The next couple of months I've been going to church and seeing Caleah. If she was at bible study, I would go. If her parents had a picnic or something I would help out as much as I could. I never met her parents before and didn't want to. I was scared of her parents for some reason. I think every guy who dated a preachers daughter was. Her dad had this intimidating look on his face every time we would meet eyes while he was preaching. I never heard what he was preaching I was too busy looking at his daughter.
"You must be Zach," her dad says at the church picnic. "I'm Mike."
It was a nice day. A little overcast but the wind was blowing perfect. I shook the man's hand firmly and he seemed to like my handshake.
"Yes sir," I said with a smile. "How are you?"
"Doing good," he says.
"Hi I'm Loraine, Caleahs mother," a woman says walking up to me.
She offered her hand to me and I shook it.
"Nice to meet you ma'am," I said.
She looked just like Caleah a little. Those big doe eyes and funny green eyes.
"Zach let's walk," her dad says. "So what are your intentions with my daughter?"
"Her love," I said. "She's a lovely lady."
I started fidgeting and scratching at my arms a little as we talked. I could tell he was looking at my hands.
"No need to be nervous," he says. "I'm not a scary person."
I laughed a little and played it off. I knew what this whole fidgeting and scratchy thing was. I had to take some nose candy to even be here. I was nervous as shit being here.
"Unless your on something," he leaned in whispering to me.
"No sir," I lied and laughed a little.
He laughed too.
"You know Zach what do you do in your spare time?" He asked me.
"I'm a handyman and strum a guitar," I said.
"I'm a guitar man too. I used to play in a band back in the day."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, maybe one day we can uh get together and you know play a few notes."
We both chatted about guitars for a long time.
Caleah's dad was a cool person to be around and he wasn't so scary. But I felt like he knew what I was on. He probably wouldn't even approve of me or something.
"So I heard my daddy likes you," Caleah says as I laid on her lap.
Her fingers were rubbing my hair and I felt calm and at ease. She was tracing the outlines of my tattoos with her other fingers.
"Yeah he's a nice man," I said. "He talks a lot."
"Well he's like that," she says. "He's just a talkative person."
"Do you think I'm talkative?" I asked her.
"Yeah sometimes you just ramble on about stuff," she said.
"I'm a nervous man," I said getting up to rummage in the night stand for a cigarette.
I finally found one but she quickly snatched it from me.
"Baby that's bad for you," she says.
"I know I ain living long anyways," I said.
She frowned when I said that.
"What makes you say that?" She asked me.
I put my hand under her chin and smiled.
"It's just what God makes us be," I say. "To not live long but to cherish life as a treasure."
"You're quoting my daddy."
"I might. Your daddy preaches a good word. Matter fact your daddy gonna be real mad when he finds out you're over here."
"I moved out," she says silently. "I just don't live with them no more."
"Baby why?" I asked. "You can live here with me."
"I know," she says and kisses my lips. "I like being close to you anyways."
"Good," I said. "I'll be right back."
I went into the living room and found my secret stash of coke. I needed to get off of this shit. I think they put something in it to make you more addicted to it.
I sat on my living room couch and cleared off my table. I grabbed a card, sprinkled some coke on the table and began to line it up.
"Zach what are you doing?" She asked me sounding a little scared.
"Baby it's nothing," I said.
Fuck. Fuck Zach. You're seriously going to scare her off with this shit. Caleah walks closer to me and sits beside me.
"What do you get out of this?" She asks me.
"Joy," I said. "It's not that bad."
"I don't see why people do it," she mumbles.
"It's good trust me," I said.
I wish those fucking words wouldn't have left my mouth that night. I wish she could've just talked me out of it. But no I had to take advantage of her. She was out of her parents house, preachers daughter who never had fun and did whatever and she wanted to try new things.
"Zach-"
"Baby come on do it for me," I begged her.
"No-"
"Please," I said again. "You'll never have to do it again."
She gave in and I put a big happy smile on my face like a kid. I began lining the coke in lines and grabbed a nearby dollar bill and rolled it up. She put it under her nose and began sniffing. She shot up and rubbed her nose hard.
"Shit that hurt," she says.
"It'll calm down after a while," I'll say. "Who knows you might like it."
