Dinner Disaster
"Would anyone judge me if I got two pizzas?" Anna asked, sitting at the table in Gino's as she studied the menu, even though they knew the place well enough to where they all got the same thing every time.
"If you're allowed to get two, I want two." Dean said as Anna just smiled.
"Can I get two?" CJ asked, sitting beside Dean who just chuckled a little.
"No one is getting two pizzas." AJ laughed a little. They were just waiting on JC and Lydia arriving, and Punk was getting nervous at the thought of them not showing up.
"Do you think he'll eat some pizza?" Punk asked AJ, looking on at Frankie who was sat in a high chair at the edge of the table where he and AJ were sat with Keala.
"He might eat a little bit." AJ nodded, keeping her eyes on the door as she watched people walk in and out of it.
"I know what I want." Keala said, resting her elbow on the table and her head on her hand, "And Gino knows what I want because it's what I always have." She said.
"You still gotta tell him. He might not even be here." Punk nodded to her.
"Why wouldn't he be here? Is this not his house?" Keala asked her parents with confusion as Punk and AJ stared at her.
"This is a restaurant." Punk shook his head as Dean looked over and raised a brow at Keala.
"I thought he lived with all the pizzas. He loves pizza." Keala said as Dean chuckled to himself.
"No, he goes home to his house." Punk laughed a little.
"Well he better be here." Keala huffed dramatically, starting to look around the restaurant for her friend, Gino.
AJ then noticed as JC walked in the door, followed by a blonde woman, who really did look as young as she was. She tapped Punk under the table as he looked up and turned around. She was the only one who hadn't been introduced to Lydia. Everyone had met her briefly.
"You made it." Dean scoffed as JC nodded, eventually introducing Lydia to everyone properly as she smiled politely.
Once everyone was sat down they ordered food and the conversation flowed, not before AJ tapped Punk on the foot again as he discretely looked across at her.
"She's gorgeous." AJ mouthed. Not that she was surprised, but she just wasn't expecting such an immaculate woman. Then again, she remembered how pretty their mother was.
Punk just shrugged, feeling it wrong to agree that his father's new girlfriend was pretty, especially to his wife of all people, but she was a good looking woman, he wasn't blind.
"So who is older?" Lydia asked, taking a sip of water from the jug which they'd got for the table, "I know you're brothers but… who came first?" She smiled, looking from Dean to Punk.
"Who do you think?" Dean asked her as Lydia looked at them both.
"You?" Lydia asked Dean as Punk smiled.
"You've made my night." Punk nodded.
"You think I look older?" Dean laughed.
"You're older?" Lydia asked Punk who nodded.
"Yeah, by a year a few months." JC scoffed, "Both one brain cell between them." He shook his head as Lydia smiled.
"You look a lot like him." She nodded from Punk to JC, "You… not so much." She shook her head at Dean.
"I look like my mom." Dean nodded.
"I see." Lydia smiled.
"So where do you work?" Punk asked her.
"In the pharmacy just across the street." Lydia said, "Now it makes sense why I had to go to rehab for drug addicts, right?" She smiled to them as they looked at her, "It's fine, I don't get weird about it." She said.
"So what was it, pain killers or something?" Dean asked.
"Dean." Anna scolded.
"What?" Dean shrugged, "She said she's not weird about it." He said as Lydia smiled.
"Morphine, actually." Lydia nodded, "The fact I never lost my job is beyond me." She said, "But I think the moral of the story is, I got better." She shrugged.
"Cheers to that." Punk smiled, raising his water and taking a drink.
"Who is that?" Keala whispered to her mother as AJ looked down.
"JC's friend." AJ told her quietly as Keala nodded and turned back around to look at her.
The night went on and the conversation flowed through the table nicely. They enjoyed some good conversation with good pizza. Frankie got stuck into some of Punk's pizza which he enjoyed a great deal. They were getting to know Lydia and Lydia was getting to know them which was nice for both parties. JC was glad they had decided to go now.
"So… how long have you been in their lives then?" Lydia asked JC as Punk and Dean turned to look over.
"About two years almost." JC said as Lydia nodded slowly.
"What… what happened in between?" She asked them all whilst Anna awkwardly glanced at AJ who just looked down at her pizza and began to cut Keala's up for her some more.
"He was there in the beginning." Dean said, "For like… a few years." He said, "When'd he leave?" Dean asked Punk.
"I don't know, I was like 8 maybe." Punk shrugged as JC, took his cap off to run his hand through his hair and place it back on his head.
"Why'd you wait so long to get help then?" Lydia asked. She wasn't angry, she was asking in a general tone.
"I don't know it was different back then." JC said.
"You had more going for you, though." Lydia said, "Did you guys have a step-father or something?"
"No." Punk shook his head, "Just a mom. A great one." He said as she nodded.
"What happened to her?" Lydia asked as Dean and Punk looked up, but instead looking at her, they both looked at JC. They assumed he would have told her by now.
"She was in a car accident." Punk said, "She was brain stone dead at the scene so we… turned the machines off." He said as Lydia frowned.
"Where were you?" Lydia asked JC.
"Prison." Dean answered for him.
"Yeah, prison for covering for your asses." JC looked at them both, "Idiots walking around the street with thousands worth of drugs." He said.
"They weren't ours." Dean scoffed.
"Wait… where did you both go then? After your mother died?" She asked them.
"We went into the system." Punk said whilst AJ just stayed quiet as did Anna.
"We had a different home every week it seemed." Dean said, "Most of which we weren't wanted. Phil was in and out of juvie so every time he went, we got placed in a new home."
"And when you got out of prison… you… you helped them, right?" Lydia wondered as JC just looked across at her. This was what he had feared about the night.
"No. I… I didn't." JC said, "They were… tough boys, they didn't need me." He said as Lydia just shook her head.
"I'm sure they did." Lydia said.
"We got by." Punk nodded, "When I got a job, we ended up getting a place. We… got by just fine. So… yeah, we probably could have done with our dad being around but to be honest, at that time, I was a very anti-dad guy. In fact, eighteen year old me would be extremely disappointed in myself right now, but… I understand that we have problems, we can get lost, and maybe it was best we were on our own." Punk nodded as the table just fell silent for a little while.
"Is… anyone having dessert?" Anna asked them, looking at the dessert menu as Dean smiled to her whilst Punk looked across to AJ who just made wide eyes and looked down.
"I'll have dessert. I'll have the banana split." Keala told Anna who nodded and smiled.
"You go girl." Anna smiled, extended her hand over Dean as Keala gave her a high five.
"Remember the guy in our school they used to call banana split? He was in our year." Dean nodded from AJ and Anna.
"I remember him." Punk nodded, "He had like the biggest feet ever. Like he'd trip up over them." He said.
"Oh, you… you all went to the same school?" Lydia asked.
"Yeah you were probably in our year." Dean said as Anna elbowed him on the side.
"I grew up in Milwaukee so… that wouldn't be possible." She smiled politely.
"Yeah, me, Anna and AJ were all the same year. Brooks over there was the year above." Dean said.
"So you all dated in high school?" Lydia asked.
"Yeah, we did." Punk nodded.
"We didn't." Anna said, "I was mean to them." She said honestly.
"She was." Punk agreed, "She called me spaghetti hair since I was 14." Punk said.
"She made a rumour up that I had a penis." AJ added in.
"She said I was on drugs." Dean said, "Which if you count weed as drugs, I was but… not the point." He said.
"My parents loved me too well." Anna smiled to her sarcastically.
"So how did you two… get together then?" Lydia laughed a little.
"Oh, it's a long story." Dean said tiredly, "Too long. We just met a reunion and we've been together ever since, with hurdles of course." He said as Anna nodded along.
"That's nice." Lydia smiled.
"Excuse me a minute." JC said, standing up from the table and walking on by as he headed for the door. Punk watched and saw him standing outside the restaurant for some fresh air as he turned back to Dean. They were only telling Lydia the truth. They figured that she would have already known those things.
"Is all of this stuff new to you?" Punk asked her.
"He… doesn't really open up about much. I pretty much just knew that he had two sons." Lydia shrugged, "And you know what, I don't blame him, because he's probably been alone for quite some time but… he just doesn't seem comfortable with talking."
"Doesn't he talk at the groups?" Dean asked.
"He talks about his addictions, yeah. But nothing about either of you, or his life, his upbringing. And I don't want to force that out of him either." She said, "I know I'm just a few years older than you both, and that might be weird for you but… he's a really good guy." She said.
"Hey, there's no problem here." Punk made clear, "He's just a bit of a closed book, that's all." He said.
"Yeah." Lydia nodded, "You guys go ahead and order desserts. I'm gonna go talk to him." She said, excusing herself from the table and walking on out of the restaurant to talk to JC.
"She's sweet." Anna said, "And you two are extremely blunt." She looked from Dean to Punk.
"Blunt meaning honest?" Dean asked her, "How'd we know that he's not told her anything about his life?" He shook his head.
"You did both sound a little mad at him." AJ said, sitting playing with Keala's hair whilst she coloured in with the little book pack Gino had given her.
"I'm not mad." Punk said, "I was just saying the truth. He should have told her at this point. They've been seeing each other for weeks now."
"Yeah and he clearly has some opening up issues, which probably prevented him from being a father to you both in the first place." AJ said.
"No, he was just lazy and didn't care." Punk said.
"That isn't fair. You know he cares." AJ said.
"Why are you always team dad on everything?" Punk asked her as Dean and Anna just stayed silent.
"I'm not, I just-"
"No, you are." Punk said, "Everything I say about him you have a counter argument for it right away sticking up for him. He's not your dad. He didn't leave you. Alright? Let us be mad if we wanna be mad." He told her, pissed as AJ scowled at him. She didn't appreciate being shouted at ever, but in public with Anna and Dean watching too. She was pissed.
"Go fuck yourself." AJ muttered under her breath, throwing her napkin down and walking away from the table as Punk watched and groaned to himself whilst Dean and Anna stared at him.
"Why is everyone leaving the table?" CJ asked quietly as Dean looked across at him, "Are we not having dessert?" He frowned.
"What?" Keala gasped, "We have to."
"We are. It's fine." Anna assured them.
Meanwhile AJ had walked out of the restaurant, in no mood to sit and look at her husband's face anymore as she walked out of the restaurant.
"Hey." AJ approached Lydia and JC who were talking quietly outside the restaurant on the sidewalk, "I am… gonna go home, so… it was lovely to meet you." She smiled, embracing Lydia who just went along with it.
"Why are you going?" JC asked.
"Your son is this close to getting a jug of water over him so… it's best I leave." She nodded.
"Which son?" JC laughed a little.
"The one I have children with." AJ said, "The other one isn't far off it, I suppose." She nodded, "Sorry to leave so soon." She said.
"That's ok. It was lovely to meet you." Lydia smiled politely.
"I'm sorry on behalf of Phil and Dean for being so blunt about some things. Things you clearly didn't know about. It's nothing you did." AJ nodded.
"I think it's all just been a misunderstanding." Lydia said.
"Are you really gonna go?" JC asked her.
"Yeah. I've… been in court all week and Phil is in a weird mood." She said as they both nodded.
"I don't think you should walk home on your own." JC said.
"I'll be fine." AJ smiled.
"No." Lydia said, "JC will walk you home. It's only five minutes away, right?" She said.
"Yeah." AJ nodded, "I really don't need-"
"No, it's fine." JC said, "You go on in." He told Lydia, "I won't be long." He said as AJ just smiled and nodded, allowing him to walk her home.
Lydia returned back to the table where Dean and Anna were now sharing a dessert and Keala and CJ were also having theirs.
"Where is dad?" Dean asked.
"He's walking AJ home." Lydia said as Punk turned to her.
"She's actually gone home?" Punk asked. He assumed she'd just gone outside for some fresh air.
"Yeah, you are… not in her good books." Lydia said as Punk just rolled his eyes and sighed.
