“Cool, I’ll be back in a bit. Gotta get my snacks together.”
Just as he was leaving the room, Deanna and Karl were returning. She waved and smiled at Terrell as he was passing, but Karl shot me a questioning look. I could imagine what he was thinking and what his next course of action would be. This made it completely necessary for me to tell AJ first before Karl got to him.
Karl smiled at me weakly and glanced over at the closed door.
“What’d he want?” Deanna asked.
“Just came by to be annoying. He invited himself over for movies later too.”
“Oh, ok,” she replied nonchalantly. Karl still appeared to be troubled judging by the look on his face. I wanted so badly to explain that Terrell and I were in no way interested in one another, but that would make me look even guiltier.
Jen, Bianca, Nina and Andrea came through the door of our shared bathroom carrying bags of junk food and two boxes of pizza. They all had on Charleston sweats and t-shirts. Andrea and Nina spread out a blanket that they brought with them and settled in on the floor. Jen set the boxes on the desk and then sat down at the foot of my bed. I don’t know what it was about me that gave this girl the impression that we were the best of friends, but it became apparent that my rudeness hadn’t scared her off.
Just as I was getting ready to start the movie, Terrell walked in – without knocking of course. I saw Karl tense up and turn away from him. I definitely needed for him to understand that things weren’t what they may seem. Then it occurred to me. Just call AJ now. Show Karl that you have nothing to hide.
While the previews were going, I reached for my phone on the nightstand and dialed AJ’s number. The background on his end was silent when he answered with a solemn, “Hello?”
His tone instantly made me question what had happened between our conversation earlier and now. “What’re you up to?” I asked, figuring I’d save the real question on my mind – “What’s wrong?” – for a time when I didn’t have an audience.
“Just sitting here watching TV. What about you?”
I shifted on my bed and looked around. “Getting ready to have a movie night,” I replied.
“That’s cool. Did you invite those two girls over?”
“Yeah, Jen and Bianca are here with a couple of their friends from downstairs, Nina and Andrea.” I noticed that I had Karl’s attention, but he wasn’t looking my way.
“Girl’s night. That’s cool,” AJ replied, distractedly.
“Well, almost all girls. Karl and our other neighbor Terrell are here too.”
“Who?” He asked quickly, which caught me off guard “Karl…..and Terrell…..from a few doors down.” AJ didn’t respond right away.
“He a friend of Karl’s or one of the other girls?” His tone was sharper than I expected.
Beads of sweat were forming on my forehead as I assessed the hostility in his voice. He was clearly in a bad mood before I called, but what he was feeling now was clearly directed at me. Lucky for me, the movie was drowning out my conversation, meaning that I had no witnesses except for Karl.
“No, actually, Deanna and I met him the day we moved in. He helped with my things. He stopped by a while ago and asked if he could watch movies with us.”
AJ was quiet and I was nervous to know what he’d say next. “Sooooo…..this guy just ‘stops by’ whenever he wants to.” He wasn’t asking, but making an observation.
I frowned, wondering where this was coming from. “No, it’s not like that,” I replied, but to my surprise he’d already hung up. Because Karl was still listening, I had to pretend like AJ was still on the other end.