CJA + ALC

Chapter 7

CJ and I move in a silent dance around each other as we put the groceries away in the kitchen. CJ's eyes are unfocused, looking at the containers with uncomprehending gazes before putting them in random cupboards.

"CJ, why don't you go lay down? You are way too distracted to do this," I say firmly.

"No, no. 'M fine," he mumbles back. "I wanna help."

"You need to lay down or relax somehow. You look like you're sick."

"Okay, as long as you're okay with doing this by yourself," CJ looks over at me, his eyes are glazed over and there are bags under his eyes. His appearance has changed so much in the last two hours.

"I'm okay, just go to bed," I say with an exasperated tone. 

"Alright, if Ash comes home she'll help you. I'll come down to help with dinner."

"Don't worry about dinner, I'll handle it," I kiss his head and put a hand on his lower back. "Go lay down, you look awful."

"Thank you, I try," CJ mumbles with a half smile. He shuffles out of the kitchen and toward the stairs. I watch him leave and go back to putting away the groceries.

He's not actually going to sleep, he'll be thinking about his dad. I think, putting a box of cereal on the counter. Not that that's a bad thing, he needs to work out what he's going to do, but he needs to sleep, he looks exhausted. My mind continues to mull over the thoughts as I finish putting away the groceries.

"Hey, Ansel. Where's CJ?" I look up to see Ash standing by the dining room table, putting her bag on a chair.

"Upstairs, he's taking a nap." I mutter, putting a can of soup in a cupboard. "He's had a pretty stressful day."

"Ah, did you make up?" She walks over and starts to help with the groceries. I nod and lean against the counter, closely examining a bag of rice. "That's good, did you get together?" I look at her in surprise.

"Yeah, we are officially boyfriends." I say with a smile spreading slowly across my face. Boyfriends.

"So what was so stressful for him that he had to go take a nap?" She asks, lifting herself up onto the counter.

"CJ got a call from a hospital in Michigan, his dad has some form of cancer and wants CJ to come and visit him. CJ isn't sure if he wants to go or not." I sigh. "I've been trying to help him with his decision, but in all honesty I have no fucking idea what to tell him. I've never been in this situation before," I start to wave my hands in exasperated motions.

"What have you told him?" She leans over to grab a box of cereal. "No one in this house eats Cheerios," she comments while shaking the box.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know. CJ wasn't focused enough to tell me what you guys normally eat," I sigh again and rub my eyes. "I've been telling CJ that he needs to think about it and not completely rule out going to see him."

"I'm sure that just having someone to talking to is helping him, he normally needs to vent about something, if there's no one to listen to him he'll pace around the house and talk to himself. He needs to talk out loud to be able to figure out tough situations," Ash smiles to herself. "He used to get yelled at by his teachers, he would mutter while working and they would think he was talking to his neighbors."

"He never told me that," I mumble while playing with a string from the seam of my pants.

"He also doesn't like talking about school. I know that he could tolerate not having his parents around, they were never very close to him anyways. But he couldn't handle being completely rejected by his peers."

"Oh... well, that's all over now, I'm sure he's over it by now. Right?" I ask

"Sort of, it's still a sore subject so just don't bring it up."   I nod to confirm that I heard her while fiddling with the string. "So, what's the plan for dinner?" She asks, her tone lighter than it was a few moments ago.

"We bought the stuff for steaks, fruit salad, and ice cream sundaes. CJ and I were going to make it together, but I sent him to go take a nap." I hop down from the counter and pad over to the refrigerator. "Is it normal for you guys to eat dinner together?" I question. "I don't think it's common for roommates to eat meals together, at least, my roommate and I don't."

"CJ and I normally do. We don't just consider each other roommates, though, we're more like siblings or something." She ambles over next to me, looking over my shoulder into the fridge. "I can make the steak, if you want."

"Yeah, I was never taught how to do anything involving cooking." I respond. "I'll make the fruit salad," I reach into the fridge and grab some of the fruit we bought earlier.

"Okay, could you hand me the meat?" I nod and hand the package to her. "I think I'd enjoy having you living here," she murmurs as she to the sliding glass door to start the grill. "You're lucky that I work at a bar and grill, or else this dinner would be a disaster at this point!"

X-X-X-X-X

"Okay, the steak is ready, how's the salad coming?" Ash sets the plate of meat on the counter next to the sink.

"It's going good. Could you go wake CJ up?" I look over my shoulder to look at her. "It's almost ready."

"Yeah, sure. Do you know where the plates and cups are?" She heads over to the hall to go upstairs. I throw the last few bits of fruit into the bowl.

"Yeah, I found them while I was putting away the groceries," I respond, walking over to the cupboard where the plates are kept. "When you get CJ tell him he doesn't have to come down stairs if he doesn't want to, he can keep sleeping."   Ash nods and continues up to CJ's room. I set the table, filling the cups with water and placing the bowl of fruit salad in the middle of the table, along with the bowl of mashed potatoes, the bowl of corn, and the plate of steaks next to it.

"This looks nice, we never actually set the table, we do a buffet style on the counter," Ash plops down onto a chair across from where I'm standing. "CJ's coming down, he just wanted to wash his face or something... powder his nose," she giggles and starts scooping some potatoes on to her plate. I nod and walk back into the kitchen. "What're you doing?" 

"I made some lemonade, decided that I should put it on the table," I reach into the refrigerator to grab the glass pitcher that sits on the bottom shelf.

"Why'd you do so much for this dinner?" Ash asks me, raising an eyebrow when I set the pitcher down next to the fruit bowl. "We don't normally do this much for meals."

"I needed something to do to keep my mind off of the subject of CJ and his dad,"I stand behind a chair, my back to the kitchen entrance. "When I need to keep something off my mind I keep myself busy trying to do something productive." I sigh, "also, I realized that we're never actually use the lemons that CJ and I bought for anything else."

"Huh," Ash takes a sip of water and stares over my shoulder. "Good morning sleeping beauty!"

I turn around to find CJ leaning against the door frame, wearing baggy sweatpants and a loose-fitting tank top from a concert that he went to back in 2012. "Hey," I walk over to him and wrap my arms around his waist. "How'd you sleep?" I mumble before placing a kiss on his shoulder.

"Didn't. Too much on my mind." He murmurs back.

"Well... dinner's ready, we were just waiting on you," ash chirps.

I pull away from CJ and lead him over to a chair, pulling it out for him. "Why's there so much food?" CJ stares at the table, the fruit salad sitting next to a bowl of mashed potatoes, a bowl of corn next to that, the plate of steaks and the pitcher of lemonade.

"Your boyfriend stress cooks," Ash says in an accusing tone. She takes the spoon from the fruit salad and scoops some onto her plate.

"Whatever," I shake my head and smile. "It could be worse, I could be a stress eater." CJ chuckles, even though what I said was nowhere near funny or amusing in any way.

"Let's eat, then we can watch a movie after with popcorn and ice cream!" Ash cheers like a little kid on Christmas.