The Sisters of APF Read online

  3

  Mary Ann

  I debated for hours over whether or not to attend the mixer in the student union. Then I decided, what the hell? I walked across the hall and knocked on Patricia’s door to see if she wanted to hang. She wasn’t in. I figured she must’ve been on a hot date with one of those fine-ass men she talked about.

  I went back into my room and searched through the measly belongings in my closet. I threw on a black short-sleeved cotton tee and a pair of blue jeans. I had heard that the mixers were informal. People sat around talking about law school while sipping tea and eating pastries. Not my sort of thing, but I was bored. Plus, it was time for me to be sociable with someone other than Patricia.

  I walked across the courtyard to the student union and took the stairs up to the rooftop lounge where the mixer was taking place. It was cool outside that evening. I regretted not bringing along a thin sweater, but walking all the way back to get one was out of the question. I just wanted to see what I could see in thirty minutes or less and go.

  Most of the people were extremely friendly, to my surprise. I was braced to be confronted by a bunch of prissy stuck-up people. But the more I heard, the more normal they sounded. I felt underdressed though. The women were wearing dresses and the men were in jackets and ties.

  I was about to leave and go find something else to put on, when a brotha jumped in my path and flashed a grin at me.

  “Hi, I’m Trevor Ames!” he proclaimed, like he was Denzel Washington or some damn body famous.

  “I’m Mary Ann,” I replied, looking him up and down. I recognized him from the cafeteria. He was the one Patricia was talking big trash about, which meant he was nothing but trouble.

  “You have a last name, Mary Ann?” he asked, offering me his hand.

  I reluctantly shook it. “Yes, it’s Ferguson.”

  He squinted his eyes and chuckled. “Where are you from?”

  I just hated it when people picked up my accent. “South Dakota.”

  “Wow!” he exclaimed so loudly that I had to take a step back. “D.C. must be quite a culture shock for you.”

  “I haven’t really seen that much of it, but I guess you could say that,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. I had to admit that the man was fine. Now that he was standing right beside me, I realized he was much taller than I originally guesstimated. He had to be a good six feet six and was one of the most handsome men on campus. No wonder he was able to do so many hit-and-runs on the women at Hartsdale.

  I tried to walk around him but he wasn’t havin’ it. He propped his elbow on the wall and stopped me dead in my tracks. “What have you seen?”

  “The bus station and campus.” I giggled, knowing how ridiculous that must’ve sounded.

  “Well, we’ll just have to do something about that. D.C. has a lot to offer.”

  “Yes, I know.” I took a deep sigh. He was going to force me to have a conversation, whether I wanted to or not. I decided to keep it simple and then say my farewells. “That’s one of the reasons I decided to come here for law school. We used to read all about Washington, D.C., in school and, of course, the movers and shakers on Capitol Hill are always in the news.”

  Before he could barrel off another question at me, a blond-haired, blue-eyed Barbie doll came prancing up, rudely interrupting us. “Hey, Trevor.”

  “Hey, FeFe,” Trevor replied, looking irritated. He pointed at me. “This is Mary Ann Ferguson. She’s in her first year.”

  “Of course she is,” FeFe responded, shaking my hand. Her hands were ice-cold. She needed a sweater a hell of a lot more than I did. “I would have seen her around here before. Nice to meet you, Mary Ann.”

  We stood there for a few seconds sizing each other up. She was pretty but the name had to go. I thought Mary Ann was a silly name but FeFe sounded like a poodle.

  Once she discerned that Trevor and I weren’t about to continue our conversation with her standing there, she decided to mark her territory before moving on. “Don’t forget you promised to take me to that new club, Sensation,” she said, grabbing his elbow off the wall and wrapping her arm around his.

  He quickly pulled his arm away. “I didn’t forget.”

  She sized me up one more time and then walked away. “Call me, baby.”

  I took the opportunity to make an exit. I heard him reply to her, “I’ll do that.” I was halfway out of the door. “Mary Ann, hold up,” I heard him say after me. “Where are you going?”

  He covered the space between us swiftly with his long legs and was beside me before I could make a clean getaway. “I’m a bit tired. I think I’ll just head back to the dorm.”

  I glanced around the roof lounge and noticed a group of women staring at us and whispering. He’s probably slept with all of them, I thought. I was reminded of Patricia’s warning to stay away from him.

  “May I walk you?”

  I shrugged, swinging open the door and starting down the first flight of steps. “It’s up to you. I wouldn’t want to take you away from all your female admirers.”

  “They don’t admire me,” he said, following behind me. “I’m in my third year and at the top of the class, so I do quite a bit of mentoring.”

  “I bet,” I stated sarcastically. “Does that include shaking your booty at a nightclub? Sensation, wasn’t it?”

  He grabbed me by the elbow when we reached the bottom-level lobby. “You’re jealous,” he boasted, obviously basking in the thought. “That’s so cute.”

  “Jealous?” I asked incredulously. “I don’t even know you. Just your reputation.”

  I walked out into the courtyard, hoping he would take a hint, act like an egg and beat it. No such luck.

  “Aw, I get it now.”

  “You get what?” I asked, stopping so I could look up at him. I wanted to see where his head was.

  “I saw you eating dinner the other night in the cafeteria with Patricia.”

  “What of it?”

  “She filled your head with a bunch of negative bullshit about me, didn’t she?” he asked.

  “No need to get hostile.” I started to walk again.

  “I’m not hostile,” he insisted. “I’m just sick of getting the dog-pound treatment from most of the sistahs at school.”

  “Is that why you date women like FeFe?” I asked, not knowing what kind of woman FeFe really was except for her desperate attempt to make it known at the mixer that she was banging him.

  Trevor was the one to stop in his tracks that time. “Damn, don’t tell me you’re one of those!”

  I didn’t like or appreciate his tone. “One of what?”

  He started walking again since I apparently wasn’t stopping. I was cold, tired, and growing increasingly irritated with him. “One of those sistahs that automatically stereotype a brotha as a sellout simply because he can appreciate the beauty of all women.”

  That did it! “Don’t come off on me like that!” I blared, stopping so suddenly that he ran into my heel. I turned around and glared up at him. “I was joking, but obviously you must feel uncomfortable dating outside your race if you jump on the defensive so easily!”

  “Whatever!” he stated with disdain.

  “Whatever nothing,” I persisted. “First off, I’m from South Dakota. Remember? Most of my best friends growing up were white and the first boy I ever made out with in sixth grade was white so don’t imply that I’m a racist, because you don’t know jack shit about me!”

  “Okay, okay!” He raised his palms toward me in defeat.

  To this day, I’m not even sure where my words came from but I was going through some sort of transformation. I had always heard that people in the city were insensitive, unfriendly, and mean. I was living up to all those qualities after just three days.

  I started walking again. My dorm was in clear view and I was anxious to get there.

  “I get your point, Mary Ann, and I apologize.”

  “Apology accepted,” I uttered, trying to calm down because it felt lik
e my heart was skipping every other beat.

  “It just pisses me off when I’m out with a white woman, even if she’s only a friend, and people stare at us and make disparaging comments.”

  The conversation was growing tired and I didn’t want to hang anymore that night. I stopped in front of the dorm. “Well, here’s my building. Thanks for walking with me.”

  “May I see you up to your room?” I couldn’t believe my ears. After the conversation we’d just had, he still couldn’t take a hint.

  “No, thanks,” I said, in lieu of the reply that was on the edge of my lips. There was no reason to be nasty because he would have played that jealousy card again, I thought, even though nothing could be further from the truth. Clarence was weighing heavily on my mind and I wasn’t interested in sharing a man with FeFe or anyone else for that matter.

  “But the night’s still young,” Trevor protested, pouting. “You don’t even know anything about me yet.” I know enough and I don’t even think so, I said to myself. “You haven’t even asked where I’m from.”

  I took a deep sigh. “Where are you from, Trevor?”

  “Gary, Indiana.”

  “Okay, so now I’ve asked.” I giggled. “Good night.”

  I walked up the steps to the front door of the dorm.

  “Wait, Mary Ann! I was wondering if you’d like to go out sometime? This Friday perhaps?”

  I felt bad about shooting the brotha’s hopes down but I just couldn’t envision dating him, not even once. I was dying to see more of the city but I planned to ask Patricia to show me around.

  I tried to think of a tactful response. “I’m still trying to get settled in and everything. Maybe some other time.” I had the door open and should have left it at that but my sarcastic twin reared her ugly head. “Besides, your social calendar seems pretty full already.”

  “What can I say?” Trevor blushed and my heart skipped another beat. Not out of anger but out of a flicker of lust. The moonlight hitting up against his well-defined features made me a bit hot under the collar. “My cup runneth over.”

  His ego turned me off as quickly as his appearance had turned me on. “Once again, good night, Trevor.”

  He took the steps two at a time and grabbed the glass door before it could shut completely behind me. “Look, it’s obvious you’re not down with playing games and neither am I so I’ll cut straight to the point.”

  “What is your point?” I crossed the lobby and pressed the call button on the elevator. “I’m totally exhausted and I’d like to go to bed now.”

  “I’d like to go to bed with you.” I rolled my eyes at him and glared at him with disdain. “Sorry, I couldn’t help it.” He chuckled. “It’s just that I really, really like you, Mary Ann.”

  “Imagine that!” I giggled. “You’ve only known me for twenty minutes and you’re already smitten with me.”

  I could hear the elevator cranking somewhere behind the closed steel doors and I willed it to hurry the hell up. I was still embarrassed about showing up at the dorm my first day and lugging my trunk up the steps when there was an elevator.

  Trevor would just not give up. “Ever since I saw you the other day, I’ve been thinking of no one but you. You have this classic yet subtle beauty about you.”

  That’s when I knew he was full of shit! I had been described a lot of ways in my lifetime but “classic” and “subtle beauty” were never up in the mix. “In other words, you’re looking to add another notch to your belt and you thought you could do a hit-and-run on me before I found out you’re a playa? Well, sorry, too late.”

  “I’m offended!” Trevor whined as the elevator doors slid open.

  I stepped on and pushed the button for the sixth floor. He hopped right on behind me. “That makes two of us.” I decided to use the opportunity to clarify a few things about myself. He really took me to be a fool. “Just because I’m from the country doesn’t mean I was absent the day God handed out common sense.” He guffawed at my statement but I was as serious as a heart attack. “I mean, I am here at this prestigious institution. As a matter of fact, I ranked number one in the candidate roster for first-year law students—which is why I have a full scholarship,” I boasted, totally surprising myself because I was ashamed of being there on scholarship up until that very second.

  He finally stopped laughing and tried to earn a brownie point when the elevator stopped and we got off. “I could tell you were a bookworm. That’s one of the things that attracted me to you.”

  I rummaged through my small handbag to get out my key as I walked down the hall to my room. “Yes, I am a bookworm and I don’t have time for the likes of you. Why don’t you go back to the mixer and find FeFe or some other member of your harem?” I unlocked my door and stepped inside. He opened his mouth to say something but I preempted him. “I’m going to bed now, whether you like it or not!”

  I slammed the door in his face and fell asleep that night proud of myself for evading the dog bite.

  4

  Patricia

  I woke up around 1 P.M. on Sunday afternoon, physically spent but elated about the night before. Freak nights always worked wonders for my attitude, not to mention my complexion. I flipped through the local network channels on my nineteen-inch TV. All that was on was a bunch of political panel shows, evangelists, and old martial arts movies. That’s the one thing I hated about living in dorms. No cable TV.

  I took a relaxing bubble bath and threw on some black leggings and an ivory tee. I really needed to study, but didn’t feel like it. We were barely two weeks into the semester and the professors were trippin’ hard already. I thought the first two years of law school were hard but the third year was shaping up to be pure hell.

  I decided to go see what Mary Ann was up to. She kept pretty much to herself and that disturbed me, although I’m not quite sure why. It wasn’t like we were bosom buddies or anything. She seemed like cool peoples, just shy.

  I tapped on her door and got no response, so I knocked a little harder. I was about to give up and head on back to my room to study tariffs when I saw her getting off the elevator at the far end of the hall. She was dressed in a homely peach dress with a huge white lace collar and a pair of black patent-leather flats. The sistah definitely had some fashion issues to resolve, but after the way she almost threw a hissy fit the first time I critiqued her wardrobe, I wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice. At least, not until I got to know her better.

  “Hey, Mary Ann. Where are you coming from?” I asked when she had closed about half the distance between us. “I was just looking for you.”

  She threw her right hand up to her chest like she was about to have a stroke. “Looking for me? How come? I was over at the chapel for the service.”

  “Just wanted to see if we could hang out today.”

  “Hang out where?” she asked nervously, unlocking her room once she got to it. I followed her inside. “You mean off campus?”

  “Yes, I mean off campus. There’s not a damn thing to do around—” I stopped dead in my tracks. “What’s all this?” I inquired, referring to the half-dozen or so vases scattered around her room filled with every shade of rose you could imagine.

  She giggled, throwing her purse down on her bed. “They’re from Trevor. He’s been sending them every day for a week.”

  I was speechless. The Trevor I knew and hated would never venture to give a woman roses. “Surely you don’t mean Trevor Ames?”

  “Yes, the one you told me about in the dining hall that day.”

  I sat down on her bed, stunned beyond disbelief. “Let me get this straight. Trevor Ames has been sending you flowers every day?”

  “Flowers and little notes telling me how much he likes me and wants to get to know me better,” she boasted, blushing and grinning from ear to ear. The frown on my face must have been a clue because she added, “I’m sorry if it makes you uncomfortable, Patricia. I won’t accept any more of the flowers if it makes you upset.”

 
; “Upset?” I faked a laugh. “Why would it upset me? If I wanted Trevor, I could have had him a long time ago. He’s not my type.”

  Mary Ann let out a sigh of relief. “Good. You’re the only person that has been truly nice to me and I wouldn’t want to hurt you in any way. Besides, I don’t think Trevor is my type either. Our first encounter didn’t go too well.”

  “How did you meet Trevor?”

  “At the mixer last weekend.” She kicked off her shoes and slipped into a pair of hot-pink furry slippers. “He walked me back to the dorm and the conversation turned ugly.”

  “How so?” I asked, being my typically nosy self. “What did you two discuss?”

  “Basically, we talked about his dating habits and my morality. I made it perfectly clear that I wasn’t interested in some one-night stand or fly-by-night fantasy.”

  “And?”

  “And that was it. I told him I was tired and going to bed.”

  “So you two didn’t kiss or anything?”

  She looked at me like I had asked her if she sucked his dick. “Absolutely not! I’m not that type. I just got out of a relationship with Clarence a few weeks ago and it would be totally inappropriate for me to fall into the arms of another man so quickly.”

  I wanted to puke. Her morality, as she put it, was sickening. I had a feeling that if she ran up on a piece of hellified dick action, all of that would change. She definitely wasn’t going to find that with Trevor, so I decided to try to save her the disappointment.