Belonging to Lust

“Ehh, Alan! How you doing, man?” The rich kid who was behind the house party called out to his friend before greeting him with a friendly hug. According to his swaying movements he had already been drinking heavily, and his appearance displayed that as well what with a plastic Viking helmet sitting slanted on his head, thick hot pink sunglasses tilted funny on his ears and his white shirt sprinkled with tiny drops spilled from various alcoholic beverages. Zaiyia was certain if his sunglasses were off she’d see a pair of bloodshot eyes too.

“Great, man! How are you?” Alan greeted him warmly with a smile, excited to be attending the Friday night party with Zaiyia.

“Aw man, I-I’m doing gooooord too.” The rich kid relished with a grin before his eyes slid to a complacent Zaiyia at his side. “Oh my, and who is this lovely sweet thang you got on your arm, Alan, my man?”

Zaiyia stared blankly up at him, not at all interested in his slow look over of her body and that sexy smile of his. Since she continued to remain silent, Alan decided to introduce her to him himself by once again draped his arm over her shoulder in a possessive manner that would show everyone at the party that she’s already claimed by him. “This is Zaiyia Halifax, she was one of the new kids this year.” He looked to Zaiyia with a smile, not noticing her face was slightly twisted in disgust and irritation by both gentlemen’s engrossment in her. “Zaiyia, this is Cameron Handler, the host of the party.”

“And it is my honor to host you tonight, my lady.” Camera flirted as he boldly took her hand in his and leaned down to place an uncomfortable hot kiss upon it.

“Okay!” Zaiyia commented loudly as she swiped her hand out from Cameron’s hold. “That’s all cute and shit but we don’t need to do all this introduction business. I can tell just by looking at you what kind of motherfucker you are.”

“Oh?” Cameron challenged her with that sexy smile still on his face. He stood up straight and clasped his hands behind his back, wishing to humor this young girl’s silly theory. “Well then, pray tell, what kind of man am I?”

“Seriously, you wanna know?” Zaiyia asked him, unsure of whether or not he truly her to go there. The smile on his face told her he absolutely 100% did. With a shrug, Zaiyia got right to it. “Clearly you’re the son of the owners of this glorious house party…” She looked past him at the structure and shook her head at its magnificence before backtracking. “I’m sorry, I should have called it a ‘Mansion Party’. Anyway, something tells me that you’re an only rich and spoiled child in the family whose parents are too busy out here making that money to notice you at all. So, feeling neglected, you probably host these kinds of party often, like every Friday night or throughout the whole weekend to get on your parent’s nerves because that’s the only way to get them to look your way and notice you exist. Unfortunately, that tactic hasn’t been working as well as you hoped.” The smile had dropped from Cameron’s face long ago, but Zaiyia wasn’t yet done with him yet. “I bet you’ve already graduated from high school and are now living off your filthy rich parents because they have no qualms handing you out money at all that whenever you want. Unlike normal people, you don’t technically have to EVER get a job to survive out in the real world. It probably doesn’t help that your parents have zero fucks to give as to whether you go out to get a job or not anyway, right?”

Cameron stood before them in silence, staring at her through his dark lensed pink sunglasses. Gone was the laid back lively drunk chap, now replaced here by a sober young man trying to soak in the accurate description of him. The silence between them was making Alan uncomfortable, and so he flashed a smile at Cameron and patted him on the arm to get his attention. “Anyway, thanks man for inviting me. You still throw the best parties than anyone I know.” With a nudge to Zaiyia, he began to lead her around an almost catatonic Cameron.

Feeling bad because she just met Cameron and less than two seconds had sucked all the joy out of his life like a succubus, Zaiyia pulled out of Alan’s arm and spun around to grab ahold of Cameron’s wrist. He flinched beneath her touch before turning around halfway to look at her. Before he could open his mouth, she hurried to try and make amends with him. “Look here, cutie, you don’t have to feel like shit because I guessed what type of her person you are. You’re not a bad guy, you haven’t harmed anyone, robbed banks, molested or killed anyone, so you can turn that damn frown upside down again. So, what if you’re a rich kid living off of his parents? That’s better than being a serial killer, or a person involved in human trafficking. You’re still a good guy Cameron.” She waves her hand behind her towards his house. “You open up your home to kids like me that just want to relax and have some fun after a week of adults stuffing large amounts of information, most of it that we won’t even fucking use on a day to day basis in our everyday lives, in our minds expecting us to remember every last detail of it. That shit is stressful as fuck especially knowing that your ‘successful’ future depends on all this crap.” She raised her other hand to touch his upper arm, seeing the corners of his mouth curve up in that cocky smile that made her smile as well. “Now, stop all this ‘woe is me’ bullshit and get on inside and host the shit out of this damn party! Give us a night we won’t forget, man!”

“As you wish, my dear!” Cameron answered with his cock smile back. He pulled away to lead them with a grand wave of his hand into his home that was filled to the brim with teenagers and young adults alike. Zaiyia smiled at the sounds of laughter and the happy faces coming from complete strangers that were just out having a good time when she felt Alan’s arm come around her shoulders again. Her smile dropped, and she made sure to turn her head so he wouldn’t see her roll her eyes. She didn’t want his arm on her. His arm, or any man’s arm…except one. But Heath would never touch her like that, at least not in a possessive way.

Eventually, Cameron disappeared to continue on being a good host to his other guests, and Zaiyia allowed Alan to steer her around the party. She was highly bored, and she knew it wasn’t because she was with Alan specifically, it was because her mind was on other things…such as Heath. She had asked him earlier if she could spend the night at a schoolmate’s house, so they could get started on a group project together. He had agreed rather quickly as if he wanted her to hurry up and get away from his as soon as possible. That thought hurt her feelings a lot, so much in fact, she didn’t leave him the number of her so called ‘schoolmate’ and just left. Hell, he couldn’t get a hold of her tonight even if she had left a number for him because it would have been a fake one anyway after the way he’s been treating her. She supposed in the end this worked out nicely. She’ll just claim to have forgotten it if he reminds her about it and then he’d simply turn the other cheek.

“Yo, is that you, Zaiyia!” A voiced called from a distance.

Zaiyia followed the sound with a frown until she spotted a familiar face. She smiled across the room through the open archway of the kitchen where Monique McCoy was waving a hand at her in the living room. Quickly glancing at Alan who was standing beside her with his arm still over her shoulder but was in deep conversations with some friends. She snuck out from beneath his arm, not wishing for him to follow her, and stepped out of the kitchen undetected. She hurried over to Monique who wasn’t alone. “Hey, there. Long time no see, huh?”

“It’s beats our first meeting that’s for sure.” Monique joked before leaning over to give her a one-armed hug. “How you’ve been? Keeping out of trouble, I see?” She raised a disapproving eyebrow over Zaiyia’s shoulder where Alan was in the kitchen still talking.

“Yeah, you can say that.” Zaiyia replied, rolling her eyes.

“Anyway.” Monique said, dismissing the discussion of Alan with a wave of her hand before turning around to introduce the two ladies she attended this party with. “These are my sisters. Assata is a junior.” She gestured to the one rocking dreads to perfection. “And Aishah is a senior.” She pointed to the oldest who was wearing her natural coily hair in a gravity defying afro that demanded the upmost respect. “You guys, this is Zaiyia, the girl I was telling you about.”

Assata frowned at her little sister. “The chick you found in the hallway?”

Monique shot a glare at her for bringing that memory up and embarrassing her in front of her friend. “Yes, that girl.”

“Shit, you haven’t heard about you!” Aishah asked Assata before addressing Zaiyia. “You’re the one that upset that little Alice White girl, am I right?”

“The only and only.” Zaiyia confirmed with not as much brag as she thought she’d have.

“Zaiyia!” Another voice called out to her, pulling her attention towards the front door where Chasity was currently wading through the sea of people to get to her.

Zaiyia gestured for her to join them. “Chasity over here!” She waited until she was close enough before reaching out to grab her arm and pull her into the safe nook in the corner beside the staircase where they all stood safely out of the crowd’s way. “Nice to see you’ve dropped by.”

“Yeah well, I figured if you were going to ignore our conversation completely and never call me about it I might as well hunt you down in person and force you to!” Chasity scolded her before noticing the three other women among them. She flashed them an apologetic smile and waved at them. “Oh, hi, my name is Chasity Bennett, I’m friends with Zaiyia at school.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Assata and these two are my sisters Monique and Aishah.” Assata gestured to her siblings.

“So, anyway, tell me how you ended up on the floor in the hallway that day, Zaiyia. What happened?” Aishah asked her, rudely cutting to the chase to get to the drama because of the alcohol coursing through her system.

Monique dismissed the subject with a wave of her hand like it wasn’t all that important to know. “C’mon Aisha, please! I just found her on the floor in the hallway while going to the bathroom. I got there after the fight had already broken out and scrammed, that’s all there was to it.”

Not only was Assata and Aishah surprised by that little information, but Chasity was full blown shocked to know that Zaiyia had been attacked before without her knowledge. “WHAT!?”