Consequences

26

Zaria turned the television on the campus news station to work on a report for class. She noticed the ad SGRho put in about their spring step show. The news of the women's basketball team winning the title covered the station. Pictures of Taraji holding the championship trophy made Zaria smile.
"Hey, baby. I'm back,"
Nic said, walking in with a bag of food.
"Good. 'Cause I'm hungry."
"We interrupt this news report to bring this special report. Breaking news. A girl has been stabbed fourteen times by her lover in Reed Hall."
The announcement caught Nic and Zaria's attention.
"We are unsure of the actual details, but sources say that it was a lovers' dispute gone bad. According to witnesses, the accused caught her female lover with another woman."
"Mckenna."
Zaria grabbed her phone. She always wondered if Mckenna was going to end up hurt. She breathed a sigh of relief when Mckenna answered the phone.
"We just have news that the victim was twenty-three-year-old Jasmine Haroldson, a senior."
Zaria's body froze. She couldn't hear anything but Jasmine's name over and over. Nic tried to shake her out of it, but was unsuccessful, Zaria jumped up.
"I have to go."
"Zaria, no!"
"Nic, I have to go see if she is OK."
"That ain't your job."
Zaria looked at Nic's stern expression.
"Nic, I want you to trust me on this, please."
"Zaria, if you go, I won't be here when you get back."
"Nic, you don't understand."
"Zaria, don't put me in this situation. You don't owe her anything. Why the fuck you trying to go see her?"
"Nic, please trust me on this. I need to go."
"You don't need to do anything. You want to go. Fuck it. Do what you want. I'm out."
Nic grabbed her coat and stormed out the room.
A big piece of her wanted to go after Nic, but Zaria knew what she had to do. She grabbed her keys and headed to the hospital.

"So, Monica, you know why you are here, correct?"
"Because you all don't have any faith in me."
Monica folded her arms. Her mother had called her to come home for a party. When she got there, her doctor and two large men were sitting in the living room.
"Monica, you know you are supposed to come to your meetings every other week. Now we worked with you by doing them every other week instead of every week. We haven't seen you in a month, and you never picked up your prescription."
"Those pills make it hard for me at school!"
Monica said to her doctor.
"Monica, we have been through this. The pills make it Ok for you to be at school and living on campus in the first place."
"Doc, I am fine. I am doing fine."
"Monica, if you are not going to cooperate, we are going to have to take you out of school and put you back in the academy."
"No!"
Monica stood up. She looked at the two large men. She knew she needed to sit back down.
"She's seeing a girl,"
her mother said.
"Mother!"
"Some basketball player."
Her mother dropped a bunch of pictures and articles on the coffee table. Monica was mortified.
"You went through my dorm room? How could you!"
Monica began to tremble.
"You weren't answering calls. I knew something was wrong. There was a whole drawer full."
"She's my girlfriend. Doesn't everyone keep pictures and accomplishments of their partners?"
"Monica, you know that we discussed you not dating anyone," the doctor said firmly.
"I think that I am going to have to suggest putting her back into the academy."
"Noooo!"
Monica jumped up. One of the men grabbed her.
"I love school. School is the only thing I do love. Don't take it from me."
Monica's mother's eyes filled with tears.
"What about if she moves back in with me? Could she stay in school?"
"I don't know. Monica hasn't been following the guidelines. She could put herself and others in danger again."
"I'm not, I'm not. Let me go to school. I'll come to meetings and take my pills, I promise,"
Monica cried. The doctor and her mother looked at her.
"This is the last time, Monica. You mess up again and you are back in the academy."
Monica calmed down. She agreed. She did not want to go back to the institution. It would keep her from Taraji for good.

Larissa jumped out of her bed when she heard the beating on her door. She opened it, and Nic stormed in. Nic fell down on the bed and put her hands on her head.
"Nic, what's wrong?"
Larissa ran over to Nic, not realizing she didn't completely close her door. She had never seen Nic cry.
"Zaria went to see that bitch! After I asked her not to, she still went. She just doesn't give a fuck!"
Nic said as tears fell down her face. Larissa fell to her knees in front of Nic. She wrapped her arms around her.
"Sweetie, please don't cry. Nic, you deserve so much better."
"Damn, why she just don't get it? Why she just don't understand? I been driving around for hours. I got back to the room and she still wasn't there. She just don't give a fuck about me."
Larissa continued to hold the sobbing Nic.
"It's amazing to me how stupid women can be. A bitch can have the fucking moon, and they still want the stars and sun. Nic, you are the most wonderful person I have ever met. You deserve someone who is going to love you for who you are and not be trying to creep with some nothing-ass person."
Larissa looked up at Nic. Nic looked into Larissa's eyes. Before she knew it Larissa pressed her lips against hers.