Belonging to Lust

The next morning, Zaiyia received an unexpected call on her phone while naked in Heath’s bed. She’d been staring up at his slumbering form from where her head laid on his bare chest, rising and falling in sync with his breathing when the morning silence was cut short. Abruptly sitting up, she snatched her phone off of the nightstand on her side of the bed. Her mission wasn’t to check the number calling, but to silence the ringing as she answered it while sprinting out of Heath’s bedroom, naked. As soon as she shut the door behind her, she raised the device to her ear and whispered. “Hello? Who is it?”

“It’s Alan.” Alan answered clearly from where he stood in his kitchen, his eyes on the clock while making himself a quick bowl of cereal. “I was calling to ask you what time you wanted to meet up today.”

Zaiyia had no idea what Alan was talking about at first. Her mind was still waking up when it finally dispatched the information to her, making her curse softly to herself in irritation. She had completely forgotten she was supposed to already be home today from vacation to meet up with Alan to talk about Alice, but Heath and the Hopper family had protracted it for one more day. “Fuck, I forgot about all that! Look, Alan, I can’t see you today. Truth is, I’m still on vacation. My guardian and his family decided to stay an extra day yesterday after our talk.”

Alan’s shoulders slumped, his hands stilling in the process of pouring milk over his cereal. His heart nose-dived to the inky abyss that was his ongoing depression. “You’re still not home? Then when…when are you gonna be able to meet up with me? We still need to talk about Alice.”

“How about we talk tomorrow? I should already be back by then.” Zaiyia proposed before her phone beeped to let her know she had another call coming in. Checking the contact, her brows shot up when she saw Alice was calling. “Oh shit, Alice is calling me.”

“Wait, what!?” Alan exclaimed, his heart ascending from his debilitating depression to return back into the happy sunlight of hope and life again. “Alic-”

Zaiyia didn’t let him finish. Quickly cutting him off, she put him on hold to answer Alice’s call with a smile. “Hey, girl! What’s up?”

“Hey, Zaiyia.” Alice greeted tentatively in a low voice before jumping straight into the purpose of her calling. “I was wondering if it’s okay that I come over today to talk to you and your guardian, Heath? You know, about my…situation at home?”

Shutting her eyes at having to be the bearer of bad news again for another person that needed her help this morning, Zaiyia let out a long sigh as her naked body shivered with the growing morning chill. “Shit, I'm sorry, Alice. I wish you could, but I’m actually not home yet. I’m still on vacation. The adults wanted to extend their time over here.”

“Oh.” Alice whispered, utterly bummed by the news. Sinking herself down to sit on her bed, she pouted at her misfortune. She had been hoping Zaiyia would take her up on her request and invite her over right away. In fact, she’d been positive she would! But now things have changed and Alice was forced to wait longer for her solution. At least all she had to do was wait a day, it wasn’t worse than being flat out renounced. “Okay, well…when do you think you’ll have the time to see me? I was really hoping to see you two soon.”

“Tomorrow, maybe? I’m honestly not 100% what’ll be going on then but I can keep you posted.” Zaiyia told her with one arm wrapped around her nudity to ward off the morning chill on top of simply not being dressed. She cursed herself for not grabbing at least a robe on her way out.

“I hope it can be soon.” Alice sighed despondently, still pouting as she thought back to their last conversation about her abusive home life. “Ever since you mentioned that thing about my dad…that he might one day decide to hurt my brother and sister and that I might not be there to protect them from him, I’ve been frightened for them. I haven’t been getting much sleep over it, you know?”

“You should be frightened, Alice! What your dad is doing is fucked up on so many levels I can’t even begin to tell you all of them! I need you to promise that if it ever becomes too much between this very second and tomorrow and shit starts to go down, you’re gonna call the police no matter what.” Zaiyia ordered her sternly, expecting nothing but compliance from Alice especially in a perilous situation such as hers. “If not the whole damn police station then at least Chasity’s dad! He’s a super friendly dude and will make you feel safe and comfortable while in his presence. Trust me, I know! I’ve never wanted so badly to call the cops before for help in my entire life until I met him. That man gives me hope.”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about any of that, Zaiyia. I’m not taking any chances anymore on me or my sibling’s safety!” Alice swore to her. For too long she took many chances she shouldn’t have in order to keep her family intact. Her past was now her past, and she was planning to leave it far behind her in order to give her siblings and herself the life they should’ve had all along.

Zaiyia smiled with relief despite being cold. “Thank you, girl. We’ve already been a couple of damn fools ourselves back in the day so we do NOT need to recycle all that shit again, you hear me?”

“I’m with you there!” Alice agreed with a laugh, feeling much better than when she first made the call.

Before Zaiyia could go on with their chat, her phone beeped again to let her know someone else was calling her. Checking the caller ID, she saw it was Alan. He had patiently hung up and called her again to get her attention. “Sonofabitch.”

“What’s wrong?” Alice inquired with worry, her brow furrowing together.

“I’ll let you know as soon as I get back into town.” Zaiyia grumbled, rolling her eyes to herself.

“Okay. Also, let me know when I can go over and talk to you guys.” Alice reminded her. “I mean ASAP!”

“I will. I gotta hang up though. Another call is coming in. See you soon, girl, and remember to stay safe!” Zaiyia reminded her back. Aftering saying goodbye, Zaiyia answered Alan’s call with a scolding tone and a fiery attitude. “You need to get it through your motherfucking head that the world and everyone in it doesn’t revolve around your selfish ass, so take a goddamn chill pill and learn how to fucking wait some-damn-time!”

Alan was silent on his end for a while. He hadn’t expected to be greeted with chastisement and so he was taken aback and struck speechless. Not sure of how to respond at first, he gave it some time before cautiously asking. “Um…can I say something now?”

Zaiyia wanted to shout no, but knew they weren’t gonna get anywhere if she kept cussing him out. Making her way into her own bedroom that she had yet to sleep in, she climbed under the cold sheets and rested her back against its cushioned headboard. “Fine! Yap away.”

“What did she say?” Alan hastily blurted, literally sitting at the edge of his seat in the kitchen with an empty cereal bowl for company. “Alice, I mean.”

“It’s none of your goddamn business what she said!” Zaiyia snapped at him for being so damn nosy.

Sighing with annoyance at her hindrance, Alan tried another approach through interrogation. “Does she know we’re talking to each other then?”

“No, I didn’t mention anything about you.” Zaiyia assured him, her temper waning now that she was getting warm. She heard him expel a sigh of relief, and that irritated her all over again. “But I should!”

“What!? No! You can't!” Alan rebuked passionately and with a hint of fear. “I-I’m not ready yet!”

“What the fuck ain’t you ready for then!?” Zaiyia demanded to know, not all that sympathetic to his feelings. “We ain’t got all damn day to wait on you, Alan!”

There was a long pause before Alan finally spoke. “That’s why I want to talk to you…in person.”

“Goddamnit, fine! I’ll make you a deal. I will sit down with you only if you stop fucking ringing up my damn phone!” Zaiyia proposed. “I’m on vacation and you’re pissing off my guardian.”

Alan recalled just how peeved the man was from last night’s interruption. Nodding to himself, he promised. “Okay. I promise I’ll stop calling from here on out.”

“Chill out. Gather your thoughts.” Zaiyia ordered him. “When I see you next, you better have a good explanation for all this nagging you be doing too!”

“I promise I will too. Thanks, Zaiyia.” Alan said before ending the call.