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.