Little Doves & Bonafide Heroes ~ Archie Cruz

Burning Bridges

"So, did you two enjoy your little... date?" my dad asked.

"Yeah, it was great," I replied, chewing on the straw of my drink.

"Mm-hm," he mumbled, not looking up at me as he read something on the menu.

This morning, we both woke up early to the sound of the neighbors drilling and tearing out their drive away, so we currently sat in a booth at the nearest breakfast diner, scaring away strangers with our matching smeared eye makeup and early morning glares.

"I can't choose between crepes or the avocado omelette," I mumbled, flipping back and forth between the pages.

"The avocado thing looks better," he said, his light hazel eyes locking onto me as he took a sip of his coffee. "By the way, if you have a mark on your neck that's as dark as that one is, you should probably cover it before going out," he mused, laughing when I began to choke on my apple juice. "Easy there, Lucy, don't die on me!"

"What are you talking about?" I croaked, totally unaware of any marks of any kind.

Silently, he smiled and pointed to a spot on his neck, and my curiosity alone was enough to cause me to use my phone camera to look at myself.

"Oh... my god," I breathed, slapping my hand over the vibrant hickey as I used my other hand to pull the hair tie out of my messy bed head.

"Next time you should check," he said, still laughing as I turned crimson.

"I don't want to talk about it," I hissed, looking down at the menu.

"Hey, believe me, I've had my fair share of love bites over the years, but never did my parents notice them. Oh, and Ace says to stay out of bathrooms."

Now, I went pale, rather than turning even more red.

"What?"

"He saw you guys go in... and come out," he said nonchalantly, "and I guess, heard you, too."

"Um, I-"

"I don't want to know anything about it," he said quickly, closing his eyes tightly, as if to block out the mental images.

"Like I said, I don't want to talk about it," I mumbled softly, taking one last sip of my juice as the waitress handed me my tea, and Taime his coffee, the drinks we were really waiting for.

Once we gave our orders, we sat in silence, annoyed that we were awake that early and that we were in public already after having such a long night.

"I wish we didn't have neighbors," groaned, propping my head up on my hand.

"Yeah, me, too. What time did we get home?" he asked, squinting.

"Two I think."

"Christ, it's only seven thirty. When we get back, I'm going back to sleep," he said with a nod.

"Me, too. It's too early for a Sunday."

"See, aren't you glad that we don't go to church?" he asked with a laugh.

"Very."

°°°°°°

"Hey, did you see the text I sent you," Taime asked, sticking his head into my room.

"Hm? Oh, no," I said as I continued to draw out a Santa Cruz logo, just for fun.

"I was asking you about the color you used on the last design you did for me. We were thinking about making some anniversary stuff."

"Like what?"

"Like bracelets and stupid shit like that. Maybe some custom guitar picks," he said with a shrug.