Gravity (Free Falling) (29 page)

          That made me uneasy. 
Was it possible that Leila
still
followed AJ?  Could she have followed us that night and witnessed everything?
  AJ must’ve kept this information from me because he didn’t want me to overreact, but there was more to Leila than I’d realized before. 

         
By 6:00 pm I was dressed and on my way out the door. As planned, I drove to the theatre alone to meet the others.  Generally, my curfew isn’t as strict if my parents think I’m with a friend….a
female
friend, so I lied and said that I’d be at Deanna’s again.  I found myself watching behind me for Leila’s car.  Every time a set of headlights seemed to travel a little too closely I sped up and moved out of the way.  I had no idea that Leila had a history of actually stalking AJ.  This put a whole new spin on things. 

         
I pulled into the parking lot of the theater a little faster than I should have, suddenly overtaken by paranoia.  A.J, Karl and Deanna were already waiting, standing beside his Jag.  There was an empty space beside him that I claimed and then took a deep breath to ward off the nervousness that I felt before stepping out. 

           My eyes locked with
AJ’s and it was like everything around us disappeared.  I was seeing him differently than before.  While there was definitely a powerful attraction between us before, it was now even harder to contain myself around him.  Visions of him from the night before almost made me run to get to him faster.  My addiction was confirmed.  When I reached him, I threw my arms around his neck and squeezed like it was the last time I’d ever see him.    AJ buried his face in my neck as he hypnotized me once again.  The softness of his skin, his scent, the feel of his body pressed to mine all working together to tear down my willpower.  When he pulled away from me I instinctively grabbed for his arms to pull him back to me, but I caught myself and refrained. 

         
Inside the theatre, there was a long line of people waiting to buy tickets.  It was strange being here with AJ because the last time, we had to sneak to be with one another.  This time, I held his hand with confidence.  There were a few people who gave us strange looks, but whoever didn’t like it would just have to learn to deal with it.  We were together whether everyone accepted that or not.  I grabbed on to his arm with both hands and clutched it to my chest as we waited there.  My eyes wandered over to the next line and my heart sank.  Apparently Leslie, Terrence, Kyla and Brian had the same idea we did.  There they stood beside us and Terrence’s gaze could’ve burned a whole through me, his anger nearly matched Antonio’s. 

        
AJ must have felt my grip tighten. He turned to look at me and then followed my gaze to the group beside us.  They all stared a while longer before turning to talk quietly…. about
me
I’m sure.  All of them except for Leslie; she looked more hurt than anything.  She eventually turned and stared straight ahead and I did the same.  AJ leaned down and kissed me softly on my forehead, understanding that this transition was difficult for me and never pressed me to talk about it. 

         
It felt like it took forever to reach the ticket booth.  AJ paid and then we followed Karl and Deanna to the theater.  We made it just before the lights dimmed.  The movie, a love story that Deanna insisted on, was about a guy and a girl who started out as best friends that eventually realized they were meant to be together. They were both involved with other people when they realized that
they
were in love.  In the end, they decided not to ruin their friendship by getting involved romantically, but they both spent the rest of their lives wondering what might have been.  By the time it was over Deanna and I were both in tears. 

        
Karl looked over at us and rolled his eyes.  “Oh, come on.  Are you two freakin’ kidding me?”  He asked.  Deanna sighed at his insensitivity and walked out in a huff a few feet ahead of him.  Of course he followed closely behind her trying to apologize.  AJ was laughing at their episode as we walked slowly out toward the lobby.  I continued to wipe the tears away from my eyes with little success.  He reached for my hand and interlocked his fingers with mine, his eyes focused on the ground.  It seemed like he was thinking about something, so I decided to ask. 

          “What’
s wrong?”

        
“Nothing’s wrong,” he replied and flashed a smile.

         
“Then what’s on your mind?”I asked.

          “I keep
thinking about last night.  Actually that’s
all
I’ve been able to think about.”  His smile widened as he continued to look down.

          
I smiled too as I realized that I’d made such an impression on him.  “I know what you mean.  But I think I’ve got you beat.  I even
dreamed
about it,” I said as I laughed at my own admission.

          “That makes two
of us.”  I blushed at his confession.  “But I’m trying not to focus on that though.  There’s so much more to love about you than……
that
.”  I stared into his eyes and they were so sincere.  He really meant what he was saying.

         
We were closing the distance between us, Deanna and Karl when I heard her yell my name.  I could see from where I was that something wasn’t right which made me run to get a better look.  When we approached my car, there was no question about what happened. 
Someone
had slashed all four of my tires sometime while we were inside watching the movie.  I nearly hyperventilated. 

          There are unfortunately too many people to name who could’ve been responsible for this.  Seeing my
“friends
” here tonight put them at the right place at the right time, but I also had to consider the new information I found out about Leila from Deanna earlier
. 
It could’ve just as easily been her who followed me here tonight and waited in the shadows until there weren’t any witnesses to stop her from vandalizing my car. 

         
AJ circled it to assess all of the damage, mumbling to himself incoherently.  I could only make out a few curse words here and there, but it was clear that he was just as pissed as I was.  My suspicions were now heightened. Someone, if not Leila, hated me enough to do this.  She could, in fact, have been following me here to meet AJ, and for all I knew this wasn’t the first time she’d done so.  I couldn’t prove anyone’s guilt or innocence at this point, but she was definitely at the top of my list of suspects.

Chapter eleven

          It took the police less than five minutes to take my statement and file the report.  I let them know that I believed Leila to be involved, but that was the only name I mentioned.  There was of course nothing that they could do with no evidence, but they did make note of it. 

         
AJ was on his phone calling the tow truck while I tried to wrap my head around what was going on.  If she
were
here tonight, then there was no way to tell if she was also watching us last night.  There didn’t seem to be much that Leila
wasn’t
capable of.

         
The officers left about a half hour later just as the tow truck was pulling in.  I sat in AJ’s car while he gave the driver directions. 
What am I gonna tell my parents?  What will they think when AJ has to bring me home when I was supposed to be with Deanna tonight?
  This lying thing was starting to catch up with me which seemed like a fitting punishment I supposed.  My mother would assume that this wasn’t the first lie I’d told her and would probably also figure out that I didn’t spend the other night at Deanna’s either.  It looked like this was going to end very badly for me. 

          When
AJ got in the car, we drove off, heading to my house I assumed.  His face was twisted with anger and his expression was so fierce that I didn’t dare try to speak.  Ten minutes later, we pulled into the lot of a car repair shop.  I was confused that we didn’t just take my car home.  Granted, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to telling my parents what happened, but this didn’t make any sense. 

          “Why are we here?”  I asked.

          “I know a guy who works here and I’m coming back tomorrow when they open to pay him to fix your car.”

      
   “You don’t have to do that,” I replied.

          “This is my fault.  Just let me handle it.” He didn’t wait around for my resp
onse.  He climbed out and directed the driver where to leave the car.  I saw him hand the guy some money and then we left the lot, speeding down the road going about twenty miles over the speed limit.  As we whisked past the other cars I realized that we were still not going in the direction of my house. 

         
When we finally slowed down, we pulled up in front of a huge blue house on a secluded street.  The porch light was on, but the inside of the house was dark.  It took me a minute to realize that Leila’s car was parked in the driveway.  AJ jumped out of the car without saying one word to me.  He walked up to the door, ignored the doorbell and banged on the door forcefully with his fist.  A tall thin red haired man answered with a curious look on his face.  AJ was calm at first as he spoke, but that quickly changed.  The man was apparently not cooperating with him, so he was yelling and his stance was defensive.  After a few seconds, AJ pushed past the man and disappeared inside the house with the man following closely behind. 

         
I wasn’t sure whether I should get out or stay in the car where it was safe.  I undid my seatbelt and waited a minute before deciding to go after him.  As soon as I did, I looked up again and AJ was on his way back to the car.  His expression had changed.  He was smiling a sinister smile that I didn’t understand.  The man was following behind him yelling, but AJ wasn’t affected.  When he flung the car door open, I could hear the man shouting, “Who do you think you are?  I’m gonna call the police!  Put your hands on her again and I
swear
you’ll spend the rest of your life behind bars!”  AJ slammed the door shut ignoring the man’s threats and continued to smile.  I stared at him in shock.   

          “Did you hit her?”  I asked in a shrill voice.  I wasn’t totally sure that she didn’t deserve it, but the thought unnerved me a bit.
 

         
He started laughing when he responded.  “No, I didn’t hit her.”

          “Then what’
d you do?  What was he talking about?”

          “I
just wanted her to get the message.”

          At an intentionally slow pace, I asked. 
“What….did you….do?”

          “J
ust slammed her against the wall and warned her.  Her dad’s over exaggerating,” he said calmly.

         “But we don’t even know if she did it,
AJ!”

         He rolled his eyes.  “Of course she did it.  Nobody else’s that stupid.” 
AJ’s mood was lighter now, casual even.  He reached over and placed his hand on my thigh.  “Why don’t you call your mom and tell her that you’re spending the night with Deanna again, so you don’t have to explain about the car?”

         
I was still in shock that he’d barged into Leila’s house like that, so I responded late.  “I’ll call Deanna first to make sure her parents don’t care,” I replied as I reached for my phone.

       
He laughed at my naivety.  “No, you’re not
actually
going to stay with Deanna……you’re staying with me.”  His smile widened exposing his brilliantly white teeth.  How did he plan to get away with that under his parent’s roof?  Were they really that laid back that they wouldn’t care?

          I’m sure my expression reflected my confusion.  “But won’t your parents mind if I……” 

          He cut me off mid sentence.  “They’ll never even know you’re there. We’ll stay in the guesthouse.  Then I’ll go handle the car situation in the morning, so your parents won’t have to know anything.”

         
The guesthouse? 
Reluctantly, I dialed my mom and explained to her that Deanna and I were in the middle of a really good movie and I wanted to finish it, but it was going to end too late for me to drive home.  Surprisingly she didn’t ask too many questions before giving me permission.  When the conversation was over, I looked over at AJ and smiled.

       
We drove for about twenty more minutes before we reached his house.  I’d never known anyone who lived in that area of Fairfax.  It was the side of town reserved for the affluent – the
really
affluent. When we approached his house, there was a gate at the end of the driveway.  AJ punched in the code and it opened silently.  It felt like we were driving up the driveway for nearly a minute before I even caught sight of the massive house.  My mouth fell open.  It was almost the size of a hotel.  It was a huge three story brick house surrounded by the most beautiful and extravagant landscaping that I’d ever seen.  I don’t think I blinked until it disappeared behind us. 

         
There was another house situated about a quarter of a mile behind the main house that was just about the size of my own home.  AJ reached above his head and pressed a button that opened the garage door, pulled in slowly and turned the car off.  I sat there still as I waited for him to come around.  My heart began to race as I thought of being here with him alone for the entire night.  I worked to steady my breathing as he opened my door and I stepped out to follow him inside.  I tried to hide the shock I felt as I looked around.  Everything was so…..expensive.  I was startled when AJ grabbed my hand and led me through the house to give me the grand tour.  Every room was equally as beautiful as the first.  I couldn’t imagine what the main house would look like if the guesthouse was so lavish. 

        
AJ showed me to the master bedroom and gave me the shirt off his back for me to change into for bed.  He left out and went down to watch TV so that I could have some privacy.  The room was massive.  I ran my hand over the cream colored satin spread.  The bed was so high that I’d need to get a running start to get in it.  I couldn’t imagine growing up in a house like his.   His father owns one of Fairfax’s largest construction and development companies which I imagine is doing quite well.  After taking one last look around, I turned off the light and joined AJ in the living room.

          As soon as I he saw me coming down the stairs, he switched the TV off and waited for me to settle beside him on the couch.  I stared aimlessly off into the distance while he held me in his arms.  Deanna’s revelation shed some light on exactly what Leila was capable of.  There were questions that I wanted the answers to. 
Why hadn’t he mentioned this other girl to me?  What exactly did Leila do and say to her?  Did he believe that she could’ve witnessed what we’d done on his uncle’s property?
 

          “Mind if I ask you something?”

          “Nope, what’s on your mind?”  He replied.

          I sat up so that I could see his face when he answered.  “Do you think
it’s possible that Leila was watching us last night?”

         
He was thoughtful for a moment.  “What made you ask
that?” 
It hadn’t dawned on me until then that maybe Deanna didn’t want AJ to know that she’d told me so much.

         
“Nothing.  Just forget it,” I replied quickly and then laid my head on his shoulder again.

          I felt his hands on my shoulders, lifting me again.  “What made you ask that?”  He repeated, making it clear that he wasn’t going to let it go.

         
Me and my big mouth.
If Deanna found out that I’d betrayed her confidence, our friendship might be over before it even started.  However, I also realized that there was no taking it back now.  “It’s just......it’s just that Deanna told me about some girl you were seeing a while back, and I know that Leila
used
to follow you, so I thought that maybe…….maybe she still does.”  I lowered my head while waiting for him to respond.

          Before speaking, he exhaled sharply, possibly irritated that I’d found out about this.  “
Her name was Tory and she was just a girl I met at one of my basketball games.  Leila found out about her; I think she was maybe at a game or something like that and saw me talking to her.  So, she started following me and stuff and that’s pretty much it.”

         
His answer didn’t clear up anything for me.  I fidgeted with my nails as I considered the possibility. AJ didn’t seem to be bothered by this issue whatsoever, maybe because he was already used to Leila’s drama.  Her obsession with him had led her to make a complete fool of herself on more than one occasion, all because she couldn’t allow herself to let him go.  I couldn’t blame her for that though.  As out of touch with reality as she is, she at least had the sense to recognize that AJ is one of a kind.

          Now that I’d given myself to him, I was admittedly a little paranoid about what the future held for us.  With the end of the year lurking in the shadows of my brain, I found myself frequently trying not to think about the two of us separating when it was time to leave for school. 
How would that change things between us?  Even when Antonio got his scholarship to Blanchard, we mapped out a plan to see each other twice a week.  But Westwood, the college AJ was accepted to, was too far away to plan to see one another more than once a month. 
Could we survive that?  Did he care if we didn’t?

          “What’re you thinking about?”  He asked, stroking my hair as we sat there silently.

          “You.  Me.  Us.  Everything,” I replied.

          “What
about
us?”

       
  “College mainly, but other stuff too.  I’m just trying to figure out how this is gonna work.  If I can’t hardly handle being away from you in between seeing you in school, how am I gonna deal with not seeing you for weeks or even months at a time?”  I forced myself to stop speaking because I was beginning to whine.

          “Sam,”
AJ said, trying to stifle a laugh.  “You know I love you, right?”

          “Yeah, but….”

          “Stop there,” he said and paused.  “I was gonna give you a little time before I brought this up, but since you’re already thinking about it; I don’t want to be away from you like that either.”  I sat up to look at him.  His eyes were focused on the ceiling above.  “I was gonna switch my plans and go with you to Charleston.  I mean…..if that’s what
you
wanted,” he stated.

       
I jumped up and wrapped my arms around his neck.  “Of
course
I want you to!”  I stopped myself, sounding too eager.   “I mean…..but I don’t want you to change your plans for me,” I amended.  “After all, I haven’t even heard from Charleston yet.”  My voice came across as too excited to make my rationale sound the least bit believable.  There was no hiding that I was ecstatic.

          “W
ho cares about my plans?  You
are
my plan,” AJ replied.  “And of course you’re going to get into Charleston.  Stop worrying about it.  To prove to you that I have total faith in you, I’ll print out an app online and send it off Monday.”

         
I smiled as I stared at his beautiful face.  He looked back at me, but his expression was serious.  “Sam, I’ll do everything in my power to hold on to you.  This isn’t just a temporary, fly-by-night thing for me.  I’m in love with you and I’m not taking any chances on messing this up.”  My smile faded as I let his words sink in.  He’d soothed all of my worries and I quickly let them go.  Soon, we’d be gone from here; no Leila, no Antonio, just AJ and me.