Belonging to Lust

When Heath had returned home that evening, he didn’t expect to walk into that door and find that not only was dinner not ready to be served, but also that his precious little cook was nowhere to be found in the main house or the guest house. Paranoia began to set in as he checked on the time to see if maybe he had beat her bus to their street, and that the driver was maybe running a little bit behind schedule. When his eyes stared down at the watch on his wrist, panic began to set in. Striding over to the nearest phone, Heath called Zaiyia’s school and the school bus company just to assure himself that he had no reason to start calling the cops in those uneasy seconds. Unfortunately, the answers he received was that Zaiyia didn’t stay after school, and that her bus driver had made all his scheduled drop offs that day on time.

Heath slammed the phone down as his breath started to come in faster at the same time he made his way through the house to check a second time for Zaiyia, and then a third time. Not finding her anywhere, he was finally able calm himself down when he remembered that like every other teenager, Zaiia had a phone and that she was saved on his contact list in case of emergencies. Rummaging through his pockets, he hurriedly searched through his contact list and upon finding her name, pressed the button to call her. Placing the phone in his ear, he waited for the ringing to start so he could hear her voice again, only it didn’t. The voice on the other end apologized to him for not being able to reach her for reasons he wasn’t calm enough to understand. As a matter of fact, Heath wasn’t really in the mood to listen to anything as he slammed the house phone back down and began pacing around the living room. After a few hours, he had to talk himself out of calling the cops several times. When he was sitting on his couch trying his damnest to not overreact and call the police, the front door finally opened to reveal not only Zaiyia, but his sister Anneliese as well. The two ladies were laughing as they were carrying several plastic bags along with them. Heath didn’t care about what was in those bags as he gotten up off the couch. In that moment, his only concern was Zaiyia. Seeing her so happy only pissed him off the more because he had been running himself crazy with worry over her while she was out having fun.

“Where the fuck have you been, Zaiyia!?” Heath shouted, causing both of the women to stop laughing simultaneously and jump back in fright from his roaring volume. Their eyes were wide as they both stared up at him like he was their scary disciplining father that had just caught them sneaking out to go meet up with their friends.

Heath moved closer as he pointed a finger in Zaiyia’s face, who merely cowered from his intimating height. “You better answer me right now, young lady! I’ve been worried sick since I got home from work and couldn’t find you anywhere. Where the hell were you?!”

Zaiyia opened and closed her mouth a few times before her words finally came out to recuse her. “I-I was out with Anneliese. We went shopping to grab some things for the guest house to redecorate.”

“Then why the hell didn’t you tell me weren’t going to be home tonight? Did you not think that was something I should know? And why the fuck didn’t you answer your phone when I called you? Did you turn it off or something?” Heath demanded to know.

Zaiyia was finding it difficult to hold the tears that surprisingly began to blur her vision. This wasn’t the first time she had been yelled at by an adult, and it wouldn’t be the last. However, this was the first time Heath had raised his voice at her like this in such a manner. Of course there was before when she tried to scare his sister off with a knife but that was different. She wasn’t trying to stab anyone, she was just trying to scare the intruder away and she knew Heath knew that as well. This time it was different. He was really pissed at her, and having him towering over her the way he was only terrified her to tears. “M-My battery died on our way to the supply store. I couldn’t charge it. I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you angry.”

The sound of the tears laced in her voice softened him a bit, and calmed his temper down somewhat. Heath stepped back to run his hands over his face, and let out a heavy sigh. “Zaiyia, just…just go. Go to your room.”

Zaiyia finally let the tears fall down her face. For some reason, it bugged her that she upset him. With most adults she could care less, but with him, it was like a knife to the stomach. “Heath, I’m…I’m sorry. I mean it, I’m so sorry.”

Heath refused to look at her as he pointed towards the kitchen where the backdoor was. “I said get out of here, now!”

Zaiyia dropped the bags she was holding and scurried off. The two siblings listened to the back door open, and then slam shut. Anneliese had been standing there in silence, not because she didn’t want to help stand up for her, but because seeing Heath like that had scared her just as well. There were tears in her eyes too, but she forced them back to remind herself that she wasn’t the rebellious teenager that Heath had to yell at when she wouldn’t listen and nor was he yelling at her. She was an adult, and he couldn’t yell at her like that anymore even if he wanted to. Gathering herself together, Anneliese lowered the plastic bags she was holding to the floor and looked her older brother in the eye.

“You are a real bully, you know that? How dare yo-“ Anneliese began to say before he cut her off with a steely look in his eye.

“And you, why the fuck didn’t you tell me that Zaiyia was with you?! How irresponsible can you be? Zaiyia is in my care, so anything you plan on doing with her WILL be run by me first, do you understand me, Anneliese?” Heath shouted at her, pointing a stern finger at her too. “How would you like it if I picked your children up from school and took them out to the zoo without ever once informing or picking up your calls?”

Anneliese was taken aback by his example, and was instantly regretful for her actions. To think she was about to scold him about the way he spoke to Zaiyia, when she was the one that was responsible for the whole thing happening. He was right to scold her, and she knew she deserved it. Reaching a hand up to brush her swooping bangs from her face, Anneliese began to nod to every word he said. “You’re right, Heath, you’re absolutely right. This whole thing is all my fault, not Zaiyia. Your panic, my guilt, and Zaiyia’s tears could have all been prevented if I hadn’t gone out of my way to spend some time with her without telling you. I am sorry Heath. I will NOT make the same mistake to you or anyone. The next time you will be the first to know about any plans I have that concern Zaiyia. I swear on our parent’s graves.”

Heath was silent for a moment as he stared at the hardwood floor, before nodding in acceptance of her apology. Letting out a weary sigh before taking a deep breathe to relax himself, Heath finally looked up at her. “it’s okay, Anneliese, it’s okay. Just, don’t ever do this again, and we’ll be fine. I’m sorry if I overreacted there for a moment, I just…now that I’ve gotten use to Zaiyia’s amazing culinary skills, I don’t exactly want to lose her anytime soon.”

Anneliese’s burst out laughing at his terrible joke, which prompted him to start laughing too. Once they finished, she decided to bring up Zaiyia again. “You know she didn’t mean all this to happen, don’t you? Her phone was pretty much dead a few minutes after she jumped into the car with me. I must have told her that you were informed about our plans today, but must have been mistaken. I must have forgotten to call you, and somehow ended up believe that I actually did call you. Again, I’m so sorry Heath.”

Heath lifted a hand to wave off her apology. “It’s alright now. No more apologizing, okay? We’re all good.”

Anneliese’s nodded before remembering that she had picked up some items from the store. “Oh I almost forgot, we picked up some things for the guest house.”

“Of course you did.” Heath commented, rolling his eyes.

“Oh come on, big brother. Decorating is fun, and you know it.” Anneliese teased him, reaching over to pinch him.

Heath swatted her hand away and laughed. “No, it fucking isn’t Anneliese! I swear I don’t understand how you can look forward to this every month.”

“I told you why, it’s because it’s fun.” Anneliese reminded him as she leaned down to start picking up some of the bags but Heath beat her to it. He grabbed all of Zaiyia’s bags and half of Anneliese and lifted them all up with very little effort on his part.

“Here let me help you.” Together the siblings went back and forth between the car and the guest house unloading all the items Anneliese had purchased. When they were finally done, Anneliese was standing by the bay window in the guest house wringing her hands together like she had an evil plan stored up in her brain, while Heath was looking up towards the stairs that led to Zaiyia’s room. The entire time they were coming in and out and making a ruckus, she hadn’t come down once to check up on them. That made Heath feel even worse for the way he yelled at her, and he knew he needed to apologize to her for it.

Heath turned his head to look at his sister. “You can go ahead and get started. I’m gonna go upstairs and talk to Zaiyia.”

Anneliese merely nodded, too lost in her creative world to pay him any mind. Earlier that week Heath came and went through the guest house taking a little of this and that out of the way so that his sister would have a pretty nice clean slate to work with whenever she decided to come over and decorate. Now that she was here, and was now occupied with her brainstorming, Heath headed for the stairs to Zaiyia’s room.