Chapter 12

He leaned back in his chair, his music sheets scattered over the work bench in his studio. For the last hour, so far, of this morning anyway, he couldn’t work on anything. Sure, the beats were there, but he just couldn’t focus. He knew if he posed any questions to Theresa, she would lie. And part of him actually wanted to believe she hadn’t done anything in the past with D. That the fact that she said anything last night was because of everything going on. In all their months of dating, they hadn’t ever had a fight that bad. And it was bad; he knew they both said some things they regretted. And she slammed the door to his baby, which in turn caused the passenger window to crack. To say they were highly pissed, was probably an understatement. And he wouldn’t dare ask Leigh or Samantha, so that left Howie. AJ just wasn’t sure he had the strength to listen to what D could say. With a sigh, he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and quickly dialed D’s cell number. After a couple rings, Howie finally picked up.

“Yo AJ, what’s up man?”

“I need to talk to you.”

“This sounds serious. Everything okay?”

“Maybe. Think you can come over in a little bit? If you’re free?”

“Yeah. Leigh is out with Sam, girl’s day, they’ll be gone forever. So, let me just change and I’ll be there in about twenty, that work for ya?”

“Yeah, thanks man.”

“No problem. See ya.” With that, Howie quickly hung up. AJ snapped his phone shut and threw it on other chair, running his hand through his hair.

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He opened the door, smiling as Howie walked past him.

“Can I offer ya anything D?”

“Nah, I’m cool. So, what’s up?” Howie asked, taking a seat on the couch, crossing his ankle over his leg.

“I’m sure you heard about the fight?”

“Kinda hard not to man.”

“Yeah, figured Nick would have mentioned something.”

“Man, I know only what he told me. But you never told Theresa about Samantha?”

“No, I didn’t think she would have liked to have known. It’s not even that, actually. Samantha was a chapter I wanted closed. And as much as I love Theresa, I just didn’t feel that chapter needed to be open with her either.”

“Well, man, that’s certainly on you. Does she know all the details?”

“Not all. I told her Sam broke it off.”

“Wow, okay than.” Howie sat back, already for seeing the problem this was going to cause. “But, I have a feeling that you didn’t call me over to talk about this actually.”

“No. The other part was about you.”

“What? What about me?”

“It was quite obvious you knew Theresa long before the day at Bri’s.” Inside, D cringed. This was not quite what he was expecting actually.

“You wanna know about that time?”

“I want to know if you two did, if you guys…”

“No.” Howie had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from saying the truth.

“Really?”

“Did you ask her?”

“Yes.”

“And, AJ, what did she tell you?”

“That you guys had meet once, talked, flirted, kissed once or twice.” Damn, she gave a rather condensed version.

“And it’s obvious if you’re asking me, that you don’t believe her. Why?”

“I just need to know!”

“Alex, I’ve known you for a rather long time! You just don’t need to know. What’s going on? You don’t trust her? What happened?”

“She said your name.”

“I do talk to her. It’s not impossible…”

“Howie, she said YOUR name.” D didn’t need any more clarification than that.

“Man, it’s not what you think.”

“She doesn’t call anyone else’s.”

“I think you need to talk to her.”

“I have, damn it, and I think she’s lying!” AJ turned around, his eyes clashing with mine.