I agreed and then walked out with my keys and phone in hand. Trying AJ one last time, I crossed the courtyard headed for his room. When the phone continued to ring, my nerves got the best of me and I picked up the pace. My boots shuffled over the tile in his hallway after I climbed the stairs to his floor. When I reached his door, I listened first just like I planned to do. Hearing nothing inside, I knocked and waited.
On the other side of the threshold I could hear a bed creak and then the faint sound of someone shuffling around inside the room. I pressed my ear to the door again; someone was definitely inside. I knocked again and called AJ’s name. No answer. That strange feeling returned to the pit of my stomach and the first thought that came to mind was that AJ was in fact inside and he was in trouble. The phone calls from his mother pleading with him to leave were at the forefront of my mind. Something had to be wrong. I didn’t even consider that the noise inside could’ve come from AJ’s roommate. If it had, I’d apologize for jumping the gun later. However, at that moment, I feared that my worst fears were being realized and I panicked. After knocking again with no answer, I removed AJ’s key from my pocket and inserted it, unsure of what I’d actually do if someone was on the other side of that door with a gun or a knife…all I knew was that I had to do something.
When I turned the knob time slowed to a crawl and my heart stopped cold in my chest. The first thing I heard was an alarmed gasp coming from the direction of AJ’s bed. Next, my eyes tried to register what I was seeing – a girl….a half-naked girl…a half-naked Asian girl, hustling to get her jeans fastened. The covers were pulled back and I knew that she’d just climbed out of AJ’s bed. Antonio’s warning came to mind and I couldn’t catch my breath. No….no….this has to be the wrong room, I thought to myself. I didn’t care that AJ’s key had just worked in the lock; I checked the number above the threshold anyway, glancing back down once I’d gotten confirmation. This was his room, but…
The girl kept her eyes nervously glued to my face as she snatched her t-shirt over her bare breasts. I felt my head beginning to swim. Antonio was RIGHT? This whole story about AJ’s father coming up tonight was nothing more than a ploy to make sure I didn’t come by his room tonight? At the realization that this scheme almost worked, every single rational thought that tried to fight through, was quickly dismissed from my head; all I wanted was to hurt this girl. As I crossed the room with my mind set on causing whoever she was severe bodily harm, the door to the bathroom swung open and AJ stood there, still wet from the shower, clothed in only a towel. The girl quickly gathered her bra and panties from the floor while AJ looked on in shock.
“Reina…what the hell?!?” He said to the girl, breathing heavily. She stared at him expressionless and shaking.
“Your dad, huh?” I asked, shaking my head in disbelief. “I can’t……I can’t believe I actually fell for that!” The cynical laugh that I let out was the calm before the storm, and I think AJ knew it too. “This was all just another one of your lies.”
AJ pushed the girl aside and rushed toward me. “Sam, I swear I have no idea what she’s doing here!” He looked around the room with his mouth open, playing the dumb and innocent role better than I would’ve known he was capable of. Clearly, he’s a more capable liar than I realized.
I shrugged AJ’s hands off of me with tears flowing from my eyes like a river. This wasn’t right. I had to have gotten something wrong somewhere. While I tried to convince myself that AJ wasn’t sacrificing everything we’d built together…I looked back and forth between the two of them and let the overwhelming evidence sink in.
“I should’ve listened,” I breathed in between sobs. “I should’ve listened.”