16
“Coffee. Just a cup of coffee.” I close the IHOP menu and hand it to the waiter. After I got back in from the studio last night, Gia was up and ready to work on my paper with me. We worked all night long!
Gia, who is sitting across the table from me, frowns. “Is that all you’re going to have for breakfast?”
“I’m too tired to eat,” I moan. “I just want to turn in this paper and go to bed for twenty-four hours. For real.”
“Why don’t you do just that? After class you should just get some rest. Turn off your phone and go to sleep. Not for twenty-four hours though.”
Piper walks into the restaurant and slides into the booth next to Gia. “Did y’all order yet?”
Gia nods. “We just did. I got the strawberry crepes, but Sunday only got coffee.”
“Ewwww. You need a coffee detox. As soon as you finish Dreya’s album, I think you should go on a raw diet with me.”
“Raw diet?” I ask.
“Yep. All of the foods will be in their natural state. We can do some juicing and soak oats in water for breakfast. We’ll have raw granola and fruit for snacks.”
This sounds nasty. “No thank you, Piper. I know you mean well, but I am so not interested in doing that.”
“Suit yourself. When you start getting wrinkles and laugh lines you’ll wish you’d listened to me.”
I laugh out loud. “Gia, will you tell this girl something? Black don’t crack.”
“That is true, Piper. Black women age well. We don’t start getting laugh lines and stuff until we’re in our forties.”
Piper laughs and shakes her head. “Really? Well, enjoy your disgusting coffee then.”
“It’s delicious. It’s black gold,” I say.
But Piper isn’t looking at me anymore. She’s staring at the door of the restaurant with her mouth hanging open. I turn around in my seat to see where she’s looking, and I see Meagan walk in the door with another girl and two guys.
“Oh, look,” Gia says. “Meagan is here. Wave her over so we can finally meet her boyfriend!”
“I-I . . .” Piper can’t seem to open her mouth, so Gia waves her arms in the air.
“Meagan!” Gia yells. “Over here!”
Meagan smiles and waves. Then she grabs one of the guys’ hand and walks over to the table. I guess that this is Linden, and he is fine! But, wait. Why is he looking at Piper like he’s just seen a ghost?
“Hey, you guys!” Meagan says. “So finally, I guess I’ll let you all meet my boyfriend, Linden. So . . . girls this is Linden, and Linden this is Gia, Piper, and Sunday, who I’m sure you already know from television.”
“When you introduced yourself to me,” Piper says, “you told me your name was James. And that everyone calls you L.J.”
“James is my middle name. And my friends back home call me L.J.”
Meagan has a confused look on her face. “L.J.? Your boyfriend L.J.?”
“Yes. It looks like we’re sharing a Morehouse man.”
“Linden!” Meagan cries. “What is she talking about?”
“Meagan, babe, I can explain. I met both of you around the same time. I didn’t know that she was your friend, and of course we weren’t exclusive at first.”
Meagan snatches her hand away from Linden. “W-when did you find out?”
“Just last week. I’ve been trying to break it off with her ever since we decided to be exclusive.”
Piper cocks her head to one side angrily, and whips out her cell phone. “Is this how you break up with someone? You send them a text that says, ‘What are you wearing beautiful? Can’t wait to see you.’ That doesn’t sound like breaking up to me. Does it sound like breaking up to you, Gia?”
Gia’s eyes widen. I don’t think she wants to get in this conversation, because she doesn’t say anything.
“What you think, Sunday? Huh? Does that sound like breaking it off?”
I touch Piper’s hand. “Piper, don’t. Let’s talk this out later, not here in public.”
“But he’s right here, Sunday. We’re all together. He won’t let this happen again.” Piper has black eyeliner-tinted tears streaming down her face and the hand that I’m holding is shaking.
“So, you’ve been seeing her this whole time?” Meagan asks. I find it strange that she won’t speak at all to Piper. She won’t even look at her.
“Not really. I’ve been out with her a couple of times. Once I found out you were roommates, I wanted to let her down easy. I didn’t want to come between the two of you.”
“Well, you were doing the right thing,” Meagan says. “Because now, I can’t see myself being her roommate anymore. It’ll be strange with me dating someone she obviously likes.”
“You’re going to keep dating him?” Piper asks. “How could you?”
Meagan says, “We just got serious, Piper. I don’t expect a guy to be exclusive until we’re exclusive. And I’m not mad at you. You didn’t know. But it won’t really be fair to you for us to be roommates anymore. I’ll talk to our resident advisor.”
Piper jumps up from the table and gets right in Meagan’s face. “You would choose a guy over me. That is so like you.”
“Well, we really just met this year. It’s not like we go way back or anything like that. We hardly know one another.”
Linden or James, or whatever the heck his name is, puts his hand around Meagan’s waist and pulls her close. She tosses her straight hair over her shoulder and lets him kiss her bare neck.
“I’m so sorry you had to find out like this,” Linden says. “Sorry, Piper. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Piper storms out of the restaurant, leaving the rest of us with the uncomfortable situation.
“That was crazy,” Meagan says echoing my thoughts. “Come on, Linden. I’m starved, and we’ve left our other friends waiting.”
I watch in shock as Linden and Meagan walk away . . . hand in hand.
“What just happened?” Gia asks me.
“I have no idea. I was just about to ask you that.”
Gia looks behind her at Meagan laughing and joking with the Gamma Phi Gamma crew. “So, she’s okay with this?”
“She’s probably just keeping her cool,” I say. “I’m sure she just wants to confront him in private.”
But then, Meagan shoots that theory totally out of the water by throwing her arms around Linden’s neck and kissing him sweetly on the cheek.
“Yep. She’s confronting him all right,” Gia says.
“We should go after Piper and make sure she’s all right.” I stand up from the table and don’t wait for Gia to answer. It’s not even necessary, because I already know she’s going to follow.
On our way out of the restaurant, Meagan calls to us. “I’ll drop by your room later, okay?”
“I think we’ll already have company, Meagan,” I say. “Maybe you should keep hanging with your future sorors.”
“We’re hoping that you too will consider Gamma Phi Gamma,” Peony, head of the Gamma clique says.
“I hadn’t really considered it. Don’t know if I’m the sorority type.”
Peony lets out a shrill giggle. “Every girl is the sorority type. They either get chosen or they don’t.”
My only response to this is a half-smile. Gia says nothing at all either, and we leave IHOP together.
“You still thinking about pledging Gamma Phi Gamma?” I ask Gia as we get into the car.
“Nope. I think we should start our own sorority.”
“What would we call it?”
“Beta Kappa Fly!”
“That’s what’s up!” I say with a laugh. “Let’s go find our other soror before she gets another tattoo, or busts some windows out of somebody’s car.”
Gia and I burst into laughter, trying to laugh really hard about something that’s not funny at all. I haven’t forgotten how my girls sat up all night long with me when I had a broken heart over Sam. Now it’s time for me to repay the favor.