When I finished bathing, I made calling her my number one priority. The phone rang once and then she redirected my call to her voicemail. Nice. I needed her and she was avoiding me. The new lines in our friendship were becoming more clear to me. Slowly but surely, she was making it clear where we stood and I guess I just had to live with that.
A new thought came to mind. Deanna and I were quickly moving toward friendship, so why not call her since Leslie was retreating? So far, she seems like a pretty trustworthy person, and I didn’t exactly have a line of girls waiting outside my house to be my friend either. Without another thought, I dialed and waited for her to answer.
A second later, I heard her usual chipper voice on the other end. “Hello?”
I was a bit uneasy about spilling my guts, but I was about to boil over. “Hey. I was hoping you weren’t busy……I kind of needed to talk.”
“No, I’m just cleaning out my closet. My mom’s making me,” she sighed. “What’s up?”
I fidgeted with my nails while I built up the nerve to tell her what happened. Could I trust someone who I knew so little with my deepest secret? The words were about to roll off my tongue and I chickened out . “Never mind,” I said. “Let’s just talk about something else,” I insisted.
“What is it? Is something wrong? Did something happen?” She inquired.
I was so tempted to tell. “No, it’s fine.”
“Sam, would you just say it already?” She laughed.
After one deep breath I forced the words from my mouth. “AJ and I…….you know.”
She gasped. No…way! When? I want all the details,” she blurted and I could hear her take a seat on her bed to get more comfortable before I started my story.
“It happened last night,” I blushed.
“Oh…..my…..gosh! Was that your first time?”
I laughed at her enthusiasm. “Yeah.”
“Weren’t you scared?” She asked.
“ A little at first.”
“Do you feel any different?” She asked.
I laughed again. “Not really. Did you after your first time?”
She hesitated. “I’ve never done it.”
I was shocked. I’d assumed that she and Karl had been intimate after dating for so long. “Oh, I just thought that…..”
“It’s fine. I think most people assume that, even his parents. But I’m planning to wait until we get married.”
I smiled at her thoughtfully. I’d always imagined that I’d wait until after I was married as well. But somehow AJ managed to break through the defensive wall that I’d strategically placed around myself. Not even Antonio had been able to knock it down despite his best efforts.
There was a long pause. “I wonder how Leila’s gonna react when she finds out……if she doesn’t know already,” Deanna stated.
I didn’t understand her statement. “What do you mean? She won’t find out. It’s none of her business.”
Deanna chuckled sinisterly. “Oh, Leila will find out. Trust me.”
“How?”
“Well, it was last year, but AJ was seeing this girl from another school for a couple months and Leila somehow knew every date that they went on, what time AJ was getting home, where the girl lived. Everything! She must’ve been following him or something. But, one day she showed up at the girl’s house and the next thing you know the chick broke it off with AJ, like out of nowhere. He confronted Leila about it and even talked to her father. That’s when she started watching him like that. She doesn’t say much to him, but she’s always watching.”
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.