Secrets (8 page)

Deanna’s expression softened as she thought about what I said.
  “Ok,” she stated.  “I guess it won’t hurt to put up with them for one night.”  I smiled at her and climbed out of bed to help her straighten our room. 

*****

             
There was a knock at the door at 7:30 and I assumed that it was Deanna and Karl coming back from the store with drinks.  When I opened it, Terrell was standing there in the dimly lit hallway with a hockey mask and fake machete in hand.  He screamed in my face and my heart sank.  I stopped breathing for a second and dropped the TV remote to the tile floor, making the batteries pop out of it.  When I came to my senses and realized who it was, I narrowed my eyes and punched him in the arm. 

“
You are so freakin’ immature,” I hissed. 

He laughed and bent down to gather the pieces
of the fallen remote.  “You would’ve thought it was funny if I did it to someone else.”  He handed me the batteries and other components and then walked straight into my room.

             
“Sure, come right on in,” I said sarcastically.

             
He sat in my desk chair and reared back to get comfortable.  He was a big, muscular guy and easily exceeded the weight limit for the chair, but I didn’t bother to warn him.  If he fell, that would just give me something to laugh at.

             
“What you doing tonight?”  He asked

             
“Scary movies.”  I waved one of my DVDs at him.

             
Terrell perked up.  “I
love
scary movies!”  He smiled and tossed me his mask.  “As if you couldn’t tell.”

             
“No kidding,” I replied jokingly.

             
“My invitation must’ve gotten lost in the mail, but lucky for you I’m free tonight.  What time?”

             
“Eight,” I sighed.

             
“Cool, I’ll be back in a bit.  Gotta get my snacks together.”

             
Just as he was leaving the room, Deanna and Karl were returning.  She waved and smiled at Terrell as he was passing, but Karl shot me a questioning look.  I could imagine what he was thinking and what his next course of action would be.  This made it completely necessary for me to tell AJ first before Karl got to him.

             
Karl smiled at me weakly and glanced over at the closed door.

             
“What’d he want?”  Deanna asked.

             
“Just came by to be annoying.  He invited himself over for movies later too.”

             
“Oh, ok,” she replied nonchalantly.  Karl still appeared to be troubled judging by the look on his face.  I wanted so badly to explain that Terrell and I were in no way interested in one another, but that would make me look even guiltier.

             
Jen, Bianca, Nina and Andrea came through the door of our shared bathroom carrying bags of junk food and two boxes of pizza.  They all had on Charleston sweats and t-shirts.  Andrea and Nina spread out a blanket that they brought with them and settled in on the floor.  Jen set the boxes on the desk and then sat down at the foot of my bed.  I don’t know what it was about me that gave this girl the impression that we were the best of friends, but it became apparent that my rudeness hadn’t scared her off.

             
Just as I was getting ready to start the movie, Terrell walked in – without knocking of course.  I saw Karl tense up and turn away from him.  I definitely needed for him to understand that things weren’t what they may seem.  Then it occurred to me. 
Just call AJ now.  Show Karl that you have nothing to hide. 

             
While the previews were going, I reached for my phone on the nightstand and dialed AJ’s number.  The background on his end was silent when he answered with a solemn, “Hello?”

             
His tone instantly made me question what had happened between our conversation earlier and now.  “What’re you up to?” I asked, figuring I’d save the real question on my mind –
“What’s wrong?”
– for a time when I didn’t have an audience.

             
“Just sitting here watching TV.  What about you?”

             
I shifted on my bed and looked around.  “Getting ready to have a movie night,” I replied.

             
“That’s cool. Did you invite those two girls over?”

             
“Yeah, Jen and Bianca are here with a couple of their friends from downstairs, Nina and Andrea.”  I noticed that I had Karl’s attention, but he wasn’t looking my way.

             
“Girl’s night.  That’s cool,” AJ replied, distractedly. 

“
Well,
almost
all girls.  Karl and our other neighbor Terrell are here too.”

             
“Who?”  He asked quickly, which caught me off guard

             
“Karl…..and Terrell…..from a few doors down.”  AJ didn’t respond right away.

             
“He a friend of Karl’s or one of the other girls?”  His tone was sharper than I expected.

             
Beads of sweat were forming on my forehead as I assessed the hostility in his voice.  He was clearly in a bad mood before I called, but what he was feeling now was clearly directed at me.  Lucky for me, the movie was drowning out my conversation, meaning that I had no witnesses except for Karl. 

             
“No, actually, Deanna and I met him the day we moved in.  He helped with my things.  He stopped by a while ago and asked if he could watch movies with us.”

             
AJ was quiet and I was nervous to know what he’d say next.  “Sooooo…..this guy just ‘
stops
by’
whenever he wants to.”  He wasn’t asking, but making an observation.

             
I frowned, wondering where this was coming from.  “No, it’s not like that,” I replied, but to my surprise he’d already hung up.  Because Karl was still listening, I had to pretend like AJ was still on the other end.

             
“Ok.  Love you too.”  I glanced over at Karl to see if I was convincing enough, but it was hard to tell.  I clutched my phone in my hand, wanting to call AJ back and explain myself, but I needed privacy.  I waited until about ten minutes into the movie and excused myself to go sit by the fountain in the courtyard.

             
“The sound of the running water behind me helped calm my nerves a little.  After taking a few deep breaths, I dialed. 
No answer
.  Was he really ignoring my calls?  He
never
gets this upset with me…..over
anything.
  If he wouldn’t hear me out, then I’d text.

             
“
Would you please call me back so we can talk
?
”

             
He never responded.  I sat there for at least fifteen minutes waiting for a message that never came.  My frustration mounted because it wasn’t like he was just a few miles away and I’d get to see him face to face and tell him what I needed to say.  There were hundreds of miles between us, and now I couldn’t even communicate with him by phone.

             
I could see how this situation would make him uncomfortable, but it wasn’t like him to be so quick to react.  Something had to have already happened that put him on edge and my call just set him off.  We’d had our share of misunderstandings and setbacks but I couldn’t help but to feel like he was overreacting.  It wasn’t like I’d told him that Terrell and I were watching movies alone all cuddled up and stuff.  There were six other people in the room; one of which was his own best friend who would have told him if Terrell was to even
breathe
on me wrong.  Maybe he just needed a little time to cool down and he’d call me later.

             
When I went back up to my room and settled on my bed, they weren’t that far into the movie yet. 

“What is she doing?  Didn’t she see him walk past the door?”  Nina yelled in what sounded like a cross betwe
en English and her native language.

             
While the rest of us tried to ignore the mangled dialect, Terrell looked at her, confused.  “What the heck is that gibberish you just said?”

             
Everyone burst out laughing except for Nina, who folded her arms and glared at him.  “What?  I’m just sayin’.  You should try to ‘speaka-da-English’ so everyone can understand you,” Terrell said holding back a laugh.  He nudged Nina playfully and she started smiling once she realized that he only was joking.

             
“Whatever.  I speak perfect English,” she replied with a well-timed eye roll.

             
“Yeah, ok.”  Terrell continued to laugh.

             
Andrea was more into the film than the rest of us.  She jumped ten seconds before anyone else at every scary part.  She was hugging one of my pillows and wringing her hands together tightly, anticipating the next scene.  Terrell, being the jokester that he is, used it to his advantage that he’d already seen the movie and timed his next stunt perfectly.  As soon as the killer emerged from the shadows, he yelled at the top of his lungs causing all of us to gasp and Andrea knocked her pop over.

             
“You are so
stupid
!  Why’d you do that?” She was laughing, so he apparently hadn’t upset her.  She pushed her blanket out of the way before it got wet and Deanna grabbed a towel to clean up the mess.

             
“Terrell, I’m gonna make you go home.  You’re getting on everybody’s nerve, I stated jokingly.  He put his hands up in surrender and pretended to turn around to be on his best behavior, but it was sure to be a temporary fix. 

             
Even with all the fun we had that night, I still couldn’t stop thinking about AJ.  He hadn’t called back or even texted.  When the movie ended, I helped everyone clean up and said goodnight.  Before she left, Andrea suggested that we get together again, in their room next week.  After everyone left, I continued to wait, assuming that AJ would call eventually once he cooled off.  But that wasn’t the case.

Thursday morning I tried him again before leaving out for class, but got his voicemail.  It didn’t seem fair that he wasn’t giving me a chance to plead my case.
  But there was nothing for me to do, but suck it up and deal with it.

             
Terrell was waiting in the hall for me.  I didn’t return his smile, but it wasn’t because he was bothering me this time.  To let him know that my bad mood wasn’t on account of him, I made sure to speak to him first. 

“Hey.”

              “You’re not a morning person, are you?” He asked.

             
“It’s not that, I just have a lot on my mind.”

             
“Need to talk about it?” 

             
I shook my head ‘no’ and followed him down the steps. 

             
“Well, how’re your classes coming?” He asked.

             
That was another thing that I didn’t want to think or talk about.  “Fine, but I can tell that my calculus class is gonna kick my butt.  My teacher expects us to get through the first three chapters by next Wednesday afternoon and I hardly understood page one!  He’s trying to kill us.”

             
“Sounds like you have Mr. Patel,” Terrell added.

             
“You had him, too?”

             
“Yep.  He’s a beast, but I pulled an A.  I could help you if you want.”

             
I could definitely use the assistance, but what about AJ?  He already wasn’t speaking to me, but I honestly did need Terrell’s help if he really had this calculus crap figured out.  Without further hesitation, I responded, “Would you really teach it to me?”

             
“Why wouldn’t I?”

             
I thought about Maisha and her unwelcoming gaze.  “What about your girl?  Won’t she be mad?”

             
“Maisha knows I’m not going anywhere.  She’ll be fine.  You need help or not?”  He asked.

             
“Yeah definitely.”

             
“Then it’s settled.  You free Friday at like five?”

             
“Yeah, I only have one class and it’s early,” I replied.

             
“Cool.  Friday then.”  Hopefully with Terrell’s help, I’d get a passing grade.

             
That night after class, a group of us journeyed to The Rip for dinner, or what was supposed to be dinner.  I stared at my plate and questioned whether or not I should take a chance on eating it.  My fork felt like it was repelling from the food as I inched toward it.  It looked like it should have been bubbling on the plate, releasing offensive gasses into the atmosphere.  Once I had a small amount on the tip of my fork, I closed my eyes and went for it.