us to the mall and we can do you some shopping.”