The Badboy, the Catfish & Me

Twenty-Seven

Once the elevator door opened on the fourth floor, my feet suddenly froze. Should I even be here? Seeing the doors begin to close in front of me, I jammed the button to open them again. I walked through the hall, reminding myself to keep breathing. It was silent, and no one was around, not even a nursing assistant.

I was able to find room 401 without any problem. I reached out to turn the doorknob but stopped. I could hear voices coming out of the room.

"¿Que estabas pensando? That was stupid what you did, calling your mom like that."

It was the voice of an older man in his late forties or early fifties. I wasn't fluent in Spanish, but from the tone and what I learned in school, I could roughly guess the meaning: What do you think you were doing?

"All right, I get it."

My stomach somersaulted at the sound of Valentino's voice. I peeked through the door to see him seated next to a hospital bed. His left arm was taut over the armchair with an adhesive bandage covering his elbow pit. Beside him was a man almost as tall as his son, but his hair was salt and pepper black, sitting upright on the bed.

"And all this for what? To impress a girl you've never met? Eres estúpido."

The sentence sent a thousand knives through my heart. Did his dad know about Tireya?

"Dad, she's the least of my problems. If anything, she was helping me."

"Helping you? ¿De verdad? I come home late and see you in front of your laptop so many nights, and I know you aren't studying. Bayunco, what else can I say?"

"Just stop!"

"Stop?"

"Our life is bothering me. And you're the reason!"

"Me? ¿Que estas diciendo? I work so hard for you!"

"You only spent so much time trying to make money to convince Mom to be with us, and for what? She's getting married to another man! It's because of that girl, I learned the truth! Every day, you talked about her like she would come back, even though she didn't even bother to talk to either of us. That's what's been making me sick!"

I closed my eyes briefly, leaning back against the wall. Is that why Valentino tried to talk this out to me that other day? He finally reached out to his mom for his scholarships to find out his family was breaking apart. Irreversibly.

"Mi hijo..." The man's voice suddenly lost its fiery wrath and turned defeated. "I just want my wife and daughter here. I try everything...."

"Everything but take care of the family right in front of you."

Valentino stood. I quickly turned my back to the door and rushed to the empty blue seats outside one of the nearby rooms. I didn't know what to feel worse about, how Valentino was feeling, or that I was partially responsible for it.

I tapped my foot to a random rhythm as the door clicked open, and Valentino stepped out. Upon seeing me, his eyes widened.

"Inaya?" he asked, walking over.

"Hey," I smiled weakly. "I, um, heard that you were here. I texted you, but you didn't reply..."

"Oh, yeah." He sank into the chair beside her and pulled out his phone from his pocket to look at it briefly. "I was a little busy."

"No, it's okay, I get it," I forced a smile. "But what happened?"

"My dad forgets to take his medicine when he over-stresses, and then he gets anemic, so I had to donate blood." He flashed me his signature smile and shrugged. "It's nothing serious."

"Well...it's not your grades, is it? The thing that overstressed him?" I ventured.

"Huh, I wish it was just that," Valentino said, the edge of his lips twitching in a fleeting smile. "No, it's...um, I got news from my mom...well, you don't know this, but I'm living alone here with my dad...." Valentino exhaled through his mouth.

It hurt to hear him say that. Living alone with my dad.

"So, my mom and little sister are in San Diego," he tried again. "We've been hoping she and my little sister'd come to live with us here for a while now. I called my mom the other day and found out it would never happen." He paused. "I haven't told anyone about this...well, I did tell someone, but they're avoiding me right now, so maybe I could count them out."

The lie of being Tireya was crashing down on my shoulders with every word he said.

He let out a bitter chuckle, but it sounded more like a scoff. "It's crazy because I called my mom because of how much I wanted a family. Something that person suggested."

My heart cleaved. Maybe if I'd been online more to help him talk through his problems, I could've helped him out. No—if I had never chosen to catfish him at all if I had never wanted to overstep our friendship—I wouldn't have made his situation worse by involving Tireya.

"I'm sorry you're going through that," I said, voice low. "I used to have a little sister. She passed away when I was three," I added, my gaze falling to the metal armchair that separated me and Valentino. "But...um...I'm saying this because I...I do know about your situation!" I finally cried, unable to contain the lie inside my chest anymore.

Valentino's eyes narrowed, and his lips parted. I curled a hand around my neck, feeling the cold sweat beneath the fabric of my hijab, and looked up to the ceiling to contain the tears inside my eyes. But as a few tears streamed down my cheeks, my confession flowed out with it.

"I know how you've been living with your dad here, how your mom is Bengali..." My voice trailed off now, dropping into mere whispers. "And I also know how much you miss your lito and bito."

"What?" Valentino's eyes were now wide with incredulity.

"Valentino," I swallowed hard. I forced myselfto look at him and reminded myself that my nana didn't die for me just to hurtsomeone else. "I'm Tireya."