Chapter 4 "He Realizes"

Aj awakens to the bright sun shinning in through the porch which was reflecting off of his pool in the back yard. He squited and looked at the situation he was in, "what the fuck happened here?" he stands up and sees Teresa's hand over the top of the couch. "Ohhhhhhhh noooooooooo" he moans at himself, "now what the fuck did I do!?" he yells at himself softly trying not to wake her up.

"Mornin' drunkie."

He hits himself on the head, "are you fucking serious!? Was I a complete ass to you last night?!" he asks her in a forgiving tone.

"Well, you almost tried to strip me..."

He scrunches his face as if he were in pain. "Ow..."

"And then I knocked the shit out of you for trying."

He puts his hand on his jaw. "Yeah and I think I'm feelin' the after shocks. Damn girl, how hard did you hit me?" he rubs his sore mouth holding up a pan to look at his reflection.

"Really fucking hard."

"Damn, I know, look at this bruise!" he points to his chin holding his head up showing her the shiner she left right next to his mouth. "Jesus, I didn't think a girl could hit that hard, no offense. I mean I've found some girls with a good left hook, but uh, how do you usually control your anger?" he asked rhetorically.

"Well, look at it this way, since you're my friend, I went easy on you and didn't just kick you in the balls."

"He laughs loudly and then stops suddenly to hold his chin, "Ow..." he walks to the fridge and opens the freezer scrounging for an ice pack. He eventually finds one and holds it up to his chin. He stops suddenly and closes his eyes and shudders opening them.

"What's wrong?"

He glances at her and then out to the sun, "Oh I was just thinking about how it would kill like a fucker if you would've kicked me in the balls" and he collapses to the floor and curls in a ball ducking his head under his arm.

Teresa laughs hysterically at AJ. "Are you still drunk?"

He shakes his head back and forth in the ball that he lay in and then looks up at her, "Oh my God I'm feeling the pain and you didn't even do it," he stretches out on the floor, "Oh my balls..." he groans loudly.

"You poor, poor baby." She laughed.

"Oh yes... poor Aj's balls, poor balls poor balls," he repeated still cringing in fear. He laughed at himself and looked at her laughing and paused just a moment to watch her in the beauty of the morning sun.

"You know you may have been a complete ass last night, but it was pretty funny."

He watched her and the whole world seemed to be going in slow motion. Her beautiful hair glistened and her eyes glowed in the light. She looked like an angel and as if someone turned off all the lights and she was the only thing in his life. She glowed as if someone was holding a flashlight behind her, but no one was there. At that moment Aj felt a tremble come to him and he almost started to cry. He looked at her from the floor like the true beauty she is. His breath was taken away just to hear her laughter in the back of his mind. He watched and listened just starring at her in complete awe.

"Ok....AJ...why are you looking at me like that?"\par \par He only starred and still no response. He still lay on the floor in the half ball he had unrolled himself out of and starred at her in a way she had never seen before.

She walked over to him steadily trying not to break his hold. She watched as his eyes followed her. She bent down and waved her hand right in front of his face and he jolted out of his glare.

"Are you ok?"

"Oh... uh... what???" he said as if he was nervously doing something he wasn't suppose to. "Nah I'm fine... pppsssshhhh you know me," he stands and cocks his head to the side looking at her but blinking this time.\par \par "Listen, um.... I have something to tell you, but maybe I should fix us some coffee" he says putting his hand in his pocket.

"Alright.."\

"What the f..." he pulls out a handful of cigarettes. He gives her and odd look and raises his eyebrow. "I don't think I'm going to ask..." he turns around and heads for the cabinet.

"No please. I wanna hear what you have to say." She pleaded.

He stops half way suddenly as if something had hit him in the back of the head. He slowly turned back around to her and took slow larger-the-normal-steps towards her. He stopped right in front of her and took her by the hand. "Ok then, come with me." He led her outside and they began to walk in his backyard on the trail that Kevin had helped him dig. It was beautiful with lots of flowers, and the birds sang in the distance. He continued to hold her hand and swung it back and forth casually.

"Um..." he hesitated for he was scared of her reactions. "Ok, well I don't really know how to say this, but I'm going to be blunt with it," he said as he quickly ripped off a daisy and held her hand back signaling for her to stop walking. They stopped and they faced each other. Aj slipped the daisy behind her ear and pushed her wavy hair out of her face, "I love you" he whispered on the breeze kissing her forehead softly and looking back into her eyes. He put his hands on either of her shoulders and bit his bottom lip. "Ok look, ever since I met you, I knew you were the one for me, but I've been waiting to tell you because..." he stopped "...because I was scared of what you would say. You would think I was a player, or was only fucking around. But I'm not... I'm serious, and I think you should be with me, and I should be with you.When you walked into the room the first day I met you it was like someone turned on the light or something. I knew right then that you were for me. And you were the ONLY one for me." He ran his hands down her sides and met her hands. He grasped them in his.

Teresa stared at AJ, completely dumbfounded and lost for words. Finally she managed to spit something out. "But last night you were ranting about how much you love Amanda... how can you stand here and say you love me after you said that... I don't understand it" she added right at the end.

Aj looked bewildered at her questions, "damnit I knew that was coming. See, I'm trying to figure that out too. I mean, I see where you're coming from. If I were you, I wouldn't believe me either. But see, I had this dream. I had a dream that you... I don't know how to explain it." Aj paused and looked at the ground."Well you see... when I was starring at you this morning the entire world stopped just for me. All the cars and everyone who ever took a breath on this earth stopped just for me. And do you know why Teresa?" He put his hand next to her cheek and touched it lightly, "it was so I could realize what I was missing. You stood there and glowed like nothing anyone has EVER seen!" he threw his hands in the air emphasizing his\par words. "I mean the entire world!!!!!" he turned and looked to the sky with his hands in the air, "stopped for me and you. I don't know how to explain it," he turned back around to face her, "but I love you, and there is no other way to say it." He stood in front of her gazing into her eyes as his hands found hers once more, "I can't help but love you, Teresa, I was born to be yours." He leaned in and closed his eyes and kissed her. He put his arms around her and they kissed and the golden sun of the morning shone down upon the two like there was no tomorrow.

Their lips released and Aj looked at her watching her and she began to speak,

"Aj, everything that just happened seems so surreal like it was a dream and I... I... "

Aj interrupted her in the middle of her sentence by placing his index finger over her lips, "shhhh... don't speak, just listen..."