Crash and Burn

t w e n t y f o u r: The Alley

Thanksgiving was a major success, and lucky for me I was able to block out my suspicions about Roman long enough to enjoy the holiday. However, Thanksgiving was over and so was my happy go lucky attitude. I was back to stressing about what was going on with Roman in that alley with those guys and the drugs. I thought by now I knew Roman well enough, but obviously, I had only just begun to chip the surface of his possibly very long list of secrets. I knew what I was about to get myself into would probably put me in danger and ruin my growing friendship with Roman, but by this point, I was already too far in to back out now. I needed to know what was going on, even if it meant I discovered something about Roman that could potentially ruin everything. I had put faith in Roman and his character, so now I was going to put that to the test.

I slipped on my black leggings, black t-shirt, black beanie, and black converse. This was my attempt at a disguise that would hopefully leave me hidden in the darkness behind the dumpster that I would call my hiding spot later. I was scared as hell and this was going to be by far the craziest thing I've ever done in my life ever. But, if I was going to do this right I just needed to check one thing first to make sure that Roman would be where I suspected tonight.

My plan is to call Roman and invite him over to hang out tonight. Knowing Roman, if he wasn't busy tonight he would one hundred percent agree to my offer. However, if my theory is correct he'll decline just as I am suspecting he will. I mean by this point I was pretty confident that this alley is where Roman disappears to every Saturday night. After the night we were supposed to see a movie and he never showed up I called him- I heard some pretty weird noises in the background, most sounding like grown men. Then the incident of last Saturday where he kept getting mysterious calls and finally left and I followed him, seeing something I never would have expected. I dialed Roman's number, and it rang four times before he picked it up.

"Hey Tess, what's up?" he says in a sleepy, groggy voice, that I couldn't help but notice how sexy it was, but I shook that thought away almost instantaneously. I had bigger things to worry about right now. I've never been very good at lying or scheming so this was going to be very difficult for me.

"I'm sorry did I wake you?" I ask referring to his voice.

"Awe yeah but it's fine I was just taking a nap but I needed to wake up about now anyway," he says. Wow, Roman, way to give yourself away. The only reason he would be needing to wake up would be because he needs to go somewhere...

"But anyway, did you need to tell me something?" he continues.

I started, "I'm crazy bored right now so I was wondering if you wanted to come over or something..." I trail off attempting to sound casual. It was about eight o'clock now and Roman's 'plans' usually occur around ten or so, meaning he was probably getting ready now. He's silent for a few moments, most likely concocting an excuse in his head.

"Ummm actually I can't tonight. I have to watch Brody at the house but I'll be free tomorrow. I'll text you," he finally gets himself to speak. For some reason, my heart still drops at his words. I knew he was going to say something along those lines but there was still a small piece of me hoping that none of my suspicions were true. He seems kind of out of breath after saying that like lying to me was really hard for him which makes me feel slightly better.

"Yeah, of course, that's totally fine. Tell Brody I said hey for me, okay?" I request.

"Totally. Don't get too bored without me alright? See you, Tess," he finishes preparing to hang up.

"Yeah see you," I conclude before the line goes dead.

It was time to put my plan into motion.

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