Belonging to Lust

Zaiyia frowned at Alice, not fathoming why the names of her maybe-future-adoptive-parents should be significant to her. And besides, what would it matter when she and her siblings were about to be adopted together instead of ripped apart like Alice feared in the past! That should be what should be the focal point of this catch up conversation, not the names of her adoptive parents. “Okaaaay…what do you mean by that? Why should their name have any significance in my life?”

Rolling her blue eyes, Alice smiled as she finally gave in and told Zaiyia why. “BECAUSE the Parsons just so happen to live in the same cul-de-sac as you! If they go ahead and decide to adopt me and my siblings, that’ll make you and I neighbors!”

“WHAT!?” Zaiyia exclaimed in surprise, nearly falling out of her bench on the stone outdoor table set parked on their high school grounds.

Laughing at Zaiyia’s reaction, Alice gave her a nod to confirm so. “It’s true!”

“Goddamn…I can’t believe it!” Zaiyia shook her head, smiling in pleasant surprise at the news. Alice White as a neighbor didn’t sound like the living hell it would’ve been in the past had they not reconciled their differences in time.

“Me neither.” Alice conceded with a giggle behind her hand. Above all, what was most important to her was that she and her siblings would be adopted together as a whole and not divided into the homes of strangers. She couldn’t deny that living in the neighborhood of one of her greatests friends and once equally greatest foe made the idea of being a Parson a lot more inviting.

Unexpectedly, both Zaiyia and Alice were disrupted from their private conversation outside the school by Chasity who came bursting out of some double doors, her steps striding across the asphalt towards Zaiyia. “Jesus Christ, Zaiyia! You wouldn’t believe who is hot on my heels right now! Alan himself, and he won’t g-” Finally spotting Alice White in Zaiyia’s company, Chastity cut off what she was about to say next. Her feets stalled as she gaped at the blonde through wide anxious eyes. “Oh! Alice…uh.”

“Hey, Chastity.” Alice greeted her warmly, not having got what the redhead had been ranting about before she came to a full stop before their stone table. Turning in her seat to face the contrite girl, Alice gave another one of her good friends her undivided attention. “Are you okay? You’re looking a bit sad. Did something happen in class?”

Before Chasity could explain her abrupt intrusion or the sick look on her face, Alan finally made his debut next. Bursting out of the same double door after the redhead. “Would you wait up, Chastity!? I’m trying to talk to y-” Much in the same mirrored fashion as Chasity, Alan froze in his steps, his words cut off as he gaped at the two other girls in attendance from where he stood. His eyes lingered on one in particular, his ex-girlfriend, Alice White, in the flesh.

Zaiyia finally had her answer as to why Chasity was racing out here like the hounds of hell were after her. It was goddamn Alan again being a headache as usual! This guy needed a new M.O because being a fierce stalker wasn’t looking good on him and would honestly be a bad look if he was ever selected to be the sole representation of males within their town.

Needing to mentally calm her once happy behind down before she addressed this disastrous run-in, Zaiyia took several slow deep breaths. Cutting up right in front of fragile Alice White might not be a good thing to do at the moment especially because she had her suspicions that the blonde was still in love with her moronic footballer. Losing her cool with Alan might just jeopardize her relationship with Alice and thus might breathe life into the dead old Bullying Campaign once again.

Alice sat speechless from across Zaiyia, her blue eyes huge and locked on her ex-boyfriend, Alan. He was staring just as dumbstruck at her as she was at him. But that wasn’t exactly what was on the forefront of Alice’s mind right now. What was was how handsome Alan still looked despite the dark circles under his eyes and having lost some weight. It was strange that they attended the same High School together, yet and still had not been in such close proximity in a long time. Alice couldn’t remember the last time she saw the individual strands of his hair, the deepness of eyes, and the muscles underneath his shirt he’d earned during his years playing football. God, he was still the most beautiful man she’d ever seen in her life. And she’d be lying to herself if she pretended that the rapid beating of her heart was due to fear and not the love she still harbored for him in secret.

Considering that all the three other people present weren’t saying anything, Zaiyia came to the conclusion that she had to be the one to break the awkward staring between Alice and Alan. Lazily rising from her seat with the most dramatic of eye rolls, she addressed both Alan and Chasity as calmly as she could fake. “Um, guys. Please, don’t take this the wrong way, but…what are you doing out here?”

Jumping at being put on the spot alongside Alan, a confused Chastity opened and closed her mouth as she pointed to the footballer then herself. What came out of her mouth was a bunch of stammering at a failed attempt of explaining. “Well, I was…he was…we decided to…we were looking for…um…”

The look in Zaiyia’s eyes was silently begging for the redhead to quickly come up with something that wouldn’t upset Alice, and whatever the hell it was, Zaiyia was going to back her up on it 110%.

“Nothing! We were doing nothing!” Chastity devised in a hurry. Not proud of how lame of an excuse it was, she took a deep breath and hastened to clarify her meaning before anyone could ask her 20 questions on it. Sadly, her next lie sounded absolutely ridiculous when it came out of her mouth. “Meaning nothing serious! Just…a dumb argument over whether Mountain Dew was better than the Baja Blast at Taco bell. We were coming to find you, Zaiyia, to get your input on which you think wins because he’s for Mountain Dew and I’m for the Baja Blast and…yeah.”

If it would’ve been most certainly welcomed, and if Zaiyia swung that way, she would’ve gone over to smack a kiss on Chasity’s mouth for her dumb excuse for their disruption. Instead, she beams a grin of dazzling brilliance at her wonderful friend and answers. “Sorry, Alan. It’s the Baja Blast for me too.”

I WON!” Chastity threw up her hands and cheered with a grin on her face, portraying a victor very well. Still feeling the awkward tension in the air and wishing to flee from it, she politely waved at the ladies. “Anyway, thank you for your time, Zaiyia. Sorry for the interruption, Alice. We’ll be leaving now!”

Chastity began to walk backwards to the double door she came from only to notice that Alan wasn’t taking her cue and withdrawing with her. Her smile dropped as she realized that the fool was still as transfixed on Alice as she was mesmerized by him. He looked like he hadn’t moved an inch much less taken a breath since making eye contact with her. It was quite disturbing. Scurrying up beside him, Chastity grabbed a hold of the footballer’s arm and began to tug him along with her. “That means you too, Alan! Now, get a move on, will ya!?”

Both Zaiyia and Alice watched Chasity drag Alan back into the building. The footballer, though strong enough, didn’t put up much of a fight, but Zaiyia noticed he kept looking over his shoulder at Alice like it would be his last time seeing her again. In fact, she watched the blonde’s reaction very closely from the moment Alan helped himself into their private meeting. If the next thing that came out of Alice’s mouth was that she didn’t give a damn about Alan anymore, Zaiyia wasn’t sure she would be able to keep her mouth shut from calling her out on it.

“What was that about?” Alice murmured softly, her blue eyes locked on the closed double doors.

“Probably some stupid class debate started by the teachers again.” Zaiyia guessed with a shrug. “My teacher started up one last week on Cool Ranch Doritos VS Nacho Cheese Doritos.”

Alice found her answer to be a bit outlandish, but nodded along silently anyway to it.

“You okay?” Zaiyia inquired, studying the various expressions soaring across Alice’s face.

“Yes…no. I mean, yes?” Alice voiced with uncertainty before lowering her weary eyes to her lap.

Zaiyia curbed rolling her eyes at her many conflicting answers. “You wanna talk about it?”

“I-I don’t know where to begin.” Alice whispered timidly. “Or how to make sense of it all.”

“That’s perfectly fine, you don’t have to know it all right this minute. But if you ever do and want someone to talk to about it, I’ll always be here with an open ear and no judgment.” Zaiyia extended to her, hoping Alice would take her up on it so she’d finally get some authentic answers.

“Thank you, Zaiyia.” Alice thanked her with a smile. “You’re such a true friend, you know that right?”