Nor⭐️Cal

XIV.

Nor⭐️Cal

Vanity

CJ and I sat in his car parked in some parking lot. I didn't want to go back to the house just yet, especially since by now Dad would be home and that wouldn't give CJ and I any kind of privacy to talk about this.

The both of us already finished eating and I had just finished explaining what Dad had told me and he just stared at me with a blank expression. I brought my gaze down to my lap for a moment and felt some pain shoot up the side of my head where the staples were.

"You're tellin' me your Dad had a trafficking business in which he met your Mom, knocked her up at sixteen and left with you because he couldn't go back to get Chastity since your Mom was batshit crazy with a shotgun?" I nodded slowly. He didn't need to word like that but I guess it hits the nail on the head. "What the fuck."

"Yeah, I was surprised and still am. With all that being said, what do I tell him about Chastity and I being up in the same predicament as our Mom?- without the pregnancy. I don't want him to think the wrong thing if I tell him the God's honesty truth of what happened." Small lies like telling him I was working on a project with Nicole instead of CJ was fine. Telling him who was asleep in my bed was some made up person was fine but pushing it a bit. Lying to him about my whereabouts in the sex trade is a big lie that I don't think I can keep on my shoulders. I want to be honest but I know the first thing he'll do is have CJ arrested.

"I don't know, I'm still shocked about his doings. Never woulda thought your Dad had ties to that- let alone his own business." He began. One hand rested on the wheel while the other on his lap. "Obviously he's gonna questions how I had contact with them for you to have been involved."

"I can't tell him you deal drugs." I said more quietly. "I'm surprised he hasn't said anything about your tattoos but I know he'll have plenty to say about you selling and then 'selling' Chastity and I just to buy us back." I was stuck. I lie; I carry this around on my conscious. I tell the truth; CJ gets locked up and then knowing Dad, he'll want to relocate. I talk about wanting to leave California from time to time but it's all talk. I don't want to leave, not while I know CJ will still be behind in California.

"This is one of those times where I don't have the answer. I don't want you diggin' a deeper grave by lyin'. If I get locked up, oh well. They allow visitations in jail." He shrugged with a slight laugh. "But you need to tell him about the E-"

"I will just please stop nagging me about them." I was quick to retort back clearly annoyed.

"Lose the tone and I'll stop naggin' about them when you stop poppin' them. I've told you before and I'll tell you again, I care a lot about you. Enough to worry about what those pills are doin' to you and by the looks of it, they're not just mentally fucking you up but physically as well." He said specifically eyeing where the stitches below my eye were. Breathing out a deep sigh, I laid my head against the cold window. We were in the darker spot of the parking lot and it was just us. Not another car in sight and the lights that were in the parking lot were those copper lights... I always found those creepy.

My eyes flickered to the outlines of maybe two or three people who were across the parking lot. I checked to make sure my door was locked and was relieved, but could see them looking dead at CJ's car.

"Can we please get out of here?" I said hesitantly.

"The hell got into-"

"Just please. Those people are making me nervous." When his car roared to life and the lights turned on, the three of them stopped. They turned back the way they came and continued like how they should have in the beginning. "Why did you even choose to park here anyways?"