A Necessary Struggle: Fall Semester

Part 18

Harmony tuned out Aaliyah's mellifluous voice concentrating on Lela's clamorous knocking on the bathroom door, "How long has she been in the tub?" She pulled another Styrofoam container out of the paper bag and added it to the collection on the granite countertop.

It was the deal of a lifetime that Alyssa discovered and would remind everyone of that fact. A four-bed, two-bath townhouse with Brazilian wood floors, crown molding, and a garage; that was rent-controlled as long as they stayed in school and kept a 3.0 GPA. 

Safiya scooted back on the countertop, "About an hour." She counted the time on the digital clock above the TV in the living room. "Yeah, close to an hour." She balanced the orange plate on her lap.

"Is that kind of...long." Harmony crumbled the paper bag and then tossed it in the trash.

Safiya stopped twirling the Lo Mein noodles around her fork hearing Lela's voice ask Are you still alive, in the background. "Alyssa's soaking. Let her soak." She stuffed the wad of noodles in her mouth.

Lela shuffled back to the kitchen, "She's alive." She retied the strings to her green and purple floral shorts. "I think I heard her breath." She squinted at Safiya.

Safiya stopped chewing. "What?" she mumbled through her full mouth.

"Should you be eating that?" Lela looked at Safiya sideways then turned her eyes to Harmony.

"What?" Harmony shrugged scooping fried rice onto the yellow plate. "It's just a little Lo Mein." She stopped scooping, her hand slowly traveled up to her mouth. "Oops. I got seafood. Spit it out! Spit it out!"

Safiya dropped the half-chewed glob of noodles onto the plate as Harmony quickly removed the plate from her hands.

"So, you're keeping it," Lela reached for two eggrolls.

Safiya took the eggroll Lela handed her, "Yes." She answered slowly.

"Con...grat...u...lations?" Harmony quizzically spoke throwing Safiya's masticated dinner in the trash.

"Congratulations for what?" Alyssa entered the kitchen as lilac hung behind her like Pigpen's dirt cloud.

"Oh! You don't know." Lela gasped grabbing a plate out of the cabinet. "Fiya here is knocked up."

"What!" Alyssa harked dabbing the damp spot her wet ponytail left on her dark gray sweatshirt. "When did this happen?"

"What?" Safiya's eyebrows bunched up chewing on the last bit of her eggroll. "When I found out or when I told them." She pointed to Lela and Harmony standing by their little island.

"It doesn't matter." Alyssa swept her moist feet across the cold hard floor. "Who's the father?" She took the plate Lela and Harmony assembled line to her.

Safiya kicked her dangling feet wildly, "How do you know it's not Garner's?"

"Because...you've only been with him for a month." Alyssa dumped a heap of orange chicken onto her plate. "And you're too absent-minded to notice you missed your period in a month." She shoved a spoonful of rice in her mouth.

Harmony nodded sipping on a glass of iced lemonade.

"She's right," Lela said. "You're always using my tampons because your Aunt Flo surprised you."

Safiya rolled her eyes at Alyssa when she wasn't looking, holding her tongue because she didn't know how fragile her friend was.

Safiya stopped kicking her legs as they eagerly glued their eyes to her tightly sealed mouth. She pulled her lips apart slowly like a Band-Aid on a fresh gash. "I didn't know this at the time..."