Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel) (25 page)

“Yeah,” he said, staring up at the ceiling, “I get the
impression
Dallas
likes you. I’ve never seen him act
so… anti-Dallas over a girl.”

Ariahna
laughed under her breath in embarrassment. “Isn’t it funny how we’re talking
about everyone but us on this date?” she commented.

“Uh…
you could ask me a question?”

“Okay,”
she smiled. “Do you have any scary parents I should know about?” Christian
seemed to shut down at her question. “I’m sorry, did I say something wrong? You
know what, forget I said anything. What’s your favorite subject?”

He
smiled guiltily. “Alchemy,” he said. “What about you?”

“The
same,” she smiled. “We have a whole lab at home. I’m the only one who uses it,
though. It makes me wonder if my family stored boxes in there before I was
born.”

“So
do you live close to town?”

“Well,
that’s a matter of perspective. We live out in the country, a couple hours away
from Redwood Bay. Closer than a lot of students, I’d imagine. What about you?
Where did you grow up?”

Christian
was remembering why he never went on actual dates.

“I
moved around a lot,” he said evasively.

Aria
looked down at her water glass. She hadn’t even touched the wine Rome had
brought out yet. She raised it to her lips to get a little liquid courage
before continuing with what she’d planned to say. “When I agreed to go on this
date with you, you said you wanted to show me something real,” she said. “So
far, you’ve been a bit dodgy. The point of this is to get to know each other. I
want to know who you are, Christian – the real you.”

He
took a deep breath. “What if underneath it all, there isn’t much to tell? What
if the real me is someone you don’t even want to know?”

“You
need to leave that to me to decide. And the truth is, neither of us will ever
know if we could have been something, even friends, if we aren’t willing to
open up. Take a chance. You might be surprised.”

Christian
looked back at her uncertainly. “…I like to dance. No one knows that,” he said.
“Not even Dallas.” She seemed a little unimpressed by what he’d decided to
share. She might not have been if she only knew how intimate of a detail that
was to him. “I was given up at birth, okay? The truth is, I don’t even know who
I am.”

Aria
was speechless. That wasn’t the type of dinner conversation she’d had in mind.
Rome walked over and set their appetizer down between
the two of them. She was staring at Christian, and Christian was looking
at the
food like it was speaking to
him.

“Everything
okay over here?” Rome asked timidly.

“Can
you just butt out?” Christian said. “Or do you need a play-by-play of our damn
date? We’re fine. You brought us our bread shit, now go the fuck away.”

“Fuck,”
Rome mumbled. “Sorry I asked.”

Ariahna watched Rome walk away, spotting Autumn stop him
to whisper
something
in his ear. He laughed and Aria was now fantasizing about slapping another girl
in the face for the first time in her life. She turned back to Christian, who looked
like he was trying to bite a hole through his lip.

“That
was a big thing for you to share with me,” she said. “Do you want to talk about
it?”

“Not
really. There’s not much to say.”

She
sucked her bottom lip into her mouth. “This isn’t really going very well, is
it?” she mumbled. “I’m sorry. You can leave if you want.”

“No,”
he said softly. “No, I’m sorry. I don’t want to leave. I told you that because
I was afraid that if I didn’t, you would walk out.”

“I wasn’t trying to pressure you. I’m sorry if I made it
seem that way.”

“It wasn’t like that. I just… those are the only two
things I have that are completely my own. The good and the bad, essentially,”
he said. “I should have just said I was a dancing orphan. At least that would
have sounded a lot funnier.”

A
scene from
Annie
popped into Aria’s head as she smiled at him.

“We
should go dancing sometime. I’d like to see you dance.” She picked up a piece
of the Bruschetta for lack of anything to do with her hands and took a nervous
nibble. “This is good, you should try some.”

“I
don’t exactly do the kind of dancing you can do with others. Not
un-choreographed, anyways,” he said, taking a bite. It
was
good.

“What
kind of dancing do you do?”

“Maybe
I’ll have to show you sometime,” Christian smirked. “What about you? Any
embarrassing hobbies you’d like to share with the class?”

“You’re
not really
going to tell the class, are you?” she smiled.

“Not
as long as you don’t.”

“I
like to sing, I guess.”

“Right,
you were auditioning for the music group. How did that go? Other than being
almost crushed to death, I mean.”

“The
accident kind of ruined my audition. I don’t think I’m going back. I’m not sure
how I even got up the courage to try out.”

A
man’s voice rose above the quiet chatter in the dining room, drawing everyone’s
attention
. Rome was three paces away from
Christian and Aria’s table when he heard him. He didn’t want to believe it, but
he knew that voice.

“Where
the fuck is he?” Henry hollered, shoving past the hostess. “Rome! Rome! Get
your worthless ass out here you piece of shit!”

Rome was shaking. Every synapse in his brain was telling
him to
run, to
escape through the back of the restaurant, but his legs wouldn’t move. Henry
hadn’t ever done anything like this before – at least not in public. It was
always done behind the safety of walls and closed doors.

“Where
is that—there you are,” Henry grit out, locking eyes with him. He stumbled
through the dining hall, weaving uncoordinatedly around tables and chairs. “How
dare you!” he shouted.

Rome
could smell the booze on him from here, and it was only getting stronger the
closer he came. Besides not being able to move, Rome couldn’t speak. He was
shaking so bad that the tray he was carrying with Ariahna and Christian’s
dinner suddenly slipped out
of his fingers,
crashing to
the floor around him.

Is
this really happening?
he thought.

Henry
stumbled up to him and shoved Rome so hard that he went plunging to the ground.
Other than Henry’s shouting, the place was dead silent. The entire restaurant
was
watching him be humiliated.

“What
the hell did I do now?” Rome managed to ask.

“You
know what you did, you little faggot,” Henry roared.

“What?”
Rome breathed. He watched as his father picked up a plate off of someone’s
table, frightening the woman it had been sitting in front of. He hucked the
plate violently at him, and it hit him square in the chest, shattering and splattering
red sauce all over his shirt. Glasses and silverware had become ammunition as
he continued his assault.
Rome was too
stunned to
do anything but try and shuffle away. There was glass and
ceramic all over the floor, and the fine carpet was now stained with food. Rome
couldn’t help but feel like he’d stumbled into a nightmare.
Henry’s hands closed in his
shirt
and
he hauled him to his feet. No one was doing anything to help him. No one
was even telling him to stop. They were all too busy watching to care.

“I
didn’t raise you to be someone else’s bitch, you little queer.”

“I’m
not—”

“Don’t
fucking try and lie to me! Everyone’s runnin’ their mouths about how my son’s a
fucking fairy,” he yelled. “I saw the picture, you and that long-haired freak
sucking face… You disgust me.” He shoved Rome
backwards
into a table, nearly knocking it over in the process. “Your mother’s turning
over in her grave right now. She shoulda aborted you when she had the chance.”

“Stop
it,” Rome pleaded quietly. “
Go home
.” He held up his arms to shield his
body from another incoming glass that broke upon impact.

“Don’t
you fucking tell me what to do!”

“Go
home, before they call the damn cops on you,” Rome stressed.

“You
are nothing but a good for nothing waste of space,” Henry breathed. “No one in
this place even gives a shit about you.”

Ariahna
felt like she was in a trance. For several moments, she was too stunned to
react. When she realized what was happening, she tried to
come to Rome’s defense.
Christian
practically leapt over the table to stop her.

“Don’t,”
he breathed.

Rome
glanced around the room at the people standing around him.
Beyond the slight shaking of hands holding up
cellphones, they were all as still as statues. He could feel the sting of tears
welling up in his eyes. People were recording this. They were all just watching
his father yell at him and throw things.
The manager wasn’t even
instructing anyone to escort his father out.

“Don’t
touch me,” he warned as Henry grabbed at him, hooking his fingers in his shirt.
Rome slapped his hands away, shoving Henry back. He couldn’t take any more of
this. “What do you want from me?” he demanded. “You’ve embarrassed me, thrown
me around and insulted me—I’m sure I’ve lost my job now because of you. And you’ve
already made it clear to everyone in this room what you really think of me.
What more could you possibly have to say?”

“You’ve
never been anything but a damn disappointment!”

“Let
me tell you something… that long-haired freak is my fucking friend, and he’s a
better person than you’ll ever be.” Rome heard a quarter of the room scoff at
that. Clearly they were members of the magical community, and aware of what
Kaleb was. “God, have some fucking respect,” he said, looking around the room
in disgust. “None of you even know him,
or
me.”

“I hope someone leaves you both mutilated in a ditch,”
Henry garbled.

Rome
had to clench his eyes shut as fury bled into his irises. He was trembling, but
for an entirely different reason now. His fists were curled so tight that his
nails were now biting into his palms. “I’d like to see them try,” he said under
his breath. “You know what, I’m not even gay, but if I was, is this really how
you’d treat me? After everything I’ve done for you?”

“You’re
no son of mine,” Henry bellowed, slurring the words.

“Was
I ever?”

“…No.
You want to know something about that precious mother of yours? The woman was
the biggest fucking slut I have ever seen. Anyone in this town could have
knocked her ass up. Why do you think they look at you like that? You’re the son
of a fucking
whore
.”

Rome
lost it. He surged at Henry with intent to kill.
And he probably would have, if Richard hadn’t stepped in at that precise
moment.

Richard had gone to the bathroom for two minutes, and this
was what he’d come back to find. It didn’t surprise him that it was Henry and
Rome at the epicenter of all the chaos. If it was up to him, he’d throw them
both out of town
.

“Fuck you!” Rome yelled. He was glaring and pointing at Henry
from
around
Ariahna’s father as he attempted to hold him back. Richard was trying to get
him to calm down, but Rome was too enraged to even take in anything he was saying.
“I hope the next time you pass out in a pile of your own vomit that you drown
in the shit, because I’m not going to be there to pick your ass up. This was
the last fucking straw. If you so much as look at me again,
I’m
going to
leave
you
mutil—”

“Mr.
Navarro!” Richard shouted.

Rome
bit his tongue, looking up at him. His eyes were cold, but they demanded his
attention, and there was just something about him that made Rome want to tuck
his tail between his legs and run. Even as angry as he was, Richard was instilling
him with a healthy amount of fear.

“Sit.
Down. Before I haul you into the station with him.” Richard
pulled Henry’s arms violently behind his back,
slapping him into a set of
cuffs and dragging him towards the door. After
what he’d said about Donna, Henry was going to be lucky to survive the night,
regardless of Rome’s threats.

Rome
stood there looking around as everyone continued to stare at him. He wondered
how anyone could just watch something like that happen
and not lift a finger to do anything. The manager began crossing the
floor
, and Rome shook his head in disbelief. He practically ripped off
the stupid bow tie around his neck, dropping it at his feet.

“You—”

“Don’t
even bother,” he said. “I quit.”

Rome
unbuttoned the uncomfortable shirt he’d had on over his tank top, tearing it
off and shoving it into his boss’s chest. “I hope everyone loved their entertainment
for the evening
. Enjoy your overpriced food
and your god-damn perfect lives.”
He actually took a bow then, sweeping
out through the back door and triggering the building’s emergency alarm. It
wasn’t until
he was standing alone in the
dark alley that he felt the burning of hot tears stinging at his eyes and
slipping down his cheeks. The cold air against his skin
left him hugging
himself as he slid to the ground. He was sitting next to a pile of garbage near
the trash compactor, and it felt strangely fitting. After all, it was where
everyone thought he belonged anyways. Maybe it was time he stopped fighting the
inevitable, he thought. No one would care if he died. The only reason they
might even notice was because they’d realize they didn’t have anyone left to
kick around.