Cecily’s Interlude
CECILY’S INTERLUDE
“
I was thinking we could have the students on campus be the highlight of Black Excellence Day,” Apple said to me.
I smiled widely. “That sounds perfect. You seemed to be doing better,” I replied.
She gave me a weak smile. “I’m okay. I have a friend helping me through it all, but I’m still bothered by Jesaiah. I’m not sure what it is, Dean Cecily, but he has kind of destroyed me in a way I feel like it’s hard to come back from.”
I knew the feeling all too well. Toussaint State University was shrouded in darkness that it couldn’t dispel, and that was the curse of the Merciers.
I had become a victim of it when I fell for Clark’s bullshit.
I, too, had chased him around campus like a lost soul, trying to figure myself out.
I wanted to be the smart, dainty sorority girl who fell in love with the fraternity president.
Instead, I was the girl who was used, docile, and gullible, and I found myself losing every bit of my mind over a man who didn’t want me.
When Clark graduated a year before me, he moved to California, where he met his now wife, Cynthia.
Did it hurt? Yes. However, it saved me from a lifetime of pain, and that’s what I wanted Apple to see.
The only difference between her and me is that I was going to help her, not sit alongside a person who destroyed them for over ten years.
I stood from my desk and walked around to her.
“Apple, you focus on you. Focus on your reason for being at this school. Don’t allow Jesaiah to put you in a place where it gets really dark.
Now, could you give me a list of all the students you have in mind for this event?
Gather your sisters, this is a moment for all of you to showcase what the is about.
I believe in you. Spring semester is ahead, enjoy it. ”
After my short meeting with her, I was becoming more confident that my saving souls seemed much easier than saving an entire school.
Apple was on the road to becoming a better woman, Samara had become a great intern, Dionysus was fighting to become a great Chi man despite what I’ve been told, I recommended Hendricks to the athletic department and heard he will be helping Xavier, and Percy was doing the unthinkable by managing fatherhood and school.
I was building chemistry with the students one at a time. This may not have been enough for the board, but for me it meant a lot.