After getting me all patched up, Jersey walked me to my room. She could joke all she wanted, but I could tell she genuinely cared about me. I could tell by the way she looked at me or how she carefully treated my wounds. I wasn’t expecting Jersey to be so good at doctoring, but she worked wonders. She was so gentle, and aware of every move she made, and thanks to her techniques I was feeling much better. Lucky for me, she didn’t rub this whole thing in my face. There was no I-told-you-so’s or any shady remarks. She didn’t treat me any differently, she just acted the way she usually acted; which made things comfortable rather than awkward.
That night, I got into bed, but I couldn’t sleep. I was thinking about Nicky, but not how I would normally think about her. Before I would focus on the good times, but now the bad times just kept replaying back to back in my head. All the horrible memories kept running through my mind, and I actually realized just how awful Nicky was. There was no way in hell that she loved me. She was just using me as her personal doll. I was in bed, crying and hating myself for what I allowed myself to go through time and time again. I’m not sure exactly how long I cried, but I stopped when I heard my door creak up. I sat up in my bed, and squinted my eyes as I tried to see who was sneaking in my room. “It’s just me,” the voice whispered. Usually that voice irritated me, but now it soothed me.
Jersey walked over to the bed, and got under the covers. “I thought you may need a little cuddle buddy,” she explained. I didn’t question or object her, instead I laid back down, and cuddled into her. She wrapped her arm around, and I snuggled my face into her neck. Her familiar scent invaded my nostrils as I closed my eyes. “You’ve been crying,” she stated the obvious. I sniffled, and opened my eyes. “You shouldn’t be crying. She’s not worth your tears. You should be happy that you’ve finally got away from her.”
“I know. It’s just that I can’t stop thinking about all the times…” I began but I trailed off. I couldn’t find myself to finish the sentence. Jersey shushed me before kissing my forehead. I held onto her a bit tighter and rested my head on her shoulder. Oddly enough, I was thankful for Jersey, for once. She may be annoying sometimes but she was a life saver. She gave me a place to stay when I didn’t have one. She gave me advice even when I wasn’t even listening to her. Now, she was comforting me after I learned from the mistake of not listening to her, and Alfie. Jersey may act like a hardass, but behind all that, she has big heart. I can see it, even if no one else can.
The next morning, I woke up when Jersey slowly sat up. I sat up, too, and looked over towards Jersey, only to find myself staring at her back. She was sitting with her legs over the bed, and it seemed as if she was trying to rub all of the sleep out of her eyes. “Thank you for last night,” I said, and she turned back to look at me. She looked absolutely tired, as if she hadn’t got any sleep last night. I frowned, and I was about to question if she even went to sleep last night, but she gave me a smile, and all my worries flew away.
“It’s no problem. Are you going to work today,” she asked as she stood up from the bed. The girl stretched as she stumbled over to one of the large windows to look out at the view of the city. “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to. But, I don’t think it’s a good idea to just sit in your room and sulk. I smiled a bit at Jersey, and shrugged my shoulders.
“I’m feeling much better now. Thanks to you. You could’ve kicked me out in the rain last night, but you didn’t. You didn’t judge me, and you even cuddled me last night so I could actually get some sleep. I don’t think I’ll be doing much sulking, and I think going to work will be ideal.” A little smirk played on the tattooed girl’s face as she stared at me in those lime green boxers she was wearing. I swear, the things were going to blind me. They were brighter than the sun that was shining in through the windows. “What are you smirking at?”
“Ideal. No normal person uses that word in a sentence unless they’re talking to like the president or something. You talk all fancy and shit,” Jersey replied, that New Jersey accent striking up. I scoffed, and threw a pillow at Jersey’s face but she caught it effortlessly. “You did not just throw a pillow at me,” the girl said in disbelief. She raised one of her brows. “Haven’t your parents ever told you to keep your hands, your feet, and other fucking objects to yourself?”
“Hasn’t your parents taught you how to use proper language, and not to curse like an imbecile,” I shot back. Jersey snickered as she shook her head.
“Imbecile? What does that even mean? Did you just make that word up?”
“It means a stupid person. You not knowing the definition makes you even more of an imbecile.”
“Take that back.”
“Bite me!” Jersey charged over to me on the bed with the pillow in her hand. She jumped on top of me roughly, and began hitting me in the face with the pillow; not even caring if she was hurting my face, which she was. I managed to grab a pillow, and easily pushed the small girl off me. I began hitting her back as I giggled at just how immature we were both being. Jersey was laughing and also coughing up a damn storm. All those cigarettes and blunts were finally catching up with her.
“Okay, okay! Truce,” Jersey yelled just before I hit her with one last blow. She threw her pillow onto the floor, and reached her hand out to me. “We’re friends. I don’t want to hurt you. Your face is already bruised up enough,” Jersey joked. I huffed, and hit her another time with the pillow before throwing it on the floor, accepting the truce. I noticed that I was actually sitting on top of the girl when she began wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. I leant down so my lips were pressed against her ear. “Remember that time we had sex,” I whispered.
“You mean that time when I fingered you? That’s not sex. That was just some middle school foreplay.”
“You were fingering girls when you were in middle school,” I asked as I popped right up. Jersey chuckled at me as if it was normal.
“Why do you think I’m so good at!? I’ve been doing that since the sixth grade! My first time was on the school bus!” I screamed to the top of my lungs as I jumped off Jersey who was cackling at me. “What!?”
“You were like 11!”
“And!?”
“That’s disgusting!”
“Your face is disgusting!”
“Wow, how mature of you, Jersey!” Jersey laughed as she shook her at me. “You’re fucking crazy,” I yelled at her.
“Fuck that. What were you going to say about that time I fingered you,” she asked before tucking her bottom lip between her teeth.
I rolled my eyes at her. “I was going to tell you that I hoped you enjoyed it because it was the first, and last time.” Jersey maneuvered from the bed over to the door. She gave me the shrug of her shoulders.
“Sure. Next time, I won’t finger you. I just might eat you out or something. I might let you ride my face. We could scissor but that’s just a hassle, but at least it’s enjoyable. If you really want to I can whip out my ol’ strap-on. Fingering is kind of boring. I agree with you.” I stood there with my jaw hitting the floor.
“You’re really disgusting!”
“I’m not disgusting. You’re just boring,” and with that Jersey walked out, but she quickly peeked her head back into my room. “And get dressed. We’re already 15 minutes behind. Thanks to you, we’re going to be late for work.”
---
I paced around the parlor as my mind raced back and forth. Jersey, Gavin and I had just got to the store, and of course both Gavin and Jersey were at their stations. When Gavin saw me that morning, he nearly had a heart attack, and after a long examination of myself in the mirror I could see why. My lip was busted, face bruised, and swollen, but at least I wasn’t feeling any pain. I was just nervous about everyone coming into the parlor and seeing me, especially Alfie. I didn’t want to see his face when he sees me. He was sure to be near hysterics. “Sit down, will ya,” Jersey called over me. “What’s bothering you?”
Before I could reply, my older brother walked in. His little satchel in tote. He stopped in his tracks when he saw me, and even made the notion to take off his glasses. A frown appeared on his face, and his sad blue eyes were killing me. He slowly walked over to me, and when he finally approached me, he pulled me into a tight hug. “Please, tell me you’re not going back.” Alfie pulled away from the hug, and cupped my face in his hands. His eyes scanned all over my face, “This is the worst it’s ever been.”
“I’ve learned my lesson. I’m not going back Alfie. I was really stupid before and I should’ve just listened to you from the get go,” I replied. Alfie’s saddened eyes suddenly turned joyous. He peered behind me to look at who I assumed was Jersey, and he then looked back at me. Stepping back from me, my brother patted me on the shoulder, and I winced. “Geez, Alfie!”
“I’m sorry! I’m just happy that you’re done with her. This causes for a celebration. Jersey, why don’t you break out that special wine that you have hidden in your office!?” I turned around to look at Jersey to see she had a confused look on her face.
“How did you even know about that?”
“You suck at hiding things,” Alfie explained.
“We can’t drink before work, you crazy bloody arseholes,” Gavin yelled to the top of his lungs.
“You bloody little arseholes, Jiminy Cricket, mates, we’re at work, aren’t we,” Jersey yelled in a pretty convincing British accent. “You little gits need to piss off! We can’t get drunk off our knobs! Bugger all!” Alfie and I laughed as Gavin rolled his eyes at Jersey mocking him. Jersey chuckled and began talking back in her regular voice. “Seriously, though, Gavin’s right. We can’t drink right now. Tomorrow’s Friday, how about after work, everyone drops by my place. We can invite everyone else when they get here, and we can celebrate Finley’s freedom? In the words of Gavin, we can get high, and drunk off of her minge pots.”
“I don’t smoke,” I reminded Jersey.
“Well, then we can just get drunk,” Jersey clarified.
As the rest of the artists poured in, I kept getting asked if I was alright and if everything was okay. I made sure to tell them that everything was fine now, and Jersey lightened the mood with the announcement of our get together Friday night. The day went as normal, well except for the fact that customers stared at me twice as much; but that was fine. I didn’t really care what a bunch of strangers thought about me. It was around lunch time when someone banged on top of my desk, and my head snapped away from the computer to look at the rude person. I rolled my eyes when I saw who it was. “What do you want?”
“To take you out for lunch,” the girl said with a little smirk. I raised my eyebrows at the girl in surprise. “What? I’m not doing anything. I have no clients to tat up, and you’re just sitting here looking at the newest Versace shoe collection; which you can’t afford, so why not?” I quickly closed the tab on the web browser, and turned back towards Jersey. “So, how about some good ol’ Southern food. I’m from up North, but there’s this restaurant around the block that makes me feel like a redneck.”
“I could really do for some barbeque ribs, so why not?” I got up from the desk, and made sure to tell Jade that was I was leaving. Jersey was waiting for me outside of the parlor with a cigarette in her mouth. When I walked out she started walking, and I walked beside her.
“Finally, the suns out,” she said after taking a long drag from the cigarette. I scrunched my nose up at the smell, and Jersey must have noticed because she put the thing out, and threw it. “I admit cigarettes are disgusting, but it just calms my nerves,” Jersey explained.
“What’s so wrong that you need to calm your nerves,” I asked curiously. To me, Jersey was living a perfect life. She had nice place, good friends, a parlor, she earned a nice amount of money, her family was amazing, and she could get any girl she wanted; so what the hell did she need to smoke about. What the hell was she stressed over?
“I don’t know.” Jersey shrugged. We arrived to the restaurant, and got seated. We both already knew what we wanted so Jersey loudly called over the waitress. The waitress walked over, and I could tell that she knew Jersey. They probably hooked up or something because she was giving Jersey all these flirtatious smiles and winks; but Jersey paid her no mind. She just simply ordered her food, and I ordered mine. The waitress gave me an odd look and I didn’t know if it was because of how I looked at the moment or because if it was because I was with Jersey; but I ignored it. When she walked away, Jersey let out a sigh.
“What’s wrong?”
Jersey’s fingers were trembling as she played with a saltshaker. She was definitely being more weird and timid as usual. “What are you doing Saturday,” she asked all of a sudden.
“Well, I don’t have a car. I don’t have that much money to get a taxi to take me around. I hate riding the bus, so I guess I’m basically trapped at your place,” I joked. Jersey laughed a little before nodding.
“Since you’re not doing anything, do you want to go out to the club with me Saturday night?” I furrowed my brows at the girl. First she asks me to lunch, and now to the club. “Maybe we can go out to eat before we hit the club, too. I don’t know. I just want to get to know you better, I guess. Last night, I kind of realized that I care about you. I don’t even know what I’m saying. I don’t normally ask people to hang out with me. I’m usually the one who gets asked to hang out. I just-”
“Damn, Jersey! I’ll hang out with you,” I said just so she could stop rambling. Jersey grinned, and bit her lower lip slightly.
“I’ve never asked a girl to chill with me other than for casual sex, so you’re special,” she replied with that arrogant tone.
I pursed my lips, and squinted my eyes at the girl. “So, this whole Saturday thing is like a date?”
“Why do we have to label anything?”
“Because…”
Jersey put her hands up as if I had pointed a gun out on her. I could tell all of this was hard for her. She was a player, and players never asked someone out on a date. She didn’t know how to go about things, or what to say. I guess I wasn’t making it any easier. “Fine, yes. I’m asking you out, Finley! I want to go on a proper date with someone for once.” I tried to conceal the grin from appearing on my face, but I failed. For some reason, I was looking forward to going on this date with Jersey. It was going to be a fresh, new start with someone I sort of disliked; but also liked. It was going to be different. I needed something different.