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“It wasn’t like that, Adriana!” Christopher had been met by her yelling at him as soon as he walked in the door.
“You selfish fuckin’ asshole!” She threw her hairbrush at him, straight out the shower. “It was my mother’s birthday, Christopher! You promised!”
“Oh! What the fuck!” He dodged it hitting him. “You not even gonna ask what happened to my head?!” He gestured at his forehead. “I got stitches! You think I made that up?”
“This the first time you come back with stitches?” She looked like she wanted to spit in his face.
“You gonna be mad at anyone, be mad at Paulie.” He walked past her to grab a lighter from the counter, trying to make up for the cigarettes he’d missed out on.
“You saying Paulie did this?” She finished getting dressed.
“No… it–” He tried to think of the words to even describe what had happened. He couldn’t think of any. “It’s a long fuckin’ story! Just trust me here, it was all Paulie’s fault.”
“You go to a real doctor?” She went to touch the stitches, feeling worried now.
“What you think I went to, a vet?” He moved away from her touching it.
Adriana shrugged as if to say I wouldn’t put it past you.
“It was a real doctor, all right?” He lit his cigarette. “Tony took me to the ER. They gave me some morphine.”
“Morphine…” She scoffed. “That’s just what you fuckin’ need…” She processed the rest of what he’d said. “Tony took you?”
Christopher nodded.
“So you were with Tony and Paulie all night but youse weren’t just fucking around at the Bing?”
“Me and Paulie were doing something, shit got fucked up… Tony had to come get us. That’s all I can tell you. Now fuckin’ leave it.”
“Just tell me what happened, Christopher!” she whined, more nosey now than angry.
“No.” He sat on the couch.
“Tell me!” She followed him onto the couch and pouted. She tried to touch his head again and he pushed her hand away.
“Don’t touch it.” He turned the TV on to shut her up.
“Chrissy, come on…” She put a hand on his shoulder then rested her head on it. “You missed my mother’s birthday for this, can’t you just tell me what happened?”
“Yeah, like she woulda fuckin’ missed me.”
“Christopher…” She got closer to him, desperate to know. She was getting on his last nerve. “Please, Chrissy… Just tell me.”
“Jesus Christ.” He shut the TV off. “Me and Paulie got stuck in the pine barrens all night! You happy now? We nearly fuckin’ froze to death, I hadn't eaten nothing, left my lighter in–”
"You are so full of shit!” She jumped up from the couch, not wanting to be near him. “You really expect me to believe you and Paulie got stuck in the fuckin’ pine barrens?!"
“I couldn’t make this shit up if I tried!”
“If you’re gonna lie to me, at least be fuckin’ good at it! Why would you even be out there? It’s South Jersey!”
“I know it’s South Jersey, I didn’t wanna go there neither!” He sat forward in his seat. “We had to do something out there, we got lost!”
“Do what?!”
“I can’t tell you! You know that.”
Adriana took a deep breath out to compose herself. “I’m going to my mother’s house.” She went into the bedroom.
Christopher aggressively put his cigarette out and followed her. “I’m telling the fuckin’ truth! Ask Paulie if you don’t believe me!”
“Like I’d ask fuckin’ Paulie anything.” She rolled her eyes as she got her night bag out from the closet.
“Tony then.” He snatched the bag off her. He suddenly realized that Tony would kill him if he found out he’d told Adriana anything. “Ok, not Tony, but–”
“You can’t even get your fuckin’ story straight!” She tried to get the bag off him. “Give me it!”
He held it tightly. “I’m not lying to you!”
“Even if you are telling the truth and you’re stupid enough to get lost in the fuckin’ woods, it don’t matter. Now give me my ba–”
“The fuck you mean it don’t mat–” He shoved her away when she tried to get the bag and she fell back into the wall.
“Ow-uh!” She steadied herself and rubbed the back of her head. She gave him the finger.
“…Sorry.” He looked away from her. “But how don’t it matter? You don’t give a shit if I’m telling you the truth?”
“You ever heard of the boy who cried wolf?” She looked him in the eye. She started getting her clothes out instead of trying to get the bag.
“Stop that!” He snatched the clothes off her too, building up a pile of stuff in his hands. He looked down and realized he looked stupid so threw it all across the room.
“Tell me one good reason why I should believe you.” She gave up with getting clothes and looked at him intensely.
They stared at each other. It became obvious on Christopher’s face that he couldn’t think of a single one.
“Fuck you, Christopher…” She started to cry and wiped her tears away quickly. She went to walk past him to just go to her mother’s house with nothing.
“Don’t–” He grabbed her.
“Get off me.” She tried to shake his hand off, looking irritated by it - but not threatened.
“You can’t go!” He held her arm tighter.
Adriana looked him up and down. “What you gonna do, hit me?” she goaded him.
“What you fuckin’ say?”
“That’s what you do, right?” She played on his insecurities.
What she said had made him feel exactly how she wanted it to. “Shut your mouth about that.”
“Why?” She raised her eyebrows mockingly. “You embarrassed?”
“Shut up.” He tightened his grip on her arm even more.
“You know, Christopher… what would your father think of this shit?” She knew that would hurt him as much as he hurt her, glancing down at the way he was holding her. “Don’t your mother always say how he–”
He slapped her across the face. She tried to slap him back but he grabbed her other arm. Adriana wasn’t scared of him.
“Don’t talk about him!”
He shoved her into the wall, on purpose this time. She looked confused as she slammed into the wall.
“What are you doing?” She’d genuinely expected him to stop there. He always did.
“Never talk about my fuckin’ father again!”
“I didn’t mean–”
“Didn’t mean what? Huh?” He put his ear towards her. “You jealous ‘cause your dad ran out on you and mine didn’t?”
“Fuck you, Christopher! You can go back to the fuckin’ pine barrens and freeze to death for all I care!” She tried to barge past him and he backhanded her again. It was so forceful that she lost her footing and stumbled to the floor.
Adriana looked so vulnerable when she fell that Christopher actually felt remorse. “Sorry.” He held ahold of her arm to support her getting up. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t touch me…”
Christopher let go of her and backed away. “I didn’t mean it, I’m sorry… I had a horrible fuckin’ nigh–”
Adriana went into the bathroom and locked the door. She said nothing as she put the lid down on the toilet and sat on it.
“Come on, Adriana! It was an accident!”
She still didn’t respond.
The less she said the more Christopher had time to think. “…You think it’s gonna bruise?”
“Maybe, I dunno.” She wiped tears from her face.
“If it do, just… don’t go nowhere for a while.”
“I have a life, Christopher…” She sighed. “I told my mother we’d see her on Tuesday.”
“Tell her we’ll see her next week. If it don’t go by then I’ll buy you some makeup.”
“I have makeup.” She rolled her eyes.
“I’ll buy you some more. More of that expensive shit. What’s it called, Mick?”
“Uh, it’s Mac,” She sounded offended on their behalf.
“Like McDonald’s?”
Adriana couldn’t even tell if he was joking or just dumb, either way she was endeared by it.
“You fall in the toilet?” he asked when she didn’t respond. “Look, I said I’m sorry… It was an accident, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Adriana wiped her face dry. “…You didn’t?”
“No! Come on, you really think I’d do that to you?”
She didn’t know what to think. It wasn’t like he’d punched her… “You promise?”