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Dark Roots of Earth | Chapter Twelve: Kisses Don’t Lie

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Though Valentina had gone back home in a haste, Chuck and Eric lingered back in the apartment for a bit longer than usual just in time for Christine to whip up a round of breakfast for the three of them. Eric had offered to help her, but the only thing he could make up for her was the toast to go amongst all the three of them.

She could scarcely eat up her scrambled eggs, however, given she kept on thinking about Alex and meeting him over at his place for the day. But at the same time, she knew that she had to eat something lest she be hungry all day long. She thought about the dream she had had the night before, and she wondered if she could run it by him when she saw him later on. Chuck meanwhile sipped on his coffee and showed her a little smile from behind his mug.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Christine asked him as she munched on her piece of wheat toast with apricot jam on the top.

“I’ll raise you two pennies for two of your thoughts,” he retorted, to which Eric snickered.

“What’s the catch?” she asked him.

“The catch is you and I do something together sometime this summer,” Chuck said.

“I dunno, man, she’s been chillin’ with ol’ Mr. Skolnick lately,” Eric retorted in a singsong voice.

“Well, yeah, I know that,” Chuck scoffed. “But I kinda want the same thing that you and her have, though.”

“Hang out and be buddies and stuff?” Christine asked him.

“Exactly, yeah!”

“Okay, um… what would you like to do together?”

“I wanna take you to dinner and a show,” Chuck declared.

“Dinner?” Eric demanded, taken aback.

“You and I went to dinner every night we were in Monterey,” she pointed out as she took another bite of toast.

“Yeah, but we were in California, though,” he insisted. “It’s different back here in the Big Apple.”

Chuck and Christine glanced at one another.

“Eric, this is the city that never sleeps,” she pointed out. “People here don’t give a shit about what you and I do together, or what me and him do together.” She sipped on the rest of her coffee and wiped her mouth with a napkin.

“Anyways, I gotta meet Alex today,” she informed them as she picked up her plate and took it to the sink. Chuck offered to do the same for himself and for Eric as well, the latter of whom had a rather wounded look upon his face. Christine watched him out of the corner of her eye as she rinsed off their plates under the faucet, and she wondered as to what was going through his mind right then. It reminded her of a time when another boy had his eye on her and Chris was standing off to the side with a similar look upon his face. She dared not dwell on such a memory as that time had long gone behind her, and Eric was totally different by comparison, but it still flashed through her mind like a flicker of light at the start of a thunderstorm.

The two of them still gave her a hug as well, and by the time she was alone again in the apartment, Christine ventured back to her bedroom and changed her clothes. She knew that it was going to be a rather warm day that day, and thus, she wore that low-cut white top and matching choker that Alex had given her right before she left for California. Quickly, she ran a hairbrush through her hair and fixed it up into the taut ponytail at the back of her head: the very tips of her hair brushed against the small of her back, and she knew that it was time for a trim lest the split ends make their return.

She gave her neck a quick swipe of the perfume that smelled of cherry blossoms, and then she hoisted her purse over her shoulder. As she made her way out to the hallway and locked the door, she thought about Eric’s behavior back there.

Maybe that trip out to Monterey had done something to him, and something that he hadn’t the courage to talk about, either. She flashed back on the kiss that he had given her, and she wondered if there could be something there should the whole thing with Alex not work out at all.

But she loved Alex. She was in love with him, and she knew that in her heart, she could love him more and love him better than Captain Howdy ever could.

Captain Howdy did not love him at all, as far as she knew. But she wondered if there could be room in her heart for two guys as she strode out to the sunshine and the bus stop. The warm sun washed over her and remained with the warmth over her as she rode on down to his neighborhood, the street lined with all of the trees, which had long bloomed with the fresh green leaves of spring and summer and gave the entire neighborhood a cool blanket against the hot days upon New York City.

Through a gap in the canopy, the sun shone down on the crown of Alex’s head, and Christine could see his plume of gray from right down the street as a result. He peeked over his sunglasses at her: it made her think that he was watching her like a movie star.

“Peek-a-boo,” she told him as she came within earshot. Her eyes wandered down to his long toned legs, accentuated by his black shorts and fitted shirt.

“There’s that girl,” he sang out as if he was up on Broadway. His warm, rounded voice echoed over the sidewalk and she knew that he had been teaching himself how to carry his tune better. “There’s that girl, there’s that girl…” Christine strode up to him and kissed him on the neck and then on his cherry lips, the latter of which she held onto as if her life depended on it.

Alex held back a bit and ran his fingers through his soft black hair: the gray streak shone under the sun as if it really was made of silver.

“Where did that come from?” he asked her with that lopsided smile on his handsome face.

“I just… wanted to feel you for a bit longer,” she confessed with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

“You know, it’s the damnedest thing: I was feeling the same way just last night. I really wanted to hang up and go over to your place.”

“You wouldn’t’ve liked it,” she said. “We had loud music going, all kinds of coolers flowing, someone called the cops, it was this whole big scene.” He treated her to that soft chuckle of his.

“Wanna go down to Coney Island?” he offered her with another run of his fingers through his hair.

“Oh, baby, you know it.” She lovingly patted the side of his face and kissed him again, that time with a slight raise onto her toes to reach him. She then held onto his hand, and the two of them walked together to his car parked right near the corner. When he let go of her hand, he took his keys out of his front pocket and let his sunglasses slide down the bride of his nose.

“You look really sexy, by the way,” she told him as her eyes wandered from his chest all the way down to his feet. “Showing off your skin and your curves like this.”

“If I have curves, what do you have?” he joked as he unlocked the car.

“More of curves?” she replied with a bit of reluctance, and he burst out laughing at that.

They both climbed into the car in unison and, once he fired it up, she was met with the soft crooning of Karen Carpenter on his radio.

“Man, you never hear the Carpenters anymore,” he remarked as he switched up the volume dial. Christine rolled down the window and let the warm summer air sweep over her.

She thought about the last summer Chris was alive, and one day while on the way to his house, she had the window down and her hand out the window to feel the breeze through her fingers. She did just that, much to Alex’s pleasure. In one small corner of her mind, she refused to believe that Chris was gone, that it was all some terrible joke and he had faked his death and was currently living under the boardwalk down at Coney Island, or out in the woods in the middle of Central Park. But she had left him behind in the past along with the memory of Ann and the memory of the time before Alex, and now she looked on at the big Ferris wheel once he turned the corner.

It was a warm summer day and yet there weren’t many people there; luckily for them, Alex took the spot due across the street from the parking lot.

Once he had locked the door and tucked his keys into his front pocket once again, she snuck up behind him and reached into his back pocket. She flexed her fingers inside of his pocket, which in turn made him flinch a bit.

“Hey, watch it,” he teased her. She did it again, and that time, he flinched forward and clutched at himself.

“God, you’re frisky today,” he joked.

“It’s what happens when you call me late at night and I wake up thinking about you,” she replied in a single breath. “I’m wanting to touch you.”

He peeked over his sunglasses at her again, that time with a playful little smirk on his face.

“I was also wanting to hear your voice, too,” she added, and he raised his eyebrows at that.

“You know, truth be known, I feel that way sometimes, too,” he confessed as they were met with the unmistakable smell of French fries, followed by popcorn.

“We need to have some fun,” she whispered right into his ear.

“We’re about to go into Coney Island!” he insisted. “Of course we’re going to have some fun.”

“No, no, I mean…” She lightly kissed the side of his neck, which in turn made him gasp and shiver. She held back to find him raising his eyebrows at her. “Let’s have some fun.”

“Oh, I see,” he breathed, and he showed her a playful little smile at that. “Well, first things first, let us play with the little island we have here.”

It reminded her of the time that he took her there before the rainstorm fell down over them, except this time, the sun shone down on them in the form of another shower. She held his hand, even when he had his free hand upon one of those old brown cream soda bottles with a straw out the spout. His black hair seemed to flow against the warm sea breeze, and she had her chest out in the open. There was a little stuffed sock monkey, bright green, the same color as the bushels of cotton candy off to the side, over by the balloon wall that caught her eye.

She grinned to herself when she convinced him of it. She knew that he was more than willing to spend money on her, money on her rather than Captain Howdy: he was spending enough on her, what with the wedding and everything.

Alex held the dart next to his head and chucked it to the first balloon right smack in the middle of the board. It popped so loud that it caught her off guard.

“That’s how we do it!” he declared with a chuckle. The second dart hit the one slightly to his left, and the third took the one slightly on his right.

“We’ll take the green monkey,” Christine declared to the kid behind the counter; he handed it over to Alex, who scritched the crown of its head as if it was real.

“For you, my love,” he told her as he handed her the monkey, to which she took and cradled in her arms as if it was made of gold.

“Shall we go down to the beach?” he suggested as he took a sip from his soda bottle.

“Please,” she quipped, and she held the monkey in one arm so she could hold hands with him again.

They walked side by side down towards the boardwalk and the panoramic view of the beach and the ocean. The aged wood of the walkway felt warm underneath their feet, and it radiated against their interlocked hands.

Like the sun was blessing the forbidden love between the two of them.

They passed by the bathrooms, and he held back a bit from her.

“Okay, but… um… before you and I get busy down here, I have to use the little boys’ room,” he told her, and he swiped her lips with a hearty kiss, the hardest one yet complete with a wave of sea spray cast over their heads.

“I’ll be right here,” she promised him with a wink, and she held onto his soda bottle with one hand. Christine watched Alex go in through the blue door on the left side, and she lingered back with the monkey in her arms. She pressed it up against her chest like she would a textbook, and she leaned against the brick wall due across from the doors.

She spotted something out of the corner of her eye, and she turned her head and looked up the boards to the spot on the wall, way out of earshot from her. She recognized that feathery blonde hair, now made golden by the summer sun, and she recognized her father anywhere.

Her eyes wandered to the water fountain right across from them, and she knew that short straight black hair anywhere as well.

Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of them, and she blindly ducked into the men’s room so she was close to Alex. The men’s room was small and bright, and smelled of fresh lemons as if they had just cleaned in there. Indeed, the smooth powder blue tiles under her feet shone under the fluorescent lights as if they were brand new. She caught the sound of something hitting the porcelain in one of the stalls, followed by a low thud.

“Whoa, ow!”

Christine rounded the corner and stood before the one door that had been closed.

“You okay in there?” she asked him through the door.

“I fell off the toilet.” He grunted out a bit as he picked himself up off the floor. “Not the first time that’s happened, though. And at least it’s clean in here, too.”

“Yeah, it actually smells really clean in here,” she remarked as she kept her folded arms up to her chest.

“Besides, this is the men’s room—you know you’re not supposed to be in here,” he told her; she could see his feet under the bottom of the door.

“I don’t care,” she confessed to him.

“I should’ve known,” he teased her with a chuckle. Christine held back against the wall with the monkey pressed right up against her chest. Even though she was in the men’s room, she didn’t mind standing there waiting for him, and she knew she was comfortable with him. The sound of his voice and his presence in the stall before her made her momentarily forget why she came in there in the first place.

“I saw Nelly and my dad down the boardwalk,” she told him right as he shifted his feet on the clean tile floor.

“And that’s why you’re in here?” he asked her, dumbfounded.

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“That’s kind of an odd pairing to think about,” he confessed with a slight strain to his voice. “You sure it was them?”

“I know my dad from anywhere and I’m ninety-nine percent sure that was Nelly he was talking to.”

“Not sure why you’d run in here with that in mind, though,” he confessed.

“I also saw your fiancée out there, too.”

There was a brief pause behind the stall door. “Shit. Ah, shit.” He fetched up a sigh. “What was going on?”

“I don’t know. My dad and Nelly were talking to each other, and she had her back turned to them so she probably had nothing to do with it. It’s still disconcerting to see, though.”

“Yeah, I’ll say. So much for Nelly being a friend to us, too. At least I lie for you, Christine.” He then stood up and she heard him pull up his shorts. He then flushed and opened the door at the same time, and he greeted her with a nervous look on his face and his sunglasses perched upon his head.

“Looks like we’re going to have our work cut out for us, my dear,” he confessed to her.

“No doubt about that.”

“Let me wash my hands and then I’ll take a look out there…”

Christine held off to the side of the faucets as he scrubbed his hands with the soft soap right next to him.

“I love how you aren’t offended by my odor, either,” he confessed to her with a glimpse up to the mirror.

“I actually don’t even notice it,” she told him with a shrug of her shoulders. “It’s just a part of life, anyway.”

“Exactly!” he replied as he switched off the water. He took a few paper towels from the dispenser on the wall and dried off his long and lanky hands.

“Oh, good, you still held onto my soda!” he declared as she handed it to him and his free, dry hand. He took another sip from the straw and then shook his head about.

“Okay, now, let’s see what’s going on out there,” he said as he opened the door with the paper towel. They were greeted by the ocean breeze and the warmth of the sun, but Christine thought of lingering back away from there lest one of them look in their direction. Alex peered off to the right, and then to the left. He held still and she knew they were still there.

“Oh, god, that is my fiancée,” he muttered as he put his sunglasses back on. “And it looks like that is Nelly, too.”

“What do you think we should do?” Christine asked him. Alex didn’t say anything as he tossed the paper towels into the trash can by the door, and then he took her by the hand and led her away from there. She daren’t glance back, and she knew that they would be safe in the furthest stretch of beach from there.

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