A Necessary Struggle: Fall Semester

Part 12

      "Her parents caught the next flight out." Harmony grunted as she fell back in the chair. "They should be here before noon."

      Stillness blanketed the hospital waiting room. The flat screen docked in the corner displaying HGTV. It was the lullaby that lulled Trevor and Cairo to sleep. Cairo sat erect with his head against the eggshell wall while across from him Trevor turned three chairs into his bed for the night.

      Safiya nodded while yawning wildly not covering her mouth, "Don't Alyssa's parents live in Dallas." Safiya buried herself deeper in the hospital grade white blanket.

       "They went to San Francisco for their twenty-eighty anniversary, remember." Harmony answered staring blankly ahead. Her mind became a Rolodex, running down male names; trying to discover who would bore themselves into her best friend without permission. 

Could it have been Kendrick Howell, the frat boy always known for dragging a drunken girl up to his room or Isaac Rupert, who always wore his Free Fuck shirt on Fridays? 

Or maybe it was someone they didn't even know, a stranger off the street preying on the vulnerable. A visitor at the hospital. This hospital. 

Harmony shuttered inquisitively leering at the faces of ever passerby thinking one thing, Could it have been him? She shook her head wanting to think about something else.

      Harmony stretched out her dozing legs, "Let's have girl talk right now." Silence. Harmony turned to Safiya whose head was buried in her chest. Harmony slapped Safiya's shoulder.

   "What?" Safiya whined hiding her scrunched face under the blanket.

     "Girl talk." Harmony said. "You wanted to talk about something. What is it?" She twisted her legs in the chair trying to get comfortable which was an unwinnable battle. She still had the dress on she wore to the club. They didn't make it out the parking lot before receiving the call from Ivan (Alyssa supervisor), telling them something happened to Alyssa and they should come to the hospital ASAP. "Is it about Garner?"

     Hearing the name Garner woke Safiya up quicker than any shot of espresso ever could, "No." She rubbed the sleep out of her cinnamon eyes.

     Harmony's head tilted piqued with curiosity, "Then what is it about?"

     Safiya raked her hand through her bone-straight, raven hair. "Have you ever had a time in your life where there was a situation that completely knocked you on your ass and you knew you had to get back up but, you didn't know how?

    Harmony smiled to herself before answering, "My father isn't my father. I'm pretty much on my ass right now." Her smile faded. "I haven't got up yet, though."

     "I forgot." Safiya held her forehead. "Let's talk about that instead of this." She dropped the blanket off her shoulder showing her bare skin. "Are you going to see him? Laurent O'Connor." She clarified.

    "Sam thinks I should." Harmony's nose crumpled. "I'm not quite sure yet."

    "You don't know what?" Lela asked sitting on the table in front of them as she cradled a tray that held a platter of pancakes slathered in maple syrup.

      Safiya's mouth began to water and Harmony's eyes locked on the flapjacks like a missile.

      "I brought forks." Lela pointed to the silver utensils wrapped in the napkin.

    Safiya quickly unwrapped the cloth and sliced into the breakfast cake.

      "Thanks for the etiquette, Fiya." Harmony reached over Safiya's arm for a fork.