I stared at him cautiously as I grabbed my things from his hands. “Thanks,” I replied hesitantly. Before I could move my feet to walk away he spoke.
“I tried to call you last night.”
No kidding! In an effort to keep to my new resolution of not having too much conversation for him, I made my response short. “Yeah, I saw that.”
Antonio looked hurt as he realized that I’d simply decided to ignore him. “Well, why didn’t you pick up then?” He was different from yesterday in some way. I wasn’t sure what had changed, but he was more subdued today. His voice seemed more even and smooth now. When I didn’t answer he continued. “I was trying to apologize for my behavior. I shouldn’t have said what I said……even if that is how I feel.” He smiled faintly. “You looked like I scared you, and I don’t ever want you to feel that way around me.”
I started to think that I’d misunderstood his behavior the day before. Did I overreact? I searched his face to see if he was sincere. He seemed to be, so that made me relax a little. “It’s fine. Guess I owe you an apology too. My attitude was a little funky.”
He smiled at me and looked at the ground sheepishly. When he gazed back up, he seemed even more like himself. There was longing in his eyes as he stared into mine. Megan approached us with a questioning expression. Antonio didn’t even turn to look at her. I smiled at her weakly and waved. Her expression was almost a snarl, but she waved anyway before turning to look at Antonio. It was obvious that she was uncomfortable with us conversing. Drama was not something I craved, so I didn’t stick around to see what happened.
After school AJ sat in my car with me for a while before going to the gym to practice. I hated that it still felt like we were sneaking to be together after all this time, but I was grateful for the few stolen moments that we managed to grab hold of.
“I know why my parents were arguing last night.” His eyes lit up as he spoke.
“What was it?” I asked.
“Well, I talked to my mom last night about having to start the year off at Westwood. Then this morning she told me that she told my father about it, but left out that I’d be switching to Charleston. So, now he thinks I’m going to Westwood.” AJ’s smile grew. “She’s trying to wear him down to let me have my phone and car back since I’m leaving soon. She thinks that he might go along with it because he thinks that you and I are gonna be separated soon enough anyway.”
I was reluctant to get excited. If this didn’t work out in our favor, I’d be hurt all over again. He seemed to notice that I wasn’t as happy as he was. “What’s wrong?” He asked I tried to muster up some sort of a smile. “Nothing.” I forced myself to look away from him. AJ always seemed to know what I was thinking, so I hoped that hiding my face would spare him the details of my thoughts. There was no reason for him to feel guilty, but I knew that he would. He wanted more than anything to protect me, and it was no secret that I was having a difficult time with the separation. There was no point in him stressing further about something he couldn’t change.