Page 64 of The Fallacy of True Love
“I know.” She sighed. “One of these days, you’ll realize that some people do good things just because they’re good people. They’re not helping you out to get an IOU.”
In the corner of my mind, I recognized that what she was saying was true. But it was hard to get rid of my conditioning from years of being made to feel that other people had sacrificed so much for me. That I owed them something in return.
I’d sworn I could fend for myself. I would pay my debts, damn it. No matter what Nikki said, I’d find a way to repay Alonzo.
My phone rang with an unknown number. Normally, I rejected those calls because they often came from telemarketers trying to sell me things. This time, I took a chance and answered in case it was the mailing service.
Good thing I did because it was the courier calling to say he was at the house.
After telling him to slip the envelope under our front door, I jumped to my feet. “The envelope’s at home,” I said to Nikki.
“See.” She grinned. “Lonzo for the win.”
“Uh huh. I’ll go grab it and come back. Watch my stuff?”
“Of course. See you.”
I jogged home, and when I made it past the doorway, I was sweaty and out of breath. But that didn’t matter because the envelope was right there. I tore the flap open, and out slid two familiar-looking sheets of paper, along with the filled-out request form.
Going by instinct, I flipped the form over and found more of Alonzo’s handwriting.
Camaya—
Bet you didn’t think I’d get this done, did you?
Hope this helps you with whatever you need it for. See, I didn’t ask.
Get a good surf in for me. I can’t wait till I’m at the beach again (even if you probably wish I’d never go back lol).
If you need anything else, you know how to reach me.
Alonzo
PS: Nice name—and no, I’m not being sarcastic.
I bit my lip. How did this guy manage to amuse and annoy me in a span of a couple of sentences? I’d screwed up by giving him my full name—the name I tried my best to forget. Of course, he’d latched onto it.
Grabbing my phone, I pulled up our message thread. I’d left his last message unread because he had pissed me off by using that name. But Nikki was right—he’d helped me out when he didn’t have to, and saved me from a dreaded trip to the city.
So I finally texted him back.
Alonzo
“Can you believe Tommy just left?” Miggy said as we walked down the stairs after a particularly brutal class. Tommy stormed out after our professor gave him a verbal lashing for not reading the assigned chapters. One girl cried after being told to reconsider her career path.
And we were only a month into the semester.
“The question is, will he come back?” I said. “Better yet, will Santos let him?” Our crim law 2 professor had a reputation for being one of the best and also one of the toughest. He said you had to be the latter in order to be the former.
“Shit, you’re right. I’m going to study twice as hard for his class from now on. I don’t want to be singled out like that.” Miggy shuddered.
“Same.” My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I took it out.
Wouldn’t you know it—after three days stuck in the seen zone, I finally had a reply from Cam.
Cam
got it, thx. and yep, ur right
