by Nikki Carter
“What about Sharday? Did you see her running out?”
Sam shrugs. “I don’t know Sharday.”
“She had on all white with turquoise shoes.”
“Baby, I don’t know what any other girls had on tonight except you.”
I laugh out loud. “This is totally not the time for flirting. I’m not in a very flirtatious mood. My girl just got pranked by a bunch of mean girls.”
“She’s okay. She’s got you guys. You’ve got to let her know that it’s okay, and that she is a victim and not at fault.”
“Yes, of course we’ll do that. We’re her friends.”
“Good.”
“Why do you care so much about what happens to Piper?”
“I mean, she’s your friend and I thought you might be affected by it. I’m sorry if I sounded like an idiot.”
“You don’t sound like an idiot. In fact, you’re saying all the right things. Do you have a script or something written on your hand?”
“Really! No, I have nothing printed on my hand, I promise.”
“Well, when did you get so sensitive?”
Sam smiles. “There are a lot of things about me you don’t know, Sunday. You should take some time to get to know me.”
“Right, like I didn’t know you were a YouTube singer,” I say with a smile on my face.
“I was wondering when you were gonna bring that up. I didn’t even know if you saw it or not, because you didn’t say anything.”
“I-I didn’t know what to say. I still don’t know what to say.”
“Well, how did it make you feel?” Sam asks, his tone low, husky and serious.
“It made me feel loved.”
“Well, then I was successful, because that’s what I wanted you to feel.”
I can’t stop smiling. “Okay.”
Sam reaches over and squeezes my hand. “When we get back together, we can take it slow, and really learn one another. I want to know everything about you,” he says.
“What if you find out something you don’t like?”
“Everything I’ve learned so far . . . I’ve loved, so if there’s something I don’t like, there’s probably something wrong with me.”
I don’t say anything else, because I want to think on everything that’s happened tonight. Slowly but surely Sam is breaking down my defenses. And the feelings I thought I had for DeShawn are fading into the background. Everything is perfect except for the thought that DeShawn might get hurt.
That’s the thing about love. In order to open your heart to it, you have to take the guards down and leave it defenseless.
17
After I change clothes, Sam and I get ready to leave again. I’m still dressy, but this time I’m wearing a tiny champagne-colored short-sleeved dress and pink shoes. From the look on Sam’s face, he approves my second look too.
He opens the car door on my side and I climb in. I admire the wood grain and shiny leather seats in Sam’s car. He definitely takes care of his ride. It’s so immaculate in here that I don’t even want to eat a stick of gum.
“Where are we going to eat?” I ask.
“Have you ever heard about this restaurant called Bacchanalia?”
“Bacca-who?”
Sam laughs. “It’s really nice. Gourmet. The kind of place young millionaires should be having dinner.”
“Is it expensive? We can go to Pappadeaux. I’d be cool with that.”
“Yes, it is expensive, and no, we are not going to Pappadeaux. Let me do something special for you.”
“Okay, Sam. I didn’t know it was a special occasion!”
He looks at me and smiles. “Anytime I get to spend the evening with you, it’s a special occasion.”
“Oh, you are laying it on thick, aren’t you? Carry on. I think I like it.”
“Well, what do you expect?” Sam asks. “You’ve got me competing with your little roommate.”
“It’s not a competition. I definitely don’t want y’all to compete. That’s you two being cavemen.”
Sam laughs. “Well, I feel like I’ve got to go overboard, because this dude gets to see you all the time. He’s probably sneaking kisses, hugs, and squeezes all day every day and I only get to see you once every couple of weeks.”
“It is not going down like that in my house!” I say. “We respect each other’s boundaries.”
“That’s okay. I’ll be back very soon.
“Where’s your condo?”
“Close to you. It’s in Buckhead too. A bunch of ballers and ballerettes live there.”
“Will it be okay for you to do your music there, though? You’re kind of loud, so I thought you’d go for a house.”
“There is a soundproofed theatre room that I was gonna retrofit as a studio. I’ve got some top-of-the-line stuff already picked out. It won’t be as nice as yours though. If I need to lay down some vocals, I’ll use your spot or Big D’s.”
I don’t know how I feel about Sam living around the corner from me. What if we don’t get back together? How hard is that going to be?
“So, you’ll move there even if we don’t get back together?”
Sam chuckles, “I’m not worried about that dude DeShawn. We are connected. Our souls communicate with one another.”
“Our souls?”
“Our spirits, or something! The place at the core of our being where the music comes from. That’s where we bond. DeShawn just capitalized off of my stupidity.”
I have to admit that I do feel a connection to Sam that I don’t feel with anyone else, but I think it’s because of the music. I don’t know if that means we are supposed to be in a relationship. We should always be songwriting partners, but I’m not convinced it goes for everything else.
We pull up to the restaurant’s valet station, and the valet rushes up to open my door. I’m feeling especially spoiled tonight with all of this door opening.
Sam already has reservations, so we’re immediately taken into a private dining area. I can tell this place is upscale, because they’re mostly older white people here.
When we’re seated, the waiter places the napkin in my lap. How classy!
“Sir, would you like me to bring the courses as you’ve arranged?”
Sam nods. “Yes, please.”
The waiter nods and walks away. Sam grins at me, but I’m sure I look confused as what!
“The courses you’ve arranged? What in the world?” I ask. “Is it too late for Spondivits?”
Sam cracks up laughing. “Enjoy this, Sunday!”
“Okay.”
I sit back and watch the waiters bring us plate after plate of yummy and fresh tasting foods. There’s some sort of pork, and crab fritters for the first two courses. Then, there’s a New York strip steak for the third course. It is perfectly cooked, by the way. Along with the steak there’s whipped potatoes, and squash. For dessert, which I barely have room for, they bring out a slice of chocolate cake and mint ice cream.
“Sam, this place is incredible. How did you find it?”
“Big D told me about it. He and Shelly try out a new five-star restaurant every week.”
“He sure doesn’t need to experiment like this every week! That’s why he’s so big!”
“He knows how to live, Sunday. He enjoys his money. He saves too, but he makes sure to live in the moment. That’s what we need to do.”
“So what should I be feeling about this moment?”
“Hopefully, you feel full, because I’m stuffed.”
“I am full! Are we going somewhere after this?”
Sam nods. “You up for a horse and buggy ride through downtown Atlanta?”
“I’ve always wanted to do one of those!”
“Well, let’s do it, then!”
After Sam pays the bill (which I’m sure was hundreds of dollars) he drives me to a spot in downtown Atlanta, where the horse and buggy are already waiting for us. The horse is beautiful and white, so bright that it looks dipped in bleach. The buggy is go
ld and white with red velvet seats. It looks like a Disney World attraction.
Sam helps me up the stairs, and then he climbs in and snuggles up next to me. I didn’t know that I liked this romantic stuff, but this date is making me feel off-the-charts special. The fact that he planned it all is even more incredible.
“This is really nice, Sam. I can’t believe you went to all this trouble.”
“Sunday, don’t you know how much I care about you? I’ll spend every dime I have to win you back. No matter what it takes, I want to prove that I love you.”
I lift my eyebrows and take in a sharp breath. Did he just say that he loves me? I think my heart just stopped for a few seconds.
“But I don’t want you to spend all your money. I just want to know that you won’t hurt me again.”
Sam pulls me close and kisses me. “You have my heart, Sunday. I’m praying that you don’t hurt me.”
I don’t know how to reply to that so I lay my head on Sam’s chest as his arm encircles me.
A feeling of warmth goes through my body. From the tips of my fingers to the tips of my toes. It’s like my heart has become the sun and my arms and legs are the sun rays.
I snuggle in closer to Sam, trying to share the warmth with him. Since he says I have his heart, maybe I’ll share some of mine with him. Self-preservation mode had me holding back, but my intellect has a flaw. My thinking doesn’t line up with my feelings.
Forget about self-preservation mode. I remember what DeShawn whispered to my heart, but I don’t want to save myself anymore. I want to be wooed. I want to be saved. And Sam is looking pretty heroic right now.
Does this mean I’m Team Sam? If it does, and if Sam is the one my heart chooses, what is going to happen to DeShawn? I know how it feels to have a broken heart. I can’t be the one to do that to him, but how can I get out of this without becoming the villain?
Why does someone have to lose? Can’t everybody win?
18
I’m awakened by howling very close to my bedroom. When I recognize it as Piper’s voice, the previous night’s events rush back to my memory. First Piper’s humiliation, and then Sam’s declarations of love. I haven’t had time to process either, because after my date with Sam, I came home and went straight to bed. Sam stayed in the guest bedroom of the studio.
I throw my legs over the bed, rush into my bathroom, brush my teeth, and splash water on my face. Then, I try to brace myself for my friend’s meltdown.
When I open my bedroom, Gia is already attending to Piper, who is on the floor in a fetal position. Her entire body trembles with each howl, and Gia strokes her head in a soothing motion.
I join them on the floor, while Hope makes hot ginger tea in the kitchen. We are in full nursemaid mode, and our patient is breaking on the inside and the outside. The boys stay away, and rightfully so. This is not a scene for them. This is sister business right here.
“You’re gonna make yourself sick, Piper,” I say. “You should try to breathe a little.”
“Breathe? I don’t want to live! Why should I breathe?”
Gia wraps her arms around Piper and squeezes. “You definitely get to live. The Gamma Girls have to pay for what they’ve done to you.”
At the mention of the Gamma Girls, Piper wails. “How could they do that to me? How could they?”
These are questions that I need answers to as well. I make sure Gia doesn’t need me to help her with Piper and then I take my cell phone outside and call Meagan. At first, I don’t think she’s going to answer, because the phone rings several times. Then, just as I’m about to hang up and dial again, she answers.
“Hello?”
“Meagan, how could y’all do this to Piper?”
“Y’all? I had nothing at all to do with what happened to her. I feel sorry for her.”
Something in her tone isn’t sincere. There isn’t the appropriate amount of emotion behind her words.
“What was put in her drink?”
“I don’t know. I think I heard someone say something about crushed-up Dulcolax.”
“You think you heard someone say that? Or you heard the culprit?”
“If you think I’m snitching, think again. I’m not saying who said what. Gammas don’t snitch on our sorors.”
They put crushed-up Dulcolax in Piper’s drink? I remember having to take that once when I was constipated. I hadn’t gone to the bathroom in days, but those two little pills turned my bowels to water and had me running to the toilet for hours.
They gave that to Piper, who wasn’t constipated at all, and who was filling up on alcohol to make it even worse.
“Did they want her to have an accident like that? Why would they do that to her?”
“Without saying who did what, I will tell you that they just thought her stomach would bubble and that she would have to run to the bathroom. No one thought she’d be that drunk that she’d just do it right there on the dance floor.”
She shouldn’t have been that drunk. We hadn’t been there for very long, not even two hours. She was way too incapacitated for the few drinks she’d had.
“What else did they give her besides the laxative?”
“If they gave her anything else, I don’t know what it was.”
“We’re pressing charges against Gamma Phi Gamma, you know that, right?”
Meagan is silent for a long moment. “Don’t expect my help with that.”
I can’t take hearing her voice for another second so I disconnect without saying good-bye. It seems Meagan does know a little something about solidarity. She’s just protecting the wrong group.
Just as I’m about to go back inside, a little, turquoise Honda Civic pulls up in my driveway. Sharday jumps out of the car, now wearing white and turquoise sweats and some turquoise Nikes.
“Sunday!” she yells as she runs toward the door.
“You are like the last person anyone is trying to see around here. You know that, right?”
Sharday shakes her head sadly. “I want to apologize to Piper. I think I know who’s responsible and I’m going to our advisor today. We do not haze.”
This makes me burst into laughter. “First of all, this is beyond hazing. She could’ve been hurt. And y’all definitely do haze. Having people standing in the corner and all that. Why do girls have to be humiliated to become a Gamma Girl?”
“They don’t. And I’m against all of it. Peony is the chapter president, but not for long. I’m telling on her.”
“Really? So it was Peony. I knew it was her. She’s had something against Piper from jump.”
“She doesn’t want to see a white girl cross.”
“Well, she didn’t have to destroy her. She could’ve just blocked her from joining.”
“Do you think Piper would see me?” Sharday asks.
“Nah. She’s not in a good place right now. Wait about a week or so.”
Sharday scratches her head as if this was not the reception she had planned. There’s no way she’s setting foot in my home with Piper in the state that she’s in. First of all, while I don’t think Sharday has anything to do with it, I can’t be sure. Second of all, she’s not talking about going to the police on Peony. She’s talking about going to their advisor as if that is going to do anything.
“So, do you think Gia is still going to coach us for the Spring Step Show? It’s in two weeks, and we’re still not ready.”
My eyes narrow in anger. “Is this the reason why you’re here? You’re trying to save that little stupid step show routine? I need you to leave right now, Sharday.”
“I promise, that’s not the only reason I’m here. It actually didn’t occur to me until you said a week or so. It made me remember.”
“Mmm-hmm. Well, we’ve had enough turquoise and white around here, so you can ride out with the rest of your sorors. I guarantee Gia wouldn’t help y’all with your step, even if y’all were doing it for President Obama.”
Sharday looks troubled, but she knows that I’m tellin
g the truth. Gia is hardcore when it comes to values and friends. And so am I.
Sharday turns sadly and trudges back to her car. I don’t have a problem with her looking distraught. Not when my friend is in a ball on the floor crying her eyes out. As a matter of fact, Sharday doesn’t look distraught enough.
When I go back inside, the boys have appeared. Someone went out to the studio and got Sam, and he’s cooking. Ricky and Kevin are chilling at the bar stool looking pretty uncomfortable. DeShawn is posted up against the wall with a deep frown on his face. I guess I didn’t consider the whole morning thing when I let Sam spend the night in the studio.
Piper is no longer on the floor. She’s sitting in one of the kitchen table chairs, but the tears have not slowed down at all.
“Who was outside?” Gia asks.
“Nobody,” I reply.
DeShawn says, “Sunday, can I borrow your car? I need to go and pick up a few things at the mall.”
“What are we gonna use if we have to go somewhere?” Hope asks.
I look in her direction and give her a little head shake. I know DeShawn just wants to get out of here and away from Sam. I don’t blame him. I don’t want to be in this situation either. Not with DeShawn’s ultimatum hovering, and not with the memory of my date with Sam last night. I’m feeling swept away by all of Sam’s attention, and poor DeShawn is just in limbo.
“Sure, DeShawn. The keys are on my dresser.”
Sam’s eyes follow DeShawn from the kitchen to my bedroom. Although he’s playing it cool, I know that he’s only chilling because he has no choice. He can’t do anything to DeShawn and have me still be happy with him.
DeShawn retrieves my keys and comes out of the bedroom. On his way out, he gives Piper a hug and kisses her forehead. His tenderness makes my heart skip a beat.
“It’s not that bad, Piper,” he says. “Nobody on campus is talking about you. They’re talking about them. They’re the villains. Everyone is on your side, at least over at Georgia State.”
“All of Georgia State knows too? So, that’s two college campuses I can’t show my face on again,” Piper says between sobs.
I hate to tell Piper this, but I just got a text from Dreya telling me that there’s a story about Piper on Straight FromTheA.com. It’s a smaller blog than BlackCelebrity Gossip.com and they mainly talk about stuff that happens here in Atlanta. This wouldn’t even be news if Piper wasn’t my friend, and if it hadn’t happened in VIP. But it did, so now it’s not just the college campuses, but all of Atlanta that knows about Piper’s embarrassment. Luckily, this kind of thing dies down soon. It’s just another wretched thing that happened in the club.