Belonging to Lust

Chapter 97: Bigger Pool of Assholes

Outside the Sullivan residence, Zaiyia's old bus left the bus stop to continue it's journey to deliver off the rest of the students left on board. Or what she would rather call them, a bunch of racist imbeciles.

She couldn't believe that she allowed them to get under her skin to the point of reacting the way she did. Don't get her wrong, she wasn't remorseful in the least bit for trying to beat those girls to pieces in the first place, but still the fact that they were able to penetrate her tough exterior by going for her weakness in bringing up Heath pissed her off even now. If she wanted to rip them apart than she would have done so but only on HER terms, NOT theirs.

Not only did Zaiyia expect these young ladies to get away with what they did, but she was certain they'd gain another ally on their side, the bus driver. Ms. Wilson hadn't seen or heard a thing pretaining to that fight. Oftentimes she would play the radio out loud for everyone's enjoyment, and now look, a fight got started behind her back and she had no idea what had triggered it. Of course, what she saw with her own eyes was Zaiyia doing her damnest to make her enemies pay for even mentioning the man she was in love with name. Naturally, Zaiyia could see how she looked like the bad guy in all this mess. She'd been the only one fighting and now was the sole suspect to the crime.

Not that it was so much of a mystery to Zaiyia. Those kids wanted to talk slick to her and so they got what they got. End of story.

“So? Are you gonna tell me what REALLY happened or stand there enraged in silence?” Heath interrupted her from where he stood with his arms crossed over his powerful chest by the front door. “I wanna hear it from you first, Zaiyia, not the Principal, or the bus driver, just you.”

And this was another shocking turn of events. Heath just so happened to be in the driveway when the fight broke out before the bus could even reach it's stop. He had known she was involved and despite hearing what another fellow adult had to say on the matter, he still wanted to hear her side of the story. No one ever wanted to hear her side of anything. How could he not expect her to be taken aback by this opportunity to share her truth when it's been such a rare chance in her life? Opening and closing her mouth for a minute, Zaiyia began. “Um...well...you see, I was just minding my own business in the back of the bus when they started picking a fight with me a-”

“Who was picking a fight with you?” Heath cut her off, his green eyes narrowing. “Do you know them?”

Zaiyia nodded before shaking her head. “Yeah, but not like friends. They're just more assholes from an even bigger pool of assholes, that's all.”

“Of course they are. What else is new?” Heath muttered to himself with an eye roll. He couldn't believe how these generations of kids were so...violent and stupid at the same time. Like what happened to them all? Were they exposed to something the other generations weren't to make them so or did it all come down to just bad parenting? “Anyway, tell me about them. I want names, ages, genders, and what class you share with them.”

“Eilesse Baldwin, she's 15 and used to be in my science class but now I only see her at lunch. Miley Finley, she's 16 and is in my math class. Then there's Louise Leon, who's 16 but I don't have a class with her. She spends most of her time ditching class to hang in the bathroom smoking whenever she can because she's too smart for the school system...or so she says.” Zaiyia listed out for him, counting on her fingers as her brown eyes lift to the ceiling as she recalled all her haters. “I believe that was all.”

“Okay, what happened next?” Heath went on, wanting to know as much as he could. “You said they tried to pick a fight with you?”

“Well yeah.” Zaiyia confirmed with a nod, but before she explained further he interjected again.

“Who touched you first?” Heath growled, absentmindedly unfolding his arms to crack his knuckles.

As if she needed to get turned on at a serious time like this, Zaiyia looked away from his menacing large form to stare at the couch. “They didn't touch me. I touched them.”

“Ah...I see.” Heath nodded, now seeing where this was going and internally relieved he didn't have to hear about any one of those little brats putting a violent hand on his baby. “Well then, what did they say to you this time to have you fighting them on the bus?”

Zaiyia rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest as the insults came flying back to memory. Hell, they were practically still ringing in her ears! “What do you think they said? It's what's always said about me! They started talking about my dark skin, my nose and my hair.”

“Sonofabitch.” Heath groaned to himself, running weary hands over his face. This was another perfect example as to why he no longer trusted anyone around his Zaiyia! This town was once a friendly and safe environment and now almost everyone seems to acts like they'd never seen a black person before and resort to racism any chance they can. Heath didn't understand why that was so at first, but now he was starting to believe people found his little Zaiyia intimidating which was something he couldn't relate to. He found her impeccably gorgeous and perfect in every way a mere mortal being couldn't be. “You've got to be kidding me!”

“You'd think they'd get a little more creative with their insults by now. I've already heard them all before.” Zaiyia muttered to herself with shrug, not the least bit heated as Heath by what was said about her. No, what sent her over the edge was the mention of Heath. After all, she saw red and lost control of herself.

Heath expelled a long sigh before moving on with her tale. “Okay, so those little racist shits were being a bunch of assholes like you said. What happened then?”

Zaiyia hesitated for a moment. She didn't want to admit to him that those students called him her 'white daddy'. She can deal with the racism but she didn't want him to have to. Plus, this would also prove to him that she had lingering feelings for him if he knew she fought for him and not herself. Choosing to skip it, she gave him a casual shrug and dropped her eyes to her shoes. “Um, I kinda attacked one of them and the bus driver got involved. She removed me from her bus and...well, you know the rest.”

Heath nodded, staying silent for a long moment before shrugging off the whole situation like it was no big deal and turning to walk towards the kitchen. “Alrighty then.”

“Alrighty then?” Zaiyia repeated back to him as she trailed behind him into the kitchen. She watched him with a perplexed expression as he opened the fridge and rifled through it. “Wait, is that a code word or something that I'm being grounded, or...what?”

“Oh you're absolutely grounded.” Heath answered before removing frozen chicken from the freezer and placing it on the counter. His green eyes sought hers. “But only for tonight.”

“Just tonight?” Zaiyia's jaw nearly dropped right off her head in surprise. Grounded for only the night? Did she hear him correctly? “Why just tonight and not a week or a month? I don't understand.”

“It's pretty simple to me why.” Heath called from behind the fridge door as he chucked some broccoli onto the counter too. “That fight that happened wasn't your fault.”

“Wait, how was that not my fault? I swung the first punch!” Zaiyia stupidly defended her enemies, too far into shock to realized that's exactly what she was doing.

“Because if anyone wants to talk that kind of racist bullshit to you than they got what was coming.” Heath explained quickly.

His support was almost too much for her to believe. Still, her heart swelled and warmed from her immense love for him...almost too immensely to bring her to tears. She blinked them away as she smiled at him. “T-Thank you, Heath.”

Heath turned to her and gestured to the counter while patting his belly. “You can thank me with dinner, baby. I'm starving!”

Zaiyia nodded eagerly as she pushed up her sleeves and got to work on rewarding him with a banquet fit for a knight in shining armor.