Chapter Seven
Gia continued to stare up in to the soft brown eyes as AJ held her, keeping her body from making harsh contact with the tabletop or floor below her. Her breath caught in her throat as she wasn’t sure of what to do, AJ having his first genuine moment since his time there. The moment ended all too quickly though, and the next series of events happened without warning as AJ let go of her. Gia let out a grunt that couldn’t be helped as she hit the ground, rubbing her knee with one hand while helping herself up with the other. Looking over to the man, she saw that he was taking his seat again on the couch.
“So much for that.” Gia retorted with a sarcastic quip in her tone, “I thought you were actually going to do something out of the goodness of your heart.
“You were blocking my damned view of the TV, woman. Next time, watch where the hell you’re going.” The hard, cold look was back in his gaze, his eyes blackened all over again.
Shaking her head, Gia pulled herself to her feet completely, shooting the man a glare full of hatred and disbelief. She couldn’t believe that one person could have so much evil pumping through their veins. Had she been foolish to believe that the man could actually have a moment of genuine kindness? After all, she’d seen the look in his eyes, like somewhere deep down there was good in him, just trying to dig its way out of his troubled, tormented soul. Had she read too much in to it, or was the man trying not to show a sensitive side to him. A side that Gia had felt was the real AJ before she had met him. Was that person somewhere inside of him, or had it all been an optical illusion.
“While you’re up, get me a beer.” AJ demanded rather than asked.
“Get it yourself for once.” Gia replied with a frown.
“That would require me moving,” AJ shuddered at the though, ‘Besides, how many times do I have to tell you…it’s the woman’s god damned job to fucking serve the man.”
“I swear go God…” Gia muttered as she made her way in to the kitchen, limping slightly from her newly injured knee. Whipping the fridge door open, she pulled out the first beer she saw, uncapping it with one swift, angered twist of her hand, storming back out in to the living room to thrust it in to mans hand. He grabbed it, immediately taking a swig by tilting his head back, pouring the bitter tasting beverage in to his open mouth, “Does it live up to your standards your majesty?”
“Now you’re catching on,” he caught the glare the girl was giving him, “It’s fine…could be colder…and a higher class brand, but the cheap shit is fine for now, since I doubt you can afford anything better.”
“You want the good stuff, then get a god damned, fucking job, for the last time.” Gia found it the perfect opportunity to bring up the topic again, “You have til the end of this week…or you will find what little belongings you brought with you waiting for you on the front porch one of these days.”
“You wouldn’t have the nerve, woman. I live here too. I’ll take you to court if you even try to kick me out.”
“You’re not on the lease, jackass…” Gia seethed through gritted teeth, “And you won’t be until you start paying up for your share of the expenses. If not, I’ll change the locks and will throw your shit out of the place. Don’t test me, because I am not joking around.”
‘What the hell do you expect from me?”
“Just what you agreed to upon moving in. Figure it out for yourself.”
Not even waiting for a reply, she turned and walked swiftly away, leaving AJ sitting with a scowl set firmly across his face. It slowly faded in to a look of worry though, which he did his best to hide. If he was kicked out, he’d be as good as screwed. On the other hand, he had a feeling there were plenty of fans he could find to take advantage of, who’d take care of him and not make him pay out a single penny or lift so much as a pinky. He couldn’t take that chance though. As much as he despised the idea, AJ knew that he’d have to try and find a job. At least for the time being, to make it look like he was at least trying. Reaching beside him with an angry huff of air coming out of his mouth, he picked up the daily newspaper, flipping to the jobs section, hoping that there was something out there that rose up to his standards. He was an star, after all.
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Gia walked in to her shared bedroom to find Nicole on her half of the room flopped on her stomach, her face burred in to her pillow. Tilting her head to the side, her eyes clouding over with confusion, Gia set her purse down, slowly advancing towards her obviously upset friend in caution, afraid of startling her, and wondering if disrupting the girl would cause her further emotional distress. When she heard a loud sigh though, Gia decided to take her chances.
“Hey, Nic…you alright?”
Nicole rolled over, surprising Gia in the fact that her eyes were dry and she seemed perfectly fine. A small smile formed on her lips, but it seemed somewhat forced despite her attempts.
‘Hey, Gia…” Nicole’s voice trailed off, “What’s up?”
“Not a lot…just got home, and shocker of a lifetime, AJ is gone!” her mouth dropped open into mock shock, causing her friend to laugh, “Wonder where he’s gone off too…for the first time in a month.”
“Lord only knows with him.” Nicole shook her head. It was only a second though before her eyes clouded over, and a loud sigh escaped her lips.
“Nic, what’s up with you?” Gia asked again, “You can’t hide stuff from me. I can read you like a book. Besides that, aren’t you supposed to be out with Derrick?”
“Supposed to be, being the key word.” Nicole rolled her eyes, “He cancelled on me…again.” She sighed, “Things are different the past few weeks. He says he is just stressed and in a bad mood from work, but damnit all to fucking hell and back, I’m his fucking girlfriend!” she threw up her arms in exasperation, “He should be treating me better than that.” She shrugged her small shoulders.
“I agree…but just see how things turn out. The boy is crazy about you. Hell, we’re not exactly ourselves the past few weeks, no thanks to you know who.” She rolled her emerald eyes, “Seriously though, give Derrick a few days and if his ass doesn’t shape up, give him an ultimatum…shape up or ship out.”
Nicole snorted. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded, for she had fallen in love with Derrick already, not wanting to just up and give up. She just hoped that things would get better again soon, because the man, despite his assholish ways lately, was somebody she considered herself completely compatible with.
“Don’t look so down,” Gia said in an upbeat tone, “Think of it this way…if things don’t work out with Derrick the scatterbrain, you’ll find somebody at college when you start back up. There will be plenty of opportunity for you there.”
Nicole laughed as she shook her head. Her friend proved a good point. As much as she wanted the man she was with to be her life partner, if things didn’t work out, there was plenty of opportunity out there for her to try out , and probably somebody who would treat her way better, even after a time as short as two months later in to the relationship.
“Yeah, well…” Nicole smiled, “Let’s just hope he changes his attitude.”
“Hopefully…” Gia’s voice trailed off, not wanting to give a definite response for she didn’t want to discourage her friend nor get her hopes up.
There were a few minutes of silence which passed by with each girl attempting to look busy, with Gia rummaging through her purse in search of something and Nicole flipping through a magazine she’d pulled from her nightstand. Neither really were paying attention to what they were doing though, but rather just doing it so they wouldn’t be sitting there in awkward silence for an extended period of time. Suddenly though, Gia perked up, zipping her purse and looking up with a wide smile and an up-to-no-good glow in her eyes.
‘What?” Nicole asked, tilting her head to the side in wonderment, knowing that look could only mean one thing.
“I think we deserve a shopping trip.”
“Gia…we can’t pay the bills ourselves and if AJ were helping, then yes…but he isn’t and we can’t afford to blow our money away on the mall.”
Gia rolled her eyes again, shaking her head, “Nic…we’ve both had a rough couple of weeks. My job is shit lately, our roommate thinks he is king of the world and you’re having relationship problems. I’d say we need a little something to lift our spirits. So are you in, or are you out?”
Nicole sighed. Her friend proved a good point. They were both stressed and hadn’t had fun in a couple of months. She longed for just one afternoon of freedom where she could smile and laugh and not worry about money or how the bills were going to get paid. Although she knew that shopping wouldn’t help the situation, against her better judgement, she decided that it wouldn’t hurt anything to go out and have a little retail therapy.
“I’m in.” she found herself saying before she could really think twice about it.
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As he stood along the curb to the highway outside of the Chick-fil-a, holding up a sign advertising a new sandwich, AJ grumbled under his breath, flaming up in reddened embarrassment from underneath the enormous chicken suit he’d been forced to put on. The only upside, if there was an upside to this, was the fact that nobody could see him under the heavy, gaudy costume. Especially with him marching up and down the side of the road like some sort of half retarded moron, waving the sign around to draw attention.
‘This blows.” AJ muttered under his breath, forcing himself to keep going despite the intense heat. The costume had had some sort of air conditioning system built in to it to make the heat bearable, however it had gone out after a mere twenty minutes, leaving AJ sweating and panting for air and a cold drink, “This really blows.”
It hadn’t exactly been his first choice in jobs, and when he’d applied at the restaurant after countless times of being told he was unqualified for lack of experience at many other places, he’d expected a management position. Not this. They’d offered to let him start that afternoon though, and much to his surprise, he was getting the rookie position. The job that the people inside of the building were too advanced for, including the person at the register. During his interview, the manager had made a comment about ‘With your charming personality, I have the perfect position for you.’ At the time, AJ had thought that the short, round woman had been serious. Now, he saw that she was sarcastic and thought that his personality had much to be desired, shoving him in to a position that was easy and lacked having to actually talk to customers.
Stopping for a moment to take in a few deep breaths, feeling as if he were going to pass out due to the extreme heat, AJ wondered what the hell he was doing there. He was a celebrity, for Gods sake. He deserved any job he pleased, no questions asked, and to be trained in any position, experience or not. And to top it off, he deserved full benefits straight up, without the usual six month wait period. But yet, he was being treated like any average human being, and to him, that was just uncalled for and wrong.
While a group of teenagers were at a red light, he noticed them stopping to stare at him, pointing and laughing. Anger flared up in AJ, but he tried his best to turn away and ignore it. That was, until they started yelling things out the window at him.
“Hey, chicken, too ugly to show your face?” one of them yelled.
‘Try getting a real job, loser!”
AJ turned and looked right at them trying to frighten the kids who were likely no older than seventeen. Instead of scaring them though, it just caused them to crack up even harder. AJ realized he must have looked pretty ridiculous, in a bright yellow chicken costume with big, flappy wings and a beak that was curved in to a smile, the color vibrant shade of orange. He didn’t care though, because his day was becoming a living nightmare.
“Ohh…I’m so scared!” one of the boys chided from the backseat, flapping his arms around and bocking like a chicken in imitation.
AJ started to walk to wards the road, sick of the tormenting he’d been receiving all day. The thing was, most of the people just chuckled politely at him, going about their way. These kids though were just being cruel.
“Why don’t you shut the fuck up, you little punk!” AJ seethed through the costume, his voice coming out low and animated.
“Or you’ll what?” the driver laughed.
AJ didn’t think of anything to come back with quick enough, for they started razzing him more, shooting out insults and slams, laughing and calling him names. The more AJ heard, the angrier he became, wishing the light would just turn green already so they would be out of his face. It didn’t happen soon enough, and he was losing his temper very quickly.
“Go back to the funny farm, where you belong…freakoid retard.” One of the kids chided with a grin.
With that said, the last of the patients AJ had been reserving left him as he chucked his sign at the car, leaving a nice dent in the nice, new paint job. The kids looked at him started, their bodies frozen for just a moment before they realized the violence they’d caused to erupt from the smaller man. It was then that their eyes all showed fear, looking straight ahead. It was too late though, for they’d caused the monster in AJ to show as he took off his chicken helmet, also tossing it as the car with such force that it broke the windshield, the beak sticking in to the hole it had created, glass splintering out in all directions, the rest of the head rolling off in to the middle of the road as cars honked their horns all around him.
“You little fuckers have messed with the wrong person!” AJ yelled.
He wasn’t sure if they heard him though, because the light had turned and they were trying as hard as they could to get away from him quickly despite the slowly moving traffic. They weren’t fast enough though, for AJ got one last shot at them as he took off one of the clawed feet, tossing it right at them as they drove off, it bouncing off of the rear window. With that, AJ started to walk off, knowing that his job was over and he’d be fired anyways, but he didn’t care, stripping down the rest of his costume along the way, leaving it lying in the dirt as he dug in his pocket for some quarters to find a pay phone as far away from the restaurant as possible to call for a cab to take him back home
Author's Chapter Notes:
Another chapter...lol. I think you may find the end of this one humerous. hehehe...Ayleen will have 8 done shortly! Thanks for your patients!
