Page 115 of Pride and Protest

Make way for thenewqueen of social media! There’s a new Bennett in town. And I’m not here to bore you about social issues unless it affects my makeup tutorials!” LeDeya bounced on the bed as Liza held the phone at what LeDeya calledher best angle. Liza mouthed the words “watch it” to her sister, and LeDeya cleared her throat.

“Now, before I review this life-changing eyebrow stamp, I have a small announcement. For any of you that donated to the Netherfield cause, here’s a hotline set up by Pemberley Development to help get your funds replaced up to a thousand dollars. I want to apologize for my part in that. Y’all trusted me, and I led you astray. I was legit fooled. But you better believe it won’t ever happen again.” Deya winked into the camera, and Liza’s arm flopped down. “Hey, I wasn’t done!” Deya protested.

Liza put her hands on her hips. “I’mdone. My arms hurt. And I’m tired.”

“When did you get so old?” Deya shouted down the hallway.

It was nearly seven o’clock the next morning when Liza woke up. The sun reflected off the decorated windows of her room. Her mother coughed, and Liza’s eyes flew open. Granny, Bev, Janae, Maurice, and LeDeya sat in patient repose at the foot of her bed.

Liza blinked in confusion. “What is everyone doing here?”

“When were you gonna tell us?” Janae asked.

“What?”

“I thought Dorsey wasn’t your type.” LeDeya folded her arms in accusation.

“Don’t be silly. Money is everyone’s type,” Bev asserted.

“I knew the whole time,” Maurice boasted, and everyone booed him. Even Janae threw a pillow at him.

“The hell you did.” Bev laughed.

“I did! Dorsey came by all the time, y’all. We hung out,” Maurice said. This elicited a laugh from everyone in the room.

“Okay, what purpose does it serve to lie, Reece?” Deya laughed. “Like you and Dorsey are cool.”

“I don’t need you half-wits to believe me. I knew. But my question is, when did it start? I can’t think of a time when you two were hanging out,” Maurice wondered.

“The snowstorm,” Janae said. “Something happened in that nap pod. Y’all didn’t come out till noon.”

“Nah, it was the gala,” Maurice argued. “The entire world could see it at the gala.”

“That Instagram post of you making food with his BFF,” LeDeya guessed, as she scrolled back through her phone. “You got an insane amount of likes and look! @DFitz commented the same night with a Heart plus Rice Bowl and Smiley-Face-Tongue-Out!Oh my god.” Deya looked like she was melting onto the bed. “Y’all were stuntin’ on us for months!”

“When he brought you that tree?” Granny suggested. “Don’t look at me like that, girl. I know how babies are made. He was on you like white on rice.”

“Granny!” Liza and Janae said in unison.

“David told me Dorsey was mooning over some mezcal mystery girl. Was that you?” Janae looked astonished.

Bev shook her head. “All of y’all are wrong. It was last year, the night of the meme. I’ve never seen Liza so out of sorts about a man turning her down. That’s why Colin didn’t do it for you. You don’t like a man running after you.”

Liza laughed. “All of you are wrongandright. It was death by a thousand little cuts. I was bleeding before I realized I was injured.” Liza smiled weakly. “But he has a lot on his plate and—”

“Do you love him?” Granny asked bluntly. “Not do you like his money—do youlovehim?”

“Granny, I amcompletelyin love with him.” Liza did not hide the catch in her voice.

“He let you ride in the jet?” Bev asked.

“Ma, we all rode,” Maurice told her.

“Did y’all...” Beverly put her index finger through a hole made by the thumb and index finger on the other hand.

“Ew, Momma!” Liza laughed despite herself.

“Bev, she left a few nights ago with that barely there dress on and didn’t come back for two days. Any man would know what to do with that dress,” Granny explained.