Free Gravity (Free Falling) by Raven St. Pierre Page B

focused on trying to figure out why I’d snubbed Antonio moments before; what I was doing entertaining these thoughts of AJ; why I wasn’t trying to stay away from him since it was becoming apparent that I had some sort of weakness for him; and how in the heck I was going to put an end to all this. 
    When lunchtime rolled around, it felt like a bolder was sitting in the pit of my stomach.  Eating was out of the question; I’d be doing good to keep my breakfast down at this rate.  The thought of being stuck in the same room with both Antonio and AJ was enough to make me seriously consider going to the office and faking an illness.  Antonio met me outside my class to walk me to the lunchroom without noticing that I checked over my shoulder every now and again. 
    “I gotta run to the mall later.  Wanna go?” He asked.  I nodded absentmindedly, only half listening to his question.  “I need to find some new white gym shoes,” he added.
    “Yeah, I don’t have anything to do.  Why not,” I replied as we approached the door to the lunchroom.  As soon as we entered, my heart skipped a beat.  AJ was standing by the vending machine with two other guys that I assumed were friends of his.  He looked up and it seemed as though he stopped midsentence, directing all of his attention toward me.  His friends looked at him strangely for a second and then followed his gaze.  I quickly looked away and stared straight ahead until I reached my table where I sat with my eyes glued to the floor to avoid slipping up and watching AJ like I wanted to.  It was so bad that I could feel a burning in my chest as I fought against the urge. 
    When the bell sounded for us to go to class, I breathed a sigh of r elief.  Antonio stretched.  “I can’t walk you to class; I told Mr. Hernandez that I’d get the TV from the Media Center on my way.  Is that cool?”  He asked.
    I looked up.  “Yeah, I’ll just see you after school.”  He smiled and I think he wanted to try the kiss again, but refrained.  We parted ways at the doors and I took a deep breath, feeling as though I’d narrowly escaped disaster.
    I made it halfway down the hall when I heard a low voice in my ear.  “So, I had an idea,” AJ said.
    Before responding, I searched around nervously for anyone who might’ve been paying attention to us talking.  I didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea – or maybe it was the right idea.  “What’s that?”  I asked. 
    He smiled as he walked up beside me with his hands in his pockets.  “I was thinking I could skip practice today and hang out with you again,” he suggested.  “Want to?”
    A smile crept up on me.  If he wasn’t careful, all this attention he was giving me was gonna go to my head.  My brain was screaming YES !  But I had to bring it back to the middle.   What about Antonio?  What about the plans we’d just made together?   I was just about to tell AJ, “ No, I can’t today.  I can’t ever.  This isn’t gonna work because I have a man and you’re not him.  Sorry, AJ, but let’s just be friends.”  However……something completely different came out of my mouth.  “Yeah…….I do.”  Something told me he already knew I’d accept his invitation.
    “Good.  Meet me at my car after school lets out.  If I’m gonna go, I have to leave quick before my coach catches me.”  Great.  Now on top of having to come up with a lie to tell Antonio, I had to blow him off quickly or forfeit my time with AJ.
    “I’ll be there,” I promised.  Our pace was steady as we climbed the stairs side by side.  I made sure to keep enough space between us so that, to everyone else, it wouldn’t look like AJ and I knew each other at all.  I spotted Megan down the hall and tensed up a little, and unfortunately, AJ detected it.
    “You do know we’re not doing anything wrong right now, don’t you?”  He asked condescendingly.
    “Maybe not right now, but we’re definitely not