Beware of the Neighborhood.

11 - Reading the news is not always Healthy

As soon as she left I got up and ran after her. I vaguely heard Kevin asking me what was wrong but by the time he even finished the question I was already out the door. The early evening traffic was increasing and at first I couldn't find her at all. But finally I saw her heading towards the opposite side; she seemed alone so I ran after her, all the time calling her name. Finally I caught up to her and said

"Wait!"

"What is the matter with you?" she asked harshly.

"Listen..." I tried to say but she cut in saying,

"All I ever asked you was one simple favour! That time you very innocently answered that you are not interested!" her voice shook with anger.

"Yeah, but..." I tried but she continued,

"The next thing I know he is telling people that you are with him"

"That was a misunderstanding. It was for the challenge" I said hurriedly but again she ignored me and said,

"Finally you told Candace that there was nothing between you people and the next thing I know, you are in a damn Italian restaurant. He doesn't even like Italian food by the way...and...and...you are holding hands!" her eyes seemed to be on the verge of tears.

"No! You are misinterpreting!" I said, raising my hand so that she could see the cut, but she didn't even notice and continued,

"You know what Ashley, if we weren't friends and you were going out with Kevin, I wouldn't have been so hurt, but you lied to me? You lied on my face! Not once but again and again. One favour Ashley! That's all I asked!" she said. She was crying now. I gulped. I was always uncomfortable when anyone cried around me.

"I know..." I said apologetically but she just looked at me disapprovingly and said

"Do you? Whatever! I just don't want to talk you about this, or about anything! You are such a hypocrite! You say one thing and do another. You know what...if the situation was reversed...I would have never done something like this to you" she said and left. I stood there on the pavement watching her go. My eyes were beginning to sting and I took a deep breath to stop myself from crying. Mostly I didn't care what people thought about me but I didn't wanted Angela to think in that way about me. I liked Kevin, but as a friend and I felt guilty about hurting her, but to be honest this was a really big misunderstanding.

I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Kevin running up to me, smiling.

"What happened?" we both asked each other together.

"You first, since you look so happy" I said and he went on saying,

"You know, after you left the waiter thought you ran away because you didn't want to pay the bill, to which I said that you cut your hand because of their nail protruding from their table. And then I complained that how this had ruined our date and you ran because you were really hurt" he said.

Date? Did he say date?

"Why would anyone run if they are hurt?" I asked, frowning.

"Who cares? The best thing is that he believed me and as compensation he gave us the full meal on the house and also this sorry card" he said handing it to me.

I looked down at the lousy card which had a picture of a waiter spilling spaghetti on the guest's table and the spaghetti formed the words 'la lista delle vivande' I didn't know what the words meant but if it was a sorry card I wondered if it'll be a good idea to give this card to Angela. I opened the card and frowned.

"Kev, this isn't a sorry card, it's a take away menu" I objected.

"Yeah, but they gave it as a sorry card" he said then frowned and asked "Why did you run anyway?".