Saved Folk in the House (4 page)

“Are you crazy?” she snapped, jerking around so that he could clearly see her anger.

Initially, she could resist him while she was in tomboy mode, but Malik saw the princess in Zakia and knew just how to bring her out. Always, after a few minutes, his overwhelming charm drained her of all her power to resist him. Why couldn’t she remember anything her boys had taught her when she needed to? She tried to rely on common sense.

“Malik, you have a girlfriend. I would hate to have to beat somebody’s butt because they thought I was after their man,” Zakia said with all the sternness she could muster.

He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close to him in the cafeteria line. The sorority women were checking them out as Zakia pushed him off her and almost punched him, knowing that he was making women she didn’t even know hate her.

“Look, I would really appreciate it if you kept your hands off me,” she said, meaning every word.

“Okay, baby, okay. Big Daddy is so sorry for making you feel uncomfortable. Look, I’m having a party at the town house Saturday. You and Ruby should come on over,” he suggested.

Malik was a junior who lived in a two-bedroom town house with his roommate, Melvin. She could not understand why he wanted her when all these women were willing to do any- and everything for him, while she was willing to do nothing.

“Okay, okay, okay. Now back off,” she said.

He laughed. “You better come or I’m gonna come get you.”

“I said okay,” she replied as she picked up her tray and went to join Ruby and some other girls from the dorm. She could feel the heat from the hard stares the sorority women gave her as she walked past their table.

The town house was three blocks from campus. Zakia, Ruby, and the girls they ate with walked over to the party that Saturday night. There was music, card playing, backgammon, food, beer, hard alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and folks yelling, “Party ovah heah!”

College students are cool but not too focused,
Zakia thought.

“Loosen up and have some fun,” Ruby said, “or I’m gonna sic Malik on you. Here, drink a beer.”

“Girl, beer looks like pee, and it’s nasty,” Zakia said.

“Just do it like you do the cafeteria food. This Olde English is the bomb. Drink the rest of this one to loosen up,” Ruby instructed, handing her the can.

“You’re not going to leave me alone until I do, are you?” Zakia asked.

“Gonna bug you all night. Come on, roomie, I got your back,” Ruby replied.

Zakia took the can and quickly emptied its contents in an effort to avoid the taste. It went straight to her head, and because she was completely drug- and alcohol-free, she was instantly high. She began to loosen up. She was dancing, grooving, and becoming lighter and freer. Malik was all over her, and she reciprocated. She was getting higher off the smoke that filled the room, which drove all her inhibitions away. Zakia was no longer herself. She could do whatever she wanted. She let out a loud yell as if to let everything locked up inside of her out.

The party people yelled back. She yelled again and experienced a release that made her feel freer than she had ever been. They yelled back again. When she went off yelling and dancing out of control, Ruby and Malik knew something was wrong. Malik grabbed Zakia and led her upstairs to lay on his bed. Ruby ran up the stairs behind them.

“What are you doing?” Ruby asked Malik.

“Just letting her lay down, that’s all,” he said, lifting her legs onto the bed.

“Yeah, right.”

“I wouldn’t take advantage of her like that, Ruby. Give me a break. I wouldn’t want it like that.”

Zakia sang loudly as she lay on the bed with her eyes closed, oblivious to where she was, not hearing the conversation for the loud music.

“Yeah, right. She’s to’e up,” Ruby said.

Zakia continued to sing at the top of her lungs.

Ruby, worried about her roommate, looked at Malik.

“She’ll be all right,” he said, sensing her concern.

Zakia was still singing, louder and louder.

“Listen to her,” Ruby said.

“Just let her stay here and sleep it off. I’ll walk her back to the dorm in the morning,” Malik insisted.

“Please! She’s so messed up she wouldn’t even remember if you took advantage of her.”

“I’m telling you, I wouldn’t take advantage of her like that.”

Now Zakia was moaning and groaning. They looked at her, then at each other. Malik tried to look as innocent as possible. Ruby looked deep into his eyes for what seemed like an eternity.

“Aaww heck naw! Come on, walk us back to the dorm
now!
”

The next day, Zakia vowed to never do drugs or alcohol again. Malik came to her room that afternoon to make sure she was all right.

“How’re you doing today, baby?” he asked, genuinely concerned as he sat in the chair at her desk. Ruby was still asleep.

“Fine. Never again, though. That was not me at all.”

“I know, but did you have a good time? Tell the truth,” Malik said.

“It was okay. I wouldn’t do that every weekend. Or like Ruby, every day, if she could.”

“Yeah, she’s crazy, but she’s got your back. That’s good. But she’s so wild. You need a man to have your back, baby. Come on. Let me be your man. Let me take care of you. I understand what you’re all about, and that’s why I love you. We can help each other.”

Breaking down, Zakia asked, “What about Vashti?”

“History, baby. Closed chapter, the past, gone, over.”

Zakia contemplated what being with Malik would mean. It would definitely eliminate one major distraction by keeping other men at bay. She decided to go for it.

“Okay, Malik.”

Chapter Four

Z
akia witnessed college females, like the women in her neighborhood back in Richmond, being traumatized by men who did not realize that it was not morally acceptable behavior to have harems in the United States. Zakia made it clear to Malik that she would not be disrespected in such a way. The thought had never entered Malik’s mind that Zakia would be his only woman, just his main one. All of the others would understand that and respect her as such, never letting her find out about them if they wanted a piece of him. However, Zakia was so focused on her classes, scholarship, and subsequent employment that Malik often felt neglected. He missed the attention and perks he got from other women. Some of them would do anything to get with him, but after he got Zakia, he decided he would keep her.

It was mutually over with Vashti. She had become sick of the reports from her sorors. The only thing that had changed about Malik was his official girlfriend. Zakia had no peace in her spirit about Malik. She dismissed the uneasiness she felt from other women. She knew that the root of the stares was that they wanted her man.

“Look, Malik, I know I don’t have a lot of time to give you all the attention you need, and I’m cool with just being your friend,” Zakia told him as he walked her to class one day.

He thought about it for a split second, but not wanting to take a chance on a less needy brother taking his place, he reassured her. “What are you talking about? You are my woman and my friend and you always will be.”

They grew to depend on each other and to really love each other as friends. They were both good, beautiful people who happened to find themselves in an environment that didn’t always bring the positive characteristics out of a person socially; however, they could see the goodness and inner beauty that the other possessed. They decided to stay together.

Zakia and Malik broke up and got back together many times during Zakia’s freshman year. The main reason for many of the breakups was that Zakia would learn that Malik was messing around with another woman, especially during basketball season when groupies were a dime a dozen.

One afternoon before a home game, Malik went to Zakia’s room to get a good-luck kiss.

“Let me hear you cheering for me tonight. I’m going to hit three threes in a row just for you, baby,” he promised.

“Oh, didn’t I tell you? I’m going home after my last class today. My mother’s birthday is tomorrow.”

“What? But I have a game tonight.”

“And you have your own cheering section. I’m sure somebody will be screaming your name.”

“Why can’t you go after the game or in the morning?”

“Gotta catch a ride when I can,” Zakia said.

Malik pouted all the way to the gym.

The post-game celebrations were the most opportune times for women to hug and kiss Malik in public. This irritated Zakia a great deal, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. She was no fool and preferred not to give these women the satisfaction of being able to love on her man in front of her. She wanted to stay and support him, but he loved the attention so much that he actually told her to get used to it because NBA groupies were way worse than college ones. He said that this was practice for her. She thought he was a fool to think she would just stand by and get used to him hugging and kissing on women in her presence, especially when she could tell more was going on than just congratulations. She asked him if he was serious.

“They are fans, baby. We just won the game. They’re happy. It’s no big deal.”

“Call me after basketball season is over, Malik.”

Malik wasn’t too disappointed because he would now be free to oblige his fans. So he took her advice, confident that he could charm her back after the season.

Basketball off-season wasn’t off-season for his other women, but there was no reason to be openly flirtatious, so Malik was more subtle. Still, the flirting was obvious.

One April afternoon during off-season, Zakia, Malik, and Melvin, Malik’s roommate, were having lunch together in the cafeteria. Malik was still in the line when Zakia and Melvin found a table and sat down. Zakia saw Malik wink at a female as she blushed and giggled and began whispering to her friends standing in line. Before he could even make it to their table, she saw a different female slip a piece of paper in his back pocket.

“Melvin, what’s up?” Zakia asked.

“What’s up with what?”

“You’re a good-looking guy, you play ball, you have no steady woman. How can you keep these hussies off you and Malik can’t?”

“You can keep whoever you want to keep off you. If they are up on you, it’s because you want them to be,” Melvin said.

“That’s true,” Zakia agreed.

Malik finally made it to the table and sat down with his back to his admirers.

“Let me see the paper that hussy gave you,” Zakia said.

“What paper?” Malik asked, feigning innocence.

Melvin smirked as he bit into his sandwich.

Zakia and Ruby decided to move off campus their sophomore year. They followed most of the upperclassmen to the town houses where Malik and Melvin lived. One weekend Zach, Eli, Micah, Raquie, and Eboni came for a visit.

“Nice crib, twin. You’re moving up in the world. Where’s Malik?” Zach asked. Malik had met Zakia’s family and friends over the summer, and everyone approved of him, including Alexis.

“Later for that dog.”

“Oh Lawd, here we go again,” Eli said. “What did he do now?”

“It doesn’t even matter, but I see why y’all like him. Y’all all alike.”

“Not my baby,” Eboni said, sitting on Eli’s lap, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him.

“You better hold on to him, ’cause these hussies will try to take him right out of your arms,” Zakia told Eboni.

“Let’s go check them out, Micah,” Zach said. “Call Malik, twin. We’re not in your drama.”

Zakia broke down and called Malik after much persistence from Zach. He came right over. After he rallied all of their support, they went to Zakia on his behalf and pressured her into giving him one more chance. She buckled under the pressure, believing that he really loved her in spite of his weakness for women, and she eventually took him back.

Zakia’s junior year was better. Malik had matured and was concentrating on his future. Unfortunately, due to the fierce competition he was cut during the NBA tryouts. He had to find a job. He didn’t have to look very hard or far before he was offered a basketball coaching position at MSU. In spite of his new position, Malik was depressed because he’d been so sure he would make the NBA. Zakia was not sensitive enough to cater to his emotional needs when Malik ended up back on Manna’s campus after he was cut. She was preparing for her own graduation the following year, focusing on landing a good job. Zakia’s insensitivity to Malik’s depression caused him to seek solace elsewhere.

Being back on campus brought out Malik’s old tendencies, along with his depression. Even though he was now a physical education teacher and a coach, Malik didn’t feel that students were off-limits. One particularly persistent groupie named Candice had been a thorn in Zakia’s flesh. She was slick and subtle as a snake and just a little bit too friendly toward Zakia.

“Feels like something crawled up in me and died when Candice is around,” Zakia told Ruby one day.

“Watch that heifer,” Ruby warned.

One day just two months before her graduation, Zakia stopped in to say hello to Malik, who was still sharing the town house with Melvin, who had gotten a job with a local record company as a producer. Her stomach turned when she found a gold necklace on Malik’s dresser that was adorned with the name
Candice
. She picked up the necklace and went into the bathroom.

“Malik, come here, please,” she called out as she put on the necklace.

He came into the bathroom where she was standing by the toilet.

“What’s different about me?” she asked with her hands on her hips, posing as he checked her out from head to toe.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“Do you like my necklace?”

His eyes got big as quarters, and before he could do or say anything, she yanked the necklace from around her neck, breaking the clasp, dropped it in the toilet, and flushed it. He was still standing there paralyzed until he felt the pain of a wooden brush across his face. He immediately snapped out of it and grabbed her as she dug her fingernails into his flesh. He picked her up, threw her across his shoulder, carried her into his room while she was beating him on his back with her fists, threw her on the bed, and locked her in the room alone.