Saved Folk in the House (3 page)

“Because they always want what they can’t have,” Ruby answered. “Now, I wouldn’t mind going over to the town house and getting with that fine roommate of his, Melvin, but he won’t give me the time of day. He must be gay, ignoring all of this,” she said, pushing up her breasts and admiring her profile in the mirror.

Zakia laughed at her roommate, thinking surely Ruby was going to flunk out of college if she didn’t get her priorities in order. Zakia always encouraged her roommate to study, but Ruby shrugged her off, instead encouraging Zakia to party. Neither one of them succeeded in swaying the other. They were the odd couple and got along well together, respected, cared for, and trusted each other, and had each other’s back.

“I’m going home this weekend,” Zakia told Ruby. “I can’t wait. I need—you hear me,
need
—some home cooking, girl. I miss my boys too. I can’t wait to see them. I hope Micah and Eli have time to hang with me because I need some schooling. I’d better call them and make sure they don’t have any plans. Mom said all my brother does is work.”

Zakia went down the hall to the pay phone and called Eli collect, and he excitedly accepted the charges.

“What’s up, baby!” she screamed.

“Hey, baby girl! How they treatin’ you up at MSU?” Eli asked.

“We gotta talk. What’s up this weekend? I’m coming home.”

“Cool, baby. Can’t wait to see you. Oh, I took Eboni to this all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant down at the beach, and all we talked about was how you would love it, being the die-hard seafood lover you are. When are you getting in?”

“Friday night. Catching a ride with this junior after her last class around three o’clock.”

“Okay, we can ride down to the beach Saturday, and you can eat till your heart’s content, cool?”

“Man, that sounds wonderful, because this food is whack. I want Ma to have some serious grub ready when I get there too. Is Eboni going with us?”

“Naw. She works on Saturdays. Micah is probably free, though. I’ll check with him.”

“Oh, that would be so great, throwin’ down with my boys. What about my brother?”

“Never know with that workaholic,” Eli said.

“Right, right. Ma said he’s going to be a millionaire or bust.”

“It’s all her fault that brother works like that, but Mamalexis is my girl and she knows it too. Beat my butt so bad one day when we were kids, I started to pack my things and move in with y’all because I thought she must be my mother. That’s when I stopped calling her Miss Alexis and started calling her Mamalexis. My own mother never beat me that bad. My mama had the nerve to tell your mother to feel free to do it again if I needed it. You know I never needed it again, right?”

“You don’t even have to tell me about no Alexis whipping. Lawd, change the subject.”

“Okay. Let me tell you how to work the buffet. Get up Saturday morning and eat a big stack of pancakes,” Eli explained.

“That’s dumb if the restaurant is all-you-can-eat. Don’t I want to be hungry when I go?”

“Let me finish. You’re going to eat the pancakes early, and that’s going to stretch your stomach. Then you’re going to chill for a minute. Then you’re going to go in the bathroom for about an hour. Dump it all out, then you have a big fat empty stomach. Now you have room to sample most of the food. It’s so much you can’t get to it all.”

“Wow, your logic just amazes me,” Zakia said.

“Just do it. It works. Have I ever steered you wrong before?”

“Never, brah.”

“All right, then. Call me when you get home Friday. I’ll let you know about Micah.”

“Okay, later.”

It was Zakia’s first time home from college. Everybody came to Alexis’s Friday night to see her. Raquie was like her sister’s second skin. They were so glad to see each other. Raquie was up under her the whole night, just enjoying being around her again. Zakia loved it.

The delicious meal Alexis had prepared for Zakia and all her friends who came to see her on her first weekend home from college was gone Saturday morning. There wasn’t a trace of it in the refrigerator or Zakia’s stomach. Per Eli’s instructions, when she got up, she fixed herself a big, hearty stack of pancakes and ate every bite. She was stuffed, then she talked on the phone until sleep started coming down on her.

“I got to go, girl. Need to take a nap.”

“Okay, but call me before you leave, and finish telling me about all the gorgeous Manna men,” Eboni said from her desk at work.

“I will.”

“And don’t hurt nothing. Pace yourself, because as much as you like seafood, you could do some damage.”

“Is it that good? I can’t even think about it right now from all those pancakes your man told me to eat,” Zakia said.

“It’s that good, girl, so be careful down there. I’ll catch up with you guys later.”

After her nap, Zakia got up and gathered her textbook, notebook, and a novel in case she got bored doing homework. She also took the cordless phone, some magazines, and a can of Lysol. She headed to the bathroom because she planned to be there for a while, just as Eli had instructed. She was looking forward to the seafood.

“Raise the window to let in some fresh air, and light a scented candle while you’re at it,” Alexis yelled through the bathroom door.

“Ha ha, funny, Ma,” Zakia said, laughing at her mother, who could never resist messing with her every time she packed up and moved into the bathroom.

An hour passed before she came out. She felt great. She called Eli.

“What time are you coming?”

“In about an hour. I have to pick Micah up from the garage. He’s dropping his ride off to have it serviced,” Eli said.

“Okay. I’ll be ready. This food better be all that too.”

“Trust me, baby. You’re gonna love it.”

Eli and Micah came in to get Zakia because Alexis didn’t allow men to honk the horn for her daughter.

“Hello, Mamalexis,” Eli greeted.

“Hi, Mamalexis,” Micah said.

“Hi, boys.”

“Where’s Zach?” Micah inquired.

“At work. That boy is going to be a millionaire by the time he’s twenty-five years old,” Alexis said proudly, shaking her head.

Zakia came into the kitchen where they all were.

“Hey, y’all, I’m ready. Ma, have you ever heard of this place they’re taking me to? What’s it called, Eli?”

“The Sea Wharf, down by the beach,” Eli said.

“Oh yeah, I heard it was pretty good.”

“I hope so. See you later,” Zakia said as she kissed her mother on the cheek.

“Want us to bring you something back, Mamalexis?” Micah asked.

“No thank you, baby. Just feed this bottomless pit of mine. She acts like there’s no food at that college.”

“That mess they serve us to eat should be used as bait,” Zakia said.

“It can’t be that bad,” Alexis said.

“For real, Ma. I want a doctor’s excuse that says I can’t eat the food they serve, and maybe they will keep the room and give me the board money so I can buy my own food. It’s that bad. Me and the girls I eat with mix it all together, close our eyes, hold our noses, put the food in our mouths, and just swallow. We don’t allow our taste buds to even know what just passed through. It’s ridiculous. Come on, y’all, I’m getting sick just thinking about it,” Zakia said, walking out the door with Eli and Micah behind her.

“Have fun,” Alexis said.

“See ya later,” they all said.

During the hour-long ride to the Sea Wharf, they talked about MSU.

“You’re gonna still bust them As, right?” Eli asked.

“That or Mamalexis gonna bust her butt,” Micah said.

“MSU is not Booker T by a long shot, and Ma is just going to have to understand. If I don’t get all As, which I already know I’m not, you guys are going to have to help me make her understand. She didn’t go to college, so she doesn’t know what I’m going through,” Zakia said.

“No, she went to night school, worked, and raised twins, plus us most of the time, so you better not tell her nothing about what she doesn’t understand,” Micah warned.

“That’s right. Don’t get crazy, baby. I believe she’ll still jack you up. I can still feel her wrath from back in the day,” Eli said.

“Dag, you’re right. How the heck did she do all that?” Zakia wondered.

“Mamalexis is bad, so you have to be too. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine,” Eli said. “So has anybody been sniffing up on you?”

“Man, the men ain’t no joke. I can’t tell who’s serious or not. This basketball player named Malik stays up in my face. My roommate says it’s just because I’m a challenge. Like he can get anybody he wants, but because I could care less about him, he’s trying to act like he wants me.”

“Don’t get played again. Xavier messed around and got Dana pregnant, but I can’t blame the brother. That chick threw it on him. He couldn’t help it,” Micah reminded her.

Zakia gave Micah a look that sent chills through his body.

“That brother loves you, girl,” he said, attempting to ease the tension.

“Xavier Slade, Dana, and their baby can go jump in the lake. Bump them. That’s why he busted his knee and couldn’t get a scholarship. His grades sure couldn’t get him into college,” Zakia vented, still angry that her man “accidentally” got somebody else pregnant in high school because she wouldn’t give him what he wanted. At least that was according to the sick logic the guys used in an effort to calm her down when it happened. The logic angered her as much as the fact that Dana was pregnant by Xavier.

“Forget about them, babe. You’re in college now, and you’re not just another pretty face. You got skills. Just don’t forget what you know,” Eli said.

“I know. I’m not greedy. All those men talking in both of my ears at the same time confuses me. I need one man to keep the others away.”

“Make it a good one,” Micah instructed.

“How can I tell a good one from a bad one? They all look good. Dang, they look good,” she said as she closed her eyes and visualized a group of men standing by the door of the student union.

“Let him choose you,” Micah said as Zakia snapped back to attention.

“Yeah, check out his approach. You’ll be able to tell if he’s foul or not,” Eli added.

“You’ll know. We trained you well,” Micah encouraged.

“That’s right. I know a whack mack when I hear one,” Zakia said.

“But remember, even good brothers can still get weak at times, especially when the women are serving it up on a silver platter. Love ain’t got nothing to do with it,” Eli said.

“Whatever,” Zakia responded, rolling her eyes at him.

The food at the restaurant looked and smelled very appetizing. Zakia ate until she thought she would pop. She made four trips to the buffet. It was all Eli said it would be and more.

“Dang, girl!” Micah said as she attempted to get up for the last time.

“Shut up,” she said. “I told you that’s not food they serve us in college.”

“But you can’t store it all up for later,” he said.

“I can try.”

When she tried to get up, she couldn’t. “Oww, my stomach,” she said, leaning forward, face scrunched up, grabbing her stomach. “I can’t walk.”

“So does that mean you’re finally done?” Eli asked.

“I’m done.”

Eli paid the bill, and Micah left the tip. “Let’s go. Grab her arm,” Eli told Micah.

Micah grabbed her right arm, and Eli had her left. Her human crutches helped her walk out to the car, where they laid her in the backseat.

“That’s just plain pitiful. Don’t make sense for somebody to eat like that. And where does she put it, with her skinny self?” Eli asked.

“It goes straight to those big feet of hers,” Micah said as they made sure she was safely strapped in the backseat.

She was moaning. A half hour later, she was snoring.

“Listen to her snoring like a natural man,” Eli said.

“Hey, Zakia,” she heard Micah call from her semiconscious state, but couldn’t answer. She could hear everything but was too miserable to talk.

“She’s out cold, man,” Eli said.

“Good, ’cause she would cuss my butt out if she knew I had gotten Simone pregnant,” Micah said.

“Naw, man,” Eli said.

“Yeah, man.”

“What are you going to do about Pam?”

“I want Simone to have an abortion, but she ain’t hearing it.”

Zakia heard the whole conversation but didn’t let on that she was listening, continuing to snore even though she was awake. They let her in on most things, but Pam was her friend, so she knew they didn’t want her to know this bit of information.

“What did Simone say exactly, so we can figure out where her head is and convince her otherwise? Shoot, this is like Zakia and Xavier, déjà vu, except with you and Pam this time. I might not be up to it. I got my own issues with Eboni trying to get pregnant. Zach has the right idea. Women are for later. For now, it’s got to be work, work, work. Get established and make money,” Eli said.

“That’s why Sheba gave up on that brother a long time ago. He’s driven and has no time for women, and now I see why. A baby is like a monkey wrench, messing up a good plan,” Micah said.

“So do you think Simone can be convinced to cooperate?” Eli asked.

“She said she’s not killing her baby.”

Good for her
, Zakia thought.

The ride home seemed extra long for Zakia, since she didn’t say one word the entire time.

“Z, wake up, baby. You’re home,” Eli yelled as he pulled up in front of the house.

She got straight up, and without a word got out of the car, giving both of them the cold shoulder. She slammed the door without even saying thank you.

Chapter Three

A
s hard as she tried, at the end of the first semester of her freshman year, Zakia had one A, two Bs, and two Cs. She was devastated. Unlike Ruby, who was rejoicing that she had received only one F, Zakia was scared out of her wits to tell, much less show, her mother her grades. She was distracted. She had too much freedom. It was her crazy, partying roommate getting high all the time in their dorm room. She blamed the world, but the truth was she had just lost focus.

It was all the men who did not take no for an answer. If they wanted something, they didn’t let up until they conquered it. She was fighting for dear life her first semester. The men were bold and smooth. Malik was a six-foot-four, creamy, sauntering basketball player who was much sought after by the women, but he had made Zakia his target. She resisted all she could. One day she was in the cafeteria line, and quietly as a panther he glided up behind her and kissed her ever so gently on the back of her neck. She jumped straight out of her skin.