“I can go wipe my face off and—”
“Shh.” Aislin grabs me and kisses me, answering my question from earlier about whether she’d like to taste herself on me.
We kiss until my jaw hurts and until I can hardly hold my eyes open anymore.
“I should go wash up,” I say. “But I can hardly keep my eyes open.”
“Don’t move. I’ll be right back.” She goes into the bathroom. I hear the water running before she comes back out a few minuteslater. She wipes my face and my pussy, then gets rid of the cloth. “Sit up, real quick,” she says, and I do.
Before I realize what’s happening, she’s tying my hair up the way I always do before bed, then grabs my bonnet from my nightstand drawer, fitting it over my braids.
“Thank you,” I murmur, smiling.
“Always. I want to take care of you,” she says.
“We’ll take care of each other,” I reply, before Ash turns out the light and the two of us cuddle in bed together as I promptly fall asleep.
*
I groan whenmy alarm goes off, wishing I didn’t have to get out of bed with Ash. We’re each on our sides, my back against her chest, with her arm wrapped around me, hand on my breast.
I smile when she moans behind me, then presses her lips to my shoulder. “I don’t want to go to school.”
“Me neither,” I reply. “But I have to.” I’m here on scholarships and have grades I need to keep up. Plus, I’m going to college because I want to, because being a doctor is my dream, and nothing will stop me from making it come true.
I sit on the edge of the bed, and Ash does the same thing, only behind me, with her legs wrapped around me. “Will I get to see you after school?”
“Yes. Since you’re done avoiding me,” I tease, and she laughs, burying her face in my back.
“I’m sorry. I suck.”
I chuckle, then turn, Ash moving too, so we can see each other. “No. You don’t. You’re incredible…” I kiss her. “And so fine.”
“Mmm. Tell me more,” she teases.
“Later. I have to shower. Do you want to come?” I stand, Ash’s gaze running up and down my body. I love how much I turn her on, how attracted to me she is. I feel the same way about her, and there’s something so potent about being wanted by Aislin O’Shea.
“Obviously.”
We shower together. Ash copies my skincare routine afterward, because it’s flawless, then we get dressed, Aislin borrowing some of my clothes, before we go our separate ways.
I’m walking past one of the bulletin boards on my way to class when my gaze catches on the red lettering written across the flyer I put up yesterday.
Zuri Alexander is a SLUT!
The word slut is in all caps.
I stop dead in my tracks. “What the fuck?”
I rip down the flyer for the rally this weekend. “Those motherfuckers.” I have a feeling I know who did this. Well, not the exact people or names, but the kind of person who does this—those dude bros on campus, getting drunk and taking advantage of women. I’m sure they see the rally for this weekend as a woman stepping out of line—not just a woman, but a Black woman.
They’re the same kind of guys who get away with it half the time, who say things likeshe was asking for it, or point to her clothes as a reason it was okay for them to take what they want.
“Fuck you, assholes. You’re not shutting me up.” I crumple up the flyer and throw it away before continuing to class. I don’t have time for this shit.
Still, I don’t know if it’s just me, but it feels like people are staring at me most of the day, and I could swear I heard a random guy coughslutunder his breath.
I give him the finger just in case, wondering if he’s the guy who wrote on my flyer, but not wanting him to think he got to me.
