Belonging to Lust

When the afternoon rolled around in school and everyone was clustered in the cafeteria for lunch, Zaiyia and her friends noticed that Alice White wasn’t present at her table of dutiful friends and followers. Frowning to herself, Zaiyia picked at her steamed vegetables with her plastic fork as she observed the group of kids from the corner of her eyes. “Hmm, I wonder where Alice is. I haven’t seen her all day.”

Monique swiftly perused the room, rolled her eyes at Alice’s tables of friends glaring their way and shrugged. “Maybe she’s out sick. I’d be too, hanging around all those toxic pests everyday at school.”

“Amen to that, little sis.” Assata snickered while opening her carton of milk. She had lifted the tiny cardboard box to her lips to take a gulp when her eyes spotted another harrowing manifestation that would take place in the cafeteria yet again. Lowering the small carton of milk back onto the table, she cursed aloud. “God-fucking-damnit, you gotta be shitting me here!”

“What?” Zaiyia demanded to know, becoming attentive. “What is it?”

Assata gestured towards the main entrance of the cafeteria. “THAT!”

Together, the whole table followed her hand to a sight they swore they’d never see again! Chasity and Alan walking into the cafeteria together. Zaiyia narrowed her eyes in their direction, honing specifically on her friend’s face.

Chasity appeared to be staring dead ahead and was gripping onto the shoulder straps of her backpack for dear life. She knew exactly what everyone was going to be thinking when they saw the two together, and she didn’t want to give them any reason to believe it. On the other hand, Alan was hovering closely to her side, his head tilted so he could try and see Chasity’s face past her curtain of red hair. By the way his hands were moving, he was speaking earnestly with her like she was the Obi Wan Kenobi to his Princess Leia. When Chasity did respond, it appeared to be short and her eyes avoided him at all cost.

“This shit again!?” Aishah exclaimed incredulously. “I don’t fucking understand what’s going on with y’all and this damn boy! He ain’t even that damn cute!”

“Okay, what the fuck is up with Alan?!” Monique demanded to know, her arms crossing over her chest as she glared at him from across the room. “He’s clearly trying to horn in on our girl like a puppy in heat! But why? What’s his fucking motive?!”

Unlike before, no one believed their friend Chasity had forsaken Zaiyia by taking up with Alan this time. But Zaiyia also didn’t believe that the football player was aiming to take their friend as his next girlfriend. Something about the way he was moving while he spoke didn’t seem at all amorous. “I don’t know, you guys. I’m not getting that same vibe that he’s horning in on Chastity.”

“Oh yeah?” Monique inquired curiously, arching a brow in challenge at her. “And what makes you say that?”

“I mean just look at the way he’s talking to her.” Zaiyia leaned forward to brace herself on her elbow while stretching a finger out to gesture to him. “Does that look like a guy romantically interested in a girl? He’s not pressed up against her side to get all close and snuggly with her. And she certainly ain’t pressed against him smiling up at him like a damn lovestruck fool either. To me, it looks like he’s trying to talk to her.”

Assata squinted her eyes at the couple, her brows furrowing together as she scrutinized them meticulously. “And the boy is doing it quite desperately too, I’d say.”

Minute by minute it began to sink in with the others at the table too that this was no romantic meeting. Sitting back, the table monitored the two, utterly captivated. It was only when Chasity accelerated her steps to walk away from Alan and he seized her arm to pull her right back did they almost react.

“She looks like she needs a bit of rescuing.” Aishah said, glaring at Alan and the way he was gripping onto Chastity as if he owned the girl.

“And it won’t just be from him. Look over at Alice’s table.” Monique directed them.

Brown eyes hurtled to their left to witness Alice’s friends getting riled up at the sight of Alan with Chasity again. They were going so far as to bound up onto their feet like they were conspiring to physically take matters into their own hands.

Zaiyia sighed at having to deal with those spineless fools again. “Yup. She’s certainly going to need a rescue.”

Monique’s hand shot out when Zaiyia began to hoist herself out of her seat to do the job. “Yo, where the hell do you think you’re going?”

Arching a brow, Ziayia gestured to Chasity’s situation. “Did you not see what the rest of us saw? Chastity can’t take all them idiots alone, she’s gonna need help.”

“I get that, Zai, but it’s help that shouldn’t be coming from you!” Monique simplified.

“I totally agree.” Assata seconded, comprehending what her little sister was saying. “Zaiyia, you need to be focused on staying on the straight and narrow. You can’t go fucking up your chances at attending that assembly tomorrow by saving Chasity’s ass.”

“With your luck, you’ll end up getting the whole damn assembly canceled because you wanted to play hero so damn bad and ended up in detention.” Aishah added. “If I were you, I’d make a pass.”

“FUCK!” Zaiyia cursed, seeing their point. Right now every piece on the chessboard was in the perfect place for her to win for once, if she were to run in and beat up those students she could lose everything. But still, standing by and allowing her friend to get jumped while she ate from her pudding cup couldn’t be an option either! Chastity might have gotten herself into this situation once again, but that didn’t mean she deserved getting outnumbered and knocked out by a group of dumb kids! “Then what the fuck am I suppose to do? Let Chasity get her ass whooped?”

“Oh no, honey. That ain’t gonna happen.” Monique promised her with a wink. “I got your back. I’ll go rescue the poor child.”

“You?” Zaiyia repeated, gaping down at Monique incredulously. “Seriously?”

“Yeah.” Monique nodded, her smile wilting at the look on Zaiyia’s face. “You got a problem with that or something?”

“No, it’s just…” Zaiyia began, paused in fear of hurting her feelings, then proceeded onward. “You might get hurt and I can’t exactly risk everything to come to your rescue either.”

Staring blankly up at Zaiyia, Monique didn’t respond back. She merely lifted both fingers and pointed them to her two older sisters at the same time they burst out laughing at Zaiyia.

Assata slapped a hand on the tabletop as she fought to compose herself. “Bitch, please! They can TRY that shit with our little sister if they bony asses want to.”

“Oh Zaiyia, my little naive darling! Do I need to remind you that we got no problem with beating their asses all over the school grounds if they so much as look at our baby sister wrong?” Aishah spelled it out for Zaiyia so she’d be on the same page with them.

“See?” Monique concluded as she got up from the table and strode over to Chasity and Alan. She was on a rescue mission and wasn’t as nervous as she would be if her two big sisters weren’t watching her every move like the Secret Service. If she needed them, they’d be there 100%. Stopping right in front of the couple, Monique cleared her throat to get their attention and smiled. “Mind if I cut in?”

Taken aback by Monique materializing out of nowhere, Alan watched speechlessly as she reached out to seize a hold of Chasity’s arm and tug her from his side. Grasping that she was planning on taking Chasity away from him before he’d finished talking with her, Alan followed them. “Whoa, hold up there!”

“Nope!” Monique countered while guiding Chasity behind her back to their table.

Hell no, he wasn’t about to leave it at that! He’d been trying to get the redhead alone to talk with him for a long time now, and wasn’t about to let Monique or any of their other friends stop him. He needed answers! Catching up to them, Alan furiously hissed aloud to Monique. “Chasity and I were talking!