The time went by too quickly. Before I knew it the bell rang and it was time to face him. I walked slowly to the classroom hoping to prolong my time. At the door, I took a deep breath and sighed before walking in. Luckily, AJ wasn’t there yet, but Leslie was. She smiled and waved at me excitedly. It’d been days since she and I had spoken. Her positive energy was refreshing considering my current state of mind; it made me feel a little better about everything. She came and sat by me with a small stack of papers in her hand. She set them on my desk before explaining what it was.
“This is the research I did for our project over the weekend. I brought it to give to you yesterday, but of course you were absent, so I just gave AJ his. I’m thinking that we need to get together sometime this week if we’re gonna get this done on time.” She was right, but I was definitely uneasy at the thought of spending so much time with AJ. It was unavoidable though.
AJ entered the room on cue and glanced over in my direction before taking his seat next to me. My nerves made my heart speed up. Ms. Jamison took to the chalkboard once the tardy bell rang and Leslie returned to her seat at the front of the class. Ms. Jamison wrote a few page numbers on the board that she was assigning for us to read during class. I turned to reach down for my back pack and hesitated. When I looked up AJ was smiling at me. “After you,” he said softly, obviously referring to one of our first encounters that was quite painful if I recall correctly.
“Thank you,” I replied, only looking into his eyes briefly. I retrieved my book and once I was upright again he reached down into his backpack. I turned to the right page and tried to concentrate on the lesson. Ms. Jamison gave us a quick writing assignment and then collected our work before speaking again.
“Class, the remaining fifteen minutes needs to be spent working on your projects with your groups. The due date is going to creep up on you before you know it, so it would be in your best interest to stay on top of it.”
The room filled with the sound of feet shuffling and desks being slid across the floor as groups assembled. AJ and I stayed where we were and Leslie came to join us. She paused briefly, assessing the tension in my face, but didn’t dwell on it for long before she spoke. “So what day is good for both of you to work on this?”
“Any day really. As long as we meet after I get out of practice,” AJ replied.
“Yeah, my schedule is open, so whatever works for you,” I answered.
“Well, how about tomorrow?” She asked “Sounds good,” A.J and I answered in synch. We looked at each other briefly. He smiled, but I was too tense to return the gesture.
Leslie continued, “So at like…..5:30 or so?
“Sure,” AJ replied. I only nodded in agreement.
“Sam, can we meet at your house ‘cause I don’t want my sisters bugging us?” Leslie asked.
“Yeah that’s fine,” I responded.
“AJ it’s really easy to find her house.“ She stopped and wrote down my address. “GPS it.”
“Thanks. I’m sure I’ll manage to find it,” he said for the sake of appeasing Leslie. Of course he knew where I lived. I felt my face get hot again and I couldn’t look at him. Shortly after that, the bell rang again and I nearly sprinted for the door.
At the end of the day Antonio came to find me at my locker so that he could walk me to my car. “How was your day?” He asked.
“Fine, I guess.”
He paused for a moment. “Look, I uh…..I owe you an apology…..for yesterday. You were upset about stuff and I should’ve controlled myself better than that. It’s just that….I have a hard time when I’m around you.”
“Please…..don’t apologize.” I felt embarrassed all over again.
“No. That was insensitive of me. That wasn’t what you needed. You needed a friend and I let my feelings get in the way.”
“Well if you insist on apologizing, then I accept,” I said while smiling at him. My hope was that he’d drop the subject quickly. We’d reached my car by this time, so he leaned down and kissed me softly and then turned to go to his truck. I stood there watching him even as he drove off. I turned to reach for the door handle and was startled by AJ walking up behind me.
“Sam,” he called out once to get my attention.
I sighed and then hesitantly responded, “Yeah?”
“Got a minute?”