“Then what is it?” I asked, matching her irritation.
“I just don’t like it. There’re lots of boys - black boys – that would wanna be with you, but you apparently think you’re too good for any of them. It’s like you think you’re special or something cause AJ has you thinking he’s into you. Do you realize that you gave up your friends for him? Who are you gonna run to when he dumps you?”
I couldn’t believe she was coming at me like this; the one who’d had her back through everything. I worked to control my anger. “First of all, I didn’t turn my back on you all. You turned your backs on me!” I was nearly screaming at her.
“I thought it was a phase you were going through, but you still haven’t seemed to come to your senses,” she replied. “You’ve changed.”
“I don’t understand you. You never seemed to have a problem with AJ before this, but now all of a sudden he’s the devil himself,” I stated.
“I don’t have a problem with him. I just don’t believe that we’re supposed to mix like that. I’m sure there’s a nice little Korean girl out there for him.”
“Japanese.”
“Who cares? All that matters is that he isn’t black. And in case you’ve forgotten, you are,” she replied with a straightforward tone.
We were both silent for a moment. “So, was this your idea of clearing things up between us, Leslie?” I asked emotionlessly.
She didn’t respond immediately. “I don’t know what I expected. Maybe we’ve just come to a fork in the road. You go your way and I’ll go mine. Call me if you ever get yourself together,” she said just before I heard the dial tone on the other end.
I threw my phone on the bed and tried to grasp what just took place. Leslie and I had been friends all our lives and now she was willing to let that go over something as simple as AJ’s race. It was strange that this didn’t hurt nearly as much as I would’ve imagined. Mostly because I was at ease knowing that there was nothing I could have done to change things short of breaking up with AJ. And as much as I loved her, she wasn’t worth that.
Chapter Sixteen
AJ’s punishment – that was beginning to become more of a prison sentence for both of us – was still in full effect well into February. His father continued to transport him back and forth to school and still hadn’t returned his cell phone. One night AJ decided to sneak out to see me. As soon as he walked back through the door his dad was waiting for him and immediately changed the code to the gate for a second time. When it was time to return Karl’s cell phone, Mrs. Hahn started making it a habit to leave hers under AJ’s pillow before she went to bed at night. So this became our only means of communication outside of school. I couldn’t help but to notice the irony in the situation. My father finally decided to ease up and give me a little breathing room just as Mr. Hahn decided to take AJ’s freedom away.