Thy Neighbor II: Lovin' The Crew

Chapter Seven

It's quiet as a church mouse inside of Penn's library on this Friday night, just the way Ciara likes it. As much as she loves the distractive "study buddy" that is Trevante, she rather find herself hunched in the stacks of the library, books as the only thing keeping her company.

She finds herself inside of the small study room right next to the Philosophy and Religious Studies section of the library. Although Fridays bring quiet, tonight feels different. Midterms time different. Students forgo the Jagermeisters and Natty Lights for one night in the stacks, enough to erase their guilt for not being in the books enough every other day of the year. Ciara caught that guilt too, thanks to Y'lan. That's why she's here.

Ciara had Y'lan on her mind when she walked into her apartment that night after their meeting. She forgot how much he would make her melt caught up in his sweltering energy. Knowing that he belongs to no one, the idea of him coming back into her life pressed her core.

She felt herself ache in the same places he ignited every time he touched her, reminiscing about those times she couldn't wait for him to leave her apartment so she could "get it over with." But now she didn't need a toy, she had Trevante.

Come over. I need you so bad.

They didn't make it to her room.

She found herself alone that next morning. Trevante didn't stay the night and for the first time since she broke her rules to have sex with Trevante, she felt like one of his rostermates. Trevante disappeared too early to caress her back as her body laid on top of his, drifting in and out of sleep. There wasn't any small talk before he got into the shower, no whispers begging her to call out of work. Instead she woke up to her naked body, covered by one of her cheap throws, barely hanging onto her couch, wondering why Trevante left her there in the cold without his body to keep her warm.

She thought she was excluded from that type of treatment. But then her mind twisted it into some penance for calling Trevante over to satiate what Y'lan created within her.

So as Ciara chomps at her thesis paper, she pines away to hit the halfway point before midnight. She needed to escape into calm before the storm: No Trevante, no Y'lan, no sex, no noise. Especially with her girls' weekend with Mahalia and Ashley just one week away.

It's been so long since she's parked in her saved seat at Ngosi with Ashley behind the bar and Mahalia by her side. Mahalia and Ashley miss their girl too.

As Ashley preps for the late night rush, she looks over to Mahalia staring at a Twitter timeline barely moving on a Friday night. She can tell Mahalia misses her best friend.

"Is Ciara coming later, Ma...?"

""No. She's probably under Trevante right now."

"Girl, no she ain't..."

"Oh she ain't tell you..."

Ashley slams the cash register drawer closed and whips around to look at Mahalia. She thought Ciara heeded all the warnings.

"Trevante hit, Ash..."

"Okay, we need this trip to get here like now...Ciara, damn..."

"Girl, I know. I need this shit to stop."

Mahalia's hate for Trevante grows after every minute Ciara doesn't respond to her text. Although she knows Ciara is being a good girl tonight by hiding in the library, she wants reassurance that Ciara is on her right grind. She then desires a green light to prove to Ciara that Trevante isn't worth the contradiction she bathes herself in every night.

As Ashley bathes her glasses in rinse water, she notices Trevante walk into Ngosi with several men in tow, decked in greek paraphernalia. "Oh shit. Lambda Lambda Phi until we die just walked up in here." They're turning all the heads as they locate a long table.

"Ashley, hide the Alize. You know they the cheap ones. Make sense Trevante is one of them."

But what Mahalia sees next makes her grab her phone to text Ciara. The green light to get her best friend back just walked in the door alongside Trevante.