Homecoming Post 4: Justin Did Something to Deirdra

 "I don't like Justin," Big Homie Sans said, plopping belly first on the bed in my Air B and B. "Not after what happened with Deirdra."

I exhaled deeply, relieved. Deirdra had told someone other than me, hopefully closer to the time that everything went down. For a long time, I thought I may be the only person who knew, seeing that lips were really loose in college, and I never heard anyone mention anything. But it makes total sense. Deirdra was quiet and conservative and very easily shamed and embarrassed. I would not have put it past her to tell each of her friends just a little slice of what happened, leaving all of us unable to really say anything because we didn't have enough of the facts. The gist of what I could take away from the story was that, in short, Justin and done something to Deirdra. 

"Um, I'm pretty sure he is a sociopath," Big Homie Sans continued, flipping over on her back. 

This is possible. Big Homie Sans is nothing, nothing if not in tune with energies and spirits. She reads it all: auras, attitudes, faces, the room. Whatever! Thus is the case of Creole women who were raised by Creole women who were raised by Creole women who were raised by Creole women who were raised by Creole women who learned spirituality from stolen African women on the bayou. 

"I talked to him today in the UC. He is so funny and charming," I said, shaking my head. I wasn't excusing him, but I can tell why Deirdra had been intoxicated. 

"Most sociopaths are!" Big Homie Sans exclaimed. 

That night after she left, I continued to think about the situation, or at least, what I know of it. Deirdra and I lost contact a few years ago. I thought about how this was back in the early 2000s, not in this time after #MeToo and #TimesUp. People were not automatically prone to "believe women". And no one was talking about consent and sexual privacy and body autonomy and revenge porn. It just was not happening! And my sweet friend Deirdra had to approach the administration at a CATHOLIC university during this time? 

As for Justin, I am both disappointed in and confused by him. Even speaking with him at homecoming I wondered, who am I talking to here? Am I talking to a sexual deviant or someone who did something really bad when they were really young? Is 2004 Justin still chilling under his crisp button up, waiting for a chance to show up and show out? Is he apologetic? We will never know because I can never ask him. Yet even through million-dollar smiles and jokes, he will forever get a side eye from me.