Alyssa was splayed across her bed flat on her tummy with her legs in the air. Her onyx name was finger-combed back in a ponytail that went well with her terry-cloth shorts and a wrinkled pink t-shirt. She'd been in her teal and grey room all day only going out to snag food like the half-eaten bag of Cheetos puffs on her reclaimed wood desk, the sipped clean glass that was next to the dry coffee mug, and the ripped open wrapper that once held a Little Debbie oatmeal cream pie. Her study appetite was a problem but she didn't have time to prepare a real meal; come Monday morning she had an exam in Biochemistry and a short essay quiz on acts one through three of Macbeth.

Her almond eyes rolled over the old English words of Shakespeare while her laptop sitting atop her blanket at the end of the bed was on Sparknotes. She tried to ignore her growling, twisting stomach. She was on the last scene of Act three and really wanted to get it done but she couldn't stop her head from nodded along to the low beat drumming through her closed door.

The moonlight and streetlights merged one stream of luminescent that slipped through the crevices of the slighted blinds.

She yawned and glanced back at her alarm clock with watery eyes, "9:08" She groaned like a wounded animal. "Come on, Lyssa." She refocused back on the minuscule words on the page twisting her tighten neck muscles side to side. "Just one more page."

A loud roar of laughter vibrated against her teal rugged floor and she dropped her head, "I need a break." She folded over the corner of the page and hopped off the bed then padded to the door. 

She passed Safiya's room, and the whine of a dying cry leaked from under the door. Alyssa started to twist the doorknob but her hand stopped once she heard Safiya's muffled tone say mama's here. She traveled down the stairs one step at a time, placing each sock-covered foot delicately on the carpeted stair as she washed her strained eyes over every jovial face in the balloon-cluttered living room. Some of the faces she knew, like the girl backing up on an equally rhythmic guy, was Lolli—the girl that did Lela and sometimes Safiya's hair. Sitting on their sofa, laughing at something some guy whispered in her ear, Heaven was dancing in the crowd as Emma and Wyatt—apparently they were back together. Alyssa shrugged to herself as she hopped off the last step and pranced to the kitchen.

Alyssa yanked open the fridge door. She slumped over to examine the bare glass shelves. Their food stash was running low since they only went grocery shopping on the first Tuesday of the month when all their paychecks were miraculously synched for one time. Well, not Alyssa since she hadn't found a job yet and hadn't been looking. She ignored Safiya's butternut squash flavored yogurt and swiped one of Harmony's vanilla yogurts instead then grabbed the half-empty bottle of red wine off the door. She knocked the door closed with her elbow and snatched a spoon from the dishwasher and a wine glass.

"The meal of scholars." Samuel teased leaning against the counter with glassy eyes.

Alyssa ripped the lid off the yogurt unbothered, "Your sarcasm is hilarious." She placed the vanilla treat in her mouth with a smirk.

"But you ain't laughing." He hiccupped and then rubbed his chin in his hand.

"Sammy, you're drunk." Alyssa ate another serving of yogurt as she watched his half-opened eyes. "You know you're sleeping on the couch, right."

"You're not my sister." He riled his head back trying his hardest to open his eyes, "She's off with her white family." He pouted.

"Are you serious?" She slapped her spoon against the counter—the metal clacking on the granite. "You're still sour about her having another family. Really?"

Samuel shrugged lazily, "We all can't be like you...burying our feelings like they don't exist."

She huffed to herself as she tilted the wine bottle over the glass, "I have feelings—I just don't think every person needs to know about them."

"Well..." He wagged his finger in her face. "You got to get it out or it's going to eat you alive. Like why didn't you invite Quinn? You know you like him."

"I do but I'm...." She admitted raising her eyes off the red liquid sliding into her glass. Her sight slipped past Samuel. Her breaths grew audible as her heart banged against her ribcage and the music faded around her—the only sound ringing in her ears was her own scream.

"Hey!" Samuel snapped. "You're spilling it." He yanked the towel off the fridge door and sopped up the lake of rouge liquid puddled on the countertop. "Lyssa!" He called her name.

"How dare he." She sneered, her gaze stuck on the guy in the middle of the living room. "How...dare...he!"

"He who?" Samuel tracked her line of sight and found the person she was referring to. He swallowed hard as the guy's face snatched him out of his drunken state. "I'll get rid of Jacob." He patted her back. "Just go upstairs."

Alyssa leaned away from Samuel's consoling touch. "I'm not hiding in my house." Moisture perspired in her faraway eyes as her bottom lip quivered. She shook her head lightly and marched toward the kitchen.

Alyssa gripped her hand tightly around the neck of the wine bottle as she neared Jacob, chatting with a cluster of people. Alyssa was deaf to all the noise around her. The only thing she heard was the boiling of her blood and the churning of her stomach. She swung the bottle back—pretended it was a baseball bat and thrashed it across Jacob's head. Jacob collapsed on the floor as the girl in front of him yelped and the guy with blue hair yelled what the hell is wrong with you.

Alyssa paid no mind to Jacob's stagnant form or the broken glass she stepped on as she stalked make to the stairs with tears rolling over her flustered cheeks. 

Do you think Alyssa is recovering well? Will she face some heat for her action?

Which yogurt would you eat? Safiya's or Harmony's

Or