Taste | Changbin

Chapter Twenty

"You stupid, stupid whore!" Lennon's fathers words echoed in her head. "Go out and be a whore and when you come home knocked up, don't come whining to me!"  

Seventeen year old Lennon had been wearing her prom dress. She had worked extra hours at the pizzeria in order to pay for it. Spaghetti straps sat on her shoulders. It was a burgundy v-neck. The bottom of the fabric hung down to her ankles. She had been wearing a pair of black high heels. She planned to go to prom alone. 

She had spent hours perfecting her makeup. Shiny black hair hung in curls around her head. For once, she was happy. She locked herself in her room and pretended that everything was normal. Her dad had blacked out on the couch and this was the perfect chance to sneak out. She was thrilled! 

The school planned on having a red carpet theme and they were going all out. The yearbook committee was supposed to be lined up along the red carpet. Upon entering the school, students were going to be swarmed by a mob of fake paparazzi. She knew because she had helped plan it. She was part of the student council and prom committee. 

After going downstairs, she had accidentally stumbled upon her father in the kitchen. A bottle of beer was in his hand. He had looked her up and down before he started spewing about how much of a whore she was. She ran out of the house and right before she slammed the door shut, the brown bottle came hurling towards her. It connected with the door as she slammed it shut. 

Distraught, she hadn't walked herself a few blocks to the school. Instead, she had made her way to the abandoned park in the opposite direction. She yanked off her high heels and walked barefoot to the park. Nobody visited it anymore. The paint started peeling off the monkey bars. The metal slides, too hot to slide down in the summer, had started rusting as time went on.

Tears fell down her face and destroyed her makeup. She pulled herself up into the platform to head down the slides. It didn't take long before she curled herself up into a ball. A hand flew over her mouth to muffle her sobs. Her body shook while sadness seeped out of her. 

It was supposed to be her senior prom. The last prom before graduation, the last prom before adulthood, the last prom before she went out into the real world, and it was ruined before it even began. There was no way she could face her friends after her father's words. They rattled her too much. His words clung to her brain and stung over and over again. 

He had said a lot of things to her before, but he had never said something like that. She had been called a colorful variety of curse words, but never a whore. She had never had a boyfriend. She had never had an intimate relationship, never been kissed, too focused on her studies. For her own father to call her a whore, it was heartbreaking. 

She spent that night sobbing under the blanket of night. She hiccuped into the darkness, praying to God that someone would find her. Someone would hear her crying and wipe away her tears. Someone would tell her it was okay and they'd help her find her footing again. She cried until there were no tears left. Her throat was raw from the sobs. 

Nobody ever came. She sat with her head pressed against the cold bars of the equipment. It had reached later in the night, the temperature had dropped, and she didn't have a jacket. She didn't have anything besides herself. 

She awoke the next morning with a kink in her neck. Her head had rolled while she slept and she had ended up with her head tucked to her chest. She forced her stiff body to get up. She was still chilled from the night's air. She placed her heels back on her feet and trudged home. 

The only sound was of the chirping birds. It was early in the morning and they were looking for worms. Thankfully, her dad hadn't locked the front door. She removed her heels and quietly worked her way up to her bedroom. Her dad was once again knocked out on the couch. 

Her cell phone had blown up with messages asking where she was. Friends had planned to meet her at the dance. Where was she? She reassured them all in a group chat that she was fine. She had ended up with a stomach bug. She fell asleep the night before and she had just woken up. She apologized for missing the dance and threw herself into her bed where she proceeded to sleep for a few more hours.

"Did you finally get tired of being a whore?" Changbin's words only added to the pain. 

Tears pricked her eyes. A lump sat in her throat. She had run out of the arcade and down the street. She didn't know where she was and she didn't care. She kept turning onto random streets. It was stupid, the way she let their words eat her alive. Her father was thousands of miles away, probably blacked out in the living room. 

Changbin was just a dick. So she spilled coffee on him and accidentally cracked his phone. If she was in his place, she would have been annoyed, but she couldn't imagine herself actually being angry at the person. She hadn't intentionally meant to beat his high score on Pac-Man. She wanted to, but she doubted that she'd actually be able to do it. 

She didn't even know what town she was in. She had Chan's number, but the thought of texting him and admitting that she was lost was embarrassing. She couldn't admit that Changbin's words had made her so mad that she took off out of the arcade. She didn't want to go back and face the seven members that she still liked. 

Changbin's words reminded her so much of her father's words and it was all she could think about. He hadn't known, of course he hadn't. It was just something he said to piss her off. She took a deep breath and wiped her eyes with the palms of her hands. She'd rather walk home than admit she screwed up. 

Glancing up, she realized she was near a cafe. She took a deep breath before she yanked open the door and forced herself inside. She needed time to sit down and collect herself. After that, she could figure out what she was going to do. 

"Lennon?" 

The voice caused her to stiffen. She glanced over to see an unfamiliar honey skin toned woman staring at her. Blonde hair came down to her shoulders. Warm half-moon brown eyes stared into her own. A small mole sat on the upper left side of her chin.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" 

"Yes, er...no? Maybe, I don't really know. Han sent me a photo of you the other day. He was talking about how much they all really liked the new makeup artist. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm Hana, the former makeup artist." 

A small smile appeared on Lennon's face. "I've heard so much about you in the little time I've been around. The guys really miss you. You just had a baby, right?" 

"Yeah, I did! I had a baby girl, but she was born early. She's still at the hospital. I've been spending all my time there recovering from giving birth and checking in on her. The hospital officially discharged me earlier this morning. My husband forced me to leave the hospital for a while. I decided to come here because it's my favorite cafe." 

"Oh, wow. That must be really difficult to deal with." Lennon didn't know anything about children and she didn't know anything about childbirth. However, she had also been born a few weeks early. Her mom used to talk about how scary those few weeks were. The doctors weren't sure if Lennon was going to make it. 

"Do you have a few minutes to sit down and talk? I'm not supposed to be doing a lot of walking around and I'm in a little bit of pain." 

"Of course! Let me go get myself a drink and I'll be right there." 

Hana walked away to go pick out a table. Lennon didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing. This conversation could go one or two ways. 

There was only one way to find out.