Belonging to Lust

After dinner had been picked clean from all of their plates, Zaiyia got another call on her phone. She didn’t have to check to know that it was Alan calling her, the vibration told her so. By this time everyone was lounging off dinner in the living room, chatting merrily amongst each other and cracking jokes every once in a while. She too had been having a wonderful time in their company until now.

Rolling her eyes at how aggravating Alan was becoming in her life, Zaiyia let out a long quiet sigh from where she sat on an armchair opposite Heath. Fishing her phone out of her pocket, her brown eyes bore down at the device as if she could somehow send a digital punch right to Alan’s jaw through the phone if she concentrated hard enough.

What the hell does this motherfucker want with her?

“Is that one of your best friends?” Anneliese asked Zaiyia from the couch where Florence sat curled on her lap, her eyelids getting heavy with sleep from all the activities of the day.

“You can kinda say that.” Zaiyia said, trying not to make a face at the idea of Alan ever becoming one of her best friends. He was so irritating he’d dissolve her insides like acid if she spent an hour hearing his mouth go off the way it could. “Just some boy from school, really.”

“Ooooo, a boy from school!” Anneliese echoed with excitement, her eyes sparkling with it as they flew to her older brother who appeared to feel the opposite about it. Heath narrowed his eyes and made an disagreeable face with his youngest niece, Vivienna, nodding off in his arms. “Would this boy be a…little boyfriend of yours, by any chance?”

“Boyfriend.” Heath spat the word out from under his breath. Jealousy pulsated through his system, bringing a toxic taste to his mouth as he looked away in increasing irritation. The mention of Alan always made his blood run cold. Actually the mention of any boys Zaiyia’s age always made his hair rise on the back of his neck with readiness. His baby wasn’t allowed to fraternize with anyone of the opposite sex as far as he was concerned, unless of course he was present to oversee their exchange.

Quick to set the record straight so Heath wouldn’t lose his temper in front of his family and make a scene, Zaiyia remedied the situation. “Oh no, he’s no boyfriend of mine. He’s just a kid at school that NEVER gets his homework done in time and so he likes to go around calling all of his friends to get all the answers at the last minute so he doesn't fail his classes.”

“Oh.” Anneliese murmured with defeat. Her shoulders slumped as she frowned to herself. “Well, that’s not a good student.”

Ignoring the bummed look on Anneleise’s face that Alan wasn’t her boyfriend, Zaiyia turned her eyes to an inflamed Heath. “Can I take his call and tell him to get lost? He’s just gonna keep calling til I answer and unfortunately the kid can’t read so text messages are a no go.”

Heath knew Alan was no such classmate to Zaiyia. Hell, he was the only one in the room that knew Zaiyia had a history with the fool. Wishing he could just chuck her phone into the microwave and watch it explode into pieces without his family judging his destructive counteraction, Heath gave her a reluctant nod instead. “Don’t take too long.”

“Dessert will be coming up really soon.” Colin inserted with an excited wink as his drowsy children became alert at the mention of ‘dessert.’

“I won’t!” Zaiyia promised as she got up and excused herself out the back door that led onto a back patio that was also identical to theirs.

Anneliese watched her go before glancing at her brother again. Leaning forward in her seat as if to whisper in secret behind Zaiyia’s back, she smiled in a very conspiratorial fashion at him. “Heath, how come Zaiyia isn’t dating anyone? I think she’s at a perfectly acceptable age to do so, and her maturity definitely plays a big factor in me trusting her to do what’s right with all those wicked boys.”

“We’re NOT going there, Anneliese.” Heath warned his little sister carefully. So far the trip had only been about hooking Heath up with Anneliese’s co-worker Alice…or Sandra or whatever her name was, and now it was Zaiyia and Alan. It’s been a both relaxing and stressful vacation that Heath wished could be solely just that, a vacation with no match-making involved.

But Anneliese wouldn’t let it die. “Oh yes, we are! Why can’t Zaiyia go out with a boy?”

Sighing loudly through his nose, Heath decided honesty with a bit of self-restraint would do in this particularly delicate topic pertaining to his precious Zaiyia. “Because whoever tries to cross that line with my Zaiyia is gonna find themselves being buried alive within the foundations of the corporate building my team is currently working on. That’s why. Any more questions?”

“Ew, no.” Anneliese recoiled back into her seat with a look of disgust. “Talk about an overprotective daddy.”

As the kids burst out laughing at his remark they didn’t fully understand, Heath shook his head at his sister. While the three youngsters began to crowd him to climb up on him like he was a tree, he wondered if she will ever know that he wasn’t being a overprotective daddy, but an overprotective lover that would sooner go to jail for murder than ever live to see the day Zaiyia was with someone else.
______________________________________________________________________________

“Why the FUCK do you keep calling me for!?” Zaiyia hissed down the phone the moment she accepted his call. She made sure to keep away from the back door so her conversation wouldn’t be heard by Heath or the Hoppers. The sun was dipping down as she made her way towards the edge of the deck.

“B-Because I…I…Zaiyia, look…this is really…it’s…” Alan stammered, not able to make sense of the words he had just taken hours to put into a coherent speech. Now that it was finally showtime, the words had scattered like the pieces in Scrabble, and he was struggling to put them back into their correct order again.

Not wanting to give any of her time to this bumbling moron when she could be inside with Heath, Zaiyia cut Alan off like a newly sharpened butcher knife cutting through a stick of warm butter. “ENOUGH! Imma need you to stop it right motherfucking there, Alan! Instead what you’re gonna do is end this pitiful call with me, go and gather your frazzled thoughts, put them into complete sentences on paper, and then call me tomorrow about it because I do not have time for this fuckery tonight!”

“But Zaiyi-” Alan managed to spout.

“Goodbye!” Zaiyia told him before ending the call herself. Shoving her phone back in her pocket, she grumbled beneath her breath as she slowly paced the deck to cool herself off. “What the fuck does this asshole think he is calling me stuttering like a fucking delinquent for? Dude needs some fucking help, man.”

The cool night air helped to calm her anger down into ashes much faster than it would have alone if she was left to deal with it. Plus the scenery of this massive camping ground played a hand in it as well. It was one of those places that forbade any negative emotions and so it made it hard to experience anything but happiness and relaxation.

Feeling back to her old tranquil self again, Zaiyia turned around to head back inside with a smile on her face. She didn’t get anywhere near the door when her phone buzzed off again in her pocket, stalling her exit. That rage that had been so soothingly extracted from her system was back in full force, compelling her to fling her head back so her eyes were glaring up into the heavens when she cursed. “Sonofabitch!”

No way!

No way in hell was that Alan again!

Did she not give a clear enough hint for him to leave her alone and call her tomorrow?!

“Oh my god, please don’t tell me this fucking prick is becoming a motherfucking stalker, man! Cause if he is…” Zaiyia didn’t know how else to end that sentence as she began to pace like before. She was slamming her fist into the palm of her hand as her brown eyes darted around the deck in search of someone to punch in the eye for this disruption that shouldn't be happening right now! All she wanted was to spend this evening in the company of the Hoppers and Heath in peace, but somebody up in the heavens above clearly had it out for her by sending Alan the Pest on her heels like a hound dog. He was like an annoying mosquito that wouldn’t go away and was draining her of all of her life’s peace and happiness! But she couldn’t let him get away with this! She had to get the upper hand!