Paradise City

"What do you want to do today?"

Dean had been home for a week. Most of that week was spent on the couch, watching movies and making out.

He looked up at me. His head was resting in my lap, and I had been running my fingers through his hair. I was enjoying this. If this was how everyday was going to be with him, count me in. Lazy Sunday afternoons were my forte. However, I was starting to become a little antsy. I needed to stretch my legs.

"It's a beautiful day." I continued. "And I kind of wanted to know if you wanted to go to the Grand Canyon with me?"

He sat up. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

"Well, I've never been. And I thought it would be nice to actually go out somewhere together."

"People don't just ask people to go to the Grand Canyon with them. You're asking me out on a date! That's so cute." He teased.

I rolled my eyes.

"It's a bit of a drive." He said flatly.

I pouted my lips.

"Yeah, let's go." He sighed.

"Yes!" I jumped from the couch like a kid on Christmas.

I had been wanting to go to the Grand Canyon since I was a kid, but when I moved to Vegas, I was either sidetracked or just too lazy to go. I threw open my closet and grabbed a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals, before pulling my hair up in a loose ponytail.

We had been holed up in the apartment for a week, only going out to get takeout. I was starting to think that he didn't want to be seen in public with me.

Because I didn't know what was going on between the two of us. Dean was the neighbor that I hated, and then he turned into that neighbor I tolerated, and then we made out. Was I his girlfriend? It really didn't matter to me, because he was gone 300 days out of the year, anyways. There was no time for a relationship there, right? Movies and books and television shows made long distance relationships look like they never worked out, and well I wasn't in this business to get my heart broken.

I still wasn't sure where he was in all of this. Hell, he could be using me. But then, for what? It's not like I was having sex with him.

There were moments that I felt like there was really something there, though. Like when the pad of his thumb would trace over my bottom lip right before he was about to kiss me. Or the way we held hands as he drove. I tried not to think about it too much, because when I did, I started thinking that maybe I was just his hometown girl. He could have one of me in every state.

"Tell me something about you." He asked, but kept his eyes on the road.

"Like what?" I asked him.

"Anything, there's still a lot I don't know about you."

He was right. Most of our conversations were about him, not because he liked to talk about himself, but because I liked listening to him gush about his life. He always rambled on when he was talking about something that he was passionate about, and I couldn't get enough of it. He could talk endlessly, and I would listen to all of it.

"Well, my birthday is next week." I shrugged.

That was important, right? When getting to know someone, someone that you're interested in on another level other than friendship, you should know when their birthday is, right? I never really cared for birthdays, simply because I'd forget my own if my parents didn't obnoxiously wake me up every year with breakfast in bed and sit with me as they watched me eat. The only reason that I remembered it this year was because when I woke up and switched my calendar over to July, I noticed that the eleventh had a big balloon drawn in the box, accompanied with the words "Happy birthday, baby girl" in my mother's handwriting.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

I shrugged again. "I forgot. I don't really like birthdays anyways."

I didn't want to talk about it. This would be the first birthday I would be spending without my parents.

"Come on, everyone likes birthdays!" He said. "You should invite your family to Vegas. That'd be cool."

Dean still didn't know that my parents were dead. I avoided the subject because I didn't want him to look at me with that look that every got when they found out that my parents had died. I knew I would have to tell him sooner or later, but that wasn't something I really wanted to talk about with anyone.

"Maybe." I replied softly and returned my gaze to the window.

The road to the Canyon felt like a long one. Just a single highway that cut through the jagged desert. We decided on the western part of the Canyon. It wouldn't be as spectacular as where all the tourists went, but Dean promised it would still be beautiful. We rode mostly in silence. Dean would sometimes hum along with a song on the radio, and I was too stuck in my own head.

We arrived right at sunset. To say that it was the most breathtaking thing I had ever seen would be an understatement. The way that the orange rocks contrasted with the red and pinks of the sky was marvelous.

"It's beautiful, right?" Dean asked me as he held me from behind.

"There are no words." I replied.

I could see the larger mountains on the horizon up against the purple sky. My eyes weren't wide enough to take in everything all in one look. There was so much to see. So many colors and patterns. It was amazing how small I felt standing at the edge of one of the greatest spectacles on Earth.

"Be careful!" Dean jolted us forward, as if he was going to send me over the edge. He barked with laughter.

"Dean!" I yelled. "That's not funny."

"Are you afraid of heights?"

"No, but I don't want to die by falling off this cliff because you're being an asshole again."

"That would be so tragic." He replied. "WWE Superstar Dean Ambrose pushes friend off cliff. Sentenced to life in prison."

I laughed.

"Hey," He said softly. "I have a surprise for you."

I eyed him as he led me to the back of his S.U.V and opened the trunk. There was blankets and pillows and red wine, and this all seemed a little too romantic.

"Dean, I'm not having sex with you in the back of your car."

He sighed.

"I thought you weren't going to pressure me!" I shoved him lightly away from me, a little disappointed that he would do this.

"I'm not! But it's your first time at the Grand Canyon, you're here with me, the sun is setting." I wasn't buying it. "Come on! You can't blame a guy for trying!"

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I'll be ready when I'm ready."

Dean took a step towards me and uncrossed my arms, wrapping them around himself. "I'm sorry." He kissed my cheek. "I really am. I promise not to pressure you anymore." He held up the Scout's Honor.

We laid in the back of his truck, watching the moon rise and uncover all of the stars. We talked about everything from our favorite color to religion. I told him about James, and how much I missed him. He told me about his two best friends, Seth and Roman. He said they would like me, and I told him how James already did like him. Even though I had been adamant that nothing was going on between us. He thought that was funny.

He hated spiders and snakes, while I was claustrophobic and didn't like clowns.

"I need to tell you something." I chewed on my lip, not knowing how to approach the topic I had been so unwilling to discuss.

"What is it?" He asked, pulling me closer to him.

"The reason I'm not really thrilled about my birthday is because it's the first birthday I'll be spending without my family."

"That's why I suggested you invite them. It'd be cool to meet 'em."

"No, uh-" I was struggling. I didn't want to say it. "My parents uh, they um- they passed away."

Dean was immediate quiet. I think he might have even stopped breathing for a moment.

I looked up at him. There was that look, the one that I hated so much. Pity. It was all over his face. His blue eyes were dripping with it. I sighed and sat up, scooting myself out of the back of his truck. The desert air was cool. I had forgotten 'hot days, cold nights', and was only wearing a tank top and pair of shorts. I shivered as I looked out over the rocks.

This was why I hated talking about it. When I say those words, 'my parents died', the person goes quiet. They don't know what to say next. And usually, if they do say something, it's 'I'm sorry'. Like it's their fault or something.

I could hear the rocks crackling underneath Dean's shoes as he came up behind me. He wrapped a blanket around my shoulders.

"Callie-"

"Don't say it."

He sighed, knowing exactly what I was talking about. "I didn't mean to bring it up."

"I brought it up. I wanted you to know."

"Is that why you moved to Vegas?"

I nodded. "I couldn't handle it, you know? It hurt too much." I was crying now, much more than I expected to.

I had been holding this back since the funeral. Telling myself that crying was a weakness, and that they wouldn't want me to cry over them. My parents were always so tough, I never saw either of them cry. They took life by the horns and if it didn't work out the way they wanted, they got up and moved on. I could never do that. In fact, I was the complete opposite. I broke down immediately. I cried at every little thing.

And then when they died, that part of me shriveled up and died with them.

I became cold and calloused.

Dean held me to him, letting me cry. "Ssh, it's okay."

When it felt like I had cried every tear I had to cry, Dean strapped me into the passenger seat, and we began the long drive back home. I thanked him. Not only for not being like the countless other people who apologized to me for my parent's death, but for getting rid of that awful pity in his eyes. And I asked him that it not be brought up anymore, to which he agreed.

I must have fallen asleep on the way, because when I woke up, we were in the parking garage of the apartment.

"Hey, we're home." She said softly, kissing me gently on the forehead.

I trudged behind him to the elevator, wiping the sleep from my eyes. It was almost three in the morning, and I was exhausted.

"I just want to go straight to bed." I groaned as the elevator popped open.

"Well we can do that."

"You say that like you're going to stay the night wit-" I stopped halfway down the hallway.

Something was wrong.

"I know I shut my door when I left." I said as I noticed that the door to my apartment was wide open.

Dean went a head of me, in case there was a burglar lurking inside. It was completely dark. Every light was off. I couldn't see anything two feet past the door. Something is wrong here, I kept telling myself over and over.

"Hello?" Dean yelled.

"Turn on the light, please." I asked him.

He ran his hand along the wall until he found the light switch. My stomach dropped as my eyes adjusted to see that my apartment was completely torn apart. Everything was broken; the TV, the pictures that hung on the wall. I cautiously stepped over the broken glass to the corner of the room where my dad's record player had been. It now laid on the floor in pieces. His records were thrown all over the room.

All the plates and glasses in the kitchen had been taken out of the cupboards and thrown onto the floor.

The mirrors in both bathrooms had been broken.

My bedroom was completely overturned. The mattress was on the opposite side of the room, my nightstand had been thrown over, and my clothes were everywhere; cut up and ripped. And spray painted on the wall in big, red letters was the word 'bitch'.

Dean was on the phone with the cops.

I just sat in the middle of my room, looking around at the wreckage. This was personal. This person knew what they were doing, and what would hurt me the most if they destroyed it. They knew what belonged to my parents. They did this on purpose. This wasn't some random break in, because nothing was missing.

I jumped up off the floor and threw my closet door open. Please, I prayed as I dug through the clothes before I found what I had been looking for. The large white box, inside was my mother's wedding dress. It looked seemingly untouched. Please let it be okay.

My fingers slid underneath the sides of the boxes and lifted it up slowly. It was perfect. Just like it always had been. I sighed, thanking God that nothing had happened to it.

"What's that?" I heard Dean ask.

"My mother's wedding dress." I replied, running my fingers over the beads and lace.

"Is it okay?"

"Yes, thankfully." I closed the box and sat it back up on the top shelf.

"The police should be here any minute." He said. "They asked that we not to touch anything. Do you know who would have done this?"

I didn't know, but I had a pretty good idea.