Southern Californ-I

XXII.

Southern Californ-i

<>1 Month Later<>

It's been a whole month since returning back to Riverside and I can safely say things weren't back to how they were before we left to San Francisco. I'll break it down one thing at a time as Dad's church service nears it's end.

Nicole and I. It's just best to say we completely burnt our bridges with each other for a while. Not talking, no texting and of course we never saw each other while we were out in town. She just kept up with a bitterness towards me and I was just done with it. I didn't do a single thing to her and she knows it, she just won't accept the fact that CJ wants nothing more with her. A little over a week ago, she came up to me after church, pulled me off to the side and genuinely apologized to me, explaining that she never intended to hurt me as much as she was trying to hurt him and even confessed to blackmailing him as she did. If there's anything I've learned, it's best to forgive. I forgave Mickey and I forgave Nicole but I won't forget. Since her apology, we've been working on our friendship to get it back to how it used to be far before she learned of my involvement with CJ.

Next was Mickey. She and Nicole are better friends than what she and I ever were. The whole remaining week she had left here in California when we got back from San Francisco, she spent with Nicole. Only hanging out with me when she needed to come back to the house to get some sleep or cleaned up. I don't have much else to say about her but the fact we're growing more distant with each day that passes by but isn't the saying, when one door closes another opens?

If it's true, then the next door to open was Jordan. Our friendship was blossoming like a rose opening it's petals in the morning. We didn't hang out every day or even text every day, but he was someone that I knew I had a sturdy friendship with that didn't require constant contact. Whenever he was free and wanted to go out to do something, he'd hit me up and if I wasn't busy, I'd go. Those didn't happen very often though but we knew  he had a busy schedule, especially preparing for college so I understood completely.

Lastly there was CJ. I don't know what it is about him that makes me ache to be around him but when we got back to Riverside, there was a whole lot more visits between him and I. The week that Mickey remained, he went scarce. Not a single text or call from him and I never saw his Range Rover around town, nor at his Nana's house when I'd drive by their block to go to the store. I thought maybe he up and left elsewhere but he was just remaining real low key so he could sell some more serious narcotics. The moment I told him Mickey was no longer at the house, it was like once he got here, he'd never leave... because I wouldn't let him.

I'm not one to have ever done any kind of drugs. Not even as much as been contact high. But CJ was my drug that I was addicted to. Before, I couldn't stand to be around him or get a text from him but now, there isn't a day that can go by that I don't at least see him in person. Just to be around him was what felt like balanced out my day and then there was the sex. Where to even begin with that... I guess we can say there was more of it... a lot more. Let me stop since I'm still in church and I don't need to have to go to the bathroom to clean myself up because I'm reminiscing about the sex between CJ and I.

When the service ended, Dad instantly went to his back room so that meant he didn't have time to talk. Which was fine, I was just going to tell him I was heading straight home from here. I grabbed my purse and slipped my arm through the strap as I walked to the doors- there CJ was. He stood up from his pew and walked out with me as I walked by his pew. An arm lightly around my waist as we continued, he was dressed nicely again but didn't care that his tattoos on his neck were in plain sight.

"Since when were you a man of the church?" I asked . His car was even parked next to mine, which for whatever reason made me smile.

"When I knew the church kept you from me on late Saturday nights and early Sunday mornings." He said right against my neck and I gently pushed him away. "Nah, but I just wanted to come check out how your Dad conducted his services. He's pretty good, speaks on real talk."