Clementine turned to walk off with the phone against her ear as she got to work. Asha’s mouth tightened up, but she had no comeback, for once. This was all opportunistic for her to jump on the bandwagon and stand for something opposite of the Southern Family. Yet, I wondered just how well Clementine knew Maggie or what exactly was the nature of their friendship outside of being a sorority sister.
“Aight so what are we doing?” Asha asked as she turned to look at me.
“You are not going to do anything,” I pointed. “You have–––”
“Fuck this school,” she said bluntly. “If I get kicked out, I get kicked out but I’m going to take that dean bitch down with me because this isn’t right. I will take this entire school down for turning its back on Maggie if I have to. So missing a few classes won’t matter.”
I turned to look at Isis. Her privileged upbringing allowed her to rebel and go against the grain with little to no consequences. I know this was asking a lot for her, but something tells me this was nothing new for her either. So when she sighed, she tightened her mouth with her fangs barely poking out and slammed her fist into the palm of her other hand with a look of determination
“What’s the plan?”
…
“So what was the meeting about?” Harvey asked as I slipped my dress over my head with my arms peeling away from the sleeves. I gave him the dress as I stood braless in a black thong with my hair falling down my face. “Was it a lot of people there?”
“It was a lot," I said as I leaned against his dresser that we shared. Harvey’s raw eyes were free of glasses as he sat shirtless in his plaid pajamas and bare feet. He looked good in his natural late-night state with the slight bags under his eyes from studying with his brother. I could hear the boys and music just downstairs but the moment I came in, Harvey made his way up here and decided to stay.
“Tell me,” he said as he leaned back on the bed with his arms tucked behind his head. “What’s the plan to help your friend?”
“I don’t know…I’ve never been the one to react so quickly…” I admitted softly as I looked at my nails. “I regret not…I regret not helping her the night she asked.”
“Pointless to look back at that now,” he muttered as he picked up my phone to go through. I watched Harvey swipe away at the screen trying to keep a straight face at some of the messages he was probably reading through. “What are you going to do now? Has the boyfriend cut you off?”
I felt my mouth twist in annoyance. It’s not like I could faithfully reach out to Namir at any given time to talk. There was an invisible boundary there, an unspoken rule that you don’t cross whether Maggie was here or not.
“Figured he deem you and your friends useless and too loud,” Harvey said as he held my phone up to take a picture. I stared at him with my face lowered and eyes looking straight ahead at him. “It’s almost impossible how beautiful you are…You know that? Do you know how beautiful you are?”
I ignored him. I’ve been called beautiful and pretty my entire life by Jean. A man telling me this was not world breaking.
“I went to him to see if he thought she was in danger and he said no. Clementine doesn’t seem to think she’s in any danger either but all that says to me is, those two talk. I’m sure Clementine and Namir talk. She’s known him longer than Maggie.”
Harvey was quiet for a moment as he stared at me with a growing smirk.
“You know what I think? I think you don’t know Maggie the way you think you do. Why does it feel like you’re on the outside of your own friend?”
It was a feeling I’ve been trying to ignore for a while now but ever since Clementine basically shrugged off the thought of Maggie possibly returning, it was as if she knew she wasn’t in danger. What did she know that we didn’t?
“That,” pointing at me with his finger, “is why you don’t know what to do because you truly don’t know what or who you’re dealing with. Am I right?”
I stared at him as he let a sleazy grin stretch across his face.
“You’re realizing she never truly let you all in or you never paid any attention…so when she asked for help, the one time she was letting you in, you rejected it for her boyfriend who has now shut you out of all plans and thoughts concerning her. Now here you are in my room, close to tears and full of regret because you realize you just played yourself. This is why sex is important…You see insecurities, you see hopes, and dreams, you see guilt, and anger all locked in the body, and it escapes little by little with each lay. I can see it all when it comes to you,” he said as he went back to looking through my phone. “At least you’re pretty. Imagine going through all of these mental gymnastics, and you’re ugly.”
He shook his head at the thought.
“It’s you,” I said with an accusatory tone. “I can’t fucking think straight with you clinging to me constantly, draining me of my energy and–––”
“Why do men get blamed when a woman suddenly wants to play victim? No babe, it’s you and the not-knowing. A clairvoyant that doesn’t know shit right now. I don’t even know how you got away with that on paper given what you really are. That has nothing to do with me and everything to do with how you move as a shitty friend.”
“No!” I yelled. “It’s you, Harvey! I keep telling you I want nothing to do with you! I’m sick of–––”
“You’re sick of what?” Harvey asked as he stood up. Tossing my phone on the bed, he pulled at his pajamas before coming to stand in front of me as I glared at his bare shoulder bone. “You’re sick of what? I don’t ask you to come here every fucking night.”
Harvey stretched both hands against the dresser, pinning me in between as he lowered his gaze to meet mine. His dark brown eyes suddenly blinked solid black and you could see the dark energy swirling around like a black pool.
“I bet you jumping at the chance of her boyfriend reaching out to you made your pus–––”
I felt my hand react before he could finish, but he grabbed my wrist with a snap of his fingers and held it in the air. We stared at each other, and I could feel myself slipping into a space I only reserved for Jean. Harvey was attempting to bring it out of me. I could see the anticipation in his dark eyes but then my phone started to go off. Whatever fantasy he was building up in his head suddenly disappeared as my attention turned to the phone. I shoved him back with my hand pushing his face away before walking towards the bed.
