#katie is going to kill me so i might be ded. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ajricci · 7 years ago

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Dirty Little Secret || AJ & Lea

Lea needs help with Jenna and AJ needed something to do on his birthday.

07/07/17

Warnings: alcohol

She'd been up late - it was summertime, and while Lea still normally woke up early enough, she didn't always make sure she was in bed relatively early. It wasn't absurdly late, she noticed when her phone buzzed with a text notification, only just about 8pm - it must have just felt later due to the heat. Lea hummed to herself, not reading the text until she had the messaging app up - and when she did, she felt her eyes widen and nearly dropped her phone straight onto her face. Lea!!!! Kira's not in town and guess who discovered that her mommm and ded have lots of whisky in their cabimet and decided to go for a walk. M lost. Her phone buzzed again, quickly. Not lost! At the Common but it's darkc and spinning. Shoot. Shit. Lea shook her head. This wasn't like Jenna. Jenna didn't drink, didn't do any of that. But apparently she had, and Lea typed out a quick reply to her. Coming. Do. NOT. Move. Jenna replied with a lot of thumbs up emojis and Lea pushed herself off of her bed, rushing down the stairs quickly and quietly - her parents were both out, and Dustin was probably in his room, or something. The Common didn't take too long to get to, and Jenna was sitting on a bench when she found her - but she didn't seem to want to move, and while she was only a little taller and heavier than Lea was, when she decided to not move, Lea couldn't tug her along, and the last thing she was about to do is try and float Jenna home. She pulled out her phone and pressed Dustin's contact, trying to call him, letting out a giant huff when it went straight to voicemail. "Shit!" She said, running a hand through her hair. Kira was out of town, which meant her sister who was a sophomore in college was, too. Sophomore at Wellesley, home for the summer but gone for right now. Lea couldn't call Katie or Amanda or Anya or Celeste or Kevin or anybody like that, because it would put Jenna in a vulnerable position without her consent. Chewing on her lip as Jenna lay her head back against the bench, Lea opened up her contacts and hit one before she could think it through more. "AJ?" She said as soon as the other end was answered. "Come to the Common right now, I need something that only you're able to do and you'd better not tell anybody else about this."

AJ had been decidedly doing nothing the majority of the day. His mother had made only a slight fuss over his birthday, enough to bake a cake so the two could awkwardly sit together and stuff their faces to avoid talking to each other. They made small talk, but as always, once AJ brought up any memory of his father his mom almost instantly shut down. She sulked off towards her bedroom and left AJ behind in the kitchen picking at what was left of the cake with his fork. He threw it out. It tasted pretty shitty anyways. Back in his room he threw his headphones over his ears and started sketching in a notebook. He had always been a decent artist plagued with a disinterest for painting and drawing. Without school work to keep up with though he found all the free time reignited his interest. It kept him busy in his down time. The music blasting in his ears nearly made him miss his phone ringing, but noticed the vibrations last minute and grabbed for his phone. Lea? “This must be some kind of alternate reality right?” he answered and just as AJ expected, Lea ignored him. What did she think he was? Uber? “Do I owe you some kind of favor that I’m unaware of? I’ve never taken orders from Sabrina the Teenage Witch before.” He put a hint of curiosity in his voice as if he was truly thinking on the matter. This was what he got for taking them home that night.

Lea let out a dry laugh. "Nice nickname." She paused. "No, you don't owe me any favors, but I need you. Your help, to clarify," Lea continued, rolling her eyes as she sat down next to Jenna. "Jenna's in trouble and my darling idiot of a brother let his phone die again, and I can't get her home on my own." She bit down on her tongue, wondering if that was too much information, if that was too much to reveal - though she hadn't specified the type of trouble, and it wasn't as though AJ could do any true damage with this - though he could reveal things about her. But Lea pushed that thought from her mind, not letting those anxieties clamp onto her thoughts. "We're sorta stuck on the Common, and I need you to help me get her back to her house asap."

AJ had the phone tucked between his cheek and shoulder as he pushed himself across his mattress and reaching to shove his shoes on. It pissed him off. “You need me?” He had admiration in his voice and hoped that Lea could picture his eyes sparkling. “In that case I’ll drop everything. I live to impress.” What did he get from helping her out? More side eye and attitude? If it wasn’t for his curiosity for whatever the hell she could do, specifically what else she could do besides levitating a few textbooks off the ground, he would have already hung up on the phone. He was already out the door by the time he spoke again. “Fine. But only because we’re besties. I’m leaving now I just have to post it on my facebook timeline first.” Then he hung up.

"Nice sarcasm, dude." Lea let out another sigh. This was all for Jenna. All for Jenna and she was going to glare the heck at Dustin whenever she next saw him. "You wouldn't da-" Before she could finish her sentence he'd hung up and she could only hope that he'd been joking about the post. Lea pulled out her phone again and scrolled through her Instagram with one hand as she ran her hands through Jenna's hair with the other. AJ would be here soon, he had to be. If not - well, if he wasn't here in ten minutes she'd suck it up and figure out some way to float Jenna somewhat, at least enough that Lea would be able to carry her back to her house. Because she couldn't get Jenna in trouble with her parents or with their other friends. She continued to scroll through her feed, 'liking' a few photos - one of Celeste and Katie at the pool just earlier today, glancing up every thirty seconds to see when AJ arrived.

AJ cursed himself, the road, the other drivers. Just about anybody and anything that was outside of his bedroom was a victim of his angst tonight. He needed Lea to finally admit to whatever she was and quickly, the whole playing nice thing didn’t suit him. He was bored. Plus, out of the various scenarios he imagined he would be doing on his birthday, picking up Lea and her drunk friend had not made the list. But his need to get answers for the murders outweighed the part of him that just wanted to be alone tonight. And having someone with abilities like she might have could be invaluable. He just wouldn’t know until he actually knew what those abilities were. He pulled into the common and spotted Lea and Jenna sitting at a bench. He rolled down the window and pulled up to them, smiling out the window and asking “How much?” He laughed to himself and put the car in park, hopping out to help Lea guide Jenna towards the truck door. “Hold on!” He practically yelled, stopping all three of them mid motion as they were getting Jenna up onto the seat. AJ reached into his pocket and grabbed out his phone, “This will look great on my snapchat story. Hold that pose!”

Lea narrowed her eyes at his first comment. "Clever, again! You truly blow me away." She kept her arm wrapped around Jenna, only letting go slightly when AJ came over. She let him help lift Jenna up and over to his truck, jumping when he yelled out. "Don't you dare." She nearly hissed, glaring. "Plus, who do you even have on your snapchat? Won't they think it's weird you're hanging out with us?" She cocked an eyebrow. "What are you doing here?" Jenna murmured, before turning to Lea. "Why's he here?" Lea bit her lip, looking from AJ to Jenna. "A favor. He's got a truck and I can't drive since we're not sixteen yet." She gave a small nod.

“I don’t even have snapchat chill out Glinda” AJ rolled his eyes towards Lea and waited until Lea had climbed into the truck with Jenna and making some excuse as to why he was here before slamming the passenger side door shut and moving back for the driver’s seat. “Where are we going?” he asked solemnly, listening to Lea’s directions as she led him to Jenna’s house. He pulled into the driveway and sat there, realizing that he didn’t just get to go home yet. “I’m guessing you need my help getting her inside?”

"The nicknames just don't stop, do they?" Lea rolled her eyes. "But good." She jumped again when he slammed the door but wrapped her arm around Jenna again, replying with directions to AJ. It wasn't too far of a drive at all - Jenna lived near UMAC - but it felt longer than it should have, especially between Lea's thoughts about how she had had to walk past the Bend - almost - in order to go and find Jenna, and how much her parents might kill her, no matter how good her intention. She shot a quick text to her mother and father - Spending the night with Jenna! She's feeling lonely, so we're marathoning bad movies, sorry for not letting you know earlier! She had to hope that would work, because just as she sent the text, AJ pulled up. "Um, yes. How else would that work?" She shrugged.

AJ rolled his eyes and hopped out of the truck. "Well I had considered just shoving the two of you out into the driveway and then driving off." He once again traveled to the opposite side of his truck and helped pull Jenna out, practically slinging her over his shoulders. Jesus she was light. "I'm billing you for all of this I hope you know." He muttered, letting Lea lead the way to the front door. "Let's get her to the bathroom and then her bed." He followed her upstairs and set her upright, hoping that Lea would take over and help her into the bathroom. AJ stood a safe distance away from any of that drama. "Do you have any idea how to take care of someone this drunk?"

Lea gave a small, indignant huff. "That is so incredibly charming, I am floored." She held onto part of Jenna's weight, but made sure to let AJ hold onto her as well. "I would expect nothing less." She replied, dryly. "Just text me the bill." She blew him a kiss with her free hand as she grabbed Jenna's keys from her purse and unlocked the door, helping bring her inside and upstairs. "She's not going to throw up, I don't think." Lea chewed on her lower lip. "I totally do!" She quipped, with perhaps too much enthusiasm as she grabbed a bottle from Jenna's bedside table and went to fill it up with water before coming back into her bathroom and looking at AJ. "Or maybe not. But I know the theories and ways to do it. So if you need to leave, go ahead. If you're just gonna stare at us you'd be better off back at your house, but if you'll help, you're welcome to."

AJ could leave. He should leave. He had little to no interest in Jenna or how awful she would feel in the morning. But prom night with a bunch of drunk kids and a school hallway full of every single student that has ever known or hated AJ hadn't seemed like the opportune times to poke and prod Lea with whatever questions may arise when the two were both alone waiting to make sure that Jenna would make it to the morning. "Well as long as she doesn't have alcohol poisoning and need her stomach pumped then I'm sure you'll be fine. You know, besides having no car to get her to the hospital." If he was going to stay, as much as he really didn't want to, the last thing he would do is make it seem like it's his idea. He may need Lea's abilities, but that didn't mean he had to like her. "Welp good luck! See you next time you grovel at my feet for something."

Lea glared at AJ. "I don't think she's got that. She couldn't have had that much to drink, right?" She bit her tongue and glanced over at Jenna - who, to her credit, did seem relatively okay, if not more than a bit loopy and confused about where she was. Nobody else was ever going to know about this, other than the three of them who were in the room right now. "I can't even drive, even if I did have a car!" She yelped, before lowering her voice. Best to not startle Jenna any more. "Can -" She began, making a small face. She didn't want to ask AJ for anything - he wouldn't have even been here except Dustin's phone was dead and Dustin still didn't have a driver's license. "Can you stay? Y'know, just in case? Or whatever, it's not like I need you around. I'm sure her neighbors are home." She bit her lip and glanced back over to Jenna.

Facing away from Lea with one foot on the steps, a grin spread across AJ's face. Bingo. He turned slowly and dramatically. "You twisted my arm. You just wanted some alone time with me didn't you?" He kept the smirk and slowly made his way back down the hall to Lea. "We should probably get her water then I guess." He starts to make his back down the hall and down the steps to find his way towards the kitchen. Apparently watching drunk people and roaming their houses was becoming something of a hobby. "Are you this pleasant to everyone that gives up their night to save your ass? Or am I just the lucky one?" He called out to Lea, unsure if she was staying up with Jenna or following him down.

"Yes, how ever did you guess?" Lea rolled her eyes. "I desperately want to be alone with you, clearly." With a glance back at Jenna and her empty water bottle she made her way over to where AJ was walking, catching up with him fairly quickly. "We need more water for her, yes. As for your other question, can't answer that. I don't tend to need saving, but you are special, and I am quite nice! It's just late. Sort of." She glanced down at her watch. Only 9.30pm, but still. "Plus, I'm worried for my friend."

AJ figured that Lea could handle something as simple as taking a glass of water up to her best friend, so AJ moved to the living room and plopped down on the couch. He grabbed out his phone and flipped through until he got back to the book he had been reading and kicked his feet up on the table. Lea could rush the water up to her BFF and make sure she was alright. AJ tried to get as comfortable as possible, he had no idea how long Lea would be upstairs or even if she was going to come back downstairs at all. AJ may be stuck downstairs by himself in this stranger’s house the entire night. But eventually Lea did make her way back down, although AJ had no idea how much time had passed. When the two were by themselves in the living, AJ just continuously glanced up at her and then back to his phone. His next little test to pass the time: See how long Lea did in uncomfortable silences. Personally, AJ was a very patient person.

Lea got water for Jenna and filled up the bottle, not even bothering to glance over at AJ before she went back upstairs. Jenna was sitting on her bed and gratefully accepted the water bottle, taking a careful sip of it before smiling over to Lea. "Thanks, you're really the best. I owe you -" "No, you don't." Lea cut her off with a wave of her hand. "I'm just glad you're, like, fully cognizant and everything. Certainly better than being on the bathroom floor and real sick." Jenna gave a nod, before sipping at her water again. When Lea was just about 99.99% positive that Jenna would be okay with her moving downstairs, she made her way down, watching AJ on the couch carefully as she did so. When he didn't say anything as she entered the room, she sat down near him - but not too close - and chewed on her lip, not sure what to say. Or if she was even supposed to say anything at all. After a good fifteen minutes, she hit the heels of her palms against Jenna's couch. "Uh, thanks. I guess. It's whatever. But thank you."

AJ gave a thumbs up towards Lea as if that accurately symbolized an appropriate ‘you’re welcome’. He continued reading his book, growing bored with it pretty quickly. He couldn’t be sure if he was growing bored of the book itself or just uncomfortable reading it in a stranger’s house with the constant feeling of being glared at by Lea. Was Lea actually glaring at him? He had no clue, he was pointedly not looking up at her. Eventually, AJ sighed and locked his phone and set it down on the couch next to him. “Was the plan to just sit in awkward silence all night? Or can we turn on a movie or something?”

Lea shoved her phone into her pocket before glancing at AJ. "I'm not a fan of awkward silences so... I guess we can do a movie?" She brushed a hand through her hair. "What, not gonna question the heck out of me, since you got me all alone and everything?" Lea pulled her knees against her chest and stared at Jenna's living room wall. "What movie did you even want to watch?"

AJ shrugged, “I mean, I don’t have to waste both of our times questioning the heck out of you if you’d just stop lying. It would save us both a lot of trouble.” Plus the sooner that Lea just fessed up the sooner that AJ would finally leave her alone. At least for a while until he needed something from her. But at least it would be better with her secret out on the table right? AJ always found it much more comforting when the secrets of everyone around him were laid out on the table for him to see. “I don’t care we can just turn the tv on to whatever.”

Lea rolled her eyes. "Not. Lying." She looked straight at him. "Plus, it's not like it's very good to go ahead and pry into everybody's lives when things, hm, might not be any of your freaking business?!" She scooted a bit further away from him. She shouldn't have even asked him to come by. But he had helped. Dustin could never know that AJ had a heck of an inkling about what they were. "Fine, if you say so." Lea flipped on the TV and to Jenna's Netflix, turning on a random episode of Pretty Little Liars. "How does that work?" She glanced back over to him.

AJ looked confused and shrugged, “Weird, because people can’t get enough of my business. I’m like a Kardashian.” AJ always figured that turnabout was fair play, if people were so obsessed with figuring everything about him and his father’s personal lives it, then it only seemed fair that AJ started learning everyone else’s secrets also. At least that logic made sense to him. Up until his father’s disappearance AJ had little to no interest learning anything personal about most people, even those he was friends with. That had been their business and AJ’s had been his own and had no drive to change that. But the moment that changed AJ realized that he didn’t like knowing people when he didn’t know everything about them. Lea flipped on the tv and turned on Pretty Little Liars of all shows. “My favorite show, thank god. Who do you think A is?” AJ despised the show, mostly because of how unrealistic the whole thing seemed. A group of teenagers solving a murder? Come on. He snickered to himself. At least he knew he was a lot smarter than those four were.

Lea sighed. "The Kardashians are way lame, just saying." She crossed her arms over her chest before glancing back over to him. He did have a far point. She knew a great deal about AJ - and had, even before they'd properly met in person. All thanks to Amanda and Kevin, and even Katie - though Katie's knowledge did come in large part from her older sister. "See, I've seen the series finale, so I could tell you, but I won't spoil it, don't you worry." Lea laughed. "Plus, you said we could watch anything, so..." Her voice trailed off as she stared at the screen. "What, would you prefer I switch it to something else? Go ahead and choose if you're so picky." She threw the remote at him and pulled her legs against her chest, glancing behind herself at the stairs.

“I’m pretty sure you just indirectly called me way lame. I feel like I should be offended” AJ scoffed and held his hand against his heart, feigning offense. Lame would probably be the nicest adjectives one of the popular kids had referred to AJ as the last two years. He usually found their insults bland and unoriginal. He was getting pretty bored of hearing the usual words. ‘Psychopath’ and ‘dickface’ were just a couple of the most common words. Neither one sparked a lot of interest for AJ these days. If they wanted him to turn his head he would need them to update their negative connotative vocab. “If this story actually made any real sense and there was some real continuity I could figure out who A was in a week tops.” AJ remarked passively. As the two settled into watching the show he became increasingly irritated by any and all characters. Lea tossed the remote over to him and he grabbed it before reaching to set it on the coffee table. He honestly couldn’t give a shit what show they watched. He waited until about halfway through the second episode to start asking questions. “So the textbook thing. Is that like the limit of whatever freaky voodoo you can do or just the bare minimum?”

"No!" Lea looked over to him. "The Kardashians are lame." She paused, lowering her voice so that it was barely audible. "I'm saying you're not like them. But whatever." She rolled her eyes at his comment about the show. "Okay, fair enough, I guess. But I still like it, and it's somewhat diverse as far as casting goes - could be better, but hey." Lea shrugged again. "I'd like to see you figure out exactly all the plot twists within a week." She raised an eyebrow when AJ didn't change the show, but felt herself tense up when his question finished. "Can't answer that. Don't know what you're talking about." Her mother would kill her. She'd been mad at Dustin, and Dustin had been - was currently - dating the person who'd found out about magic. Lea stretched out her legs over the couch and dug her nails into her thighs. Jenna didn't even know.

AJ raised his eyebrows at Lea. Was it just him or had she just gone out of her way to make sure that he knew she wasn’t calling him lame? That might be the nicest thing she had ever said to him. He smirked to himself and turned back to the show, as annoying as it was. “I guess the diverse cast is a plus.” He never watched a ton of television, but had always known about the diversity problem. He appreciated a diverse cast and gay characters. “But I could probably call the plot twists a mile away.” He liked bragging to Lea. Something about her easily frazzled personality made it humorous. Sometimes he wondered why he enjoyed irritating her so much. Then Lea went with the denial route again and AJ remembered why she bothered him. “I’m going to go with bare minimum.”

Lea have a small shrug. "Yeah, I guess." She continued staring at the television screen. "I mean, my friend group's at least a bit diverse, so it's good to see it reflected on television. Also, kudos to you, dude. The plot twists are not always tough, but I bet there's at least two in this show that'd take you by surprise." At his next comment, she whipped her head to face him. She shouldn't even comment on anything, but he'd caught her before and apparently wasn't so keen on passing it off as a trick of the eye. "So what if it is?"

There was no evidence to prove that AJ would be taken by surprised about any plot twist the show could throw at him. In fact, the only reason that AJ could see anything getting by him would be plot inconsistencies in the show itself or the fact that a fictional television drama only shows a small portion of the character’s actual lives were filmed and written. If it were real life AJ would have known all of the facts or he would go out and learn them. He did not like being in the dark. “If it is then nothing.” AJ shrugged. He was staring at the tv, didn’t even know if she was looking at him or not. “I’m not in the business of telling people other’s secrets.” Unless it benefitted him in some way, like outing that douchebag that beat him up for copying answer sheets to finals and forcing him into summer school and potentially losing his scholarship. But Lea’s secret did no good to him publicized. “This may surprise you, but I don’t have a lot of friends to tell.”

Lea ran her fingers in circles on her knees, turning away from AJ. Her stomach still felt nearly sick and tight at the idea that he knew her secret, the one that she'd sworn up and down to herself - and her family - that she wouldn't let get out. Until she was married, and even then it'd have to be handled with utmost care. So that she didn't end up like her parents. "You can't tell Dustin that you know." She almost whispered, staring straight ahead. Because he did know - Lea might have been dead set on denying it, but even she couldn't argue with the facts after a certain point. "Why does it matter, then? If you're not going to out me as some freak, why does it matter that you even know?" She flipped off the television. "Tell me."

AJ had to fight the urge to smile. They were finally getting somewhere with this. After vehemently denying it for over a month, it was starting to sound like Lea was finally going to admit to the abilities that she had. Maybe even tell him more about what the limits to those were, which was what AJ was actually interested in. And despite wanting to smirk knowingly like an asshole as he usually would, he could tell that now wasn’t the time. Not when he was finally starting to get somewhere with her. So curled his legs Indian style onto the couch and straightened his posture to show that she had his full attention. “It’s not my secret to tell. There are some lines that I wouldn’t even cross. Believe it or not.” There were a few things on AJ’s list. The list being things that he swore to himself the day that he set on his path of retribution and vengeance he would never cross. Sexuality was one of them. Exposing a closeted kid or someone’s private pictures were just one of those rules. He had never really had any guidelines against magical powers considering he hadn’t known of their existence. “I have this problem with not knowing things.” He wasn’t lying. Whatever Lea could do was something that he couldn’t fully understand, a puzzle that AJ could not solve, and it was driving him crazy. AJ could solve any puzzle given time. “I don’t know what it is and that bothers me.”

Lea finally turned to look at AJ - or face him, rather. She kept her gaze staring down straight at her lap for the time being. "You just - Dustin can't know that you know." Almost said, I'll do anything. - but given the circumstances this was probably not the time to make such a broad sweeping statement as that one. Because AJ would probably try and get her to agree to something and she wanted to have the upper hand in this, at least as best as she was able to. "What I am? It's not that hard of a name to think of, dude. You've already referred to it in one of your nicknames." She paused, finally glancing up at him and rolling her eyes. "Or is it that you don't know how I do it?" Her voice wavered slightly, and she glanced towards the stairs that lead up to Jenna's room before she looked back at AJ.

Witch. The word had left and entered AJ’s brain more times than he could count since seeing Lea that day. Things were weird in this town and he had always known it. But putting a name to it, especially a name so infamous as witch still seemed almost fictional. Plus, accepting the fact that witches were real opened up a whole new can of worms when it came to the possibilities of the happenings in Ashkent Creek. If witches were real that meant all kinds of crazy shit could exist. “I don’t know how you do it. Or what you can even do besides levitate some textbooks. W- Pop culture gives me a pretty broad idea.” He cut himself off from actually saying witch. The fact that she looked so upset about the conversation told him to walk on eggshells here.

Don't show excessive fear or worry. Don't. She reminded herself, letting the thoughts circle around again and again in her head. Lea kept watching AJ, eyes wide. People knowing got witches and warlocks murdered. As much as she wasn't inclined to believe the rumors about AJ as many of her friends wanted to, part of her was still nervous - what if his father had killed witches, what if - too many questioned kept going around and around in her head. "Oh," She paused, fiddling with her necklace. "That's," Lea sucked in a breath of air. "Just a fun thing I do." It was true, she'd loved floating things ever since she found out that she had that skill. Some great number of years, now.

“So just one fun thing of the many, many things that you can potentially do?” AJ asked excitedly. Witches in movies and tv shows covered way too broad of powers. In some they could only control the elements, in other they worked simply by mixing potions together or sacrificing rabbits to some pagan god. In Hansel and Gretel the witch just lived in an edible house and ate children. Really, the possibilities have the potential to both shock AJ more than he thought actually possible, or severely disappoint him. He was leaning towards the former. He was ready to ask a million questions when he could tell that she was done talking about it or desperately hopeful at least. AJ let out a loud yawn, “But I’ve lost interest. So I’m going to go to bed.” He stretched his arms out and laid across the couch, his feet hanging over the edge of the other side. Then he crossed his arms and shut his eyes as if he was Sleeping Beauty. After a few moments he poked one eye open at Lea, “You want to cuddle or something?”

"Sure, I can do so many things." Lea resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "As we know, television and book versions are oh so freaking accurate." She chewed on her lip. There was no way that she was going to totally out herself down to the very specific specialty she had. Either - and ideally - he'd never know, or he'd have to work a lot to figure it out. "See, I highly doubt you've just up and lost interest, but I'm also not about to complain, so." She pulled her legs up quickly as he stretched out, raising an eyebrow at him as he closed his eyes, only to blurt out a few moments later. "Um, what!? Why would I - no! You're not unattractive but - ew! AJ, seriously!?"

AJ smirked. “Maybe you should take a step off of your pedestal. I think you find yourself way more interesting than you actually are.” He laughed to himself and made himself sound very concerned for Lea’s health, “It’s a little sad honestly.” He really got a kick out of her freaking out about his invitation. He wasn’t sure if he should be impressed with himself that he made it sound so believable or disappointed in her because she actually believed him. “Lea.” He stated calmly and pausing for a few seconds so she could maybe stop having a panic attack and focus. “I was kidding. Now can I sleep?” Lea glared. "Not on a pedestal, thank you very much." She rolled her eyes. "I've got confirmation that I'm at least a bit interesting from quite a number of people, so it's not just my own opinions." When he said that he was kidding she gave a small huff. "Not funny to joke about, but fine. Sleep away, but I'm waking you up at 5am so you're not around when Jenna gets up. That'd be too much explaining to do. Deal?" She raised an eyebrow at AJ before pulling her legs up against her body to give him more space.

“Why must you keep our love hidden?” AJ sniffled. Why Lea had ever chosen to call AJ for help would always confuse him. But regardless AJ had finally gotten answers today. He had at least started to get answers that is. Just to mess with Lea even more, AJ began singing. “I’ll keep you my dirty little secret.” He grinned and pointed right at her “Don’t tell anyone or you’ll be just another regret.” Then he waved her off.

"Just how I am." Lea quipped. "Plus, there's no love here," Maybe some sort of weird understanding - possibly. But that didn't even matter. "Ew, no. Stop it! Also that song is terrible." But luckily, AJ fell asleep soon enough after that, and Lea pulled her phone out of her pocket, setting it for 4.45am - just in case she fell asleep, though she wasn't sure that she would. Somehow, for whatever reason it was, she did - until her phone buzzed in her hand and she sat up, kicking AJ's leg lightly with her foot. "Get up, you've gotta go now."

AJ jolted awake from Lea’s kick. One of his main weaknesses, the one that his father had tried time and time again to break AJ of, was how heavy of a sleeper he was. AJ was practically an expert at keeping himself awake which was helpful when he needed to keep an eye on someone he didn’t trust or had to get something done. Unfortunately, once AJ was out he was out. His father had tried to break him of it, but AJ had finally accepted that everyone had to have a weakness. This was one of his. He pulled himself off the couch and slipped his shoes back on before glancing at the time on his phone. Not even five in the morning. He pulled his keys from his pocket and started swinging them around his finger as he moved towards the door. AJ slowly pulled the door open as quietly as possible. “I had a really great time with you. You’ll call right?” He went out of the door and whisper yelled, “I can’t wait to tell my mom all about this. Best birthday ever.” on the way to his truck, sarcastically talking mostly to himself this time.

Part of her did feel bad about having to kick AJ out. He'd helped her, he deserved better. But Jenna was already going to have a million questions, and waking up to find Lea and AJ on the couch together would only add to them. AJ's comment caught her off-guard again and she glared at him, before adding on a sarcastic smile. "Of course I will." She clutched her chest with one hand. She got up when he did, and began straightening some parts of the living room out as he left the house. "You can't." She bit her lip, though AJ was likely out of range to even hear her any longer. This was a mistake, most likely. But it was okay - nobody else had to know what AJ knew about her.

@leaparrish

#c: lea #chatzy: lea #touchofchatzy #chatzy #alcohol tw #dirty little secret

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