16
BULLYING
“I’m not going to let you guys put yourself in harm’s way for me,” I said in a heartfelt tone to Loni, Bea, Hayden, and Torian as I stepped back from Hayden’s grasp. “Yes, we’re sorors, but I want it to stay that way. If anything were to happen to you guys, I just wouldn’t be able to take it. So, thank you, but no, thanks. I need serious help, but I want y’all to stay out of this. Somebody’scrazy, but that is my problem, not my chapter’s problem.”
Hayden stepped back close to me and said, “Look, I’m the chapter’s president. I learned that I can’t speak for everybody—that I have to take things through the proper channels—but on this particular call I will talk to everyone,including Sharon. You are not going through this alone.”
“I feel so bad. I was convinced she’d done all this. All my accusations ... She won’t be able to forgive me.” I dropped my head in shame.
“Once she understands the love that one Beta has for another ... We may get angry, we may get mad, but violence?We need each other too much. She’ll forgive you.” Hayden squeezed me. “And there is nothing you can say and nothing you can do to push us out of this whole thing. We’re in it. Okay?”
Then my girls sat me down and took care of everything.My mom was called; the police were called; Kade was called. I was in such a trance that I heard talking, but I was out of it. Still, I could not fathom why this was happeningto me.
A good bit later, Torian brought me the phone. My mom wanted to check on me, but I was half hearing what she was saying. As I let the phone drop, Torian assured her I wasn’t going to be there alone and that the Betas were taking care of everything.
Moments later, my dad was kneeling by my side as Mikey and Kade stood on both sides of him. I hadn’t ever seen my dad tear up. Even the day he’d pulled out of our drivewayto move on without me, I remembered being the only one crying.
“Guys, she’s numb,” he said as he took my hand.
“She’s been like this for hours,” Loni said.
My dad pulled me up and sat in the spot I’d been in. Then he inched me onto his lap. I leaned on his shoulder and finally felt peace. He kept saying he loved me until I broke my trance.
“Daddy, I love you, too.”
“The policeman wants to talk to you, and an emergency worker wants to check you out,” Hayden said, obviouslyhandling everything.
My father helped me to my feet. After I was cleared for just having a panic attack, I gave a statement to the same officers who had been at the scene months back when my place had been ransacked. They told us they could not believeI had had another incident. My father didn’t appear thrilled that they had no leads. He stepped up to one of the detectives and said, “Listen, this is getting very serious.”
“We didn’t find any unfamiliar fingerprints last time. The perpetrator must have been wearing gloves.”
“Well, you’ve got to catch him,” Kade said with urgency as he came and stood next to me.
One policeman looked at the other in a strange way. “Sir, she was saying you were together here earlier. Might we ask you a few questions?”
Kade walked over to the corner with the blue suits. “Yeah, sure, I want to help you guys catch this guy.”
“When she left, where did you go?”
“We weren’t even over here,” Kade said defensively, now understanding that the detective might be alluding to the fact that maybe he had been the one looting.
I quickly came to his side and said, “No, you’re barkingup the wrong tree. This is my boyfriend.”
“No relationship is perfect, ma’am and sometimes it’s the people you think you can trust who cause the most damage.”
“Officer, I’m pretty sure it was not this young man.” My father vouched for Kade. “He’s my son’s best friend and a dynamite football player at the University of SoutheasternArkansas.”
“Wait. Oh, my goodness! You’re Kade Rollins—you usually have on football gear.” One of the officers got starstruck, lost focus, and asked for his autograph.
The officers then joked with Kade. Mikey walked my sorority sisters out because Hayden was insistent they head out. I told them I’d be over to their place in a bit. I stood by my dad and began shaking as I again thought about all this.
“What have I done, Daddy, that somebody would want to do this to me?” I asked.
“Honey, this is some whacked-out crazy person. It’s not even what you have done to them. They’re just pervertedand twisted—some guy that ain’t got laid in ages, I bet. Seeing you come in here all happy—he may have just snapped. You’re going to get your stuff, let me put in a security system, and then you can come back. You cool staying with those Beta girls?”
All of a sudden Sirena came rushing in before I could answer. “What’s going on? Malloy, girl, what’s going on?”
“I’m alright, girl. Sirena, this is my dad. Dad, this is Sirena, the girl who lives next door to me.”
“Nice to meet you, sir. Sorry it’s under these circumstances,police cars and emergency vehicles in front of your door. What’s going on?”
“Somebody broke in here again.”
My dad asked, “You didn’t see anyone over here did you, Sirena?”
“No, sir, I know Malloy lives alone, and I keep watch all the time. I was on campus with a study group this weekend.I wish I would have run into somebody trying to hurt her. Where’s your stuff? You have to come stay with me.”
“No, thank you. It’s okay. I’m gonna chill at Torian and Loni’s place.”
“Uh-uh. That’s crazy. Your stuff is right here. You’re right next door. If the police have to come back and ask you any questions, you’ll be right here.”
“It’s fine, but I’m trying to get away from all this right now,” I said in a sweet voice, trying not to hurt her feelings.
“Fine, do whatever. I was trying to give you a place to stay right next door, but if you don’t want to stay, cool,” Sirena said, getting all upset before she exited my place huffing and puffing.
Both my dad and I just looked at each other. She was so high maintenance. I appreciated that she cared, but if things didn’t go her way, she could have such a tantrum. Right now I needed her to back off. She was applying too much pressure. Couldn’t she see I couldn’t take any more.
My dad joked, “Stay away from that one. She’s crazy.”
After the police made sure the back door was secure, we left and locked the front door. My car was already loaded with stuff. The three men in my life looked pitifully at me. I knew they, too, were worried all this was happening.
My dad stood with me alone by my car. “Daddy, you do not need to get any surveillance or camera equipment for my apartment. It’s going to cost a fortune,” I said.
“Well, the police are not doing their job. I want to make sure my little girl is taken care of. You don’t need to let nobodyknow we have a watch out. Nobody! Sorority sisters, Kade—nobody!”
“Yes, sir,” I said as we walked back over to my brother and Kade before my dad took off.
When my dad was gone, Kade said, “I’ve got to go back, babe. Some scouts are coming to give me an individual workout tomorrow, but if you need me to be with you tonight, I’ll stay.”
Mikey said, “Naw, Kade. I need to get you back, if someoneneeds to stay with my sister, I can do that.”
The two of them bickered back and forth as to who was going to take care of me. At first it was cute. Then their voices got louder.
“Why don’t the two of you just follow me out of here, and when I turn into Torian and Loni’s apartment, y’all can jump on the highway and get back? I’m a big girl and can take care of myself. Nothing will be accomplished with the two of y’all fussing. Remember, we’re on the same team.”
My brother gave me a kiss on the forehead. “I’m serious,girl. Call me or this dude if you need us.”
“I’ll be okay.”
Kade said, “Yeah, don’t let me have to hear from Sharon again that you need me.”
“I can’t believe Sharon called you tonight. I thought Torian or Loni did,” I said as Kade held me tight. “I was out of it, though.”
Holding me tighter, Kade said, “I’m just glad you’re okay now. And I’m happy Sharon isn’t the one doing this to you. Then another side of me is really creeped out because I just don’t want you to ever be alone. I’m nervous.”
“Don’t worry about me. We’ve got Beta week coming up in two weeks, and we’re training for our probate show so we can compete at the National Convention. I hope you can attend it this year,” I said, remembering our pleasantrendezvous last May when I had first met him.
“Probably not, sweetpea. I’ll probably have to be at someone’s training camp.”
“You know I enjoy being in your arms.”
“Don’t say that. You’re making it so hard for me to leave you.”
Mikey pulled us apart. “Forget the mushy stuff. All right, let’s follow her out.”
When I got back to Torian and Loni’s place, I was so tired. I couldn’t go to bed, though; the cozy place was cramped. All the chapter sorors were over. Turns out Hayden wanted to have a emergency meeting for Alpha chapter. At first I thought this would be all about me, but then I was surprised to see Keisha standing among everyone.
Torian greeted me at the door and whispered, “They were called to talk about what’s happening to you. Keisha got word of us getting together and crashed our meeting. She’s trying to convince us not to testify against her.”
I nodded and sat down to hear what she had to say. Actually, I hadn’t thought about Keisha in weeks. So much stuff had been going on since the accident. I knew she was okay; I had seen her in passing a long time ago, and I was thankful my prayer for her recovery had been answered.She wasn’t even attending our school anymore, so I just assumed all was well. I had forgotten that she was going to be tried for voluntary manslaughter. She’d almost lost her life, Sharon’s baby was gone, and so was the precioussoror from Beta chapter. However, for Keisha it seemed like this was only the beginning of another dark period. I could tell from the looks on the girls’ faces that the chapter was torn.
“I know what I did was wrong. I just always thought hazing was okay. I mean, that is how I was brought up—old-school style, you know? Make people understand that these letters, these symbols can’t just be handed over.” Keisha wasn’t winning me over with her words.
“I understand that,” Hayden said, “but a girl is gone! I asked you guys to lay off the pledges, and you got with Trisha, my girl, who is already suspended for money launderinglast year from the chapter. Then y’all start to drink and get even wilder, and your actions took human life. I can’t ...” Hayden couldn’t finish—she just started crying.
Sharon wasn’t there. She was so upset with Keisha she couldn’t face anyone yet.
“Don’t y’all think I’ve suffered enough? I didn’t even know if I was going to live and I didn’t want to know what I had done, but I wasn’t thinking clearly. Now I just need your help. You know I didn’t mean to take somebody’slife. Don’t sell me out.” Keisha got up and left.
Everyone was squabbling back and forth, taking differentsides. Sadly our chapter was divided. Some supported Keisha’s stance; some were completely against backing her in any way.
I got to my feet and hollered, “If we haven’t learned anything out of all this, haven’t we learned that truth can bring us closer? This is supposed to be a Christian organization.Let’s stand on God’s side for a change. And if we let God prevail, He’ll take care of everything else.”
A couple weeks had gone by, and thankfully the sorors had taken my advice. When asked to give their testimony, they told the truth. No one wanted to see Keisha go to jail, but no one wanted the two lives that had been lost not to have justice either.
I guess that was the thing us young folks had to learn—there are consequences to our actions, and being a part of a sorority, we were supposed to be our sister’s keeper. Our sisterhood meant not just getting along, it meant holding each other accountable. It also meant taking a stance and helping your sister be better than she was the day before. We were supposed to get on each other’s tails when we dropped the ball. I was proud we were doing that.
Because the trial was so highly publicized, we canceled Beta week, which was great for me because it was draft time and Kade insisted I come up to the football complex at his school and watch the draft with him. The draft invitedonly a select group of players to New York—the top five who analysts estimated would be picked first. Kade was a little upset because although he had been previouslypromised one of those invites, at the last minute that prestigious offer had been revoked. However, they did send an ESPN crew to his campus to broadcast the whole thing because he could go anywhere from the first round to the end of the third round.
We were on pick number ten, and he hadn’t gone. There were hundreds of people, players, fans, and family who were there to support him, but he couldn’t take the pressure. Upsetand embarrassed, he got up and went outside. I followed him.
“It’s going to be okay, you know,” I said as I touched his shoulder.
“I’m embarrassed, don’t you see it? After every pick they’re showing me sitting there waiting on my cell to ring. No team wants me. Just because I didn’t have high numbers at the NFL Combine, teams have backed off me. They’re saying that because I was hurt this season that I won’t go the extra mile for my team. I knew I should have gotten back in during that first game.”
“Are you blaming me?” I remembered telling him duringthat first game that he didn’t have to go back out and play.
He cupped my face. “No, no. I don’t want you to misreadanything I’m saying right now. You gave me your advice,and I took it. If something had gone wrong, I wouldn’t even be here with a chance to be drafted, period. I’m just frustrated, that’s all, baby.”
“Give me your hands.” He gave me his hands, and I grasped them firmly and said, “Lord, only you know if this man is going to be drafted. We put this in Your hands a long time ago, and right now we’re trying to be the potter.Help us remember that we are just the clay and that what you have in store for Kade ... Nobody can take that away. Give him the peace and confidence to rest in You this day. Whatever You may have happen, may it be joyfulnews for his heart and soul. We love You and thank You for this opportunity. And we tell You right now Lord, that if you see fit to give him a chance, he will continue to walk in stride to please You. He’s trying. Trust me, I know he’s trying.”
Kade squeezed me real tight. His mom ran out and screamed, “Your cell! Your cell is ringing! Boy, come on in here and grab this phone!”
Sure enough, God had heard us. Kade was the fourteenth pick of the first round. The New York Giants had selected Kade Wallace. Kade threw me in the air and thanked me for truly being there for him.
After much celebrating, the limousine Kade had hired for the day, dropped me back off at my apartment. Kade kissed me and told me I’d be okay staying by myself. I smiled because I could tell he was worried about his girl. However, he had to fly out to New York, and I wasn’t going to keep him from his dream.
I was so happy for him. I couldn’t wait to find out how he liked his new team. Now that he’d be signing with a pro team, the endorsement deal with the shoe company could be fulfilled.
As soon as I woke up from my nap, my phone rang and I quickly answered it. “Hey, baby, you got there already?”
“This is Sirena from next door. I can’t believe you’re home,” she said angrily. “I have been watching your home, and you didn’t even have the decency to let me know you were back. Then you’re going to pick up the phone and answer like it was your boyfriend. You are such a slut.”
Click! I hung up the phone quicker than I could think. Sirena wasn’t going to steal my joy. I was so sick and tired of her. She needed to know I would not take any more of her bullying.