"No," I answered with a straight face. Gemma stared at me long and hard with a look of disbelief and subtle hostility.
"Then what was he doing here?"
"Looking for his wife." With every answer, Gemma was getting more and more angry.
"How did he know that she was here?"
"I have no idea." Gemma looked as though she wanted to slap me.
"So who was the guy that was here earlier?" She asked.
"What guy?" Gemma's hands balled into fists.
"The one who was using the bathroom! The one who you were fucking when I came home with Sharon!" She screamed at me.
"Oh, that was Richard," I said nonchalantly. The way that the lies were just rolling off my tongue was unbelievable even to me. I almost wanted to laugh but I knew that Gemma might kill me.
"Richard gave you that ring?" She asked me. I nodded. Gemma narrowed her eyes into slits and brought her face close to mine. "I know that you're lying. I know that you are more involved than you are leading me to believe and I'm going to find out what's really going on," she said. Then she got up and left my room, slamming the door behind her. Gemma was scary, but I didn't think that she would find out anything and if she continued seeing Sharon, she would only make it easier for me to be with Professor Moore. Professor Moore! I grabbed my phone. He had texted, called, and left voicemails. I decided to read the text messages first. They read:
‘Are you ok?? What happened?’
‘I'm so sorry! Please forgive me?’
‘I hope that you are alright.’
‘Please, call me when you get these messages.’
His voicemails said about the same things. He didn't know what was going on! Now, I laughed. Hysterically. Until tears fell from my eyes. Until Gemma yelled at me to shut the hell up. I think that I was actually going insane. I called Professor Moore. He answered on the first ring.
"Hey, are you ok?" He asked me as soon as he answered the phone.
"Yea, I'm fine. How are you?" I asked him.
"I'm alright. I'm sorry about all that. This is a mess," he said.
"It's not your fault," I told him. I started thinking, and wondered how he didn't suspect me. "How are things with your wife?" There was a pause.
"She's staying at her mother’s house," he told me. There was another pause. "So you knew that she was seeing your roommate all along?" I bit my lip.
"Yea," I admitted.
"So, that's how you got the pictures? You took them?" He asked me. Tears sprung up in my eyes.
"Yes," I answered.
"How'd you know she was my wife?" He asked me. I weighed the question over in my mind.
"She told us," I answered.
"So your roommate knew that she was married and she slept with her anyway?! While you took pictures?!" He yelled. Then he hung up on me. I fell back onto the pillows. Everything was unraveling and I didn't know how to fix it. My stomach growled. On top of everything, I was hungry. I checked the time on my phone. Dinner time. I got up and out of bed and got dressed. The rest of the apartment was quiet when I left my room. The door to Gemma's room was shut. I didn't know if she was here or not and I didn't really want to find out. I left the apartment and walked to the dining hall alone. When I got there, it was crowded. I scanned the place for Gemma, but I didn't see her. I got in line and grabbed two slices of pepperoni pizza, then went to get some soda. With my tray in hand, I tried to find an empty table, but there were none. Then I saw Richard smiling and waving me over. I grinned, happy that he was happy to see me. I made my way over to join him.
"Hey," I said once I was seated.
"Hey," he said. "How's it going?" I wished that I could tell him. Anybody! Keeping everything to myself was destroying me! I really wished that I could tell Gemma. We were supposed to be friends and I hadn't been a friend to her lately. All of a sudden, I was crying. Richard looked alarmed. "Are you alright?" I couldn't speak so I just shook my head. My body shook with silent sobs. Richard grabbed a bunch of napkins and handed them to me. I wiped my face and took a sip of my soda.
"I'm fine," I told him but he was not convinced.
"You look anything but fine," he said. He looked so concerned that it made me start crying all over again. I didn't deserve it! I didn't deserve to have everyone worrying about me!