I couldn’t help egging her on. “You never know, do you, Allie?”
She pulled back her arm to punch me again, but I bobbed out of the way, and then we both laughed. She said, “If they kick you out, you can just get back on a plane to Texas, because I’m sure not giving you my room.”
I could hear the mirth in her voice, and I smiled too as I said, “Aw, you’d do that to me? What about spending time together this summer?”
Allie said, “Yeah, but I want you to know my priorities: First, my room. Second, my brother.”
“Nice to know where I rank.” We watched as bags started to schlouff onto the carousel and circle around.
“But you’re used to tight quarters, right? Living in the dorm with a roommate? And staying over with Skye all the time?”
Ugh. I was so tired, and I didn’t want to be reminded of Skye. But Allie had to be told, and it might as well be now. I sighed and turned my head to make eye contact with her. The joy dropped from her face before I said a word.
“So, yeah,” I said. “Me and Skye broke up.”
Her mouth opened in shock and her eyebrows rose to match. “What? When did this happen?”
“Five days ago.”
“My god, Jason, what happened?”
“It wasn’t working out.”
“But I thought you really liked her! You talk about her all the time. How great she is and all. What happened?”
I looked into her eyes and said, “Allie, I don’t really want to talk about it. It’s a little raw right now.”
Without a word, she turned away from me and looked down.
We stood in silence for a minute. I wish I knew what was going on in her head, but there was no way to ask after that. Soon I saw my bag on the carousel, and I said, “Hey, that’s my suitcase. Time to get my dirty clothes and get out of here.”
That brought some of her smile back. But not all.
—
When we got home, Allie parked on the street and invited me to check out her room before going in the main house. We went around back, me toting along my backpack and suitcase. She rattled through her keys briefly before opening her door and flipping on the lights.
I said, “Hey, I like what you’ve done with the place.” The room had been repainted pale grey, and she had new towels in the bathroom, enough sprucing to make the old floor and fixtures not so noticeable. When I lived here I never bothered with new paint, and I’ll admit it was ugly.
Allie beamed at the compliment. “It took a lot of work to get your smell out of this place,” she joked. At least I think it was a joke, because when I laughed she did too.
I was still chuckling when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out and shot a glance at the screen, but it was an unrecognized number, so I let it go to voicemail. I suppose there are college students who get a lot of calls at 3:00 in the morning, but I wasn’t one of them.
Within seconds, the phone buzzed again, the same number as before, and I said, “Allie, I don’t know who this is, but maybe I should take it.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
I punched the green button and said, “Hello?” and my life changed forever.
A female voice over the phone said, “Is this Jason Peters?”