An unlikely pair(Joe x Christina)
It had been a few months since Christina and Orel had divorced and even fewer since he and Joe had broken up. Mainly because he loved both of them, a lot, and when he was with one he would still go to the other. He didn’t have any malicious intent, he just wanted to love both of them, but since he didn’t communicate to his partners accurately, they took it as cheating. Mainly because, for example, he would say to Christina that she was the only one for him and vice versa to Joe.
In short, Orel fucked up his only two romantic relationships. Although Christina tried not to think of those times. The times when she would hold him into the dead of night, hearing about everything he had to say. She tried to move on from him, but it was hard, considering she still lived in Moralton. She had her own apartment now but it didn’t help much, considering Joe lived to one side of her and Orel lived to the other.
She tried to not let it bother her much as she pulled out her Bible. Maybe God would help her through this distressing time. She sighed, she tried to stay focused on the holy words in front of her. But…she just couldn’t. Her heart ached but she knew she couldn’t see Orel. Or, more so, she did but that would only bring back the pain and the truth that she could never trust him again. She was just glad that she had caught him before it went on for too long.
“Love thy neighbor”
She felt a bit guilty for not completely abiding by this rule. She got up and decided to make a fruit basket. She could at least love one of her neighbors, maybe God would understand, after all, it is God.
She knocked on his door and was greeted by the raven-haired man. He smelled like death and his place looked like a dump.
He looked at her before immediately rolling his eyes. “What do you want?”
“Well…” She tried to keep a smile on. “I just wanted to give you this. After all, God says to love thy neighbor.”
He swiped it from her quickly. “Well, thanks for giving my rats something to eat, but you still haven’t gained my respect.”
“Look, let’s get straight to the point.” She still kept her smile, though she gritted her teeth as she spoke. “Orel used you to get to me. Let’s get that clear, side chick. But we need to at least be on speaking terms.”
He held up a fist. “I don’t mind punching a girl.”
“I don’t mind punching a goth either.”
He was about to just slam the door when he heard a yelp from one of his rats. He ran into his room where he found one of his many rats were scurrying about. Now the rat had been trapped under a lightweight comic book. He picked up the rat and saw a paper cut on it.
Meanwhile, Christina decided to invite herself inside to see what the issue was. She went into his room and saw what was happening. She was confused yet tried to remain vaguely polite, even though she threatened to punch him mere moments earlier, she did feel some amount of sympathy for him.
She sat down beside him. “What happened?”
He jolted due to her presence but explained it to her nonetheless. “Isn’t it obvious? He’s hurt…little Shredder…”
“Yea…you really need to clean up around here…”
He rolled his eyes as he went to the bathroom, cleaning up the wound with some rubbing alcohol. Then he put a bandaid on the rat and wrapped gauze around the whole torso of Shredder. He came back out, cupping his hands around the little critter like a newborn baby. He gently put him back in his cage.
Christina was moderately surprised by the amount of care and effort he put into his little pets. Maybe there was a part of him to love after all. Nonetheless, she still wanted to love her neighbor.
He looked at her oddly. “Why are you still here?”
“Well, I wanted to help.”
“With what?”
She motioned to everything surrounding them. The water bottles, the spilled-over rat food, and the rats scurrying everywhere, among other things.
Joe looked away from her, thinking. “I can do it by myself, I don’t need the help of someone like you.”
“Just sayin’...Shredder, was his name? Got hurt because of your mess.”
He rolled his eyes, sticking out his tongue. “Ugh fine if it’ll stop your complaining, you can help.”
She smiled, she had liked to clean since her divorce, though her apartment was already like that. She got her Scrub Daddies, among some of her liquid cleaners, and a bag of garbage bags. As soon as she returned, he sat down on the couch.
She tugged on his arm. “Hey, you’re gonna help out too you know.”
“Why? You’re the one volunteering to help me.”
“Well it’s still your house, you should contribute a little bit.”
He rolled his eyes. “And if I don’t?”
“I won’t clean and your rats will keep getting hurt due to your mess…”
He huffed. “Fine.”
She smiled, getting her way. They spent the afternoon dipping into the evening cleaning up the entire place until they only had one room to clean; his room. His room was one of the most foul-smelling things she had smelt. He tossed water bottles into the open garbage bag as she scrubbed down the rats’ cages and placed them each in their own cage.
As they worked through the garbage, she quickly realized where the stench was coming from. There seemed to be molded on a journal of sorts. She flipped through it and saw all the dust on it. As she read over it, she realized this was his personal thoughts, since it spoke of how much he loved Orel and turned into his hatred after they broke up.
As she was reading, he swiped it out of her hands. His face was a red tint with embarrassment and anger. He slammed it down into the trash bag and stomped back over to his little cleaning area. She looked at the cover of the journal in the trash, she realized that his feelings for him were real and true. They had been hurt in the same way, by the same person.
They worked in silence as they scrubbed down the place. By the time Christina threw out the last trash bag and returned to his place, there was an awkward tension between the two you could cut with a knife. They sat beside each other in silence until Christina spoke up first.
“L-Look I’m sorry for reading…that. I was just looking for mold.”
He had on a poker face. “Doesn’t matter, old feelings.”
“So we’re cool?”
“I guess…”
“...” She desperately tried to grab ahold of a conversation topic, considering she felt herself drawn to him for some reason she couldn’t explain.. “...uh hey! Y-You could feed your rats…with the fruits I got you.”
He shrugged, not saying a word still. He got out some of the blueberries and cut them into smaller pieces for all 8 of his rats to have a piece of. There was a sharp gasp but not much other noise. He went into his room and gave his rats a little blue piece each.
He sat down as Christina soon realized the liquid flowing out of him. “Are you ok, Joe?”
“Yea, why?”
“You’re bleeding…”
“I already said, I’m fine.”
She looked down at the floor. Maybe it wasn’t her place to help, but she felt like she owed it to him, and not just because she looked through his diary. It was something more than that. So, she grabbed ahold of the non-bleeding hand and led him to the bathroom.
“Hey I told you, I’m fine!”
Despite his protests, she rubbed rubbing alcohol on him via cotton ball. “I’ll be right back. Don’t move.” He stuck out his tongue at her. She rolled her eyes, going to her place and getting butterfly bandages to heal up the cut. She returned and, unsurprisingly he returned to the couch, trying to act as if nothing was wrong. While he was distracted, she put the bandaid on his finger.
He looked down and smiled, just a little bit. “Thanks…”
“You’re welcome…” She wore a big grin too, she was happy to help him, even if it was the person her husband cheated on her with. How silly she was to ever hold any hatred toward him, he was caught up in the same lie as she was.
He put his arm on the back of the couch, drumming his fingers. “So…you want to stay over for a bit? It only seems fair since you helped.”
“Sure…do you want to watch a movie?”
He shrugged, why not. He popped in The Exorcist and returned to by her side quickly after. As they were watching, she felt herself grow more attached to him. She wasn’t actually paying much attention, but just thinking about him and how much they had in common and such. She stared up at him happily, he did smell like death itself, but it was oddly comforting.
There was a jumpscare that didn’t catch her off guard, at all. Hell, she barely even recognized it happened in the first place. However, despite this, she used this as an excuse to hold onto him dearly. He awkwardly held her back. She placed her head on his chest as she heard and felt his heart beat faster.
They held that position until long after the movie was over and deep into the night. They had finally found their partner in the most unlikely of circumstances.
The End
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