him because he was the only person that I showed the credit card trick to.
Yes, I was pissed off that Johnny stole the money from me and
no, I didn’t let him get away with it. I yelled at him, called him terrible
names, threw his things out my window, nothing breakable of course,
but threw them nonetheless. All the while, Johnny just stood there in
my room and let me freak out at him. He stayed away for a few days and
then showed up one night when I was doing my laundry. Andy was in the
communal laundry room, too, of course, claiming it was cheaper to wash
his things here rather than his apartment. Just as Andy was headed out
we heard a knock at the hallway entrance to the building. It was Johnny.
He didn’t live here so he couldn’t get in without someone else opening the
door for him. Andy was closer to the entrance.
“Should I let him in?” he asked. I nodded my head.
“Andy, I said yes. Now let him in.” Goddamn, Andy’s persistent.
“Okay.” Andy put down his laundry basket and let Johnny in,
refusing to make eye contact with him the entire time.
“Thanks, man,” I hear Johnny say. I didn’t make eye contact with
him either. Johnny offered to help me with my laundry. For some reason
I didn’t turn him away. While we were separating lights from darks he
hugged me from behind and started to cry into my shoulder. He held me
like that for a while and eventually I told him it was okay. I knew he was
sorry. I didn’t want to ask why he stole the money because I truly didn’t
want to know the answer. I just assumed he must’ve really needed it. It
was only a hundred dollars after all.
“Whatever, we talked it out and everything’s fine. Plus that was
like four months ago.” That last part is actually true. “What’s bothering
me is fucking Andy.”
“Why? He’s so nice.”
“He’s just so desperate and he asks really lame things.”
“And yet he has nothing but nice things to say about you.” I can
hear a smile in her voice. “What lame things does he ask?”
“Just stupid shit, like we’ve been doing the same thing for my
birthday for the past three or four years and yet he still asks about it as if
the plans would’ve changed and I don’t know, he’s just always at Tom’s.”
“Well, they’re good friends.” I can tell Heather wants to leave the
argument at that. She’s known Andy longer than I have and for some
reason still chooses to hang out with him.
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