CHAPTER TWENTY -NINE
Harlem and I sat on the couch staring at each other.
Since finding out about Jesaiah having HIV and getting tested, my nerves had been so bad.
I couldn’t even focus on anything. I’d felt so bad because, although I had been using protection, knowing I could have still passed it off to Harlem made me feel like a murderer.
We both stared at the papers on the table. “You ready?” he asked.
I nodded. We reached out and grabbed the papers, but before flipping them over, I placed my hand on his. “Harlem, I swear I didn’t know, and if—”
He cut me off. “Honestly, I just want to know. I’m not mad at you because the choice for us to be intimate was mutual, but I’m not naive either. I know condoms aren’t always safe, so let’s just look at.”
I was happy he understood, but I was looking for security that he and I wouldn’t end because of it.
I wanted to say more but decided against it.
I looked at him as he looked at me. At the same time, we flipped the paper, and my eyes scanned over mine.
When I saw the results, tears fell from my eyes.
I looked at Harlem as he still looked over the paper.
He then set it on the table and rested his head on the back of the couch, blowing out a sharp breath.
“Thank God,” he mumbled.
Mine was negative, and I knew his was too.
The tears were from happiness, but I knew that to be sure, in a few months I would need to check again.
To me, this was a lesson that it didn’t matter what a man said in my ear; it was better to be safe than sorry.
I thought about the girls who roamed the campus and weren’t as lucky as I was.
I was sure Jesaiah had slept with a few, and if I knew who they were, I would warn them.
However, I would no longer have to worry about it because I was about to accept Harlem’s offer.
I scooted closer to him. “I want to go with you to Hillsdale if the offer is still available,” I whispered.
He pulled me in, wrapping his arms around me. “You sure?” he asked.
With everything I’d been through, I was ready to take my ass somewhere else. “Yes.”
My sorority was a forever thing, and wherever I traveled, I would always be part of the Gray and Gold.
Even at Hillsdale, the fact would still remain that I was a product of an HBCU.
I’d dedicated a lot of time to TSU, and now it was time to take my Black Excellence and pour it onto a campus that knew nothing of the culture.