“I only came here to help you!” She explained.
I stared at her questioningly. “What?”
“They thought that…They thought maybe you’d listen if…”
The sound of her stammering infuriated me. “Tell me everything. And I do mean everything.”
Still keeping a watchful eye on me, Reina backed into the wall and ran through the details in her mind before she started talking.
“My father got a call from yours a couple nights ago. He told him about the trouble you’d gotten into here.”
Her words weren’t even registering. “Trouble? Trouble I got myself into?”
Reina nodded. “With some guys here on campus, I guess? He said that your mother’s freaking out and that they’ve been trying to get you go back home for awhile until everything dies down, but you wouldn’t listen.”
I stood there hearing to my father’s lies being spoken through Reina.
“Your dad told mine that you were only insistent on staying here because you didn’t want to leave your girlfriend, but that things were pretty bad. So…in exchange for me coming here to talk you into going…they struck a deal.”
I could hardly see straight. “What deal?”
Reina saw the fury behind my eyes and hesitated before adding, “If we could get you to go home…your father offered mine a larger share of the company,” she admitted, her voice trailing off at the end.
I took a step back as my mind reeled.
“He asked my dad for help, offered a two-thirds majority share….and my father agreed,” Reina added. “He didn’t understand why your dad would make such a generous proposal, but he just figured that whatever you’re involved in must be pretty bad. Your dad sent a copy of your room key that Vick made and…”
“And you coming here…doing what you did…that was your father’s idea?” I asked, pacing, finding it hard to believe that her dad would encourage her to get naked in my bed all for the sake of getting more out of a business deal.
Reina was quiet at first, and then never met my gaze when she finally did speak. “Well, not exactly, but…
“How much money did he promise you?”
She looked down at the ground when my words struck a nerve. Unbelievable. Shame caused her cheeks to burn bright red as I stared at her, trying to imagine how that conversation between her and her father must’ve gone.
Clearly my father was more desperate than I realized if he’d resorted to openly seeking Mr. Tanaka’s help – even if he did put it all on me. Still…did he really expect this asinine plan to work? Most likely he knew that it was a shot in the dark, but because it’d only cost him money if Reina actually convinced me to leave, he figured ‘why the hell not’. And it wasn’t lost on me that he’d probably even saw the possibility of Sam finding out as an added bonus.
“I should go,” Reina said in a hushed tone. “I shouldn’t have come here in the first place. I’m…I’m sorry for…everything,” she said when she couldn’t pinpoint just one isolated issue to apologize for. I was screwed and she knew it.
Just like that, Reina was gone, and I was left sitting there trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces.
A month and a half passed and Sam still wouldn’t see me or return my calls. I tried catching her leaving out of her classes; that didn’t work. She anticipated my every move and somehow managed to avoid me. It was like chasing a ghost. I’d left notes on the windshield of her car, under her bedroom door, and even tried to email her a few times. Nothing worked. I explained everything every chance I got, but, after the way everything came out, she still wouldn’t believe me.