CJA + ALC

Chapter 11

"That hurt more than I expected," CJ mumbles as we walk out of the tattoo parlor. He plays with his new lip ring with his fingers, twisting and biting it. "It'll take some getting used to, but I like it." he smiles at me.

"It looks nice on you, adds a little edge to your appearance," his smile grows as I say this. "Plus, it'll make kissing you, like, ten times hotter," I smirk at him and he rolls his eyes. 

We walk together hand in hand, my eyes scanning over the small stores that line the street. A small cafe, flower shop, the tattoo parlor that we just left, a second hand book store, a dress shop, all of these add to the warm atmosphere of the street. 

"Did you like the shop?" CJ asks suddenly, pulling me out of my thoughts. 

"Yeah, the people that work there seem pretty nice, I wouldn't mind working there," I nod and we continue in silence. "We should stop at a cafe for dinner, then walk around some more before we go home. Spend the night out of the house," I suggest as we pass yet another cafe. 

"Yeah, a half date," CJ giggles. "I've been to that one, it was pretty good, service was slow though," he motions toward the one that we just passed. 

"Should we go there, then?" I ask him, I'm hungry and just want something to eat. 

We stop at the side of the sidewalk while CJ thinks about it. "Yeah, let's eat there," he finally decides. We turn around and walk back to the small cafe. 

I hold the door open for CJ, and the smell of coffee and baked goods washes over us. CJ steps up to the counter, waiting for the person to notice us. I stand behind him and wrap my arms around his waist, swaying us back and forth while my head rests on top of his. 

"Hi, welcome to The Little Tea Cup! My name is Liz, how can I help you two today?" The girl turns around and gives us an odd look, but I don't move. I continue to sway CJ in my arms while he orders his coffee and a sandwich. 

"I'll take the same," I say as her gaze moves to me once I realize that I have no idea what I want. 

"Why don't you find us a place to sit? I was thinking one of the tables outside," CJ says, nudging me with his elbow. I nod and place a kiss on the top of his head before I remove my grip from him. I walk out to one of the tables in a fenced in section outside. Pale yellow fairy lights hang from the railing of the fence, giving the area a warm glow. 

CJ walks out of the restaurant holding a bag with some sandwich boxes and two paper cups in a drink carrier. "We're not going to be sitting here. That girl started making comments about how we're disgusting making a scene being all lovey-dovey or something," CJ comes stomping up to me. 

I stand up and look into the window of the building to find the cashier making a disgusted look at us. I roll my eyes and turn my attention back to CJ. 

"Do you just want to walk home and eat there or find somewhere else to eat? Maybe a park or something," CJ just nods and starts to walk out of the seating area. 

I follow him silently for a while, his brow is furrowed in an angry expression that he's decided to direct at the innocent ground.  I, on the other hand, look up at the night sky and how the tops of buildings in the nearby cities seem to touch the stars. The moon is comically big, casting light over us that mingles with the streetlights. 

We continue on our stroll until I see a park across the street from where we're walking. I immediately grab CJ's hand and pull him to the park, it's completely abandoned, not a human soul in sight. It's one of the best things that I've seen in my stay here. I plop down in the middle of a stretch of grass and CJ sits facing me. He starts to pull the boxes out of the plastic bag and hands one to me. 

I take the box and set it down in front of me. I don't make a move to open the box though, I just stare at CJ, who has started to eat his sandwich without looking up at me. 

"Stop," I suddenly say, breaking the silence that we've been sitting in since we've left the cafe. He looks up at me, but his expression doesn't change. My hand reaches up and I massage the skin in between his eyebrows where wrinkles have been sitting. "You're only 23, you don't need wrinkles."

"I know, it's just..." he trails off and sighs before continuing, "the girl at the cafe kinda got to me." He looks down at the ground, his shoulders slump and he heaves another sigh. "What she said to me... It reminded me of my mom. 'you know how disgusting that is? You should really think about the comfort of the people around you. No one wants to see something like that.'" I just stare at him, not knowing what to say. "That's why I didn't want to see my dad. He would just let her say things like that to me. He would just stand and watch for the first few months... After a while she convinced him to join in." 

His gaze shifts from the ground up to my face. 

"He would... he was the one that started using the slurs. I guess he was just keeping how much he hated me in his head. They left me at the house when they went on a trip to Dubai, and the three months that they were gone was amazing, Ash would stay with me and we had the whole house to ourselves.

"And then they came home. The harsh words turned into hits, only once in awhile at first, a slap here and there. Then it became something that happened on a regular basis. The only time I was happy at this point was when they went on their trips, they would be gone for months at a time, once they were gone for over half a year, I was in heaven," He pauses. "Once I graduated from college I cut off my parents, never spoke to them again," his voice was smaller than it was when he started talking. "I didn't want to see my dad because I didn't want to revisit the past. Seeing him would be admitting that I wasn't able to live without seeing him before he died. But I listened to what you said, you told me that I can go and show him that I'm the better man. I was able to rise above what he did to me, and show him that he doesn't have any power in my life.

"I want to see my dad, only so that he can see what I've done with my life. So that he can see how happy I am even though I didn't suppress myself. So that he can see that he will never be a part of that," he looks up at me and a smile breaks out on his face. "I want him to see how happy I am with you."