chapter eight

“Shit.” AJ mumbled as he pounded the table with his fist. ‘What the hell just happened here?’ he asked himself. He felt as if two worlds collided, like his past had caught up with him. And, indeed, it had, only he never expected it to be like this. He didn’t want it to happen this way, to have seen Cassie so hurt.

Cassie. The thought of her made AJ cringe with shame. How would he face her? Would she even want to see him after tonight? What could he possibly say to her to make the past go away? The questions flooded through his mind as he pounded his fist on the table once again before letting his head fall in his arms. How could it be, he asked himself, that he had fallen in love so quickly with the one girl who was destined to hate him her entire life?

“Bone?”

AJ raised his head slowly and glanced at Howie, who had sat down next to him and was now watching him intently.

“Yeah?”

“You OK man?”

“No,” AJ groaned, dropping his head to the table once again. “Not at all.”

“Care to talk about it?”

AJ looked at his best friend and thanked his lucky stars for him. He told Howie how he had harassed a girl when he was a child, how he had turned a simple teasing into a physically harmful game, and carried it on throughout the years, until he drove the girl away to a place he never knew of.

“AJ, who WAS that girl?” Howie asked. “PLEASE tell me its not who I think it is!”

“It was Cassie, D.” AJ mumbled. “It was her.”

“AJ!! You can’t be serious!” Brian exclaimed. He had been listening from a short distance and was shocked at what he was hearing.

“I wish I wasn’t, Bri, but thats the way it is.” AJ replied. “And I feel miserable.”

“I’m gonna go see if she’s OK,” Brian said, walking away from AJ and Howie. He got directions to her house from Jay.

“Is everything OK? Did you find out anything?” Jay asked him as he wrote down directions to Cassie’s house.

“Lets just say their past has returned to haunt them.” Brian said smugly. He thanked Jay for the directions and went outside, where he hailed a cab and made his way towards Cassie’s house.

[chapter 07 | chapter index | chapter 09]