Chapter twenty-five: King C:
"Chris?"
"What you doing here?"
"This is Wal-Mart, what do you mean what am I doing here?" I didn't like how excited she looked. She was still just as pretty as she was at school, but the only thing it did was remind me of my mistakes.
Her blonde hair was pulled back in a bun, I could see the front of her hairline almost looked. . . red? Or ginger, I should say. Maybe it was a trick of the light?
I sighed. "Ashlynn, were done. We haven't spoken in a month or so, I thought this was obvious. And don't look so hurt, we were never an item and this was kind of inevitable." I didn't like the way she was staring at me, with tears welling up in her eyes. It was making me feel like this was my fault. And maybe it was, for choosing someone who had even more issues than me.
"Ashlynn," I said firmly. "We're done, finished, over. Stop." A strange expression took over her face. It looked almosf like she had totally unfocused for a second. Then she slid back into herself. I wasn't completly sure of what I had seen.
"You can't leave me, Chris. I'm made for you, you need me." I grabbed the first paper towel roll I saw and started to back away.
"Ashlynn, goodbye." I turned and speed walked away, I didn't even turn when she started yelling,
"You're with that bxtch Veronica aren't you?"
"Yes I am!" I called back, hoping she would stop once and for all. She screeched something back but I blocked it out and jogged over to the checkout line. Maybe Ashlynn would finally leave me the hxll alone. Our little 'relationship' pretty much guaranteed a messy ending, but this wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be. At least Veronica wasn't here, Ashlynn might've punched her. Or well, more than likely, the other way around.
But wait, Veronica was probably making out with Todd in a dark room right now so--
"Cash or credit?" The teenage cashier asked. "Cash." I grunted, pulling out a crumpled bill from my pocket. She smiled at me, she had a dimple in her left cheek that popped as she smiled. "Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart." She handed me my receipt. I barely glanced at it. Stuffing it in my pocket, I muttered a "Have a goodnight," to the girl at the register and turned out of the store.
★-★-★-★-★
When I got back to the party, they were still in full throw. I went in the direction of the kitchen, passing through trongs of people as a I tried to get in there. That nerdy looking girl was back in there with a few guys. "Hey," They all turned around. I tossed the paper towel roll to one of the guys. "Clean that up." I pointed to the spill on the floor. The guy looked at me like he wanted to argue but I spun on my heel and strode away before he could say something.
I weaved through people again, fighting my way through. I pushed open the sliding glass door and noticed people were still sitting in groups. What else I saw almost made me wish I haven't come outside.
Veronica was grinding on this Todd dude and he had his arms around her waist. She was laughing.
This was the last fxcking straw. He could whisper all the sweet nothings he wanted to her, he could look as hard as he wanted at her, but he was not going to put his hands, feet, or dick anywhere near her. He better think again. Veronica was mine.
I angrily strod over to him. "Hey axxhole!" I called. He turned and smirked. "'Sup."
"'Sup' me one more fxcking time. I may not have mentioned this earlier, but I forgot to tell you, my name is Chris and get the fxck away from my girlfriend." Veronica was looking on, surprise masking her face. I didn't know if she was surpised at my outburst or surprised that I had come over. It didn't matter, I wasn't paying her any mind.
"Well my name is Todd and I don't care." He countered snarkly. Veronica tried to intervene at this point.
"Boys, stop!"
We both ignored her. "I'm going to give you exactly five seconds before I punch you," I stated not-so-calmly. "And when I'm finished counting your axx better be halfway to California." He didn't even move. Fine by me, my fist had been itching to meet his face since I saw him.
"One." Veronica tugged at my arm trying to move me. "Two," She tried to do the same to Todd but he didn't move either. He just kept his eyes trained on me. "Three." Veronica was yelling profanity at me now. "Four." She kept yelling.
"Sup." My knuckles crackled.
"Five." My fist slammed into his jaw and he stumbled backwards. He put a hand to his injury, and still smirked. Why was he looking so smug? I just punched the asshole in the face, why the fuck was he smiling? He leaned forward. "I'm not the one she's going to hate for punching her best friend, now am I?" Best friend? He turned and disappeared into the crowd before I could say anything.
". . . Are you out of your mind?" Veronica yelled at me. "Like insane?" She was pissed off, her fists were balled up at her sides and her lips were puckered. It was kind of cute the way Veronica, who was more than a foot shorter than me, was telling me off. It was even cuter to see her reaction to me picking her up and throwing her over my shoulder. "What the fxck are you doing?" She was most definitely drunk, she usually didn't drop F-bombs that hard. She pounded on my back. "Put me down!"
I didn't even justify that with a response. I carried her through the swarms of people, ignoring her shouts which were drowned out by the music. I carried her upstairs and pushed open one of the room doors. There was a shuffling of sheets. "Hey man, occupied." I turned towards the guest room and opened the door after assessing that no one was crashing in there.
I set her on the bed and flipped the light on. I leaned against the wall while she crossed her arms and gave me her fishy face. She refused to say anything to me for a few seconds. It started to annoy me after nearly a minute of silence passed. Finally I said, "So, I didn't know you had another boyfriend." She winced. Maybe that was a little harsh, but what was I suppose to say? She was dancing dirty on another guy.
"He's not my other boy--"
"Than what is he? That's not normal, Veronica!" My voice started climbing higher. "So that's what were going to do? You can do that stuff with other guys, so does that mean I can do that with other girls? Does that mean I can cheat on you with Ashlynn or something? I can just bring her over here and rub it all in your face?!" She had been hunching in on herself slowly as I had been ranting. But I wasn't prepared for when she burst in to tears, full-scale waterworks.
She put her head in her hands and her shoulders quaked as she sobbed. Oh God, she was a sad drunk. This was not going to be pleasant.
I really, really, really was not trying to make her cry. And honestly it hurt me to see her in tears like that and; it was even worse because her pain was from something I did.
It made me feel like a jackass.
"Shit, shit, shit." I mumbled as she sobbed. Moved closer to her and she backed away. She backed up until she hit the bed, where she sank down and resumed crying. I moved over to her and sat down on the bed, sliding an arm around. She said something through her tears I couldn't quite catch. "What did you say?" She kept her face in her hands and she didn't look up as she mumbled,
"I can't."
"You can't what?"
"Be your girlfriend. I don't know how." Her words were slightly slurred and quiet. I pulled her closer until her face was in my chest. She pulled her legs up so they were in my lap and pressed a hand to my chest. "I d-don't know how..." She repeated shakily.
"What are you talking about, Oni?" I said as she sniffled. I cursed under my breath. "You're so drunk," I said into her hair.
"I never knew how to do it with Antonio, not really. I'm not sure if I can keep you..." She paused, searching for the word. Her muffled voice continued after a moment. "Wanting me. Intrested. W-what the hell do you even see in me?" She added, her voice cracking in a way that killed me. She looked up with dark brown irises that peeked at me through heavy lashes sparkled with tears.
"Shh." I whispered quietly, feeling a pang of hurt in my chest. It was hurting me to and hear her sound so broken. "I'll tell you something that's true. I'm the biggest dickhead on the face of the earth, I've screwed up more times than anyone could count, and I'm pretty fxcked up. I don't know how to be a good boyfriend. But for you, I'll try. There's no way I'll ever not be interested in you." I laughed quietly. "You're too amazing for me to stay away from. I'm still trying to figure out how I deserve you...Sometimes you'll have to deal with my idiotic and douche-baggy ways though," She laughed. "There's absolutely nothing I would change about you, from the fish face you make, to those hips you have. I love your hips by the way, they don't lie." She giggled and I had to swallow my pride for the next part,
"And. . . you can tell me about Todd whenever you're ready, I shouldn't have pressed you about that. I'm sorry." A little smile danced on the edge her lips. She might not remember this in the morning, but did it really matter? I told her, that's all that counts.
She sighed into my chest. I rested my chin on her head and we sat like that for a few minutes in silence. And it was comfortable to just sit like that quietly, just the two of us. Then she broke the silence and said,
"Christopher DeVito, I am almost certain I have fallen for you. Will you catch me?" She never would have phrased it like that when she was sober. She wouldn't have even brought it up because she doesn't do that, she'd get embarrassed and I'd have to banter with her until she told me.
But I could live with this right now, even if she was ridiculously wasted and being a little crazy.
I tightened my arms around her. "I think I did too, so it's alright." I muttered.
We lapsed back into silence for a few seconds before she said, "I'm sleepy." She pulled away from me and stretched out on the bed. "Are you going to stay?"
"Yeah, I will." I flipped off the light and lied down beside her. Her breathing slowed down and relaxed as she did. I was exhausted and I was just realizing it. I hadn't been getting much sleep lately because I'd been having weird dreams and restless nights. I usually ended up falling asleep in my last class because I was so tired but it would eventually go away, right? Everyone has sleeping issues every now and then.
Strangely, I didn't feel like I usually felt when I got into bed. That foreboding feeling because something might come out of the recesses of my mind and form an ugly picture. No, I felt relaxed like I could really drift of to sleep, maybe it was that easy.
And it was.
★-★-★-★-★
I'm late, and I'm sorry. . . does this make up for it? Thoughts on Todd and Chris's little spiel for drunk Veronica? Leave me a comment ↓↓↓ Todd shall be revealed in due time.