Antonio shook his head exasperatedly, but said nothing as he climbed into his car. I followed as he made a few turns and pulled into the parking lot of the Starbucks a few blocks away. I stepped out of the car and approached him on the sidewalk before we walked inside.
Since I was there and he was ordering a something, I got myself a hot chocolate, paying for it out of my own money of course. We took a seat near the window adjacent to where our cars were parked. Instead of looking at me, Antonio stared out at the passing traffic.
“What’re you doing here?” I finally forced out. His eyes met mine and I elaborated. “Not just here on campus today, but…here period.”
Antonio breathed a frustrated sigh. “Honestly? I ask myself that same question every day. Trust me, though, if I could’ve gotten out of that lease I signed, I’d be gone.”
The coldness in his tone was unfamiliar, but I chocked it up to his frustration over me not answering my phone. Suddenly uncomfortable, I readjusted myself in my seat.
“Well…you wanted to talk…so talk.” I watched Antonio’s blank expression when I spoke.
He took another deep breath and finally met my gaze. “First of all, my reasons for calling over the past couple months and my reason for calling lately are two separate issues.”
“Start with why you were calling back when school first started,” I interjected.
Another sharp sigh. “It was just like my messages said – I was calling to check on you and just to say ‘hey’, but you would’ve known that if you’d had the decency to call back.”
I looked down and shook my head. When I removed the lid of my hot chocolate so that it could cool faster, Antonio’s eyes caught sight of the promise ring with the word ‘forever’ facing outward. He scoffed and looked out the window again, possibly realizing that the ring was a gift from AJ. I looked at his twisted expression and shook my head. The amount of animosity and hatred that still existed between him and AJ, on both sides, was astonishing to me.
“Listen, Antonio, I –“
“I saw him with another girl,” he blurted, watching my expression when he did. “And I thought you deserved to know.”
At first, I couldn’t even comprehend who he was talking about. “Who? AJ?” I finally asked, making the connection. “Yeah, right.”
Antonio scoffed and looked out the window again.
“Your eyes must’ve been playing tricks on you. When was this?” I asked, honestly feeling more like laughing than anything.
“I forgot who I was talking to,” he mumbled to himself.
I saw him reaching for his coat and stopped him by repeating, “When?”
It took a few seconds, but Antonio finally met my gaze. “During the break. I was home visiting my family and I saw them out together.”
I blinked a few times, trying to figure out what it was Antonio thought he saw. “Out where?”
“I took Momma Black Friday shopping that morning. We got done late morning or early afternoon and she asked me to hit the McDonald’s drive-thru before we went back home.” There was almost a twinge of sympathy behind Antonio’s cold stare when he added, “They were hanging all over each other and laughing.”
I cocked my head to the side, processing what he was saying. While I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, I didn’t believe a word that was coming out of his mouth. Do I think Antonio was intentionally lying to me? No. I was pretty sure that he believed this to be the truth. However, I knew that AJ wouldn’t have been out with some other girl like that. Antonio had gotten himself worked up for nothing.
“At first, I thought maybe y’all had broken up or something, which was gonna be my first question,” he stated flatly before gesturing toward my ring. “…But I see that’s not the case.”