WILD (✓)

~ twenty-nine ~

My phone vibrates between my thigh and the cracked leather seat of CJ's old pickup truck, taking my attention from singing along to the country song on the radio. Noting Mom's caller ID, I stiffen and hit ignore. CJ stops his monologue about why burgers are superior to hot dogs and looks at me carefully from the corner of his eye.

"You sure you don't want to answer it?" He asks, clasping my knee reassuringly with his tan fingers.

I nod and gaze out the window, feeling the sunshine warm on my face. "I'll call her later," I promise him and myself. She'll believe that I was studying, anyways. "You were saying?" I turn my attention back to him, his shaggy hair blowing slightly in the breeze.

"In conclusion," he smirks, a twinkle in his hazel eyes, "A burger is customizable, it hits all the food groups, basically."

I laugh with him easily, thoughts of Mom slowly fading into the background. When we stop laughing, I trace slow circles on his hand gripping my thigh, and ask him softly, "So where are we going today?"

As it turns out, dropping half of your classes a couple of weeks before finals really eliminates a lot of the stress accompanying finals season. My last two papers sit on my laptop in my dorm, waiting on final edits before their submission. My lab textbooks are discarded in a bin of already packed belongings under my bed and for the first finals period ever, I don't feel like I'm suffocating every time I take a break from studying.

"Not telling," CJ smirks, dimple deepening slightly as he winks at me.

I stick my tongue out at him playfully. "No trespassing though?" The question is a joke, but at the same time it isn't. Nervous energy bubbles in my belly. Getting arrested for a second time would probably end any chance I have of ever leaving my mother's house again.

CJ rolls his eyes but I can see the guilt behind them still. "No trespassing," he agrees, mood less cheery than before. I eye his thumb tapping the steering wheel haphazardly and can feel the nervous energy radiating off of him from across the cab of his truck.

Raising his hand to my lips, I press a gentle kiss to his skin, hoping my touch calms him the way his does me.

We continue driving for a half hour or so, but as the minutes pass, I notice the houses becoming smaller and less maintained. Chipped paint and shabby fences line the street. The lawns become dead and filled with trash, settled closely to the high traffic road. I try to find CJ's eyes, wondering what we're doing here, but he stares straight ahead, thumb drumming wildly on the wheel.

Slowly, CJ pulls the truck to a stop, pulled to the curb outside a tall, off-white building. By the looks of it, the home is a multi family apartment building, each floor with their own balcony hanging on haphazardly to the front. I take the sight in, noticing less trash and debris in the yard than in the others.

I turn to CJ, waiting for an explanation. When I meet his eyes, his cheeks are flushed and I yearn to take his face in my hands and tell him that it's okay. No matter what he tells me or shows me, I'll be here for him.

His words are quick and hushed when he finally speaks. "This is where I live,"

Having already gathered as such, I nod my head slowly. "By yourself?"

CJ shakes his head, sending long hair into his eyes. "With my mom and dad," I turn back to the building, confident that he'll tell me whatever he wants to when he's ready. "Do you want to meet them?" He mutters.