My Story Part 45
By Corbin
How life tests the endurance, patience, and sometimes faith of one young woman.

*********

If any of you find that I am repeating myself as I begin one of my rants...tough 
shit! 

Most of you slackers are probably couch potatoes anyway and willingly watch re-
runs on the TV, so what's the big deal?

As I have probably indicated previously, I love the 'Heat'. No you goobers, not 
the Miami Heat basketball team...but the Summer HEAT! It really irritates me 
when people say things like...."Gee, it's going to be a hot one today."  Oh 
yeah? Really? A hot one? No shit Sherlock! It's summer time...and it's going to 
stay hot for the next few months...SO STOP TALKING ABOUT HOW HOT IT IS! Morons!

I've given up on TV all together, what little watching I did I can no longer 
stomach. The fake 24/hr Cable News Channels, feeding us preprocessed bullshit 
that doesn't matter. Politicians that lie every time they open they're mouths, 
living off the fat of land from some bill they passed in the middle of the night 
so they will be taken care of while the rest of us rot on a corrupt social 
security platform that's regurgitated come every fucking election. Or hold some 
bullshit hearings on Steroids in baseball when no one gives a damn, all the 
while people are dying of diseases as Pharmaceutical companies hold back on 
delivering drugs to the market because it's not the right time financially to 
release it to the market, and because they make more money off of perpetuating 
the myth that they're is no cure for the common cold because they reap so much 
money from selling their crappy over the counter cold treatments.

***WHEW*** I feel better now.

Anyway, life is always catching me off-guard / by-surprise, if you will, may be 
the better phrase. Anyway, my next encounter with the lovely Tasha came right at 
my apartment complex as I came breezing into the downstairs lobby from running a 
few errands. (If you have no clue as to what I am writing about, then you need 
to re-read what I've written up till this point, because I am not going to catch 
you lazy people up with some cheap summary.) 

I think I recall freezing for a moment in shock, our last encounter wasn't very 
pleasant and while she seemed to get along quite famously with Sharon, Tasha had 
developed real dislike for me.

Tasha gave me a glance over the shoulder as she was heading up the stairs, 
obviously here to see Sharon. Since this encounter was taking place immediately 
after Sharon's little 'talking to' concerning Tasha's attitude problem with me, 
I was curious to see if any of it had sunk in.

While the girl did appear to be biting her tongue initially, her eyes were 
giving me that 'once' over. Our few encounters always included her giving me a 
hard stare-down. Today, my hair was unusually pulled back into a tight ponytail; 
dressed in a pair of sandals, khaki shorts and a snug fitting white t-shirt.  
The past two days were my break days from the gym to let my body rest up and 
rebuild. My muscles were looking pretty well defined and under the tight, white 
shirt, well the term devastating comes to mind. I think I may have even flexed 
my wall of abdominal muscles just a little, the thin veil of fabric did little 
to hide anything...most likely it enhanced every attribute.

"Can I help you?" I asked, in a nice tone by the way.

"I just wanted to talk to Sharon." Tasha's voice rose with some level of 
irritation, again she was biting her tongue, but I did sense a slight bit of 
nervousness. Maybe she felt she was on 'my turf' or something.

"Oh really? And is Sharon aware of this little visit, or do you JUST happen to 
be in the neighborhood?" I raised a suspicious eyebrow and stepped forward. 
Okay, at this point I think I had discarded the pleasantries. I started to 
wonder if Tasha's tough act was just that, an act, as I was picking up little to 
no serious attitude at this particular moment...then again we had no audience. 
It was at this moment I decided to escalate my unfriendly, accusatory tone.  
But with the faint click of an upstairs lock, followed by the turning of a 
knob echoing throughout the foyer, it registered with immediate impact.  Like an 
ice pick, it drove into our confrontation. I was disappointed to say the least.

"Hey Corbin, thought that...was...." Sharon came bouncing down the stairs, with 
her big smile, but the words trailed off when she saw Tasha standing there. Her 
expression became slightly grave with concern as she began to quickly asses the 
situation, knowing our past. 

"Just came by to visit." Tasha quickly replied.

Sharon didn't hesitate for a second, "That's fine, it's just I wasn't expecting 
you."

"No, go ahead Sharon, its okay, I need to finish up my errands." I interrupted. 
I figured I needed to cool my heels anyway back up in the apartment. I hated 
these 'girl politics' anyway and faked a smile before heading up the stairs, 
trying to slide past Sharon, but was intercepted by a light tug on my arm. My 
head came around and Sharon's stare was fairly probing. Tasha was still watching 
me, I could tell. "You ok?" Sharon asked in a lowered voice, her light touch on 
my arm seemed to intensify.

"Yeah, fine, I'll be upstairs." I shrugged, not completely understanding 
Sharon's sudden and very intense concern. Spontaneously Sharon leaned over and 
kissed me lightly on the cheek, which kind of threw me for a moment. Although 
we've engaged in stupid girly affections (hugging, kissing and junk) it never 
really seemed to affect me until recently. I have no doubt now, that it was the 
previous evening's wrestling antics that had sent me (and Sharon) over the edge 
of simply a platonic friendship. I think I was a little stiff towards Sharon 
because I felt Tasha's bitch eyeballs drilling into the back of my skull, 
evaluating every little thing I did.

I slowly shut the door behind me and paced the room trying to gather my 
thoughts.  Falling back on the couch, my hands came up to brush the sweat from 
my face, I was a little surprised to feel a slight tremble in my own touch.