cheyxjohnson

[cheyxjohnson]

"You bought a boat?" Of course he was the only person she knew who could casually say such a thing as if he had just told her he bought some toilet paper. It always seemed like he was purchasing something heinously expensive for no reason in particular. Normally, that'd get an eye roll out of her, but she had to admit she loved a good boat. He brought her attention back to the store they were in and all the beautiful jewelry displayed in front of them. She leaned next to him and her brows knitted together in confusion. Did he take her there to buy her something? Chey turned her body to face him instead of the jewelry and studied him for a moment. This sort of gesture wasn't something she was used to by any means, so of course she had to question it. "Why do you sound like you're trying to buy me something? You know you don't have to buy me anything, right?"

Axel looked at her behind his sunglasses, hoping she could still tell his expression. "Why would they do that?" He said, having been used to stores like this for decades now. Axel watched where she gestured and moved to open the door for her. Once they were inside he took his sunglasses off and hooked them casually onto the collar of his t-shirt. Axel put his hand on her back softly as they walked in. "Just need to go sign some paper work. I bought a boat." He said as he leaned over a glass counter looking at some jewelry. "anything here catching your eye?"

[cheyxjohnson]

Chey: thanks for the offer. i think i'm ok over here Chey: tbh i'm more worried about my friend. he lives in those apartments and i can't get a hold of him Chey: just kind of a worried mess rn so i wouldn't be much fun to be around anyways. but seriously, thanks for the offer

Axel: crunchy chey is not on my bucket list. Axel: yeah.. look if you get worried... my place is gated and has cameras and stuff. you are more than welcome to crash if needed.

[cheyxjohnson]

A bad day out on the waves was still a good day in her book. Being out there on her board was often the closest thing to heaven for her and not even lousy waves or arrogant baby surfers could particularly ruin that for her. Her life had become too busy as of late which made these days rarer and rarer. So, she soaked in every minute of it.

Pushing back some of her wet hair, she followed Bear on the shore with her board tucked under her arm. A teasing smile graced her lips as he grumbled about the kid. She had seen it, and if it had been her, she likely would've been twice as mad. Still, she couldn't help but turn into an opportunity to make fun of him a little. "I think that kid was trying to send a message," she started as if she was being serious, but that little smirk pulled through, "Waves like that aren't safe for an old man like you. Could've broken your hip. He was saving you, actually." She snickered, flashed a cheesy grin, and tapped his back with her board playfully. "In all seriousness, I probably would've lost my shit if he pulled that with me. He'll learn soon enough."

Closed: @cheyxjohnson – Subpar day out on the water.

"Did you see that dickhead cut me off mid-wave? I could have choked out that fucker." Bear was very particular when it came to surfing. It was a skill he'd worked on since he was twelve after finding an abandoned board at one of the ritzy beach houses. He'd come learn either early in the morning or as the sun was setting so no unsuspecting individual would call the cops on him. Since then, it's been his way of life and truly his form of life support after all the shit he's been through.

The waves were a bit choppy today, so every now and then you'd be able to cling to a good wave. It could only mean a storm was on the horizon, which meant that the really riders would be out soon enough and not the ones posing for Tiktok. "Granted he was probably seventeen with his scrawny ass, but god damn." It was the one solid wave he'd gotten all day before he decided to call it quits wit Chey.

[cheyxjohnson]

Chey: not unexpected, but still worrisome 🥺 Chey: that would be great, actually. we can try to look for everyone we know tbh Chey: i heard there was a second fire too? wtf is going on

Bobbi: Glad to know we’re on the same page

Bobbi: you know I wouldn’t be surprised if he did… 🙄 it’d be just like him

Bobbi: I can’t get a hold of any of my friends at crest either. But I don’t think that’s to be unexpected.

Bobbi: I could help? Two pairs of eyes are better than one.

[cheyxjohnson]

How do I let the director know how obsessed I am and willing to do anything for the movie? Like, I wanted to write this one director a letter, so I wrote him a handwritten note. But then I was like, ‘How many people are writing this guy handwritten letters? Is it going to seem cheesy? What do I do?’

[cheyxjohnson]

Chey: shit, i was just about to text you asking the same thing Chey: no i can't get a hold of him... Chey: i'm sure he just forgot his phone! but i'm getting worried too Chey: should i go drive around and look for him? he can't get too far. he still never replaced his bike ever since that storm.

bobbi 📱 chey

Bobbi: Hey babes Bobbi: Have you heard from Connor? Bobbi: I keep texting him to make sure he's okay but he hasn't responded. Bobbi: I'm getting worried.

@cheyxjohnson

[cheyxjohnson]

Chey: nope, not extra crispy. but that sounds yummy.

Chey: i'm assuming you're not extra crispy either if you're texting me

Chey: i heard there was a second fire in town or something? what the hell is going on

Texting Chey

Axel: Hey, just making sure you're not extra crispy right now.

[cheyxjohnson]

She half expected silence. Maybe a shrug, a lie, or something even more dismissive all together. Instead, he met her with honesty and vulnerability. Between both of their storms of anger these days, it felt like it had been ages since they last had a conversation as open and honest as this one. In some ways, it was as refreshing as it was terrifying. She had gotten used to closing herself off to him this past year or so. Now they were opening old wounds, digging out unsaid words that were unsaid for a reason. 

Even though she spent most days convincing herself that she hated Xavier Matthews and all that related to him, it would never be so. Hearing he wasn’t doing okay pained her just as much as it would back then. And she felt stupid for that. Why did she still want the world for this man? He didn’t deserve it, but that didn’t stop her from feeling it. 

All Chey could do was stay quiet and listen to him. When they broke up, she was so unwilling to hear him say a damn thing. It was no wonder things became so volatile between them over time. When Connor was mentioned, her brows knitted together in slight confusion and surprise. Connor failed to mention anything about it to her, though it seemed to explain things now. He didn’t want to go into detail about that storm that came and went. X was a sore subject for the both of them. 

Her throat felt tight and she clenched her jaw as he continued talking. Hearing how he felt about her, how he felt about himself, it was all hitting her like a ton of bricks. I loved you. Those words cause her to look away for a moment and swallow back all the unwanted emotions that followed it. That was something she still couldn’t quite accept. The most surprising part of the night was the apology that came. Maybe he had said it once before, maybe he never did, either way it never felt real until now. He laid it all out for her without getting into a screaming match. Complete vulnerability. That was something she still struggled with, though she never did back then with him. 

She looked down at the table in front of them and was quiet. It wasn’t often Chey thought before she spoke, a fatal flaw of hers, but she sat there thinking more than she should this time. Really, she was fighting off that lump in her throat and the stinging in her eyes. The last thing she needed was to break down. She held herself together and finally looked at him again. 

“I am sorry for what you’re going through. I know it isn’t easy… and life feels shitty and unfair. I want you to know that, despite everything, I do wish things were different for you.” Those words felt necessary to get out first in the name of being honest. A heavy breath escaped her and her lips twitched as she fought with herself on what she wanted to say to him. 

“I’ve never …” She stopped mid sentence and sighed. Chey hated admitting that she loved him. Even now. She had grown up with this idea that love only came once and she refused to believe her love got wasted on someone who didn’t love her back. Or at least that’s how she always saw it. “I’ve never cared for anyone else like the way I cared for you. I would’ve given you anything… And then you used me for it. It just made me wonder if any of it was ever real. Did you love me or just love what I could do for you? And I think I'll always wonder that.” She looked away and her fingernails nervously picked at her skin. The lump got bigger in her throat and her voice was practically straining right then and there as she fought back whatever wanted to come pouring out. 

Finally, she admitted something to not only him, but to herself. “I think hating you was easier. Believing you never loved me was easier. Because I’m too afraid I’ll never be able to love someone like I loved you. I think I just wanted to believe it was never real, because then maybe it’d be easier. I could let you go and not constantly wonder if maybe I’m just… fucking unlovable.” Her eyes met his once more, but this time hers were glazed with tears she wouldn’t dare let fall. She wasn’t going to cry in front of him.

A small part of her wanted to cling to that resentment and shelter herself from the truth, but she knew she no longer could. He apologized to her and she finally accepted it. With a shrug of her shoulders, she added, “I don’t really feel the need to forgive you… but I might as well.”  

There it was, the very question he had been avoiding answering to himself for months now. When most people asked, they were asking just to have something to say. When it was Chey, he knew she actually wanted to know, even though he didn't deserve her concern or even her presence at the diner at that hour after everything he had done over the years.

To her, to himself, to what had once been them.

"I'm not doing so good. Haven't been for a minute and I've been trying to one-day-at-a-time my way out of it but I realised the hard way that that doesn't work for me." It was a temporary bandaid at best. The other edge of that sword was all it took was one bad day for everything to come undone, and it nearly had for him in a vet's clinic on the night of the storm.

It had been too close a call, the kind that brought with it a need for self-evaluation, even if he wasn't going to like the results of that.

"I saw Connor, me and him got into it a bit and it made me mad as hell just seeing him again but what really set me off was that he all but said I don't care about you, in a way that made it seem like I never did. And we got our issues, me and him, you know that as well as anybody but he doesn't go low just to go low. He said that cause he thinks that, and he the only way he could really think that is because you think that."

Their friendship was still something that required some getting used to for him, but it was hard to feel anything other than double-crossed by it because he didn't know how to remove himself from the equation.

"And that just made me really fucking sad to think about because I know I was a shitty boyfriend and we dated when I shouldn't have been dating anyone, but I did care about you. I loved you. It wasn't enough not because of you but because I wasn't enough. I still feel like half a person most days. I still want to get high. I've seen how much I've fucked up the people I care about the most with the shit I did then and the shit I did did since, some in ways that I don't think I can ever repair and if you put a line or a hit in front of me right now and looked away, I can't tell you for certain that I wouldn't do it. I'm so fucking ashamed of that, Chey. Most days I avoid my own reflection because if I look at myself too long I see someone staring back who'll never be as good on stage or in the recording booth as he was when he was at his worst. So when I saw the chance at snatching the kind of success that I've been chasing since I was a kid, I took it with both hands and I didn't think about anything else. I didn't think about you, because that's the kind of guy I am. I'm as selfish as they come. All you did was love me and I still managed to fuck it up. I'm sorry."

[cheyxjohnson]

@trcvis | cont from here

"Ah, bummer. A stalker would've made things interesting for me," she joked and flashed a small smile before opening the door for the both of them. When she spotted the cigarette he offered, she knew she should say no. Chey often liked to deny that she smoked. In fact, she'd stubbornly yell at someone about how she absolutely did not smoke. Yet, cut to late night talks with her bandmate and she'd be chain smoking with him until the middle of the night. So, as much as Chey wanted to assure herself that she didn't really smoke, she gave in all too quickly when he offered. "Actually, yeah, thanks." She took the cigarette and waited to see if he had a light for her. "I'm Chey, by the way. Chey Johnson. Figured you needed my whole name just in case you want to add me to that list of ice menaces of yours."

[cheyxjohnson]

[cheyxjohnson]

"Ah, those are the worst kind of days." Chey knew all too well what that was like. Somedays she felt a little cursed, so she didn't find any joy seeing someone else going through something like that. A smile formed on her lips as the other introduced herself and she stifled a small laugh. "I'm Chey, and don't worry, I'm probably whiny enough for the both of us." Looking down the road some, she then looked back at the other with an idea. "Well, Maeve, I was having a pretty unpleasant day myself. I was about to go treat myself to something at the bakery. Want to join me? My treat. Sounds like you deserve something nice."

Even though Maeve felt like shit and the other woman seeing it wasn't ideal, she did appreciate the company. When the other woman offered her the pack of tissues, Maeve smiled softly "Thank you," She said as she took the pack away, opened it, and wiped her stained jacket. "It's just one of those days where nothing goes according to plan..." She said letting out a sigh. Maeve was a bit of a control freak so something not going her way was defiantly driving her insane. "I am Maeve by the way...usually, I am not that whiny."

[cheyxjohnson]

"They'd probably believe that," she mumbled. It wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility that she could be banned from the local ice skating rink, and she wasn't so sure what that said about herself. Normally, Chey was able to grin and bear most things. She was exceptionally well in the art of faking it. But every time she looked over at that little birthday gremlin, she knew her day off could be filled with something so much better.

Whenever he played along and gave her a perfect out, she couldn't help but grin at him. Quickly, she dropped the smile and tried to act as if she was taking the news poorly. In her most dry and monotone voice, she pleaded halfheartedly. "No... Please... You can't do that... I want to be here... No- Well, okay. I guess that's the rules." She leaned onto the counter and whispered, though no one was close enough to even hear. "You're a lifesaver."

She began to slowly back away from the counter as she headed towards the door as she continued rambling off fake pleas in her sarcastic tone.

A brief chuckle escaped him. He would also hate the idea of attending a birthday party at an ice rink, let alone a demon six year old. “If you want I can tell people you’re banned from the rink in general for being a menace on the ice.” A power that was mostly reserved for gross teenagers that he couldn’t stand. His eyes flitted to the group of children that he had just supplied with their skates, trying to identify the one who’s birthday it was. It didn’t take much investigating to realize it was probably the kid already screaming at her parent. “Kids are nightmares,” he commented, reaching for his pack of smokes under the counter.

Clearing his throat, he focused his gaze back on the woman. “Sorry miss, we don’t have any skates in your size and only paying skaters are allowed in viewing stalls…” He announced. That was unquestionably a lie. “…due to a private event. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” He shrugged, feigning a sigh. “I don’t make the rules.” He didn’t, but today was an exception.

[cheyxjohnson]

@maevereynoldss

It was never fun to see anyone cry. It was exceptionally not fun to see someone cry with bird shit on their shoulder. Perhaps if tears weren't involved, it could've been funny, but Chey knew that defeated look all too well. Digging into her bag, she pulled out an unused pack of tissues and handed it over to her. They could be used for tears and the bird shit that Chey wasn't even going to bring up. "Don't be. I've been there," she admitted. Between her ever growing mixed emotions and hot headed nature, it was only a matter of time before she was kicking over trash cans, too. "Sounds like you had a rough day."

As soon as Maeve heard someone talking to her she felt truly ashamed. Maeve always considered herself a respectable woman and someone seeing her completely losing it like this in the middle of the street was so uncharacteristic. "Yeah...I will be I mean." She said wiping her tears away and looking up at the blonde. "Well, the trash can was the cherry on top of this damn day." She said letting out a sigh. "I am sorry you had to see it..."

[cheyxjohnson]

@axel-mathis

Brows knitted together in confusion, she looked at him like he had to be kidding. She shut the car door and stepped beside him before eyeing the stores in front of them. Chey made decent money, though a lot of times her money felt like it went right back into her own projects. Still, she was doing okay. However, even now in her career, she never found herself shopping at stores like the ones before them. It was too rich for her blood. Now she was definitely happy to not be wearing her ripped jeans. "All these stores look like they'll charge you just to walk inside," she half-joked. It was a mystery to her how Axel managed to have so much money, yet blow so much of it at the same time. "I guess let's start here." She pointed ahead to a little boutique in front of them that sold a mix of clothes and fine jewelry. Chey knew she wasn't going to buy anything, but she'd certainly window shop. Walking inside, it became clear immediately that Chey did not belong in that store. Between the beautiful décor and large price tags, she had a feeling the store's clerks would be kicking her out. Instead of feeling too out of place, she did her best to act natural and stayed close by Axel's side. "Why are you going to the marina tonight?" she asked suddenly.

@cheyxjohnson

Axel could see the smile in her eyes when he mentioned the car. So she knew cars pretty well. Watching as she got out and hung on to the door he looked back behind him at the stores. "Yeah basically." He waved her on, to get her to close the door. "Let's go.. which store looks good." He said as he looked around. "I figured we can go to a few stores... get lunch and some drinks... I need to swing by the marina at like.. five so either you can come with me or I need to have you back by then."

[cheyxjohnson]

@lucianaxalvarez

Chey appreciated the other making her feel like the situation wasn't as awful as it seemed. Still, she knew a drink in her system would at least help the blow to her ego. "Ah, that may be true, but this sort of thing happens to me way too often." She waved the bartender down to get the both of them a drink.

Looking at her, she smiled and added, "I'm Chey, by the way. I hope I'm not interrupting your night too much."

Luciana turns her head to look over at the blonde who places herself in the seat next to her. Her eyebrow arches up slightly as she turns her head to look over her shoulder as if the woman sat next to her for some sort of bet. She looks back at the woman and as she starts to explain what happened, she nods her head.

"Of course. You can stay here as long as you like." She scrunches up her nose. "Also it happens to the best of us, I don't think it's as embarrassing as it seems."

[cheyxjohnson]

@axel-mathis

He was right. It did suit her better. Her face lit up when he mentioned the car and she knew right then that she would hold him to that offer. Axel so easily skated past her question like it was nothing, and she let it go for the time being. If he didn't want to talk about it, he didn't have to. She just couldn't help but be curious if there something going on with him. Before she could think any more about it, he announced they had arrived. Chey looked out and only saw stores - specifically shops she had never really gone to before. A little confused, she slowly climbed out of the car when he opened her door. She returned to the same position before, standing right in front of him while holding onto the door. "What are we doing here?" she asked confused and then added jokingly, "Going on a wild shopping spree or something?"

@cheyxjohnson

Axel shrugged. "This one just doesn't seem like your car. I have a '68 Shelby at home that seems like it would suit you better." He said as he turned a corner. Axel glanced at her when she spoke. "Yeah, don't mention it." He said before pulling into a parking spot in front of some high end stores. "Me? I'm good. You know, just... living life." He said, brushing off the real meaning of her question. He was bringing her here as a way to apologize for his behavior. "We're here." Axel shut the car off and got out on his side. Walking over to her door, he opened it. "Im counting on you to tell me when you want to stop for food."

[cheyxjohnson]

can you die from lack of affection? Asking for myself