“Thank you so much for being willing to listen. I’m just so worried. I can’t afford my rent if I lose my job, and when I talked to my roommates last night about what’s going on, they were nice but they said they can’t give me any extra time. I’m barely hanging on.”
After giving her a sisterly squeeze to show I sympathize with her, I walk over to the refrigerator. “How about a drink? I have iced tea, soda, and water.”
“Is it sweet tea?” she asks, and I swear I hear the hint of a southern twang when she says the words sweet tea.
I shake my head. “No, just regular unsweetened. I have sugar, though, so you can make it sweet.”
“Okay. Thanks!” she says, and although I listen for the twang again, it’s gone. Odd.
As I pour her a glass of iced tea, I ask, “Are you originally from here, or did you move here from somewhere? I ask because when you said sweet tea, I was reminded how my grandmother says that. She’s from Virginia, down near Richmond.”
She smiles, but it’s half-hearted. “I grew up in South Carolina, but we moved up here when I was sixteen. I guess when I’m upset, my southern comes out.”
I nod as she explains why I heard a twang, wondering why I didn’t hear it when she was really upset earlier. It doesn’t matter. People can’t control a lot about themselves when they’re crying over their life falling apart.
“Well, you don’t have to worry. Everything’s going to work out. I know it.”
My attempt to be a supportive big sister type seems to work, and as Sam drinks her tea, she says, “Where are you going? Do you need to leave?”
I wave away her concern with a smile. “My friend’s house. Ava’s, the house you were at for that party. She’s having another one, and I think the whole thing has been set up for Marius to convince me I should forgive him. Between you and me, it’s going to work.”
“Oh, that’s nice.”
Instantly, I feel bad for rubbing my impending happiness in her face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by that.”
“It’s okay,” Sam says with a smile, but I see tears in her eyes. “You and Marius make a great couple. I hope I can find someone like him.”
God, I could use a drink. Then I remember I left my wine glass upstairs.
“I’ll be right back. I just want to get my drink from the bedroom.”
“Sure!” Sam says, suddenly less weepy than before.
My grandmother always says a nice glass of iced tea can make anyone feel better. She usually means sweet tea with enough sugar to rot a person’s teeth out of their head, but I guess regular unsweetened tea works too.
I hurry upstairs so I don’t leave Sam alone for very long. On my way, I glance at the clock in the mezzanine area. 6:35. I should get leaving in the next few minutes so I’m not too late for the party, but it feels wrong to make Sam leave when she’s so sad.
Then again, she sounded like she was fine right before I came up here. Maybe she’d be okay with my having to go.
A noise makes me spin around, and I see Sam walking toward me. What the hell is she doing up here?
Holding up my glass like I need to prove I had a reason for coming up here, I say, “Found it! I was just coming back downstairs.”
She doesn’t say anything, and a second later, she pulls a gun out from behind her and aims it at me. “You’re not going anywhere. Sit on the bed and don’t do anything stupid, or I’ll shoot you.”
I notice the twang is back, but my fear makes that detail suddenly unimportant. My hands shake as I sit down like she ordered me to, and I spill the last few sips of my wine on the floor next to the bed. Terrified, I set the glass down on the floor and sit up to see her pointing the gun directly at the center of my forehead.
“Why are you doing this, Sam? I thought we were friends. I welcomed you into my home.”
She paces back and forth across the bedroom, her focus and the gun pointed at me the whole time. “Why is it okay that you have everything and I have nothing? It’s not! Why should you get a man like Marius?”
Oh, God! She’s lost her mind. She’s going to kill me because she’s obsessed with Marius.
I don’t know what to say, but I have to try something, so I settle on the truth or some nice version of it. “Sam, you deserve a great man. You do. I hope you know that. It’s just that Mariusis with me. It was pure luck that we got together. Nothing more. Not that I deserve him and you don’t. Please let me go. You don’t have to do this.”
“He’d want me if you weren’t around. You know that, don’t you? That’s why you want him back. Because you know that he would be with me if he was free.”
With every word she utters, her voice cracks and inches higher and higher. I need to keep her calm, but if we keep talking, she’s only going to get more upset.
