Free Casting Down Imaginations by LaShanda Michelle Page B

best to figure out what I ever saw in him and returned to
studying. He kept calling though, so I finally walked over to the phone and
snapped it open.
    “What!?!”
    “Why you
gotta answer the phone like that?” Terrance asked.
    “Why you
gotta keep calling me?”
    “I been
trying to call you for the last few weeks girl,” he told me. “The least you
could do is return my call.”
    “Are we
whining now?” I asked him.
    “What
are you doing?”
    “Are we
trying to make small talk?”
    “Why do
you keep answering me with questions?” he asked.
    He got
me.
    “Please
state your reason for calling,” I said very matter-of-factly.
    He
chuckled. “Same old Karen.”
    I
sighed. “Terrance, we’ve been through this.”
    “I know.
And I’m sorry if I keep on bugging you, but—”
    “You’re
forgiven.”
    He
paused.
    “Karen,
that was mean.”
    I felt
the hurt in his voice. That was mean. When did I get to be this way?
    “Sorry,”
I apologized, even though everything in me didn’t want to. Maybe if I took the
time to listen to him he would finally get the clue that I didn’t want him
anymore and would stop calling. Then the two of us could go on with our lives.
    “It’s
okay,” he said. “Do you have time to talk?” he asked.
    “It’s
Saturday.”
    “Oh.
You’re on your way out?”
    I rolled
my eyes up at the ceiling. “No. I meant that it’s the weekend and I have
unlimited minutes.”
    “Oh,” he
laughed. “I was asking if you had time in your schedule to talk to me.”
    “Oh.”
Now I felt like the ignorant one.
    “Well do
you?”
    I was
confused. “Do I what?”
    “Do you
have time to talk?”
    I
scrunched my face. He still made me act silly after all this time.
    “Yes, I
have time,” I told him, trying to straighten up. As I walked back to the couch
I got a glimpse of myself in the mirror that hung over it. Thank God he
couldn’t see me. I looked a mess.
    “So what
are you doing?” he asked.
    “Studying.”
    “Do you
need me to let you go?”
    Everything
in me said to hang up the phone. This could not be going in a good direction.
    “No, I’m
good,” I told him. “I could use a break for a few minutes.”
    “Cool.
So what have you been up to?”
    “Well
Terrance, where do you want me to start?” I asked. “It’s been over two years.”
    “Start
after high school,” he said.
    “For
who, you or me?”
    He
laughed. “Me. Start where we… you know, broke up.”
    He was
thinking about the day I told him I was pregnant.
    “Terrance…
Why don’t you just come right on out and ask me what it is you really want to
ask me?”
    There
was a long pause before he spoke again. “Were you really pregnant?”
    I kept
my voice as monotone as I possibly could. I wanted to go off, but that would
not have given him the answers to his questions, which meant that he would keep
calling.
    “Terrance,
I showed you the doctor’s lab results.”
    Another
pause. “What happened to the baby, Karen?”
    He’d
heard all the abortion rumors that floated around the school. Two years later,
the lies still affected me.
    “I lost
the baby, Terrance.”
    “How?”
    These
questions were making me uncomfortable. It took me a long time to move on from
all of that and it pained me to dig it all back up again.
    “The
doctor said that it was probably from stress,” I informed, and took a sip from
my hot drink.
    “Is that
really what it was?”
    Oh my
God… Now I understood.
    All the
phone calls…
    This
whole time he’s been thinking that…
    “Terrance,
you didn’t make me lose the baby when you hit me.”
    He was
really quiet on the other end. I think I heard him sniffle.
    “Terrance?”
    A
definite sniffle.
    “Yeah,
I’m here.”
    I waited
before I spoke again. “Are you okay?”
    He
cleared his throat. “Yeah,” he said. “I just… you know…”
    I was
confused. Why after all this time? What took him so long to find out the truth
about the baby?
    “Are you
expecting another