Suds

Suds | Season 1, Episode 10

[Last time on Suds, Leilah and Terrance became chums on the drive back to campus, while Shantel curled into a fizzling bath bomb. Meanwhile, Darien fastened on his hero hat and set off to save Shantel's day, but his feet failed him.]

Darien struggled to climb out of the car, tiring himself in the process. Finally, the heaviness won, and he closed his car door, confused.

He rested his head on the steering wheel and prayed.
"Tell me what to do, God."
The worrisome feeling waned as the empty air hummed around him.
Darien lifted his head from the steering wheel, turned his key in the ignition, and placed his feather-light foot on the brake. He shifted his car into drive and moved his foot over to the gas pedal.
He drove himself home and went to bed.

~~

After a warm shower, Shantel slid into a pair of boy shorts and a fitted white tee. She stood in front of a full length mirror, brushing her hair into a dangling ponytail. Her cocoa brown skin glowed even without make-up. She smoothed her eyebrows and smirked.

Darien will be here any minute, she thought. And, I'll be aloof. He'll stay with me since he thinks I'm distraught. She smiled into the mirror, pleased to see her eyes were not puffy from her emotional rant. It was always a gamble to cry that hard. She sat on her bed and slid on a pair of rose pink, knee-high socks.
"Sexy and innocent. He won't know what to do," she laughed.

Shantel practiced her surprised look in the full body mirror between her bed and Leilah's. Her absentee roommate was the next best thing to having a single room. Shantel tilted her head to the left. "Hey," she tested the greeting in a dry tone, "Nope, that's too drab."

She tried again, saying more with her eyes as they widened with fake shock, then shrunk back to normal. She followed the expression with a quick, low "hey". Then cast her eyes to the floor. Perfect, she thought, and she practiced the greeting until it became second nature.

~~

Leilah was excited to find a parking spot close to the dorm. She thought she would have to park in the furthest corner of the lot and lug her bags the football field distance back to building.
"I made it," she said into the speakerphone.

Terrance watched as Leilah's car wound into the last parking space. Seeing no other spots, Terrance pulled around to the tow zone directly in front of the dorm.
I'll only be here for a few minutes, he thought. As he pulled up, he recognized Darien's muscle car driving off. Terrance's eyes darkened. What reason other than Shantel could his snake ex roommate have for being parked in front of this building.

"Are you sleeping?" Leilah interrupted.
"Naw, naw, I'm here."
"You heard me, right." Her voice was labored through the phone, "You don't have to come up. I'm a big girl, and the problem is already parked. I'm hanging up."

Leilah had already locked her car and was walking toward the entrance, balancing a large duffle bag on her shoulder.
Terrance locked his truck, met her halfway, and took the bag off her shoulder.
"I know. You can handle it. I don't have to," he said.
"I can," she insisted.
"It's cool. I gotta check in on your roommate anyway."
Leilah's happy eyes twinkled in spite of the tiresome shadows that framed them. "If you insist," she teased, allowing him to carry her bag.
"Man, what you got in here," he complained, dropping the bag to the elevator floor.
Leilah shrugged. "My lady things." She waited for him to laugh or follow up with a snide remark. Instead, Terrance glowered at the rising numbers as they approached her floor.
"You good?"
He blinked out of the trance. "Yeah. I'm good."
His body stiffened.
The elevator doors opened and they walked down the long hallway to her room.

~~

"Ugh," Shantel groaned when she heard a key twisting in the door. "Doesn't she have a toilet to scrub or a load of laundry to wash?" she mumbled. Leilah's two jobs kept her so busy that Shantel rarely saw her, and now when Shantel was seconds away from having Darien back, the hopeless girl decided to show up. She rolled her eyes and slid under her floral down comforter. She pretended to be lost in the Sex and the City rerun that ushered the only light into the room.

The door swung open. Shantel didn't bother to look up. As custom, she didn't exchange pleasantries with Leilah. Why bother? Instead, she watched Carrie smoking a cigarette on the stoop after cutie pie Aiden caught her cheating. Shantel cracked a smile at the kinship she shared with Carrie—the sweet, doting boyfriend.

"What's up, Baby," the doting boyfriend said as he wielded Leilah's bag.

Shantel's eyes leapt from her man to the hussy and back to the tramp's bag on her man's shoulder. And was this girl really standing that close to her man?"

Shantel sat up with real shock blanketing her face. "Hey," she managed.

"Thanks again," Leilah said taking her dusty duffle bag from Terrance. She works at a Laundromat you'd think she would at least wash the bag, Shantel criticized.

"No problem. Next time you're heading out to the city, you can catch a ride with us. That way you won't have to worry about your car making it," her man said.

Shantel blinked back the cat that clawed inside her. Her mind swirled. How long were they together? Is that why he didn't answer my calls? Baffled, Shantel noticed her roommate's blushing smile before Leilah shifted her eyes quickly from his face to the floor.
That sneaky trick is trying to steal my man, she fumed.

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