Free Falling (Book Two: Secrets)

She smiled and waved. Terrell looked over at Sam and me again. “Everyone’ll fit in my car,” Terrell offered.

That was a little too much ‘togetherness’ for me, so I declined. “We’ll just follow you,” I replied, much to Sam’s dismay. She shot me a quick disapproving look and rolled her eyes. Terrell didn’t know what to make of my statement, so he stared at me confused for a second and then turned to walk out the door. Sam rolled her eyes again, but I just wanted to feel this guy out before I let him start thinking we were cool or something.

We drove in silence. Sam stared out the window at nothing in particular, like she always does when she’s mad.

“Are you not speaking to me now?” I asked.

“I would speak to you if I had something to say,” she replied coyly. Her jaw clenched and she shifted her body so that her back was almost to me.

“What’d I do now?”

“Nothing.” I could tell by her tone that my questions were irritating her.

“Would you just say it?”

“Fine, AJ, I’m mad,” she hissed.

I tried not to smile because that would’ve really pissed her off, but I couldn’t help it. She was pouting like an eight year old – arms folded and everything.

“Why’re you being like this? I told you I’d give this a chance and I meant it! You’re mad ‘cause I didn’t wanna ride in this guys backseat?”

“You were rude.” She shot back.

“Wasn’t trying to be, but I’d rather drive. If it came off like that, I didn’t mean for it to.”

She was quiet for a moment. I saw her turn to look at me, searching for sincerity. “I know you don’t like the situation, but Terrell’s seems to be good guy, AJ. Trust me, I didn’t like him at first either. I just think that if you give him a chance,” she paused and shrugged. “Who knows, maybe you two will even get to be friends.”

Whoa there, killer. I highly doubted it, but I smiled convincingly anyway. She slid her hand underneath mine and intertwined our fingers, signaling me that she wasn’t upset anymore.

There was something on my mind that I just decided to put out there. “I just don’t understand why being friends with him means so much to you. There…..I said it. I know you don’t see him as anything more than a friend, but…..I don’t get it,” I repeated. That one factor had been irritating the crap out of me since we’d first started talking about this guy.

She stared at me thoughtfully and decided to say exactly what was on her mind. “My friends weren’t as forgiving as yours were when it came to our relationship. I lost a lot AJ.” She turned to stare out the window again. “Terrell just seems like a good guy and I’ve learned that real friends are hard to come by.”

A pang of guilt forced me to acknowledge the truth in her statement; I hadn’t considered that before. Her friends had turned their backs on her after she’d been loyal to them for years – all because of how she felt about me. I didn’t know how to relate to that because I’d never experienced it. I didn’t say anything else, feeling somewhat ashamed that I hadn’t put two and two together before she spelled it out for me.

In the restaurant parking lot, I pulled in beside Terrell. We stepped out at the same time to open the ladies’ doors. I heard him and Maisha laughing together and something about the way he looked at her reminded me of myself and the way I look at Sam.

Sam wrapped her arm around mine as we followed Terrell and Maisha to the door. He held it until we were all inside and then quickly returned to Maisha’s side. The hostess approached us at the entrance. She greeted and welcomed us all, but her eyes never left Terrell. When she led us to the table, Sam and I both noticed how she made sure to rub her hand down his arm casually, but he didn’t seem to even notice her. His attention was focused so intently on Maisha that the girl’s advances went right over his head.

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