Belonging to Lust

All at once, they were being attacked. It was all happening so fast that Zaiyia had to put her multi-tasking skills to work by not only having to watch her own back but Monique’s too from afar. If this had involved either of Monique’s older sisters instead Zaiyia wouldn’t have to be pulled apart between herself and them because they at least grew up in the streets and had experienced violence first hand, so they would know what to do in order to protect themselves. Monique was born in a time when the McCoys had moved out of the hood and into the safety of the suburbs where violence came as often as a blue moon and so she had no experience in dealing with fights often enough to safeguard herself.

The moment these 6 crazy high school girls with sport equipment came rushing at them like the spartan army, Zaiyia and Monique simultaneously split up and ran in opposite directions from each other. From the corner of her eye, Zaiyia saw with relief that Monique took off running and stayed running all up in the gymnasium to stay out of harm’s reach. But unlike her, Zaiyia knew she couldn’t keep running too. She had to be the one to get the upper hand against these 6 girls, or they’d be running all damn day from them, and so when Jocelyn Carter came at her with a baseball bat, Zaiyia reached out to grab ahold of the handle before she could get hit her and latch down onto it tightly. The two wrestled for the baseball bat until Zaiyia got the upper hand by headbutting Jocelyn so hard it made her dazed enough fall back on her behind on the gymnasium’s floor. Before she had a chance to get herself back up by rolling over onto her hands and knees, Zaiyia came up to her to swfitly kick her in the stomach to knock her back down with a bark. “THAT’S RIGHT KEEP YOUR BITCH ASS DOWN OR ELSE!”

“F-FUCK YOU!” Jocelyn screamed out a her audaciously before earning a swing to the head with the baseball bat that knocked her out for a few minutes.

Behind her, Zaiyia could hear another one of her haters coming up on her briskly. Spinning around with the bat swinging in her hand, she knocked the hockey stick straight out of Catherine Lourd’s hand, disarming her. “Surprised, you raggedy ass looking bitch?”

Stunned, Catherine was as she stared down at her empty hands in disbelief. She didn’t expect Zaiyia to have the strength to unarm her that easily and so unexpectedly. Slowly, she lifted her light brown eyes up to her enemy, now confused on what to do. “I-I…”

Zaiyia cut her off by stepping forward and boldly backhanding her across the face, making her fall to the ground with a cry. Her obvious amateur attack of violence towards Zaiyia didn’t earn her any generosity as she decided to kick her in the stomach too.

“YOU BITCH!” Celeste screeched from behind Zaiyia before whacking her unexpected opponent across her back with a tennis racket.

“AH!” Zaiyia cried out with pain as she was shoved forward onto the floor by the force, her baseball bat flying out of her loosened grasp.

“Whoa…” Celeste stood there like a statue for a moment in awe of herself for taking down THE Zaiyia Halifax, but then her eyes were drawn to the bat her enemy dropped and then to her own tennis racket that seemed so harmless in comparison. Perhaps a baseball bat would be a better weapon of choice than the tennis racket.

Ditching her current weapon over her shoulder, Celeste quickly strode past Zaiyia’s body and towards her baseball bat, but she didn’t get close enough when all of a sudden, a hand reached out to her ankle and made her tumble forward with a shrill scream onto the hardwood polished floor. Scrambling forward on her hands and knees, Zaiyia flipped Celeste’s body over onto her back before straddling her hips to give her a beating of a lifetime. With both hands tightened into fists, Zaiyia let out all her anger at once by wailing down at Celeste’s pretty face without giving her an opportunity to fight back. Nothing Celeste could say or do could penetrate Zaiyia’s anger until she herself heard Monique’s scream from afar. Zaiyia’s eyes snapped to her right to see her friend running up across the bleachers with three others climbing up closely behind her.

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PSYCHO BITCHES!?” Monique screamed at her attackers over her shoulder, her brown eyes alertly watching every step she took so she wouldn’t fall to her death down the bleachers or into the clutches of Michelle, Rose and Karen. “ALL THIS BEEFING OVER SOME AVERAGE JOE LOOKING MOTHERFUCKER?! WHERE THEY DO THIS SHIT AT?”

Abandoning a terrified Celeste, Zaiyia sprinted forward and was lucky enough to catch up with the last one, Karen, who was dumb enough to come to a fight wearing heels that made her speed 2x slower than the others. Even though Zaiyia tripped over her own two feet along the way, she managed to reach out to grab ahold of both of Karen’s ankles and pull hard back on them. With a shriek that echoed throughout the gymnasium, Karen feel forward onto the seats of the bleachers. Her head contacted on one of the seats and left her in a dizzying state.

“Fuck me.” Zaiyia grumbled to herself, as she slowly got herself back to her feet. She was already tired. She had just taken on four people and now had two more to go. Taking a step forward to end this fight once and for all, Zaiyia halted when she heard her name being called from behind her.

“ZAIYIA!” Jocelyn shouted in anger, one arm wrapped around her aching belly.

“WE’RE NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!” Catherine added, her hands fisted at her sides as he joined Jocelyn.

“Sonofabitch!” Zaiyia cursed beneath her breath as Jocelyn and Catherine now came hurrying over for her while their friend Celeste remained trembling in a fetal position with her arms over her head on the gym floor. Zaiyia was about to get jump with barely enough strength to face two. How did she ever do it before back in the locker room? Lifting her hands up with to fight, she tenses up at the sound of the gym door opening, and closing making everyone in the gym freeze in mid-run.

“Need a hand, honey?” Assata called as she casually strolled into the gym towards the fight with her sister Aishah who was pumped and ready to get physical.

“We’re always down for an ass whooping.” Aishah informed a relieved Zaiyia before lunging forward to grab ahold of a confused Jocelyn’s hair to drag her backwards kicking and screaming.

“You too bitch, don’t think you can’t catch these hands!” Zaiyia snapped at the distracted Catherine before popping the frightening girl right in the eye, making her fall backwards onto the floor with a sob of agony.

Assata ran past them all to climb up the bleachers to save her little sister from Michelle and Rose’s clutches. She managed to catch up to Rose and drag her onto her back by her hair where she ended up punching her in the face a few times before catching up with Michelle and tackling her down onto the bleachers, knocking the wind out of her.

Down below, Aishah and Zaiyia worked together to clash both a Catherine, Jocelyn, and then a rejuvenated Celeste down. The battle was finally over and Zaiyia was both surprised and relieved to see her side had won. She came into this gym knowing her behind would lose because it was one against six and she had been fine with that, she wanted to feel this agony. But what she never wanted was for her friends to be involved and that happened anyway. As Zaiyia regrouped with her friends as her enemies cowered away in despair and defeat, she was glad to see that they were all okay.

“We should all get out of here now, before we get caught.” Assata suggested before leading them all out through the doors that led outside. Rain was still in the air even after it had finished pouring.

“Holy shit! I can’t believe we fucking made it!” Monique exclaimed in awe, a grin on her face as she looked to the others. “Oh my god, that fighting experience shit was fun!”

“Bitch, all you probably fucking did was run the whole damn time!” Assata accurately predicted.

“So, what? I still think it was pretty awesome.” Monique reiterated before giggling at Zaiyia. “You know, you’re actually a lot more fun than I thought you were.”

Zaiyia didn’t take her comment as a compliment in the least. With a remorseful sigh, Zaiyia turned to the group as they began to wander towards where her science class had been held but was now probably moved back in the classroom again. “Look, you guys, what fucking happen in there had nothing to do with you ladies, okay? If I were you, I’d make sure not to hang around with me anymore from now on to make sure your ass is safe from these crazy ass hoes running around here.”

Monique frowns at her suggestion with distaste. “But I don’t wanna do that.”

Aishah knew her little sister wasn’t seeing this situation for the severity of what it was. “Monique, you need to take what happened in there seriously and remember the bullshit from whence our asses came from. Mom and Dad aren’t out here trying to give us a better life just for us to throw all that hardwork back in their faces by getting in fights like this like we still live in the projects?!”

“No offense, Zaiyia, but I agree with my sister.” Assata seconded.

“Well, I don’t care!” Monique argued back like a spoiled princess not used to getting her way. “Zaiyia is my friend and I am sticking by her side through whatevers.”

“But you shouldn’t! That’s what we’re trying to tell your stubborn ass!” Zaiyia argued against her own case too, trying to get Monique to see that being friends with her was just too dangerous.

“I just told your heard headed asses I don’t give a fuck!” Monique clarified to them impatiently.

Behind them, the bell rang outside the school building, signaling that they all four had just missed their classes. Simultaneously, they all let out a curse at unintentionally skipping them. Aishah started towards the building and waved her arms for them to follow her. “C’mon, lets get to our next class before we get dragged into another stupid fight again.” They all agreed and followed her back into the now empty gym before going their separate ways to attend their next class.