Belonging to Lust

Back in school, Zaiyia was headed to one of her classes through an ocean of students. Mentally, she was ready to embark on her day. Physically, she was dead tired! Last night’s power outage inspired Heath to act out a fantasy that starred her and him having sex outside amid a storm. Now this was a fantasy she never gave too much thought to, and it was never on the forefront of her own. For Heath though, it was. She gave in to his fantasy too damn easily, if you asked her, but the man was satisfied so it was all okay in the end for her. They both woke up late and took their time getting ready to leave the house.

In the school’s parking lot, Heath had dropped her off though the sexual energy from last night was still crackling between them within the confinement of his truck, making it harder to breathe for the couple. It was overpowering enough to have him reaching out to grab hold of Zaiyia’s small hand tightly in his, his grip possessive as his green eyes shifted to bore into hers. Memories of last night came flooding back between them as they gazed across the front seat at each other. Licking his lips, Heath’s eyes flickered back and forth from Zaiyia’s lips to her brown eyes. “So I’ll…see you later.”

“Y-Yeah…” Zaiyia stammered a little, her yearning eyes unable to leave Heath’s face as they too flitted between his parted lips to his green eyes begging her to climb back onto his lap like she had last night in his bed. “See you then.”

Heath nodded, not breaking his smoldering stare, his thumb rubbing over the back of Zaiyia’s. He deliberately wavered for a while longer before forcing himself to finally release her. Not trusting his hands not to recapture her again, he gripped his steering wheel instead and forced himself to look ahead. “Have a good day then.”

“You too.” Zaiyia replied after clearing her throat. Quickly, she left the truck and headed into school, not allowing herself to glance back at Heath, or else she’d dash back to him and hurl herself at his vehicle to beg him take her with him.

Zaiyia was seized from her thoughts by her phone vibrating in her pocket. Retrieving it in the hopes it was Heath ordering her to come back out to the parking lot where he was waiting to take her home, she was disappointed at seeing the text message was from Alan. Frowning, she checked it out and found an image awaiting her instead of words. The picture was of a black suede box with a silver necklace inside with a card. Written on this card was an apology in Alan’s handwriting which meant it was from him. Next to the suede box was a bouquet of beautiful luxuriant flowers and two small teddy bears, one a girl and the other a boy.

The image only made Zaiyia’s frown deepen in perplexity. It was too early for her to want to decode what Alan was trying to tell her, and so she decided to cheat instead. Calling Alan up on his phone, Zaiyia held her own to her ear and when she heard him pick up she instantly grilled him answers. “Okay, what the hell was all that you just sent me?”

Alan thought it was self-explanatory but judging by the tone in Zaiyia’s voice it didn’t sound like she was in the mood to play along. Already in his literature class tucked away in the back, he squirmed in his seat, unsure of what mood Zaiyia was in today. “They’re for Alice and her little brother and sister. I bought it with the plan to give it to her when I try again at my second apology, you know?”

Taken aback by Alan’s update, Zaiyia’s brows rose upwards as her steps slowed a bit. “Oh.”

“Yeah. To be honest, I was actually hoping to message her another apology last night, but a power outage happened and then I took that as a sign it wasn’t the right time.” Alan informed Zaiyia openly, leaning back in his chair as he rested his hands on his English books. “While sitting in the dark I remembered when you and I last spoke, you told me to give her some time. It stopped me from riding on over to her place last night, but I figured today would be the perfect time to talk to her again.”

The frown was back on Zaiyia’s face as she let Alan rant away. She was surprised he was still trying to apologize to Alice when the girl herself just told her the day before that she would message him to let him know she forgave him for breaking her heart. Had she not followed through with it?

Probably not, with Zaiyia’s luck. Either Alice forgot, or she’d changed her mind after they spoke. Feeling like it’d be best if she got to the bottom of it just in case Alan was about to run himself off the road too soon here when it came to Alice, Zaiyia cut into his rambling. “Yo, hold up there, Romeo. Imma need you to put a brake on this little gift exchanging you got with Alice.”

Crushed by Zaiyia’s request, Alan hastily demanded an explanation for it. “What, why!?”

Sometimes Zaiyia wished Alan could just blindly go with whatever she said like a besotted puppy. No barking, no fuss, just blind obedience. But of course, he had to question her! Neither Alice nor Alan knew she was playing both sides of the fence here. Any move he made could ruin everything, and that’s exactly what Zaiyia wasn’t about to let happen if she could help it.

“Because I wanna make sure you’re not about to fuck things up with Alice!” Zaiyia exclaimed, trying not to raise her voice like she wanted to. Entering her mostly barren classroom, she sought an empty seat farthest from the others. “Look, just let me go on ahead and scope things out for you. Let me see where her headspace is before you go throwing yourself on a landmine and fucking shit up. You get me?”

Letting out a sign of relief that Zaiyia was trying to aid him in her delay and not sabotage him, Alan elected to do exactly what she said. She had the advantage of being able to talk to Alice these days, he did not. “Okay. Okay, I’ll stay put. Thank you again for your help, Zaiyia, and please let me know anything as soon as you do.”

“I will. You just focus on being patient, Alan!” Zaiyia pressed Alan in a stern voice, expressing how serious she was so he wouldn’t get the idea to test her limits by defying her. And just because she didn’t want to leave him a bad space, she praised him on his efforts thus far. “And keep up the good work.”

Hanging up on Alan before he could extend their chat any longer, Zaiyia rose from her seat to go hunt down Alice White. Luckily for her, her numerous former opponents were now her allies and so they were more than happy to guide her to their most cherished Alice’s current location. Entering the history class and spotting the blonde scribbling in her notebook, Zaiyia quickly waved goodbye to a very helpful Catherine and Celeste and strolled over to Alice’s desk. “Hey, girl!”

“Oh! Hey, Zaiyia.” Alice greeted her close friend right back, having had to do a double take to make sure she saw what she thought she saw in her classroom. It was Zaiyia Halifax, and she was here so close to the start of class time which was…very odd of her. Glancing to the doorway then the gorgeous slender girl helping herself to the vacant seat in front of her, Alice inquired curiously. “Um…what brings you over here? Isn’t your class in the next hall over?”

“Just wanted to check up on my girl.” Zaiyia admitted, masking her full intent with a stunning smile and a casual shrug. “And impatiently hear how the whole adoption thing is going since we last talked.”

See this is what made Alice smile these days. The promising future that was already laid out ahead of her and her siblings. Gone were the fears of being separated from them through adoption. These days, all she felt was happiness at her secured future. Grinning just as gleeful as Zaiyia, Alice filled her in on the details. “I’m glad you asked. I’ve recently been told that the adoption is most definitely gonna happen!”

“For real?!” Zaiyia squealed with excitement before slapping a hand over her mouth to smother it. Nearby some group of guys from the soccer team glanced their way briefly before returning to their conversation.

“Yup! We’re gonna be adopted!” Alice rejoiced in a joyful whisper, leaning closer to Zaiyia as they both giggled behind their hands. “In fact, me and my siblings have been spending so much time with Parsons after school. They want us to be able to integrate into their lives and home with as much ease as possible.”

“Yo, this is seriously getting me all hyped up! I can’t wait until we’re neighbors!” Zaiyia confessed to Alice, her hands curled into fists of excitement. It then dawned on her that she was actually telling the truth. She was looking forward to having Alice as a neighbor! It’s not like she had friends anyway. Before they could exchange any more words on it, the bell rang, signaling that they’d better head to class before they got in trouble for being late. “Shit. Well, I guess I better head to class. I’ll see you later, girl.”

“See you later!” Alice told Zaiyia with a wave. Her bestie was halfway across the room when Alan suddenly came to her mind. Needing someone to talk to about him who wasn’t her other friends who always made it into a big deal, Alice hailed out to Zaiyia. “Wait, Zaiyia! Can we talk later?”

“Absolutely girl!” Zaiyia told Alice, already knowing that the topic was gonna be all about Alan.

“Great! I’ll see you at lunch!” Alice called to Zaiyia as she made her way out of the classroom.