The Friend

Rodney

A few days passed before he dared to do anything about Alicia. He had messed up badly. He remembered as he followed after her she had tears in her eyes. He had never made any woman cry before. He wasn't raised by either of his parents rather much both to know better than to make a woman cry, although deep down the parent bit felt like an excuse, and Derek didn't count because Derek was only a few years older than him. He could imagine if his mother was around a little while longer that she wouldn't raise him to make girls cry.

Rodney had to take off from work after the incident. He couldn't think straight. Never had he felt complete and utter repulsion for himself until that day. Overtime, the disgust just mounted more and more. If only he knew better, sooner rather than later. Growing up parentless, Rodney learned quickly to fight back with his words whenever someone pissed him off, and oftentimes whatever he said to someone was below the belt. And he didn't have one button to push to get him there too, he had several. Derek always described them as the troublesome brothers. Derek for always getting into physical fights and Rodney for always offending someone. The fists and the fury. Together, they got into messes often. Messes that eventually got them kicked out of their grandma's house in the middle of Rodney's senior year of high school. They've been living on their own ever since.

Rodney sighed and looked up at the apartment door in front of him. If his memory served him correctly, then Maxine and Alicia lived here. He had to apologize to her. But what would he say to her? Would she accept his apology?

She probably wouldn't. Maybe he shouldn't bring up the incident and just ask for an interview again, just completely act like it never happened and they could just move on. Yes, by asking for an interview, he could hang around her and make sure things between them were good. Of course, he had to make a mental note to never hurt her feelings like that again. He couldn't bear the ache and disgust he felt at making her cry.

He raised his hand to knock and lowered it with a curse. This was madness. He couldn't see her again. He started to walk away, but he stopped. This girl deserved an apology from him. Just because he didn't go through four years of academic torture, didn't mean he could disrespect her like he did. As he raised his hand again to the door, it wavered.

He truly couldn't go through with things. It was impossible. Whenever they talked, it ended in insults and he didn't want to hurt her for the third time. He turned when the door opened suddenly. His head switched back and he froze as he saw Alicia standing there with the garbage to throw out. Her brown eyes widened and quickly she shut the door, locking it. Rodney placed his hands on his hips.

"Don't you think locking the door is a bit much? I already can't get in," he said.

He strained his neck to hear her reply, but spoke again when he realized she wasn't going to speak, "Could you please open the door...you're going to have to come out sometime. I'll be here when you have to. That could be days...weeks...c'mon, you don't want to see a skeleton when you finally come out."

The door opened and she eyed him, "If it's yours, why not? Besides, there's a fire escape. I could throw the trash out there."

She moved past him and down the hall to the trash chute. When she returned, she walked past him without a word and started to shut her door when Rodney placed a hand on it to stop her.

"Wait," he said, "Can we talk?"

"We don't talk, we insult one another. Do you have another joke that you would like me to hear? Maybe about how can I split this apartment with Maxine at an unpaid internship that's so high school?" she asked.

"It's paid, isn't it?"

"I graduated college a few months ago. It isn't weird to be working as an intern for a company. That's what a lot of recently graduated kids do to get their steady job," she explained.