Careful
"I called the guy who set Pearce and Kane up with the job over here." AJ said, sitting across from Punk in the closed visitation room, "He gets his business proposals off of a Mexican drug Cartel, name is Alberto Del Rio. You know him?" AJ wondered as Punk shook his head.
"Never heard of the guy." Punk said, "This is how it went down, I was in my apartment watching the cubs game, sitting in darkness with the TV on mute so the land owner wouldn't think I was in, cause guess what? I didn't have money to pay rent." He said, "I get a call from Kane, he says they've got this job out here, good money, few weeks, could lead to other work too." Punk nodded, "So I took it, we flew out a few days later. That's how little I know of this job. And I didn't question it because… well why would I?" Punk asked her, "Please tell me you're not going to speak to this guy… Alberto." He shook his head.
"I am." AJ told him, "And me and Dean are going to the hotel you were in again today, try and narrow something down to who the hell was around the CCTV footage that week. Maybe we could still get something out of that." AJ said as Punk just nodded, "I know it's… it's not much but… it's little things… could promise a lot." She nodded to him. She just wanted to give him some hope. Even just a little bit. To keep him going. Seeing him this way really hurt her, more than she was letting on.
"Dean said you were still wearing it." Punk noticed the bracelet on her wrist as AJ looked down at it, quickly covering it with her coat sleeve as Punk turned to her, "I was convinced you hated it."
"Wouldn't still be wearing it, would I?" AJ asked him as he smiled and nodded.
"Guess not." He said, "How is Dean going? I uh… I don't like asking him, but… you know I'm worried about him." He nodded.
"I think he's more worried about you." AJ nodded, "He's ok. He's strong, you know. Like you." She said, "He's helping me. He's determined." She said.
"The kid has no one once I go." He said as AJ shook her head.
"You're not going anywhere." AJ demanded.
"Let's just…" He said loudly with frustration as AJ looked at him, "Let's just… be a tiny bit realistic here." He said, "If… when in three months, they inject me, electrocute me, whatever the fuck they're gonna do… you promise me one thing." He nodded.
"Phil, you're not-"
"You promise me you look out for him." Punk nodded, "I can't have my last thoughts, worrying that he's gonna be in trouble or… alone." Punk said.
"I will always look out for Dean, he's my best friend." AJ said, "But you aren't going anywhere?"
"You're his best friend? You've not saw him in years." Punk said, "I know me and you are different, you don't wanna see my face, that's fine, but… he was still your friend, you just left him too." Punk said, getting unnecessarily angry. Perhaps it was the isolation in the prison, the fact that he really just wanted to touch AJ, even just hold her hand, but there was a cage dividing them, or maybe it was that little thing about him being on death row, but something was starting to snap in him.
"Phil, I… I had to pursue my career. Part of it involves travelling. That's why we agreed to split up. It was causing too much fights and… we weren't like that." She said.
"Yeah, well when I die just keep your eye on him, alright?" Punk said bitterly as AJ looked across at him.
"You are not dying." AJ spat, "I will find something, even if it's just something small, anything that can give us… at least a little more time. I know three months feels like tomorrow to you, but that's a lot of time for me to get something." She said.
"And when you don't?"
"Do you underestimate me?" AJ asked him as Punk looked across at him.
"No, but-"
"Well then have some hope and trust me." AJ said as Punk just sighed, "We could find something today, I could find something in this drug cartel." AJ nodded, "We just need to make sure we're looking in the right places." She nodded.
"Just… don't put yourself in the centre of this. You don't know who is behind this." Punk said, "Whoever it is, they might want me dead, and if anyone is trying to stop that from happening, they might go after you." Punk said, "Be careful." He said.
"I'm always careful." She said.
"How does it feel to have officially left school?" AJ smiled, lying in her bed with Punk a few months later after her eighteenth where Summer had eventually came and her boyfriend of almost half a year had left school.
"Let's not pretend I ever really went anyway." Punk laughed a little, sitting up against the headboard with no shirt on, smiling down at AJ laying into his stomach, naked, as it seemed the only thing they done when they found themselves in a house on their own.
"You did at the end." AJ said, "You got good grades." She nodded, "It'll help you get a job."
"Yeah, doing what?" Punk asked, "Fixing cars or something?"
"What's wrong with that?" AJ shrugged, "What do you want to be?" She asked him, looking up at him.
"I don't know. I never really had a dream job." He shrugged, "I'll go where life takes me." He nodded, "I'll start applying for jobs, hopefully I can make enough to cover rent every month and we can get off the social system." He said, "And you can stay all the time." He nudged her with a smirk.
"I like the sound of that." She smirked, leaning up, holding the sheets to her body as she pressed her lips against his, feeling him pull her over on top of him so she was straddling his hips, about to settle in round two when they heard the front door open and close.
"Shit, that's my mom." AJ panicked, quickly getting off of him, getting off the bed and putting her clothes back on as Punk done the same, fixing the messy bed whilst AJ tried to flatten her hair down, being as quick as they could whilst her mother climbed the stairs.
"Chiquita? I brought you home some cake from the bakery beside the-" AJ's mother, Jeanette said, pausing once walking into AJ's room, looking over at Punk who had just finished putting his t-shirt on, looking from him to AJ. She knew when her daughter was guilty and she could see the look on her eye.
"We were just… school project." Punk smiled to Jeanette.
"Mhm… and I thought April told me you'd left school now?" Jeanette asked as Punk gulped, "Which one are you?"
"Mom." AJ said.
"I think you should leave, young man. Right now." Jeanette nodded as Punk groaned internally and nodded, turning to AJ, telepathically wishing her good luck as he grabbed his sweater and headed down the stairs, leaving the house.
"Mom, he was just… keeping me company." AJ defended innocently, "And he was helping me with some studying." She nodded, watching her mother sit the cake box down. She wasn't due to be home for another few hours but had managed to finish her shift a little earlier for the day.
"Open all your drawers right now." Jeanette folded her arms as AJ just shook her head.
"No… mom, you're being ridiculous." AJ rolled her eyes nervously.
"April Jeanette, you open your drawers right now. All of them." She said as AJ looked across at her and shook her head.
"Fine." AJ nodded, opening the small amount of drawers in her room as her mother immediately went to the drawer by her bed, pulling it completely out and emptying it, "Mom!" AJ shrieked, watching as her mother relentlessly went through all of her things, searching the other drawers as she thankfully didn't come across what she was expecting to find, "Stop it, what are you doing?" AJ said, trying to pick up the clothes which she was rapidly pulling out.
"Your bag… empty it." Jeanette said, trying to find her breath as she brushed her hair from her face, "Onto the bed." She nodded frantically as AJ looked on in horror.
"Mom, what is wrong with you?" AJ shook her head.
"Do it now. Empty it." She snapped her fingers as AJ gulped, grabbing her bag from in the corner, emptying it on the bed as her mother raked through her personal belongings, finally finding what she had been longing to find amongst the clutter, "You're having sex?" Jeanette glared at her, holding the box of birth control tablets up as AJ looked across at her, "With that boy?" She asked.
"Mom, he's been my boyfriend for months." AJ said, "And wouldn't you rather I was being safe?" AJ shook her head. She couldn't exactly deny anything, her mother was definitely on to her, she just wished she didn't have to be so uptight in the first place.
"I would rather you weren't sleeping with anyone, young lady!" Jeanette hissed, "You want to end up like me? Pregnant at eighteen with no support? No money? No nothing."
"That's not going to happen, mom. You're over exaggerating." She shook her head, "I'm eighteen, I can do what I want. I'm in a relationship." She said, "If you got to know Phil you'd know he's a good guy. He treats me well." She nodded.
"I don't want to know him." Jeanette hissed, throwing down the pills, "That's the one in and out of juvie?"
"Not for a long time-"
"Well you certainly know how to pick them." Jeanette laughed.
"He's my first boyfriend." AJ said, "I'm allowed to have a boyfriend, mom. I'm allowed to have sex, ok? Why are you being like this?"
"April you want to go to law school. That's more important than any boy… you shouldn't be letting him touch you." She shook her head with disgust.
"I can do what I want." AJ spat, "You can't tell me what to do anymore, mom! Ok? I can make my own decisions, my own mistakes, and if this is one of them then I'll learn from it… but you don't control my life." She warned.
"We need to change these sheets right now." Jeanette said in a panic, starting to strip AJ's bed sheets right now, "You won't be seeing that boy anymore. You shouldn't be having anyone touching you." She shook her head, peeling the sheets away as AJ placed her hand on her forehead.
"You don't make that decision." AJ said, "He is my boyfriend and… and I'm allowed to have sex with my boyfriend." She said with anger, "Ok? If I want him to touch me then he can touch me." She said, starting to lose her own temper with her mother, "And if I wanna have sex with him? Then I'll have sex with him." She spat as Jeanette glared across at her, "You need to drop this right now." She warned.
She had always had a very complicated relationship with her mother, mostly because she never understood her mother's thought process and why she acted certain ways at different times. She had always been a little scared of her as a little girl, but not anymore. She was her own woman now.
"Fine." Jeanette threw the sheets back down, "You wanna be a whore? Go on then." Jeanette spat as AJ gulped, watching as her mother left the room and slammed the door shut, trying to keep her tears at bay, only ever wanting support and advice from her mother, not anger and paranoia.
A/N: Let me know what you think! More to come. Will AJ and Dean get a breakthrough? More on the flashbacks also.
