REESEY PSI STEPH
It was the first day of class at Frye College and State University
Stephanie sat outside the Humanities building on the black metal bench waiting for Reesey when her nose caught the smell of garlic and hamburgers floating across the campus. Her hunger deepened and she could resist the temptation no longer.
“I thought you were going to wait for me?” Reesey stood behind Stephanie who was seated in the cafeteria devouring a cheeseburger and garlic fries.
Stephanie offered her bowl of garlic fries as a peace offering. “Sorry, Reesey. I was hungry. I had to skip breakfast this morning ‘cause I was running late.”
“How you run late for a nine-thirty class?”
“I catch the city bus, remember? I have to be at the stop by eight-thirty so I can be on campus between nine and nine-fifteen.”
Reesey sat down next to Stephanie and helped herself to another fry. “You live right around the corner but it takes the bus forty minutes to get here?”
“All the stops it makes in between and no stop is empty. It’s like everybody’s gotta be to work or class at the same time and we all on the same bus.”
“You need a car.”
“I know.”
“Your Aunt not gonna let you use hers?”
Stephanie gave Reesey a ‘yeah right’ look after sipping her sweet tea. “She got a motorcycle and the truck but I’m taking the bus to class.” Stephanie imitated Dionne to Reesey, “Do you know how much my insurance will go up if I put you on it?”
“Insurance ain’t no joke though,” Reesey replied. “My mom tried to put me on hers but they wanted like an extra two hundred a month.”
“Damn, for real?”
“Um hmm. That’s why she was so glad when my scholarship paid for room and board. That was her reason for not putting me on it saying I don’t need a car if I’m living on campus.”
“Well, Auntie Dionne did say she was gonna talk to my mom about getting me a car.”
“You think your mom will let her?” Reesey asked.
“I don’t know. It depends on what type of mood she’s in.”
“Hey, maybe you should tell them you’ll help pay for it. Make them think you’re being responsible.”
Stephanie wiped the ketchup dripping down her mouth then asked, “How am I gonna help pay for it if I don’t have a job, Reesey?”
“Work study. I know the Wellness Center
“I don’t know about all that but I can definitely see myself officiating intramurals.”
“That’ll look good on resumes too. Extracurricular activities or something like that.”
Stephanie gave Reesey the rest of her fries since she was the one eating the majority of them anyway. “Come on. Let’s head over there now so I can get an application.”
“Oh, I almost forgot, you almost got me in trouble,” Reesey said as they headed to the Wellness Center
“How?”
“I forgot to put my phone on vibrate in class and when you called, it started playing Lil’ Wayne
What did your professor say?”
Reesey looked at her and smiled, “Girl, he used the song to teach the lesson in class!”
“Now that’s an instructor I need to get.”
“Ooo, and that’s a man I need to get,” Reesey gawked at one of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity men stepping outside the Wellness Center
“Un uh,” Stephanie frowned. “His muscles too big. I bet he can’t even hug himself.”
“Long as he can wrap his arms around me, that’s all that matters.”
They moved forward to get a closer look when Stephanie heard the shouts of female voices not too far away. She turned and saw a sea of red and black overshadowing a pond of pink and green.
Stephanie grabbed Reesey by the arm and led her toward the multi-colored group.
“Where are we…aw, come on Steph. I wanna see the guys.”
“And you know I wanna be a Delta…”
“Delta smelta. Let’s make our own sorority. We can call it Reesey Psi Steph.”
“Why your name gotta come first?”
“’Cause I made it up.”
“Whatever, I still wanna be a Delta.”
“Fine but just know you probably just made me miss out on meeting my future husband.”
Stephanie laughed. “You mean saved you from your future ex-husband.”
Both girls smiled as they found a seam through the crowd and made their way close to the front.
Stephanie smiled when she saw they had arrived just in time to see Delta Sigma Theta’s retort on Alpha Kappa Alpha cadence.
“Ooo!” A light-skinned girl with dreadlocks shouted.
Standing beside her was a tall, dark-skinned girl with flawless baby doll skin also laughing at the Delta’s witty comeback.
“Bae, them AKA’s ain’t got nothing to say to that skeet line!”
“I know right! That was off the chain!”
“Wannabes,” Reesey coughed under her breath.
Both girls turned and rolled their eyes in unison as soon as they saw Reesey.
“You mean ‘will be’s’ Reese’s Pieces.”
“Not in front of Chelle, Gabby,” Reesey teased Gabby. “I thought we said we wasn’t gonna use our pet names outside the bedroom.”
Gabby put her forefinger in her mouth, insinuating the comment made her want to vomit.
“Don’t act like you don’t like it,” Reesey wrapped her arms around Gabby’s neck and pretended to kiss her.
“Eww, your breath smell like garlic!”
“That’ll be garlic fries to you darling.”
“Chelley, help me!”
Reesey stopped and smiled at Michelle. “Chelley?”
“Don’t you start, Reesey.”
Reesey walked over and grabbed two of Michelle’s dreadlocks, one on each side of her head. She held them out like ponytails and danced them side to side. “Of course not…Chelley.”
Reesey interlocked her arms with Stephanie and skipped away before Michelle could respond.
“You know them?” Stephanie asked Reesey when they were safely away. Reesey was an athlete and lived on campus so she knew more about the fellow students than Stephanie did.
Reesey glanced back and answered, “Yeah, they freshman like us but Gabby, the tall, dark-skinned one, has a sister who’s a senior with the Deltas and the light-skinned one with dreads is Michelle, now known as Chelley. She plays ball on the team with me.”
“They from here?”
“Yep, and they together.”
Stephanie stopped in her tracks. “Together like a couple?”
“You got it.”
“Damn, I could see it with Michelle…”
“No, Chelley,” Reesey corrected.
“I’m not calling that girl Chelley.”
“Well, you know I am and I’m gonna make sure the whole basketball team calls her Chelley, too.”
“You need help.”
“And you need to get to know the people ‘round here. How you gonna be voted the most sociable person in high school but not know nobody? Better yet, how you gonna be my best friend and not know nobody?”
“I’m trying but my Auntie’s had a bug up her ass lately. I did convince her to let me hang out more and if it’s a school night, to let me just crash with you.”
“Now that’s what I’m talking ‘bout,” Reesey nodded in approval.
“But I can’t take advantage of it. Knowing her, she’ll be counting how many times I don’t stay home and then she’ll try to give me a curfew again.”
“You gotta curfew?” Reesey laughed.
“I said she tried,” Stephanie corrected. “And here I thought going to college would free me from my mother’s wrath.”
“I thought you said your Aunt wasn’t as strict as your moms?”
She’s not but her and my mom ain’t the best of friends.”
“They’re sisters. They ain’t supposed to be.”
“Yeah, well, I think Auntie Dionne wants to cl-clank me down just to get on my mom’s good side or to not piss her off more than she has already.”
“Why they so distant anyway?” Reesey asked.
“Something about Auntie Dionne being a lesbian and breaking the heart of one of my mom’s college friends way back when.”
Reesey laughed. “Are you serious?”
“Serious as a heart attack…”
“And a heart attack can kill you,” Reesey finished.
“My mom hates the fact that she’s a lesbian but Auntie Dionne dogging her friend out really put her over the edge.”
“Whoa! I can’t see your Aunt as the playa playa type.”
“I know. She got that whole ‘I don’t do nothing but stay in the house and walk my dog’ thing about her but I know she be doing her poetry thing and I think that’s where she be wooing all the ladies. I hear her in the room practicing, trying to memorize her poems, saying them all sexy and shit.”
“Say it like she be saying it,” Reesey baited her.
Stephanie cupped her lips and cooed, “I’m drowning in a sea of your sexiness as your body cries out to me from the bottomless pit of the ocean.”
Reesey laughed aloud. “I can see her saying that too!”
“That’s probably why my mom didn’t want me coming to Frye in the first place. She probably thought I’d pick up some bad habits from Auntie.”
“So what? Your mom thinks your Aunt’s gonna corrupt you or something?”
Stephanie batted her eyes like a little princess. “Who me?”
“If they only knew,” Reesey smiled.
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