Back to Me. Earl Sewell

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      “I’ll run down and see my aunt Salena later,” I said as I sat down at the foot of my bed. I released a long, depressing sigh. Keysha came and sat next to me. She draped her arm around me and gave me a big hug. I leaned forward and placed my face in the palms of my hands. I gave myself permission to cry while Keysha rocked me.

      “Come on, girl. If you start crying, then I’ll start, too,” Keysha said.

      I got a lasso around my emotions before getting up to pull a few Kleenex tissues from a box on top of my dresser.

      “Have you heard from him?” Keysha asked.

      “No. He won’t return my phone calls,” I said.

      “Maybe he’ll answer if I call,” Keysha said.

      “Would you?” I asked, feeling as if Misalo might answer her phone call.

      “Yeah,” Keysha said. She removed her cell phone from her pocket and called him. She then handed me the phone. After several rings, Misalo answered the phone.

      “Hey, honey,” I said as sweetly as I could.

      “Keysha? I know you’re not trying to hook up with me,” Misalo said.

      “This isn’t Keysha,” I said innocently. “It’s me, Maya. Can we talk?” I asked.

      “Maya, I’m not going to play these games with you. Obviously you’ve been secretly dealing with Carlo behind my back. I just wish you could have owned up to the fact that you wanted someone else. You didn’t have to string me along, as if we had something special that couldn’t be broken.”

      “We do have something special. This is all just a big misunderstanding, baby,” I said, hoping my honey-coated words would reach his heart.

      “Maya, you were slow dancing with another guy at a party. I’m done with you,” he said with absolute certainty.

      “But I’m not ready for you to be done with me,” I said, feeling my tears swell.

      “You should’ve thought about that before you started creeping with Carlo,” Misalo replied, raising his voice at me.

      Raising my voice back, I asked, “Will you at least give me a chance to explain my side of the story?”

      “Maya, I don’t…” He paused. “You know what? You’re not the woman I thought you were. Just stop bothering me,” he said and hung up. I felt as numb as a rock as I sat there with the phone to my ear, as if he would return and say he was sorry. I felt as if the world had stopped time. I couldn’t bring myself to believe that it was over between Misalo and me.

      “What did he say?” asked Keysha.

      “He hates me,” I whispered as more tears fell from my eyes.

      Keysha attempted to make me feel better. “He doesn’t hate you. Misalo loves you.”

      “I have to do something. I’m not going to let this happen,” I said, suddenly feeling angry.

      “What are you going to do?” Keysha asked.

      “I don’t know, but I’m not giving up. I’ll fight for him if I have to,” I said with absolute resolve.

      “Well, you know I’m here for you,” Keysha said, offering her support.

      Smearing away my tears of sadness, I turned to her and said, “I love him, Keysha. If his heart is broken, then so is mine. If he feels sad, then so do I. When his soul is wounded, so is mine. He knows in his heart that I wasn’t trying to hurt him.”

      “Okay, let’s go back a little. Tell me again what happened,” Keysha said.

      “I’m telling you, it was nothing. I snuck out of the house,” I explained.

      “I still can’t believe you did that,” Keysha remarked.

      “I know. I’m so perfect, right? I never do anything wild or crazy. I’m always the responsible one,” I said mockingly.

      “But that’s who you are. As long as I’ve known you, you’ve never pulled the sneak-out-of-the-house stunt.” Keysha reminded me of my untarnished record.

      “Have you forgotten about the party I went to where I got my leg broken?” I reminded her.

      “No, but that was different,” Keysha said.

      “How? It was a party that I wasn’t supposed to be at,” I said, stating the facts.

      “Okay, fair enough. So maybe you’re not as perfect as I’m making you out to be, but you’re certainly not a wild child.” Keysha moved over to my bedroom window and glanced out of it. “Looks like your aunt is leaving,” she said.

      “Really! Is she taking Viviana with her?” I asked as I sprang to my feet to glance out the window. I saw my aunt and this hulking guy get into a hideous pickup truck. “Eww! What a crappy-looking car,” I said.

      “I know. As I came up the driveway, I peeked inside, and, man, was it junky in there. Dude seriously needs to clean out his ride,” Keysha mentioned.

      I grumbled as I saw the pickup truck back out of the driveway. “They didn’t take Viviana.”

      “Wow. How much longer is she going to be here?” Keysha asked.

      “I have no clue,” I said. “One thing is for sure. I’m never going to trust her again.”

      “I wouldn’t, either, especially after she left you stranded the way she did.” Keysha pointed out the fact that Viviana had attended the party with me and then had left me stranded.

      “Anyway, if I hadn’t run into Carlo at the party, I don’t know how I would’ve gotten back home.”

      Keysha cleared her throat and said, “Excuse me. I was on the phone with you that night, offering to pay for your cab fare home.”

      “I know, Keysha. Thank you for being there for me,” I said earnestly.

      “You’re lucky you’re my BFF, because I wouldn’t shell out money like that for anyone else,” she said.

      “I can’t wait to get my driver’s license,” I said.

      Keysha snapped her fingers. “I forgot to tell you,” she said excitedly.

      “Tell me what?” I asked.

      Keysha stood in the center of my bedroom and started doing her happy dance. “My dad has signed me up for private driving lessons. I’m going to be getting my permit and then my driver’s license. Then bam! He’s going to buy me a car. And when that happens, girl, we are going to be driving all over town.”

      “Why didn’t you remind me to ask my dad so that we could take the class together?”

      “Because on the day I was going to tell you, all of the drama with Misalo happened.” Keysha stopped dancing around.

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