Just Friends

Who's there?

I froze when the creaking of the front door cut through the silent apartment like a knife. I held my breath as my heart rabbited in my chest. I looked around for anything I might use as a weapon and grabbed the nearest item to my right- the bedside lamp. I crouched low to the ground and waited as the intruder made their way through the living room cautiously, their footfalls making little crunching sounds in the carpet. My palms were sweaty as I gripped the lamp, preparing to swing at the first glimpse of whomever had broken into Madi's home. I smothered a scream as a single boot crossed the threshold, scuffed and worn at the toe. Then he appeared, tall and strong, and something about him stirred a sliver of recognition I didn't take time to examine. Instead, I sprang, and with a loud grunt, I charged the man, swinging the lamp toward the side of his head.

With swift reflexes, he ducked and blocked my attempt with his forearm, shoving it aside. I yelped as he charged me, head down, wrapping his arms around my waist. He lifted me up into the air, and I kicked frantically, clawing at the back of his neck and shoulders. In my panic, my screams fell silent. All of the sudden I was falling backwards, the ceiling tipping above me, and my breath caught in my throat. I landed on the bed, the mattress recoiling under me. I screeched as my assailant wrestled my arms out from behind him and flipped me onto my stomach, pinning me to the mattress. His thumbs dug into my wrists as he held me still, his own breathing labored.

"Who are you?!" he demanded.

"Who the hell are you?!" I retorted.

"I'm the boyfriend," he growled, pushing me further into the mattress.

I struggled to breathe as his weight forced the air from my lungs.

"I'm- the- cousin!" I protested. Instantly, the weight lifted, and my hands released. I gasped and scrambled up to face the man, taking in his features for the first time. He was tall- about six foot three, with rugged features. His dark hair was cut close to his scalp, and his eyes were a piercing green. A scar extended from the corner of his left eye to his cheekbone, and another, smaller scar bit into the bridge of his nose. On impulse I glanced down at his hands. His knuckles were calloused, just as I'd suspected they would be. This man was a fighter.

"How did you get in?" I asked. My legs and hands still shook with unspent adrenaline, and my stomach was in knots.

The man pulled a small silver object from his pants pocket- a key- and held it up for me to see.

"With this," he told me. "Your turn. How did you get in to Madi's apartment?"

I gulped and held up the key Madi had given to me on her last night in California.

"A key," I repeated.

He nodded once and looked around, as if seeing the apartment for the first time.

"Did you do all this?" he asked gruffly.

I huffed.

"Of course not! It was like this when I arrived about twenty minutes before you."

I faltered, unsure whether to believe him. I was still winded from our altercation, but the man across from me seemed at ease.

"I'm Madi," I said, proffering a shaking hand. The man looked down at it for a few seconds, before hesitantly providing his own. He followed it up with a knuckle crunching handshake, and I winced and withdrew, glaring at him.

"And you are?"

His eyes scanned the bedroom, truly seeing the extent of the damage for the first time. Or at least pretending to.

"I'm Danny. Madison and I dated, for awhile."

"You're Daniel Salazar?"

He looked at me like I was crazy.

"The last time I checked," he quipped.

"I met your brother earlier today. He mentioned you- I met him at the Memorial."

I knew it was wrong to bring it up, but if this man had dated my cousin, I wanted to know why he hadn't paid his respects. Clearly, he wasn't too busy to lurk around her apartment.

"Yeah, Ian's a good guy," he replied, distracted.

I watched while his eyes darted from corner to corner, tracing the furniture and studying the objects the lay strewn all around the room. Danny stood between me and my exit- and though I was suspicious of him enough to demand answers, I was cautious enough to know when to quit.

"I have to contact the utility companies and pack up her things," I told him, inching my way toward the door. His eyes still studied the floors, the baseboards . . . underneath the cabinet.

"Is there something I can help you find?" I offered.

Danny blinked and straightened, blowing out a steady breath.

"N-no. No, I just needed to see it again. I guess to say goodbye," he finished.

My bullshit meter was ringing off the hook, and I continued to inch closer to the door, calculating how quickly I could make it past Danny if I needed to run.

"She um-" Danny hesitated with his scarred hand in the air, hovering in the vacant space between us. "Madi didn't happen to mention a diary, did she?"

Immediately I went on high alert. Madi had, in fact, mentioned a diary- she'd specifically requested that I retrieve it from her apartment and send it to her with delivery confirmation. Though she hadn't enumerated its contents, I'd surmised that whatever she'd written could implicate her attackers. Which begged the question: What did Danny want with it?

"She and I weren't very close these past few years," I told him. My stomach contorted into knots as he looked at me- really looked at me- and narrowed his eyes.

"Yes . . . yet here you are. With a key, no less."

I cleared my throat, trying to maintain a steady voice. If Danny had dated my cousin, then it was more than likely he knew of her destroyed relationship with her family- her mother, in particular- so there was no way I could tell him her mother had kept a copy of the key. It was best to keep the lie simple, in this case.

"I asked management to let me in," I lied.

"And he gave you a key?"

I nodded my head.

"That's interesting, considering the manager is a woman," he said. His body angled toward me, and his eyes sharpened, like a predator on the hunt. I had to think of a way out of this conversational pit before I got tackled a second time.

"I think he was the maintenance man," I hedged. "He called the manager, and she instructed him to let me in. He handed me the key."

I hoped the Creekwood Manner apartments kept a regular maintenance man on its payroll, because I was out of lifelines. Thankfully, right at that moment, my phone rang, and I nearly wept with gratitude. I held a finger up and answered it, praying I could inch my way past the man across from me. My voice was falsely cheerful when I answered the call, much to the cable tv provider's surprise.

"I've got to take this," I mouthed, easing my way out of the bedroom. Danny made no move to leave, and I wasn't about to ask him to. At this point, I was lucky to be leaving with all my body parts in their rightful positions.

After I closed the door, I ran down the stairs while the saleswoman continued her spiel about their Fall savings packages. I didn't hear what she was saying, and I didn't care about the discounts. I ran to my car and tossed the cell phone in onto the front seat, started the car, and sped off toward the highway. Danny watched me from the upstairs window.