Ties That Bind Read online

  Jenna hated to agree with Leigh but she had also noticed the change in Ellie. It seemed that she intentionally went out of her way to avoid the both of them and when she did encounter them she was totally rude. “I have no idea but I’m glad I’m not the only person who’s picked up on it.”

  Leigh smiled. “I think she’s jealous.”

  Jenna raised a brow. “Jealous of what?”

  “Not of what, but of who. I think Ellie is jealous of you, Jenna. She’s never seen you as a threat before but now she does.”

  Jenna shook her head, not understanding what Leigh meant, so Leigh decided to explain things to her. “In my psychology class last week, we talked about people like Ellie. They are people who have insecurity complexes and feel threatened by anyone that they perceive as possibly better than they are. Before, in Ellie’s mind, neither of us was better than she was because your father is a meat cutter and your mother is a cook. My father is a bus driver and my mother does hair. And because of our parents’ occupations, in Ellie’s mind neither of us should have anything going for us here at Howard. We certainly shouldn’t be well liked nor should we have popular boyfriends. But what I have is a boyfriend in law school who loves me and who treats me like a queen and who is working his butt off in school so that one day he can give me all the things he thinks I will ever want. And you have a guy who is the best catch on campus and who loves you to distraction. As far as Ellie is concerned, good things like that weren’t supposed to happen to girls whose parents are lower class.”

  Jenna shook her head. “But Ellie has Tyrone and one day he will give her the life she’s always wanted, so she has nothing to be jealous about. So what’s her problem? Can’t she see that in the end all of us will be happy?”

  “It doesn’t matter, Jen. Only Ellie was supposed to be happy, not us. She scratched me off her ‘be nice to’ list a long time ago. But with you, since you didn’t have a boyfriend and weren’t involved with anyone on campus, you were tolerated. But now since the two of us have received personal invitations to join a sorority, the same one that she’s been dying to get into and hasn’t yet been able to, that really has her dander up. Be careful around her. I don’t like her and I don’t trust her.”

  Jenna thought about what Leigh had said when she got into bed that night. She couldn’t understand how some black people could think they were better than other black people. When it all came down to it, all black people were fighting for equality. So in her opinion, although our ancestors may have traveled from Africa on different ships, right now all of us were in the same boat. She was glad Randolph had not looked down on her parents’ occupations when she’d told him what they did for a living. He had said that he admired a man who worked with his hands and that his maternal grandfather had made a living being a furniture maker. “My paternal grandmother is the one who has a hang-up about what people do for a living, Jenna, I don’t,” he said. “Neither does my Gramma Mattie. You’re going to love her, trust me.”

  Randolph had been right. Jenna received a call from Mattie Denison two weeks before Christmas inviting her to spend three days around the holidays. She had then asked Jenna for her parents’ phone number and said that under the circumstances, she felt she should speak with them as well.

  Jenna received a call from her mother the following day letting her know that Randolph’s grandmother had called and that the two of them had had a very pleasant conversation. Mattie Denison had asked Jenna’s parents for their permission to allow Jenna to visit during the holidays, assuring them that she and Randolph would be properly chaperoned during the entirety of her visit. After talking with Mrs. Denison, Jenna’s parents felt comfortable about her going as long as they got to meet Randolph beforehand. It was decided that he would come up a day early and spend the night at her parents’ home before taking her to South Carolina to meet his grandmother.

  Randolph was ecstatic when she shared the news with him later that day while they were eating at the café on campus. He would use his grandparents’ car to come and get her in Knoxville the day after Christmas, and the following day, bright and early, he would drive her to Glendale Shores, South Carolina, where they would arrive before nightfall.

  “Will Ross be there?” she asked him after taking a sip of her Coke.

  Randolph shook his head. “He plans to spend Christmas with Angela and her parents in New York and will arrive the day before you leave.”

  Jenna nodded, smiling. She was glad she and Randolph would be spending some time together over the holidays.

  A week later Jenna got summoned to the financial aid office. She met with Mrs. Naomi Portsmouth, the woman in charge of student loans and financial aid. A short, stocky light-skinned woman who wore a nononsense, down-to-business, nonfriendly expression, Mrs. Portsmouth’s office wall was covered with various framed degrees and a number of plaques commemorating her work with various charitable organizations.

  “Miss Haywood, I note that you have signed up for classes next semester, and we need to know how you plan to pay for them.”

  Jenna frowned. As usual she had applied for a student loan to cover those expenses that went beyond what her parents had taken care of, and immediately told Mrs. Portsmouth so.

  “Unfortunately your student loan was denied.”

  Jenna lifted her brow in surprise. “Denied? But why? It’s never been denied before. I’ve always gotten a student loan to cover my balance.”

  “Well, it wasn’t approved this time so the balance is now your responsibility. Perhaps your parents can come up with some more money,” the woman declared curtly.

  Jenna shook her head, knowing that wasn’t possible. Her parents were providing too much toward her education as it was. They still had her brothers to take care of. “Is there some way I can get on a work-study program to pay as I go?”

  “I’m sorry, that’s not possible. The balance will have to be paid before you leave for the holidays.”

  Jenna sat up in her chair. “But there’s no way I can come up with five hundred dollars in a week!”

  “Then I guess that means you won’t be returning to Howard after the holidays,” the woman responded, not showing any mercy.

  “But—but, surely there is something—”

  “No there isn’t,” Naomi Portsmouth all but snapped, getting to her feet.

  “Good day, Miss Haywood. I have another appointment.”

  In tears Jenna left the woman’s office, not believing the conversation that had just taken place. The thought of not returning to Howard was devastating.

  She was on her way back to her dorm when she heard Randolph call her name. She turned and watched as he crossed the courtyard toward her. He looked into her face and immediately knew something was wrong. “What is it, baby?”

  She shook her head, too ashamed to tell him. The thought of not returning to Howard and to him next year brought fresh tears to her eyes.

  “Jenna, tell me what’s wrong.”

  She hesitated briefly before responding. “I just came from the financial aid office. My student loan didn’t go through. I have to pay the balance on my account before I leave for the holidays or I can’t come back.”

  Randolph frowned, wondering who had told her such nonsense. The financial aid office was good at working with students and usually helped in finding alternate ways to pay. Both of his roommates had gotten student loans and one of them had gotten bad grades this semester. He couldn’t imagine them not working with Jenna who was a model student. “There must be some mistake. There has to be some way they can work with you and help you find other ways to pay the balance.”

  “There isn’t any way, according to Mrs. Portsmouth.”

  Randolph raised a brow. “Naomi Portsmouth?”

  “Yes. You know her?”

  “Yes, I know her.” Randolph frowned. Naomi Portsmouth was not only a sorority sister of his grandmother, but they were good friends as well. He couldn’t help wondering if his grandmother had anything to do w
ith Jenna not getting a student loan. He wouldn’t put it past her to go that far, especially if she thought it would keep him and Jenna apart.

  “I’ll give you the money.”

  Jenna blinked. “What?!”

  He smiled with a tender look on his face.

  “I said that I’ll give you the money.”

  Jenna sighed. “Randolph, you don’t even know how much it is. Besides, I can’t let you do that.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I can’t. It wouldn’t be right taking money from you. What will people think?”

  “It wouldn’t be anyone’s business. And it doesn’t matter how much it is. I have the money, Jenna. My maternal grandparents had set up funds for Ross and me to contribute toward our college expenses, but of course Grandmother Julia’s pride wouldn’t let her accept their contribution. So the money is just sitting there, not being used.”

  Jenna shook her head. “No, I can’t let you use your money for me, Randolph. I can’t.”

  He saw her defiance. “Then what will you do?”

  She sighed sadly. “I don’t know. I can’t ask my parents for anything else. It wouldn’t be fair on them and my brothers.”

  “Then let me help.”

  “Randolph, I’ve told you that I can’t take your money.”

  He inhaled deeply, before saying, “Let’s treat it as a loan then. You can pay me back.”

  She looked at him thoughtfully as she tossed his offer around in her mind. “But I won’t be able to pay you back until after graduation.”

  “That’s soon enough. Like I said, the money is just sitting there and you’re welcome to use it.”

  Jenna thought about his offer some more then said, “I’ll pay you back with interest.”

  Knowing she wouldn’t accept things any other way, he said, “That’s fine. And if it makes you feel better I’ll have Ross draw up the papers.”

  She nodded. “Yes, that would make me feel better. We should handle this strictly as a business transaction between us.”

  Randolph smiled. “Okay.” Although he would have Ross draw up the papers, he had no intentions of ever calling in the loan. A wife wouldn’t be legally liable to pay her husband anything, and he had every intention of making Jenna his wife one day.

  “Now that we’ve got that settled, how about the two of us going to get something to eat?” he said, taking her hand in his.

  Jenna smiled, her love for him washing over her. “I’d like that.”

  Yes.

  Bronson College

  “I’m pregnant.”

  Because her gaze was intense, Angela saw the sweat immediately pop out on Dean Hightower’s forehead. She would have laughed out loud if the situation weren’t so serious. She moved her gaze from his to glance around his office. He had numerous plaques on the wall and a number of framed photographs of him and other important individuals, including John F. Kennedy. Angela knew she didn’t have to tell him that if her parents had any idea he had been sleeping with her for almost two years, he would lose every single thing he owned, including his respectability.

  He finally collected himself enough to ask, “Are you sure?” After she nodded, he looked at her thoughtfully, then shook his head. “I thought you were on the pill, Angela.”

  “I am. But last month I got a cold, and I guess the medicine I was taking diluted the effectiveness of the pill.”

  He frowned and in an agitated tone said, “And I guess you’re here to tell me the baby is mine?”

  Angela smiled. It could be his, Mr. Morgan’s or Mr. Adams’s. But she was putting her money on him. “Yes, sir. There hasn’t been anyone else,” she lied.

  “What about Mr. Morgan?”

  “He only spent his time tasting me like you said he would.” She decided that he didn’t have to know that the man had taken advantage of a good thing and had ended up doing a lot more than that.

  “What about your boyfriend? The one who’s a law student at Howard?”

  She sighed, beginning to get upset. She didn’t appreciate him trying to weasel his way out of this. “I haven’t seen Ross since the beginning of school. In fact the last time we were together was at a Labor Day cookout his grandparents gave. And not only that, but Ross thinks I’m still a virgin.”

  “A virgin? How in the hell can he think that?”

  Angela frowned. “Ross has no reason to think otherwise. In the year we’ve dated, we have only kissed once or twice. His grandmother wants a prim and proper young lady for her grandson, and I’m doing my best to play the part.”

  Dean Hightower thought of all the not so prim and proper things she had done with him. “You must be some damn good actress.”

  She smiled. “I am.” And her best part was yet to come. Some way she would get Ross out of the picture and become available for Randolph. She knew Julia Fuller had hopes and dreams of Randolph and Lena Weaver becoming an item, but Angela had no intention of letting Lena or any other woman have Randolph. And how she would get Ross out of the picture was something she needed to work on. She would need a valid reason to break things off with him. And it would have to be a reason his grandmother would accept, and feel so badly about that she would then consider the best solution would be to match her up with Randolph.

  Her best friend Kathy Taylor, who was attending Howard, was keeping tabs on Ross’s activities. So far Kathy hadn’t reported anything that Angela could use as an excuse to end things between them. According to Kathy, Ross was studying too hard to become involved with anyone. But Kathy had told her some disturbing news that Randolph was spending a lot of time with a girl on campus—and it wasn’t Lena Weaver.

  “You know what you’re going to have to do, don’t you, Angela?”

  Dean Hightower’s question reeled her thoughts back to the issue at hand.

  She knew, but decided to play dumb. “No, sir. What will I have to do?”

  “Get an abortion. I have a friend who can handle it. She has a good reputation. She can do it as early as next week and by the time you go home for the holidays you’ll be good as new.”

  “Will I miss any of my classes?”

  “Yes, but don’t worry about them. I’ll handle things with your professors.”

  Angela nodded, knowing that he would. His future, like hers, was at stake. “And what about other babies? Will having this abortion stop me from having other babies in the future?”

  “No, you’ll be able to have other children.”

  She nodded, satisfied. “All right, Dean Hightower, please make all the arrangements.”

  “You haven’t mentioned your condition to anyone, have you?”

  There was no reason to let him know that she had called and told Kathy. The two of them had been best friends for life and didn’t have any secrets from each other. “No, I’ve told no one.”

  Howard University

  Everyone on campus was excited about going home for Christmas although more and more troops were being sent to Vietnam each day. Three days before she was to leave for home, Jenna got a call from her mother telling her that Jeremy, the guy who had been her boyfriend in high school, had gotten killed in Vietnam. Jenna took the news hard. She had known Jeremy most of her life and even before they had gotten serious, they had been good friends. His family was in the process of making funeral arrangements and had called her parents, wanting her to know. After talking to her mother, tears Jenna couldn’t contain rolled down her face. After they had graduated Jeremy had gone to California to escape the injustices of the South but he hadn’t been able to escape the horrors of Vietnam.

  She had been so upset over the news she had skipped her history class and stayed in her dorm room and cried. She wished she could see Randolph but knew that he was in his important Business Law class. Deciding to go to the café for lunch she dressed and walked across campus, thinking how brokenhearted Jeremy’s parents must be. He had been their only child and to make things worse, they had lost him right before Christmas.


  She’d been sitting alone eating when Johnny Lane joined her. “I was hoping I would see you before I left,” he said. Then, after seeing her red puffy eyes, he asked with concern, “Hey, are you all right?”

  She looked at him and smiled. She hadn’t seen him in a while and had recently asked Leigh about him. Leigh was in several of Johnny’s classes and had mentioned he was not attending class like he should. It had come as surprising news. Johnny was smart as a whip and had always taken his studies seriously.

  “I’m fine,” she said softly, fighting back more tears. “My mom called earlier to tell me a good friend of mine was killed in Vietnam. My heart aches for his family. He was their only child.”

  Johnny nodded and handed her his handkerchief as more tears fell from her eyes.

  She accepted his handkerchief. “Thanks. I’m sorry for falling apart like this but Jeremy was a very special friend. We dated our junior and senior years of high school.” After a few more sniffs she looked up at Johnny and asked, “How have you been? I haven’t seen you around lately.”

  He nodded. He always considered Jenna a good friend. “I’ve been around but not for long. I’ve decided not to return after the holidays.”

  His news came as a shock to Jenna and she looked at him, stunned. Like her, he was a junior with only one year of school left. “You aren’t coming back? Why?”

  He smiled warmly at her. “Because I can’t live a lie anymore, Jenna. I can’t continue to go to class every day when there is so much injustice in the world. I’m tired of being judged by the color of my skin. I’m tired of being told I’m not good enough when my ancestors are the ones who built this country. Yet they think I am good enough to send to the jungles in some godforsaken country to fight a war. I’m sick and tired of it.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “I called and told my parents this morning and they’re upset. My father even told me not to come home.”