Short Story: The Confrontation

Nervously waiting for the storm to come bombarding through the door as she sat in her wooden chair expecting the worst but hoping for the best. The room was silent, but her mind was pacing with thoughts.

“I couldn’t believe she overheard my conversation, now she is really going to hate me,” she thought.

Her usual routine of cramming away the minutes with every bit of work she could do was not on her list of priorities at the moment, but rather worrying about what she was going to say and frantically searching for the perfect inoffensive words she could possibly utter out.

Feeling the intense pain of knots in her stomach and the swelling in her eyes as they began to drain with water was the worst yet, at the same time, a relieving sensation. Reaching for her Bible, Laura, perpetually turned the pages, craving to obtain any information that might help calm the storm that arose within her. She inevitably knew that she couldn’t control the confrontation that was about to take place, but she did know that she could at least control her own emotions. Frantically focusing on every page she turned to, she just couldn’t focus on one single thought so she closed the Bible in frustration and erupted with a boisterous sound.

“I can’t do this, I can’t tell her how I feel, everything will be so awkward from here on to the end of the semester, it’s just not worth it.” Laura reflected, or rather, consulted herself on what to do as she tried to “fear” herself out of doing what she knew had to be done.

Finally, she decided to call her mom and let her know of the dilemma at hand. Searching for her phone as her eyes twitched all over the room, she finally found it resting underneath her papers and books that were messily thrown on her desk. She snatched the phone and dialed her mother’s number. She heard the continuous sound of the rings through the phone as her knee bounced rapidly, and much to her dismay, her mother did not pick up.

She decided to turn to God once again by praying silently to herself as she sat in her chair. It was the only thing she could think to do at a moment like this…

“Dear Lord, I am so worried about my roommate and how she is going to react to me. Please give me the strength to speak in humility and not frustration or anger. I cannot stand confrontation so please give me wisdom and allow me to control my emotions. Lord, I thank you that You are going to turn this situation around, for what the devil means for harm, You can revive it and produce a victory from it, no matter the situation. I know I was in the wrong in some areas so help my apology be sincere and truthful, but allow me to also assert myself in the areas needed. I don’t want to start a battle between us, I have no desire to turn this into a nitpick argument of who’s done what and who is right and who is wrong…”

In mid sentence, the wind picked up and all of a sudden the sounds of horse hooves were beating against the window ceil. The rain came down as hard as golf balls pouring out into the dark night sky. It almost seemed too hard to be rain, but before she had much time to think about the rain the door came flinging open and Janice came striding in. Laura quickly finished her prayer by saying,

“Lord, thank you for hearing my prayer and actively responding to it in Jesus’ name, amen!”

Janice didn’t even look at Laura, when she walked in the room with her hair drenched and her clothes soaked, but it didn’t take her long to address the one question Laura had been dreading…

“Did you know you called me?” Janice asked in a stern voice.

With much pain Laura answered back in a soft, low voice,

“Yes I did, and I am really sorry you had to hear my conversation, but I had to talk to someone about it because I couldn’t keep pretending like everything was fine when in all actuality I have been very unhappy with our relationship.”

Janice’s eyes burned with fire as she glared at Laura from across the room. Then Janice stormed into the bathroom, in which she started washing dishes and Laura sat uneasily in her chair because she had not anticipated Janice to react like that.

From the bathroom Laura could hear Janice yell back to her saying,

“You had no right to talk about me like that, what I want to do with my life is my business and I don’t have to answer to you or help you out whenever you need something.”

Laura sank in her chair and regretted ever asking to have a talk with Janice but after that comment Janice got really quite and all Laura heard for the next couple of minutes was the running water coming from the sink. Now Laura yearned to know what thoughts were rummaging through Janice’s mind and whether or not she should pack up and look for a new room or not. About five minutes had passed, but since Laura’s mind was pacing back and forth from thought to thought, she felt as if an eternity had passed. When Janice came back into the room Laura opened her mouth to apologize but stopped because she noticed Janice’s eyes were no longer fiery red, but instead they had swelled to tears as her head hung down low.

Sympathy had swiped over Laura’s emotions as she compassionately informed Janice of her apology,

“Janice, I am so sorry I did not mean to make you cry!”

“It’s not you Laura, I know things haven’t been going well, I just wasn’t expecting to overhear it through a phone conversation of you and someone else. That sent me over the edge to hear you talk about me like that, but instead of anger and bitterness, all I could feel was pain and misery. I realize I can be a bit picky on how I live my life…”

Laura interrupted and jokingly emphasized, “a bit picky???”

Immediately after Laura said that, the look of terror took over her face, because she had really meant to only say that in her head but thought it would lighten up the situation so she decided to say it out loud. However, Laura knew that Janice was extra sensitive at that given moment and didn’t know how she took the comment. Much to her amazement, Janice started laughing and spoke back by saying,

“Okay, okay, I’m a lot picky when it comes to living,” she laughed out loud, “it’s just I’ve never had to share a room with anyone before and I wasn’t aware how different it truly is. I know some of the things I do bother you and perhaps hurt your feelings a lot but its something I know I can work on.”

Laura’s jaw dropped wide open as she stayed planted in her chair not being able to move much less speak because of the shock she was in from her roommates reaction.

The once tall, dark hair, and overpowering personality that Laura saw from Janice, was no longer there and instead she saw Janice for the first time as a kind hearted individual who actually has more than one emotion.

Laura thought about how this conversation could have gone, but instead it took a completely different direction, Laura was relieved and ultimately thankful that God intervened because the situation would not have gone as well as it did if it were not for Him.

As Laura finished gathering her thoughts, she realized that it was her turn to speak. She obviously realized that Janice understood where she was coming from, so she decided to move on from the matter as she forgave her and asked for her own apologies. Janice, in return was more than happy to accept her apology as they talked out their differences and made amends with each other. This taught Laura that even in the midst of a dramatic situation, we should immediately turn to God and not others and by doing so, He will make a way where there seems to not be one.